Breakfast Strata (aka Erik Estrada)

This is a great recipe to make for a brunch because you make it the night before, so all you have to do in the morning is pop it in the oven. Strata is one of my husband's favorite things that I make (and he tends to be overly protective with food he likes), so I was really surprised when we had some friends over and Jonathan offered to heat them up some of the left over strata. I have to say I thought it was really sweet that he kept telling his friends, "Oh, man you have to try this Estrada. It's out of this world." It was all the sweeter because he really thought it was called Estrada, and so now it has been renamed after the eponymous Chips character.

Note 1: You need to prepare this the night before you make it.
Note 2: These pictures aren't very good because I took them with my phone.

Ingredients for the Meat Strata (feel free to mix and match)
~1 lb sausage
-2-3 C shredded cheddar cheese
-1 pepper, diced
-1 onion, diced
-8 eggs
-1-2 C milk
-1 loaf day old French bread cut into cubes (it's best if you leave this out to air dry so it gets really crusty, but if you forget to do that you can can toast the bread cubes in the oven
-1 TBSP Worcestershire
-salt & pepper

Ingredients for the Veggie Strata
-1 package soyrizo or other fake meat product
-2-3 C shredded cheddar cheese
-2/3 package fresh spinach
-1 onion, diced
-1 small tub of white mushrooms
-3 handfuls of cherry tomatoes, quartered
-8 eggs
-1-2 C milk
-1 loaf day old French bread cut into cubes (it's best if you leave this out to air dry so it gets really crusty, but if you forget to do that you can can toast the bread cubes in the oven
-1 TBSP Worcestershire
-salt & pepper

Steps
1. Cook your meat (or fake meat). Remove from pan.
2. Saute your veggies in the meal drippings.
3. Layer half the bread cubes in a greased 13X9 pan.
4. Sprinkle half the cheese, half the meat, and half the veggie mixture over the bread cubes.

5. Repeat layers with remaining bread cubes, cheese, and ingredients.
6. Whisk eggs, milk, Worcestershire, salt & pepper together.
7. Pour egg mixture evenly over bread mixture.
8. Cover and let sit in refridgerator over night.
9. In the morning, bake at 325 for about 50-70 minutes or until completely set in the middle.

White Truffle Mac and Cheese

Put truffle oil on anything and it makes it more amazing. Put truffle oil in Mac & Cheese, which happens to be my favorite food, and you have a culinary taste sensation. I got this recipe from my friend, Adam, and it rocks. It's pretty rich, and definitely not "healthy," but it's perfect for a special occasion. My husband and I made this for Valentine's, and to me this meal was way better than anything we could've gotten on one of those overpriced Valentine's menus.

Ingredients (makes 4-5 servings)
-1/4 C (1/2 stick) butter
-1/4 C all-purpose flour
- 1 C milk
- 1 C heavy cream
- 6 oz (2 C) dry elbow macaroni
- 4 oz (1 C) shredded Cheddar
- 2 oz (1/2 C) shredded Swiss cheese
- 1 oz ( 1/4 C) crumbled blue cheese or Gorgonzola
- 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
- s & p, to taste
- Bread crumbs (we used panko)
~ 3 TBSP White (or Black_ truffle oil)

(Preheat oven to 350)
Steps
1. In a large saucepan over med-low heat, melt the butter, then whisk in the flour, stirring for several minutes.

2. Slowly pour in the milk and cream, whisking constantly. Bring the sauce to a simmer while whisking regularly so it does not stick. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

3. While the sauce is simmering, cook the macaroni according to package directions until al dente. Run cold water over the pasta, drain and set aside.
4. When the sauce is ready, remove it from the heat and stir in the cheeses, Worcestershire, and 2 TBSP truffle oil. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Add the macaroni to the cheese sauce and stir over medium-low heat for a couple minutes. Poor the noodles into a greased casserole dish and top with bread crumbs. Bake for about 15 minutes and then broil for a few minutes until breadcrumbs are golden brown.

6. Lightly drizzle with truffle oil.

Lemon Blossom Muffins

These guys are AMAZING. Any time I make them they are a huge hit. They are fresh, tangy, moist, with a little crunch from the glaze. They are perfect for dessert or breakfast...or as a mid-day snack. Also, since the recipe makes so many, they are great for taking to parties. These muffins are also really good cold, right out of the refrigerator. And the best part about them is that they are super easy to make. My Mom gave me this recipe, and supposedly it's from Paula Dean, though given the lack of butter, I find that hard to believe.

Note: since these make about 4 dozen, it really helps to have at least 2 mini-muffin pans.

Ingredients (makes 4-5 dozen)

Muffins

- 1 yellow cake mix

- 3.4 oz instant lemon pudding mix from Jello

- 4 large eggs

- 3/4 C vegetable oil

Glaze

- 3 C powdered sugar

- zest of two lemons

- 1/3 C fresh lemon juice

- 1 TBSP vegetable oil

-2 TBSP water

(Preheat oven to 350)

Steps

1. Mix muffin ingredients in a large bowl for about 2 minutes. Note: the batter will be quite gooey.

2. Spray miniature muffin tins with oil.  Using two cereal spoons, spoon batter into muffin tins filling only halfway. Bake at 350 for 11-12 minutes. 

3. While muffins are baking, make glaze by whisking all glaze ingredients together in a medium bowl until smooth.

4. It's best to glaze muffins when they are warm, but not right out of the oven (they'll fall apart if they are too hot). So let the muffins sit in the pan for a few minutes before removing. The muffins are kind of delicate, but I discovered a trick to more easily remove them: lightly grab the tops, and then turn them as if you are unscrewing them from the pan. This will release them and make it easier to pop them out of the pan.

5. Glaze them completely by dunking them/rolling them in the glaze (I just used my fingers). Shake off excess glaze.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 until you're out of batter.

7. Allow muffins to dry on a wire rack with some foil underneath that the glaze will drip onto. Let the glaze set before storing in a container.

Curry-Spiced Noodles

Normally, I would not have made this recipe because it has a lot of ingredients. However, I recently visited by good friend, Jon, and we made some super awesome Indian food. He taught me an important trick to preparing Indian food more easily--have a well stocked pantry of spices (e.g., cumin seeds, coriander, turmeric, anise, cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks). So I ended up stocking up on spices and basically had almost everything on hand to make this. It was more time intensive than most of my recipes, but it was really flavorful. I think you can save time and make it easier by doing some prep work up front (e.g., combine all your dry spices, chop all your fresh herbs and veggies).

Ingredients (makes enough for at least 4 servings)
 -8-12  oz dry udon noodles or spaghetti
- 4  tsp peanut oil, divided (I used sesame oil)
- 2  C  julienne-cut carrot
- 2  C  julienne-cut red bell pepper
- 1  C  julienne-cut green bell pepper (I forgot this)
- 8 oz  cups thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps (since shiitakes are expensive, I did 4 oz of white and 4 oz of shiitake)
- 3  TBSP  chopped peeled fresh lemongrass (see this video to prepare in slices)
- 1  TBSP  grated peeled fresh ginger
- 1  TBSP  red curry paste (I used Sriracha sauce...but 1 TBSP made it too spicy for us, so maybe do 1 tsp to start, or add it to taste in your individual serving)
- 2  tsp  ground cumin
- 1  tsp  ground turmeric
- 8  garlic cloves, minced
- 1  C vegetable broth
- 1/2  cup  water
- 2  tsp soy sauce
- 1/4  tsp salt
- 3  green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/3  C  cilantro leaves
- 1/4  C  chopped dry-roasted, unsalted cashews

Steps
1. Combine lemongrass, ginger, curry paste, cumin, turmeric, minced garlic cloves in a small bowl.
2. Combine broth, water, soy sauce, and salt in a small bowl.
3. Cut up all your veggies.
4. Cook noodles according to package directions. Set noodles aside; keep them in the cooking water so that they don't get sticky.

5. Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons oil. Add carrot to pan; sauté 2 minutes. Add bell peppers; sauté 2 minutes. Remove veggies from pan.
6. Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil in pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms; sauté for 2 minutes.
7. Add bowl of spices (lemongrass, ginger, curry paste, cumin, turmeric, garlic cloves); cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
8. Add bowl of liquid (broth, 1/2 cup water, soy sauce, and salt). Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 minutes or until slightly thick. Add noodles, carrot mixture, and green onions; cook for 2 minutes, tossing to combine.
9. Top with cilantro and cashews.

Italian Eggs over Spinach and Polenta

I got this recipe from Cooking Light, but modified it slightly. This recipe was SUPER easy and very tasty. Excellent meal for a night when you don't feel like cooking and/or have the time. The one issue I had was with overcooking my eggs. In the sauce pan the whites stayed sort of runny looking so I kept cooking them. Finally, after seeing the consistency of the whites wasn't changing I decided to turn off the heat, only to find the eggs were pretty much cooked through, instead of soft like I wanted them (still tasted good though). So my recommendation when making this would be to go less on the appearance of the eggs and more by the time. After 5-10 minutes they probably should be soft-set.

Ingredients (enough for ~3 servings)
-5 eggs
-1 16 oz tube of polenta, cut into 12 slices
-1 jar tomato-basil pasta sauce
-1 package of fresh baby spinach
-1 small red onion, diced
~1/2 C Asiago or Romano cheese, shredded
-cooking spray or EVOO

(set oven to broil)
Steps
1. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray or EVOO, then arrange polenta slices on top and coat on top with cooking spray or more EVOO. Broil about 5-7 minutes.
2. While polenta heats, saute onion for about 3 minutes in a Large sized pan (at medium heat).
3. Stir in sauce to pan and bring to a simmer.
4. Stir in spinach and cook for 1 minute or until spinach wilts.
5. Make 5 indentations in the spinach mixture using the back of a wooden spoon. Break 1 egg into each indentation.
6. Cover pan and simmer for 5-10 minutes until eggs are desired degree of doneness. Sprinkle with cheese.

7. Put 3-4 polenta slices on a plate and top with 1/3 of spinach mixture and 2 eggs.

Melon, Mozzarella, and Prosciutto Appetizer

This is really easy and very tasty! And I think it looks really pretty.

Ingredients
-1/2 cantaloupe
-1/2 honey dew
-1/4 lb. thinly sliced prosciutto
~8 oz. fresh mozzarella
~3 TBSP rosemary
-2 TBSP EVOO
-fresh ground pepper
-skewers, preferably about 4 inches long

Steps
1. Use a melon baller to make fruit balls out of your cantaloupe and honey dew.
2. Use the melon baller to make balls out of your fresh mozzarella (this is a bit harder...ours were definitely not perfect circles.
3. Tear off pieces of prosciutto and wrap them around the melon balls, spearing them with the skewer as you go. Alternate a honey dew ball, mozzarella piece, and cantaloupe ball.
4. After you've made all your skewers, drizzle EVOO on top of them and then sprinkle the rosemary and top with ground pepper.

Kelly's Truffles

First, I'm finally back from a month of traveling for internship interviews, and I'm excited to get back to cooking and more regular posting!

I got this recipe from my good friend, Kelly, and made them for New Years. They are insanely good. I love that they look pretty fancy, but are actually super easy to make.

Ingredients
-8oz cream cheese (room temp)
-1 pound bag of Oreos (don't get double stuff)
-1 pound of milk or dark chocolate (I used chocolate chips)
-1/2 pound of white chocolate (I used chips)

Steps
1. Using a blender or food processor, finely crush the Oreos.

2. Next, using your hands or a food processor (I used my hands), incorporate the cream cheese and Oreo crumbs.
3. Make little balls out of the Oreo dough and chill for 45 minutes.

4. Melt your chocolate. I did mine in the microwave at 70% power for 20-30 second intervals. This was my first time melting chocolate, and the microwave trick worked okay, but the melted chocolate stayed a bit thicker than I would've liked. If anyone has better suggestions about how to melt chocolate I'd love to hear in the comments!
5. Dip the balls into the chocolate using a slotted spoon, toothpick, fingers, or whatever works best for you.

6. Melt your white chocolate. Melting white chocolate was harder for me, as it seized up twice. However, I found a trick for "unseizing" the chocolate--add a spoonful of vegetable oil to mix into the chocolate and it should smooth it up.
7. Drizzle the white chocolate over the truffles. Again, my white chocolate didn't get runny enough so I sort of had to glop it on top, but it still tasted delicious.
8. Let set. (I put mine in the fridge for an hour or so).