Absentee Brunchin'

We took a little road trip in our new-used RAV4 last week. Mill Valley was the destination with a possible trip further north to Mendocino (didn't happen due to major rain). Our close friend, Puff, always welcomes a visit from us. Usually I cook up a storm leaving him with leftovers and recipes. We missed our Sunday Brunch but I remembered one we did when we first got back from the "LA-VA" days when Steve was having a hard time tasting things and his saliva was diminished.  It was based on a San Francisco classic "Joe's Special". This is what I wrote about that brunch.

                                                January 17- Our first attempt at a real brunch!
I had the bright idea to try one of Steve’s old fav’s from Marin Joe’s, “Joe’s Special” and adapting it to a brunch dish. He seems to be able to eat chunkier things and this is pretty chopped up stuff. I never liked this dish but Steve liked it for dinner sometimes at Marin Joe's restaurant so let’s try it for brunch!

I looked up “Joe’s Special” San Francisco and sure enough there were several versions. The blandest is the one I am sure they made at Marin Joe’s but thankfully the one from Original Joe’s on Broadway was right up my alley. Of course I did embellish it a little..

Here is the recipe off the internet:
2T. Olive Oil
2 # Gr. Beef
2 Med. Onions, chopped
½ # Mushrooms, sliced
1 ¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. gr. Pepper
¼ tsp. dry oregano
1 10 oz. box frzn spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
-or- ½ # fresh spinach chopped
4-6 Lg. eggs, beaten
Grated Parmesan

Here’s what I did: Basically I cut the recipe in half in places.
½# gr beef, 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic, chopped ¼# mushrooms
5 oz. Trader Joe’s chopped frozen spinach, defrosted (yum), 3 large eggs ( 2 of which were double yolkers-love those farmer’s market eggs!) to which I added 2 Tbsp. whipped cream cheese(any soft cheese would be nice),  along with 1 Tbsp. water. Beat it up until combined and frothy.
Heat olive oil in skillet and add gr. beef. Cook until browned. Toss in chopped onions, mushrooms and garlic. Saute about 5 min. Cover skillet for 5 more min. This releases the juices from veges. Add spinach and seasonings and heat through. Fold in beaten egg- cream cheese mixture. When eggs start to set I folded in 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese. This should be a relatively loose mixture with lots of flavor ( hint, hint, MJ’s). Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
It was a big hit as he could swallow it and it wasn’t too dry. I always have a pitcher of warm "brunch salsa" on the table too.

I served a bowl of fruit: blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, kiwi and banana with yogurt and brown sugar folded in.

Since I had a Garnet Yam kicking around I decided to oven fry it. Cut into wedges, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and chipotle chile powder ( a little or alot). Spread on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast in the oven at 350 for about 30 min. They will be soft-crispy wedges of goodness!


WooHoo-Trader Joe's "Crement du Bourgogne" is back. We like the Orange label as well as the Purple label. Not so crazy about the Blue label. Good bubbles, dry and creamy. Perfect with the food I serve for our brunches.

We both toasted to how thankful we are to be back home with Steve on the mend from his radiation treatments. The throat is coming around but he still doesn’t have his taste buds back as well as saliva. He needs to gain weight big time too.

Now that a year has past, we have had wonderful brunches celebrating life each day. The saliva has started to return and he can distinguish flavors and tastes again.