Bunch o' Brunch

Janet here:

I love, love, love eating breakfast out. It's an oddity of sorts because it's not like I make a big breakfast at home. No, I eat — and have eaten — yogurt just about every day for, oh, decades. (I used to only eat one kind — Dannon coffee, still my yogurt of choice — but I have expanded my repertoire to include Stoneyfield organic in recent years.)

Anyway, my second favorite breakfast thing is brunch. Maybe it's because, like breakfasts in restaurants, brunches are slower. You're not supposed to do anything but sit there for a while, talking, relaxing, maybe even having a bloody Mary or two. You give yourself permission to slow down and that's a wonderful way to start the day.

Peter's cousin and husband, Kerry and Hal, stopped by last weekend for a quick visit after dropping their daughter back at college. They were slated just in time for brunch so brunch it was.

I tossed together some fruit salad, brewed up a batch of coffee and made some delicious scrambled eggs (with shallots, lox and a little 1/2-and-1/2, delicious!). And we topped it off with this terrific blueberry crumb coffeecake from the Barefoot Contessa At Home cookbook. Regular readers know I'm a BC fan. It's rare one of her recipes fail me. If you're looking for an easy coffeecake that will win rave reviews, try this one. And have a mimosa for me. :)

Blueberry Crumb Coffeecake

ingredients for the streusel
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups flour

ingredients for the cake
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2/3 cup sour cream
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberries

method
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch round baking pan.

For the streusel, combine the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Stir in the melted butter and then the flour. Mix well and set aside.

For the cake, cream the butter and sugar in a bowl. I used a hand mixer, but BC recommends using an electric mixer with a paddle on high for 4-5 minutes until light. Reduce speed to low and add the eggs one at a time. Then add the vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Then fold in the blueberries and stir with a spatula until completely mixed.

Spoon the batter into the pan. With your fingers, crumble the topping evenly over the batter. Bake 40-50 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar (if you want. I didn't; it seemed like overkill.)

Mexican Stir Fry

It was the end of the work week and I was thinking e.a.s.y. was the way to go for dinner. I had been planning to make a frittata, but then G, on his way to a shower, said, "Hey you should put together these ingredients to make a Mexican amalgamation." And he ticked off some chicken, rice, onions, egg and seasonings. After a chat about the word amalgamation (is it a word? It is. And didn't he really mean amalgam? He didn't and he was right or we would have been eating something with mercury in it, and yes, this is how our family rolls at times. It's both a trial and a tribulation, depending on the word conversation. Someday I will tell you more about Easter and Shakespeare egg hunts.)

Anyway, I decided to go for it, and I have to tell you it was reviving, which completely surprised me. I got into thinking about the recipe and how much and what type of seasonings I would use. At one point, I yelled up to G, "What do you think about black beans?" and he yelled, "Go for it."

G, a newly-minted college grad and a young man with a growing awareness of his body and mind and how they operate (ideally together), has been interested in cooking since graduation, and it's been fun to share that with him. We've cooked more together and he's had more suggestions about healthy eating. As he used to say as a boy, "It's all good." It really is.

Anyway this is the rough recipe. It's loose because I was winging it as I went along and because, frankly, this recipe screams for some ad libbing. Let us know what you decide to add....

Mexican Stir Fry
serves 4-5

ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 chicken breasts, no skin, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 onion, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 yellow pepper, sliced
1 cup rice
1 16 ounce can black beans, rinsed
about 1 teaspoon chili powder
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste
a couple of good dashes of Frank's hot sauce to taste
4-5 eggs, one per serving
about 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese

method
Put two cups of water and a little salt in a pot. Add one cup rice and cook.

While the rice is cooking, heat up the oil and add the onions and chicken in a large skillet. Saute for about 5 minutes. Add the peppers and spices. Continue to saute, stirring periodically. When the rice is done, add it to the skillet and stir around.

Now you can either add the eggs to scramble them in (G's original idea, which I didn't get) or do what we did, which is fry the eggs in a separate pan just before you're ready to eat. Then dish out the stir fry, add some grated cheese, and plop the egg on top. Maybe add a little more Frank's and all you need is a cervasa to complete the meal. Enjoy!

Soup Anyone?

Lest people think Rachel and I are only obsessed with desserts and sugar, I thought I'd put up this tasty, easy soup that I made the other night for dinner. I served it with a frittata and life was good all the way around.

Roasted Tomato Black Bean Soup
serves about 6

ingredients
7 tomatoes, cut into quarters
1 large onion, cut into about 6 pieces
3 cloves of garlic, whole
about 2 tablespoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 15-ounce cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
4-5 cups broth, veggie or chicken (how much depends on how soupy you like your soups)
1-2 teaspoons chili powder
1-2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder

method
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the tomatoes, onion and garlic into a large bowl and toss with the olive oil and salt/pepper. Place on a baking pan and roast for about 30 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and the onions are beginning to brown slightly. Garlic should be soft too.

Meanwhile drain and rinse the beans. When the tomatoes are done, place them in a large saucepan with the beans, spices and broth. Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Then place in the blender in batches and puree. Add a little fresh cilantro if you're so inclined and you're ready to go.

What's your favorite go-to soup for supper?

Rachel and Julia...Omelettes!

Rachel here: One of the perks to having a baby is the justification of television watching. We don't have cable at our house and so the options are often pretty grim. However, on Saturdays here, there are tons of cooking shows on public television. One recent Saturday there was a Julia Child marathon. The whole thing was awesome, but the episode that really caught my attention was the egg episode. Click here to watch a clip from the episode. I swear you, too, will want to make omelettes afterwards!

I should warn you, though. I can make an omelette, sure. But a Julia Child omelette is a whole different beast. While she makes it look effortless, as you might be able to tell from my picture (which is really only half an omelette since I had the brilliant idea to make a giant omelette for John and I to share...not recommended when you're trying to master a new technique. Fewer eggs would definitely have been easier!), it's a little more complex than Julia makes it seem.

I'm determined, though, to master these scrumptious french omelettes. John can make them and, really, they're superior to their overcooked counterpart that serves as the standard. When done right, they're incredibly soft and gooey. I'll keep you posted as my efforts continue. In the meantime, I can recommend the insides I chose to stuff our omelette with (heirloom tomatoes, white onion, ricotta and goat cheeses) and serving it with a side salad of arugula. Even in an overcooked omelette I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy your meal.

Egg-cellent Eggs

Rachel here: I hadn't dyed eggs since I lived with my parents, I don't think, and though there is absolutely zero recognition of Easter in my house, it just seemed like so much fun that I called John at work and asked him if he'd join me in dyeing them when he got home. He was game, as he usually is for art projects/things that involve making messes. Anyway, figuring there was no way in hell I'd find Easter egg dye kits at this late date, I decided to employ food coloring for our dyeing experience. There are directions on the back of all food coloring packages and it was really quite simple. We used brown eggs because that was what was in the refrigerator and though this affected the end color, neither of us felt it was a problem. We had fun and, though I had intended to use the eggs to make egg salad, we ended up eating all of them (I only boiled six) promptly. Oops! Hard-boiled eggs are such a good snack and dyeing them is so satisfying that I'm considering extracting this tradition from the confines of Easter and dyeing eggs year round. They're so bright and pretty on the refrigerator shelf!



Janet here: In contrast to Rachel, who dyed her first Easter eggs, it's very possible I just dyed my last batch with our youngest heading off to college next year. Maybe we'll do it with the grandchild, although it's just as possible it won't happen. Anyway, the main reason to dye all these hard-boiled eggs is to make delicious deviled eggs and egg salad. I remember the first time I had deviled eggs. It was at my grandmother's house and I was amazed a hard-boiled egg could taste so good. Instead of sticking to the roof of my mouth the way plain old hard-boiled eggs do, these little wonders featured mayonnaise and dill. Delicious!

ingredients
hard-boiled eggs
mayonnaise
catsup
dill weed
salt/pepper

method
Boil the eggs. Once the eggs are cooled, cut them in half and scoop out the yolk. Put the white halves aside. Mash the yolks and add 1-2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, about 1 tablespoon catsup and dill weed/salt/pepper to taste. The amounts are an approximation, depending on how mushy you want your innards. Mash it all together some more and then scoop back into the eggs. Voila!