0 Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Eggs

I saved this recipe back in November and didn't think about it again until this past weekend when I was trying to make up for lost time with "nueva recetas". I made this for breakfast on Saturday, and then forgot to write a post about it, even when I was writing posts for Sunday's breakfast and dinner. There are a lot of things I like about being fifty. My faulty memory isn't one of them. Anyway, this was easy to make. We didn't have bacon, so I made a vegetarian version. I baked the sweet potato in the microwave first, it didn't take long (perhaps 5-6 minutes) to become soft enough to slice in half and scoop out the middle. I cracked an egg into each opening, topped with shredded mozzarella, and baked at 350 for 20 minutes. I also put it under the broiler for a few minutes after. We topped these with garlic salt, and fresh basil.

Detail: Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Eggs

0 Uncooked Tomato and Mint Sauce with Poached Eggs

Photo from New York Times

A winner recipe from the New York Times. This is a simple summer dish with a good texture and flavor.

We made this one together - James grated 5 plum tomatoes while I chopped the garlic cloves. All of this went into our blender along with some olive oil, mint leaves (from our garden), and a bit of black pepper. We set the blender to puree until it was well mixed. I then followed the recipe instructions for egg poaching, which involved boiling the water for four minutes before adding some vinegar (we used red wine vinegar) and then adding the eggs and boiling another four minutes. I must admit they turned out better than any other poached eggs I've ever made before. James charred two tortilla shells over the flames of our gas stove and two eggs and some sauce we placed on top of each. This was quite good. The mint gave it an unexpected sweetness.

Detail: Uncooked Tomato and Mint Sauce with Poached Eggs

0 There's No Q in Pi

As we recently wrote on Pi Day, we purchased a couple of cook books -- including a Pie Cook Book -- but we did not make any pi. The closest we came was a local pizza pi. We also promised to follow up soon, and today we came through.

PI DAY PURCHASE --
Order now for 3-14-15

Breakfast Pie with a Hashbrown Crust was actually on the family menu for last night, but a college tour of a certain very hilly campus had us returning home with groceries with too little time or energy to tackle this dish. And dish is an important word here -- quite a few were used, including almost all of our indispensable cast-iron skillets.

Knowing that our daughter does not like quiche, we maintained author Teeny Lamothe's ruse of calling this breakfast pie as we answered the repeated query, "what's for dinner?"

This pi begins with hashbrowns. I shredded a half dozen russet potatoes, squeezed out the excess moisture, tossed with salt, pepper, and rosemary. I then cooked them on hot oil on a hot skillet. I resisted the urge to stir as they cooked; rather I came close to Lamothe's standard of browning on one side and then turning (that is, scraping). I then pressed this mixture into a large, skillet in which I had heated some oil (good thing olive oil is good for us).

Meanwhile, I had cooked some leeks (which Pam had lovingly thawed and rinsed from last year's farm box) and mushrooms in butter (good thing butter is good for ... oh, wait ...), along with a bit more pepper. Also meanwhile, I whisked together a half dozen eggs and a cup of cream (good thing ...) and a half cup of shredded Parmesan. Then I placed the vegetables in the potato crust, topped with another half cup of Parm, and carefully poured over the egg mixture.

I placed all of this in a pre-heated oven, and convected at 350 for 30 minutes. The results?

"Is this quiche?" were the first skeptical words from our darling daughter as she eyed what was obviously a form of quiche on her plate. "I had a big lunch," were her next words. Nonetheless, she ate quite a sizeable portion of what we all agreed was ...

pretty good pi.

Detail: There's No Q in Pi

0 Patos Supremos

During our time in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas James and I both worked in offices that had "Pato runs" on Fridays. Pato is the Spanish word for duck, and also the name of some fantastically delicious stuffed tortillas from the small restaurant chain of the same name. The tortillas were hand-made and were available in both flour and corn varieties. The flour tortillas were loaded with fat (from lard) which made them especially tasty. I always ordered mine with potato, egg, and cheese. I have never quite succeeded in replicating the special taste of a genuine pato, but over the weekend I came closer than ever.

I diced half an onion I had left over in the refrigerator and sauteed it along with one cubed and par-boiled potato in Chipotle olive oil from Lebherz Oil and Vinegar Emporium. Once the potatoes and onions were well cooked I shredded some cheese on top of the mix and turned down the heat. Then I scrambled two eggs in the same flavored olive oil. I stuffed the mix into 2 flour tortilla shells from Trader Joe's and topped them with some Pico de Gallo salsa. Delicioso!

Detail: Patos Supremos

0 Closer to Heaven

I start this post with a stock photo of a microplane because I like to include a photo, but today's entry does not photograph well (as demonstrated by the vomitrotious photos on the original recipe page) and I cannot think of an excuse to include pop-culture icons as I did in my recent Ginger post. We have a microplane (a.k.a. little tiny cheese grater) because we used one at our friend Susan's house last year to grate horseradish and found it so very handy. It works well for the very small amount of very sharp cheese needed in the brunch dish I prepared for last night's dinner -- Antoinette's Eggs in Purgatory.

Pam found the recipe for us, and I prepped it while she was at her recorder rehearsal. Because the recipe calls for eggs to be cooked two different ways but not overcooked, I did not actually begin the cooking until our trusty hound alerted me that Pam was at the door. From that point, this took only a few minutes.

Although I found it difficult to discern what this would look like by reading the instructions,  is essentially a fried-egg pizza. Thankfully it bears no resemblance to the egg-pizza catastrophe currently offered by Papa Gino's, which I recently tried at a highway rest area.

Rather, this ends up being a crusty slice of buttered bread topped by a fried egg, a ricotta mixture, and red sauce, topped off with a bit of extra cheese and basil. The comments section on the recipe page includes the suggestion of salsa, which I think would not work as well as the marinara. This is an Italian dish that might resemble huevos rancheros, but I would suggest going all the way with one or the other, rather than hybridizing them.

The recipe calls for "imported provolone" cheese, which was unfamiliar to me; I only knew of the sliced variety in the deli section. Looking through the specialty cheese section of the local grocery, however, I was aided by a big black-and-white label on a small wedge of cheese that simply read

IMPORTED

PROVOLONE

I figured it was the right stuff. It is great -- almost as hard as Parmesan and extremely sharp. Our basil recently died and our front-yard parsley is not in yet, so I bought a small plant of each in our produce section, and snipped off a few leaves. We had grocery-store cage-free eggs at home, though this would have been even better with the fresh, local eggs we usually have on hand. In no circumstances would I prepare this with "regular" eggs.

After reading the recipe a few times to see how simple it actually is, I followed it essentially as written. The recipe comes from a television program and includes a video link that promises to show how it is made. I tried to watch, but it is an entire episode of daytime television, and the quotient of vacuous banter to actual instruction is simply too high! I did watch just long enough to learn that competitor chef Antoinette named the recipe because others already had applied "heaven" and "hell" to egg dishes.

My only modifications were to use no added salt, along with unsalted butter. I only used salt called for in recipes if it is clearly part of baking chemistry; otherwise I know there is plenty in the other ingredients. Where it calls for an oven-safe pan, of course, I used our indispensable cast-iron skillet, to great effect.

Bottom line: On the flavor-nutrition-value-convenience trade-off matrix, this is an all-around winner. Delicious, nutritious, cheap, and easy. Just don't photograph it.

Detail: Closer to Heaven

0 Leftovers!

Those of us who, thankfully, do not have to work, and don't cotton to the shopping madness on the day after Thanksgiving (we call it Buy Nothing Day) enjoy a morning to sleep in, linger over our fresh brewed coffee in a real mug (not brown slop in a Styrofoam cup) and welcome the sun in the warmth of our own homes. I find it ironic that today's Boston Globe website uses the word "savvy" to describe those who wake up early (or don't go to bed at all) in order to wait outside in the dark and cold so they can spend money. Which is not to say the Globe is all bad. Last Sunday's Boston Globe magazine included some simple breakfast recipes to be made with the leftovers from Thursday's bounty. Since we only ate about half of our delicious homemade stuffing, I decided to try making Baked Eggs in Stuffing Cups. The directions begin by instructing the cook to preheat the over to 425, and  to "butter the the cups of a nonstick jumbo muffin tin". The preheating presented no problems, but my rust-stained muffin tin is not "jumbo" and if it was ever nonstick, it is not part of my memory bank, the problem was solved with paper liners, and the recipe does provide adjustments for non-jumbo tins. Once the muffin tin was lined I filled the cups about 2/3 up with stuffing, and then put them in the oven for 15 minutes. Then, took it out and cracked one egg into each cup. These went back into the oven for about 8 minutes, but the eggs were still too runny for my taste. The recipe says to cover loosely with tin foil for 5-10 minutes to firm up the yolks, but I did my usual egg-cooking trick of putting them under the broiler for 1-2 minutes. I think I left them perhaps a bit too long, as the yolks were completely solidified when I took them out. They were very easy to remove from the tin, however, and the paper peeled off easily for serving, and turned out to be an easy and delicious way to prolong the Thanksgiving celebration.

Detail: Leftovers!

0 A Feast from the Farm box

We picked up our weekly bounty from Colchester Neighborhood Farm on Tuesday, and immediately began to consider what we could have for dinner that would use some of the things we received. The squash was ultimately what inspired us to make an omelet (that plus the fact that we had also purchased some farm-fresh eggs). I started with chopping and sauteeing an onion in my six-inch indispensable cast-iron skillet, then adding the squash, which I had cut into slices. I sauteed a few minutes more, and then added six eggs with deep yellow yolks (we are told the rich color comes from the fact that the hens are fed weeds). I covered the skillet and turned down the heat for six minutes, then removed the cover and added pepper and a pinch homemade garlic salt (a bag of which came in our first farm box pick up a few weeks ago, but which we had not yet used). I topped with feta cheese then put the omelet under the broiler for two minutes until the top was no longer runny. I folded the omelet in half and served. So tasty.  Even though this recipe isn't really "nueva" for us, the omelet tasted so exceptionally good with the farm fresh ingredients I had to share it on the blog.

Garlic Salt

Detail: A Feast from the Farm box