Another try at breakfast strata

It's been quite a while since I toyed with the breakfast casserole strata in the kitchen. In the last documented attempt, the strata was really subpar.

In the new version, it's still two layers of bread with a filling of sausage and vegetables in between, all held together by an egg mixture and baked till the bread starts to toast.
The differences:
1. no turmeric
2. this time, I had the mustard I wanted
3. different sausage
4. different spices
5. cheese topping

"Let's try this again" leftovers-for-breakfast strata
 serves at least 4
4 large eggs
1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1 tsp dried sage leaves, crushed (4 to 5 leaves)
1/2 cup chopped parsley (loosely in the measuring cup, not packed)
1 orange bell pepper, chopped finely
2 leftover bratwurst-sized sausages, sliced (I had chicken-apple sausage)
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter
6 to 8 slices dry bread
1 cup shredded cheddar

Oil 8x8 baking pan. Lay 3 to 4 slices of bread down to cover the bottom of the pan. Saute chopped pepper and sausage together in butter. When heated through, add parsley and sage. Spread veg/meat mixture on top of bread in baking pan. Cover with half of shredded cheese and top with 3 to 4 slices of bread to cover evenly. Whisk eggs with milk, mustard and salt. Pour over contents of pan, soak at least 1 hour (can soak overnight if desired to bake at breakfast time). Top with the rest of the shredded cheese and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30 minutes or until eggs are set and top layer of bread is toasted.
This dish is great fresh out of the oven, but do let it sit 10 minutes before cutting into portions. This time, I made the dish the night before I wished to eat it and cut portions to reheat in the microwave for a couple of breakfasts for me and Andrew.

I'm getting more daring with the use of eggs and cheese as my sometimes-touchy guts will allow. I'll have to admit that this time, I still didn't get things quite right and the strata was once again not a Heather-friendly dish. I suspect there was something about the chicken-apple sausage that I wasn't digesting well because not only the leftovers affected me, but also the serving of sausage with lunch on an earlier day. Maybe I could have skipped the cheese topping, too.

Well, this dish was fun until it suddenly wasn't fun anymore. The flavor was much improved over the last strata, and I was glad to have a way to use up leftovers of chicken sausage and parsley.

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Chopped Salad: low on lettuce, high in flavor

Dinner that was a big bowl of salad (especially mixing fruit and lettuce) was a specialty of mine when I was single, but I dropped the habit when I started having some digestive difficulties that were exacerbated by high-insoluble-fiber leafy greens. This week, after re-reading a Cook's Illustrated article from a few years ago about chopped salads, I was inspired to play around with one of the recipes to make it my own and use items I had at home. The chopped salads are mostly stuff that is not lettuce, which got my attention.

Since seeing some improvements this year in my ability to tolerate foods that were formerly banned from the grocery list, I decided to give lettuce a chance in my dinner salad last night, but as a supporting actor only, not in a main role. When preceded by a Scandinavian crispbread as a tummy-friendly starter, last night's salad was a star.

Pears and More Chopped Salad
4 large servings or 6 side portions

1 English salad cucumber, seeded and cubed
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
kosher salt
fresh-ground black pepper
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 Bartlett pears, cored and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces (could substitute 2 crisp apples)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 small head green leaf lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
4 ounces crumbled Amish blue cheese
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Whisk oil and vinegar together in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add cucumber, bell pepper, pear, toss and let stand a few minutes. Toss in lettuce, then pecans and cheese.

Best served immediately, but leftovers do keep overnight for a tangy lunch if you don't mind lettuce that is a little limp.

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Dressing up dinner with ajvar

Our favorite red pepper spread, ajvar or "Serbian salsa," has had a long hiatus from our house since we no longer live right down the street from a store that sells it at a reasonable price. I love the puree of roasted red peppers and eggplants mixed with garlic and oil. It tastes wonderful on sandwiches, on crackers, mixed into dips or casseroles or pasta dishes. I missed it so much that I made sure to put it on my list for a shopping outing that included returning to that favorite Asian market in our old neighborhood in Madison, WI. It comes in a rather large jar, so once we open one, it's imperative to use it frequently before it goes bad. 

A recent "meat" and potatoes type of dinner was a chance to try something new with ajvar. I made potatoes with lemon-garlic drizzle and tofu cutlets with blackened pepper coating. For a dessert/side, I served pears.

The recipes:

Tofu cutlets with blackened pepper coating
serves 3 to 4

1 block of firm tofu
ajvar red pepper spread
1 to 2 Tbsp oil for the pan

Squeeze the liquid out of the tofu, slice into six cutlets and spread each of them thickly on both sides with ajvar. Allow the cutlets to sit while you prepare potatoes.

Note: this part of the recipe could have been more successful if the time sitting was longer and if I had done more to turn the ajvar into a marinade. Next time I try this recipe, I'll try mixing the ajvar with oil and perhaps a little vinegar to see if it pulls more pepper flavor into the centers of the tofu pieces, which ended up tasting pretty plain this time around, and start marinating at least an hour before starting the potatoes.

When the potatoes are very close to done, heat oil in a large frying pan on high heat. Lay the ajvar-covered cutlets in the oil and fry on both sides until the pepper mixture is blackened.

Potatoes with lemon-garlic drizzle
serves 4

2 pounds Klondike Red potatoes (other boiling potatoes with pretty skins are acceptable), scrubbed but not peeled
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain, leave potatoes in the pot and cover so they dry out a little while you prepare the drizzle. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add garlic and cook until very light golden, then whisk in the lemon juice and heat through. Put the potatoes in the serving dish and drizzle the sauce over them. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

Perhaps next time I have a hankerin' for ajvar I'll have to try out this recipe http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/vegetables/r/ajvar.htm or the one at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6430271 and can it myself.

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Falling in love with fall produce: sweet and spicy squash

For this invention, I put together yummy late-season hot peppers from the garden of a colleague at work, a squash from the farmer's market, and a little of the brown sugar-cayenne pepper mixture left behind by a friend after our last mini-bonfire party (it was a originally a coating for skewered pineapple).

Sweet and Spicy Squash

Cut a winter squash in half and put it cut side down on a greased or parchment-paper-covered baking pan. Be sure the pan has a lip around all the edges because squashes give up some juice while baking. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until, when poking at the skin with your finger, the flesh underneath feels mushy.

In another pan at the same time, roast a handful of whole hot peppers, turning peppers occasionally. The peppers will be done when the skins are dark brown and starting to char, long before the squash is ready. Put the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to steam until the squash is ready, then peel the paper-thin skins off the peppers and discard skins, seeds and stems. Mince the roasted peppers.

Scoop the squash out of its skin into a bowl and mix in about one tablespoon of butter/vegan margarine for each pound of squash. Depending on how hot the peppers are, add all of them to the squash or just some until the desired level of heat is achieved. Sweeten to taste with brown sugar and add cayenne pepper if the roasted peppers just aren't spicy enough for your taste. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

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