Left-Over Wednesdays Special Event: Julia Childs Day Celebration!

As previously referenced on this blog, Saturday, August 15 was Julia Childs' birthday! To celebrate, I had an entire day of cooking Julia recipes! I used Baking With Julia and Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Brunch

Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

Scrambled eggs

Sausage

French-pressed coffee

Berry mix

Dinner

Beef Burgundy

Rice

French bread with goat cheese

Red wine

"Improvised" berry shortcake from the morning's muffins

I had a lovely day cooking...but had forgotten what it's like to cook all day! Recipes will be posted in two more posts, just to keep things organized!

Bon Appetit!

Left-Over Wednesdays: Blueberry Muffins from Martha Stewart

Blueberry Muffins

from Martha Stewart Living, July/August 2000

This is my all-time favorite muffin recipe! The batter turns out absolutely beautiful, creamy and fluffy! Be sure to very carefully fold in your berries so you don't deflate the batter!


3 cups + 2 TBLS flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 TBLS butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 whole egg + 2 egg yolks
1 tsp pure vanilla
1 cup milk
blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin tins; line with papers or spray tin well with pan release.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. *I like to sift directly onto a large flexible cutting mat, rather than into a bowl. Makes integrating the dry ingredients later much easier!

3. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and blend well.

4. Slow mixer to low speed and alternate adding flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

5. Carefully fold in blueberries by hand. Scoop batter into muffin tins. Sprinkle tops generously with additional sugar.

6. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown.

Left-Over Wednesdays: Breakfast Casserole

Breakfast Casserole

This is a dish that I learned at Saks, Inc., when I was a working chef. We would usually throw in breakfast meat leftover from service and any veggies that needed to be used up. Feel free to add other veggies, meats, different cheeses! This type of dish is also known as a strata, because of the layers of ingredients.

1 loaf white sandwich bread

1 tube sausage, cooked, drained and crumbled

3-4 Roma tomatoes, diced

1 bunch green onion, sliced thin

1 dozen large eggs, beaten

3-4 cups milk

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Tear or cut bread into small pieces and place in 9X11 baking dish.

2. Layer sausage, and handful or two of cheese and vegetables on top of the bread.

3. Whisk eggs, milk and salt and pepper together in a separate bowl until well blended. Pour over bread, meat and vegetables. Press mixture down so that all bread is soaked and other ingredients are well-covered with egg mixture. Add additional milk if necessary.

4. Top with remaining cheese and bake approximately 1 hour, or until casserole is firm.

Menu-Planning Mondays: February 16-22

Alrighty, here we go again at my attempt at domestication! Ha!

Monday Feb 16:

D: Frittata/steak, goat cheese, green onion, tomato (experiment)

Tuesday Feb. 17:

B: oatmeal/coffee/fruit & granola parfait

L: Free @ work/coldcuts @ home/fruit

D: @ college group

Wednesday Feb 18:

B: Oatmeal/coffee/fruit & granola parfait

L: Free @ work/coldcuts @home/fruit

D: out/leftovers

Thursday Feb. 19:

B: Oatmeal/coffee/fruit & granola parfait

L: Free @ work/Lunch @ UAB

D: Out with friends at Chez Lulu

Friday Feb. 20:

B: oatmeal/coffee/fruit & granola parfait

L: Lean Cuisine & fruit/coldcuts @ home & fruit

D: Out/@ Board Meeting

Saturday Feb.21:

B: pancakes/bacon/coffee for work day on house

L: Out

D: @ Mom Leveille's

Sunday Feb. 22:

B: @ church

L: Guests for lunch-TBD

D: Breakfast for dinner/BYOC time/French Toast/sausage links

Here's a little bonus recipe for you this morning, even though it's not Wednesday! :)

Scott recently discovered Panera Bread's new yogurt, fruit and granola parfaits. They are yummy, but he doesn't want to spend the time and money to go to Panera every morning. So, he made up his own version!

Scottie's Yummy Breakfast Parfait

Vanilla yogurt

Honey Bunches of Oat Cereal "Just Bunches" version

Strawberries/blueberries, washed and cut

Combine all ingredients for a good, healthy breakfast or snack! Spoon into a plastic cup for a "to-go" version like Panera's!

Left-Over Wednesdays: Party Food!

Well, just in time for Christmas! Here's a few of my favorite things for holiday food!

Sausage Balls

1 "tube" hot sausage
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cups Bisquick baking mix, more on hand as needed

1. Mix cheese and Bisquick together in large bowl
2. Start combining raw sausage with Bisquick mixture by hand. (Gloves are a good idea if you are squeamish about raw meat!)
3. The consistency must not be too loose, so the balls don't hold together. The sausage is the binding agent, but I have added small amounts of milk to help, if I've added too much Bisquick. 4. Hand roll mixture into golf-ball sized balls and place on greased or lined baking sheet.
5. Bake in 375 degree oven about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Tomato and Goat Cheese Dip with French Bread 1 jar gourmet tomato pasta sauce (I use Classico's Tomato Basil)
3 TBS pesto
3 TBS goat cheese

1. Pour tomato sauce in small baking dish (something you would serve in too)
2. Spoon the pesto into tomato sauce, but don't combine fully
3. Spoon dollops of goat cheese on top of sauce, and again, don't combine.
4. Bake in 350 degree oven until warm through and bubbly.
5. Serve with sliced French bread.

Cranberry-Apple Crisp

from America's Test Kitchen

Topping
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (but I like to add more)
12 TBS unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
3/4 cup old fashioned oats

Filling
1 pound cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 pounds Granny Smith apples (I used 6 and it was plenty), peeled, cored and cut
2 1/2 pounds Braeburn apples (same as above), peeled, cored and cut
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries (Crasins)
3 TBS Minute tapioca

1. Make the Topping: combine flour, sugars, cinnamon and butter in food processor and pulse until you have course crumb texture; OR use pastry cutter (and elbow grease!) to combine in large bowl manually. Stir in oats and set aside.
2. Make the Filling: bring fresh cranberries, 3/4 cup sugar and water to simmer in stockpot/soup pot over med-high heat and cook until cranberries are softened and mixture is jam-like, about 10 minutes. Scrape mixture into bowl and set aside.
3. Add apples, remaining 1/2 cup sugar and dried cranberries to pot and cook over med-high heat about 5 minutes.
4. Off heat, stir in cranberry mixture and tapioca and pour into 9X13 baking dish.
5. Scatter topping completely over apple mixture and bake in 400 degree oven about 30 minutes, until brown and bubbly.
6. Serve hot with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Truffles

16 oz dark chocolate bar, top quality, broken into small pieces

8-10 oz heavy cream
2 oz rum, whisky or other, if desired


Coatings:
cocoa powder
cinnamon-sugar
chopped pistachios
crushed peppermint
coconut


1. Heat cream in pot over very low heat until scalding.
2. Remove from heat and stir in alcohol (if desired) and chocolate pieces. Stir until chocolate is completely melted, smooth and shiny.
3. Pour chocolate into shallow dish and place in refrigerator to chill completely. This will take several hours, chocolate must be completely "set".
4. Working quickly, roll ping-pong ball sized balls of chocolate mixture in your hands and place on a lined sheet pan. I use a small scoop to help or you could use a melon-baller if you want smaller truffles.
5. Place your desired coatings in bowls. Toss each truffle in your desired topping. I like classic cocoa powder the best, but be creative. I included a few ideas here.
6. Store in the fridge if you are not serving immediately.

So, what about you? What are some of your favorite things to serve at holiday parties?

Left-Over Wednesdays: Breakfast Casserole

Well I am purposely staying away from a recipe that is Thanksgiving-y. See last week's recipe post if you need a side dish idea! (Don't worry April and Jaci...I'll get to the chili recipe soon! I won't forget!)
We had Anti-Thanksgiving Dinner last night at college group (not that we are against T'giving, just an "opposite" dinner). The meal that I could think of that is completely opposite of turkey and dressing would be sushi...but I wasn't going to make sushi for 25 college students...so we had breakfast for dinner! I served this casserole with cinnamon rolls and OJ.

Breakfast Casserole

Makes one 9X13 pan

This is also great to make the night before, especially if you are serving this for breakfast or brunch, then pop in the oven when you get up.

1 loaf white bread, cut into cubes or chunks
1 "tube" sausage, cooked and crumbled
1 dozen eggs
2 cups milk
Salt/pepper
3-4 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch green onion, minced
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

1. Place bread cubes in bottom of pan
2. Whisk eggs and milk together until fully combined. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Layer chopped tomatoes, green onions, sausage and a cup or so of cheese over the bread in pan.
4. Pour egg mixture over bread and ingredients. **NOTE: I usually don't measure the milk out to an exact amount, so you may need to add extra milk. The egg/milk mixture needs to cover the ingredients completely. Sometimes I add heavy cream too!
5. Top with remainder of cheese and bake in 375 degree oven for 45-60 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
6. Can be made "vegetarian" with no sausage, or add your own veggies (mushrooms, peppers, etc) for some variations. This is the version the college kids like!