Post St. Patrick's day, Sunday March 20

I am almost corned beefed out. After three dinners last week plus facing the leftovers in my refrigerator I couldn’t bring myself to make hash today. Instead I brought back one of our favorites, a take on  Gale Gand's “ Baked Eggs in Ham cups”. My ramekin stash is very limited. I have two of this and two of that but not three of anything to bake the eggs in. The light bulb went on when I was searching my sideboard cupboard for something to use. There they were, wide mouth half pint ball jars. The timing was perfect as I had just seen someone bake individual cherry pies in them on either the Food Network or Cooking Channel.
I have posted this recipe "Baked Pesto Eggs in Ham Cups" on my Two by the Sea blog in April and June 2010. It worked very well in the little jars!

Our friend, Sharon, came over. She was very lucky as we were between rain storms. Off came the cork on the Prosecco she brought with her. As I worked on the food for our brunch we sipped and chatted away.  I was pointing out that the sweet potato fries were the Japanese sweet potatoes, a white fleshed red skinned tuber that I buy at the local Farmer’s market and forget they are white fleshed. It is always a surprise when I cut into them. Just then the smell of them reminded me to take them out of the oven!

Oven Baked Sweet Potato wedges
2 sweet potatoes or yams
Olive oil
Ground pepper
Chile powder
Sea salt

Scrub potatoes and pat dry. Cut them into 8 wedges and place into a bowl. Coat with olive oil, sprinkle with black pepper and chile powder. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 375* 35-45 min. turning them once. They will be brown, slightly crisp with soft tender centers. Sprinkle with kosher salt when they come out of the oven. Transfer to a serving bowl and keep warm.

Since St. Patrick’s day was only a few days ago I still had a wedge of my Soda Bread. This was wrapped in foil and heated through, served with a little pot of sweet butter. Everyone should have a good recipe for Irish Soda bread. This is very easy and really tasty. I made two of them this year for different corned beef dinners.

                                                        St. Patrick’s day Soda Bread

2 c. Unbleached white flour
1 c. Whole Wheat flour
¼ c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. sea salt
½ stick unsalted butter (¼ c.)
1 Tbsp. caraway seeds
1 cup currants
1 egg
1 ¼ c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400*

I use my Kitchen Aid mixer with the paddle attachment. Place flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in the bowl. Attach the paddle and turn on low to combine dry ingredients. Cut the butter into ¼” dice and sprinkle over the flour mixture. Turn on the KA and let it rip until the butter is just combined. Whisk egg and buttermilk together in a small bowl. Add caraway seeds and currants to flour-butter mixture then pour it the egg-buttermilk mixture. Whisk until it comes together in a loose ball. If it is too dry, add a little more buttermilk. Turn out onto a floured board and gather together into a ball. Knead a few times until it is no longer sticky. Form into a round loaf about 1 1/2 " high. Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Cut a cross in the top. And place on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temp. to 350 and continue to bake 25-30 min. A skewer or cake tester should come out clean when inserted into the center. I have under baked this a few times but think the timing is pretty right now. It emerges a beautiful golden, currant studded wonder.

I can’t figure out why I only make this once a year. It is great with butter or with one of my marmalades, jams or fruit butters. This year I gave our friends a jar of my Pineapple Guava butter to go with it when we went over for dinner ( the third and last Corned beef bash). Brunch was just about ready. I cut up some melon and strawberries then tossed in blueberries, frozen raspberries and blackberries. Maple syrup was drizzled over all.

Pictures were snapped in a hurry and they didn’t come out that great. I need to crack that "Nikon for Dummies" book that I bought months ago.We toasted to enjoying friends on a rainy day with a little fire going in the fireplace and ate it all up!

Nothing planned today as it is pouring rain and March Madness is in full swing. Steve needs to watch his team today so we will just vege out. I need to vege out big time after the Zinfandel festival in Paso Robles yesterday. Pouring rain did not deter the tasters at Peachy Canyon Winery. It is a fun event especially if you are into Zinfandel ( which I am).  Almost 300 people later,we locked the doors, cleaned up and finally sipped some wine ourselves.

Huevos Revueltos con Tortilla Chips

Sunday was not only post tsunami but day light savings. We went to a pre St. Patrick’s day fundraiser for a local church, drank mucho wine with friends afterward and woke up to the annoying dumb brown bird smashing itself against our sliding glass door. This bird or birds, as I don’t know if it is a gang of them or not, bounces off the deck and into the glass with its beak. Once I just let it go hoping it would knock itself out and it lasted 7 minutes then took a break and started all over again. I put pillows in front of the window and that seemed to deter it in the past. Not this morning! Steve got up, opened the door and put a large object outside in front of the window. That stopped it. I will have to put some potted plants out there or get a cat.
We realized that the 7 am wake up was actually 8 am. Ugh!

Brunch was already planned out in my mind. Huevos Reveultos con Totopos, one of my Diana Kennedy inspired recipes. Basically scrambled Eggs, Mexican style with little "totopos" or corn tortilla chips, veges, cheese and alot of love.
We always have some homemade corn tortilla chips on hand. When a package of tortillas has overstayed it's welcome in the freezer, into the pot of peanut oil it goes, cut into perfect little wedges.

½ roma tomato, diced
½ small onion, diced
¼ green bell pepper,diced
¼ red bell pepper, diced
1 small Serrano or jalapeno chile, minced
4 eggs
2 tsp. milk
Dash of salsa picante ie Valentina or Tapatio
2 tortillas cut into wedges and fried in a little oil until crisp.
½ c. shredded cheddar or jack cheese ( or a combo of the two)
1 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

Heat 1 Tbsp. peanut oil in a non stick skillet. Add the veges and saute until soft.

Whisk eggs with milk and hot sauce. Crunch up the tortilla chips and add to the veges with the eggs. Season with salt and pepper. Cook over low heat stirring the eggs until they are just about set. Fold in half of the cheese. When it is melted remove the skillet from the heat.
Garnish with the remainder of the cheese and the cilantro.
I served the eggs with our “Salsa de Bruncha” which today was Trader Joe’s red salsa with a little ketchup blended in as well as chicken stock, a few dashes of hot sauce, ¼ tsp. each Ancho Chile power and Chipotle chile powder for a little earthiness.

Chicken breakfast sausages were simmered in chile verde salsa. Yum! This brand of sausages wasn’t my favorite but the chile verde salsa took them to a new level.

Fruit was a little lame today. I didn’t get to the farmer’s market this week so I had to make due with last week’s odds and ends, Pink Lady apple, banana, pineapple, blueberries and a good handful of frozen berries tossed with a little organic maple syrup, no complaints from my brunch companion.

Once again I tried to make a quesadilla hoping Steve could eat it. This time I sprayed the flour tortillas with oil, piled the shredded cheese on along with some salsa, topped with another flour tortilla and baked them. These usually are really good, kind of crispy with melted cheese but not today…dry and hard describes them. I think the tortilla is the problem. They are like cardboard. This inspires me to make my own and soon. Oooh another blog!

The bubbly del dia was Blanc de Noir from our local favorite winery Laetitia in San Luis Obispo County.

We groggily ate our brunch wishing we had that extra hour of sleep...

Baked Eggs with an Attitude

                                            March 6- Back to Brunch at home, Yeaaa!

The last two weekends we have been MIA from home. One week we were driving back from our Mill Valley vacation and last weekend we went out to brunch with friends. Both of us agreed we like our own little brunches with appropriate portions better. I hate wasting food and certainly could not eat the huge portion served at the restaurant. I mean 2 cups of fried potatoes with Huevos Rancheros which were brimming with beans, cheese and 2 eggs on the tortillas. Overload!!!

Today is a dreary day with a forecast of rain that came true. I was vacillating between huevos revolutos or baked eggs. Last night I made a chicken and mushroom lasagna with tomato sauce and didn’t want the brunch dish to be too close to those flavors.

Once I started moving around the kitchen checking out stuff in the refrigerator, the baked eggs won. I have made them before and always do the vegetable base a little different. This is based on a recipe from Margaret Fox’s “Morning Food” cookbook that I love. She calls hers “Persian Eggs”. I call mine:


                                                       Baked Eggs with an Attitude
1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
½ c. onion, chopped
¼ c. red bell pepper, chopped
¼ c. green bell pepper, chopped
1 small Serrano chile or ½ larger one, minced (if you like the heat go for a larger chile)
½ c. mushrooms, chopped ( wild mushrooms are the best if available)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large Roma tomato, diced
1 slice of ham, diced -totally optional as this is a great vegetable dish on it's own.
2 tsp. capers
1 Tbsp. juice from capers
½ tsp. oregano
½ tsp. gr. Cumin
¼ tsp. salt or to taste
¼ tsp. fresh gr. Pepper
2 large eggs
½ c. grated cheese that melts ( I used a combo Monterrey Jack and Cheddar)
2 Tbsp. grated dry cheese like Parmesan but I didn’t have any so used Feta Cheese
Chopped cilantro or parsley for garnish

Preheat oven to 350*

This is the best part, get out a skillet, preferably a non stick one and melt the butter and oil together. Add all of the veges: onion, red and green pepper, chile, mushrooms, garlic and tomatoes to the skillet. Saute this up until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the  opt.ham, capers, juice, herbs and seasonings and continue to cook for a minute or two. If you are familiar with sofrito, that is what this looks like. Otherwise it is like a thick vegetable sauce.
Divide this mixture between two individual baking dishes placed on a baking sheet. Make a depression in the middle and carefully crack an egg in each dish. Sprinkle with the cheeses. Bake 12-15 min. Watch them closely as you don’t want to over bake the eggs. They are best when the yolks are runny. Serve with the cilantro or parsley sprinkled on top. You need toast or some such bready thing to sop up the remaining juices. This is sooo good with the egg melding into the flavorful vegetables and a little kick from the chile. It would be good for four people too, just leave it in the skillet and add two more eggs.

I served a bowl of cut up mangoes, kiwi fruit, blueberries, strawberries and pear that I tossed with Triple Sec and yogurt.

Bubbly of the day was from one of our local wineries:
 Laetitia’s Blanc de Blanc
Nothing going on today but to spend too much time on the computer. I did get my web cam hooked up and have just been waiting to try it out on someone. Hopefully my niece, Emily,will call me from snowy Rochester. 

Vege beds waiting for their eggs