Foodie Friday--Strata or Breakfast Casserole

This recipe is called Strata—no, I have no idea where the name came from—or breakfast casserole, or simply baked eggy-bready-cheesy-goodness-made-from-refrigerator-leftovers.

Whatever it’s called, it’s yummy.

The beauty of this breakfast casserole is that you can make it any way you want. If you want to go a little Italian, then brown Italian sausage (mild or spicy) and add a teaspoon of Italian seasoning. Or make it using diced ham or bacon, instead of sausage. Add browned onions, or grape tomatoes, diced poblano or jalapeno peppers, or sauté spinach, drain and chop it. If you want more smoky spice then add chipotle powder. Or if you want a herbier type of casserole, add dried sage. Use whatever you happen to have on hand, it doesn’t matter. All you need is the basic eggs, milk, bread and cheese, leave the rest to your imagination.

This recipe calls for white bread slices, but I don’t like white bread, so I used a ½ loaf of French Country bread (weighed—about 8-10 ounces), or use Italian bread, or French bread, it doesn’t really matter. The staler the better since the eggy mixture is absorbed into the bread, like soaking French Toast.

The cheese can be whatever cheese you like. If you don’t have any idea what to use, use a sharp cheddar as the flavor will be a little stronger. And no, the cheese quantity is optional. Personally, I use far more cheese in my strata recipe than recommended . . . like two or three times the amount. This recipe is the perfect way of getting rid of those little chunks of random cheese left over from other recipes. I used a white cheddar cheese and a Mexican cheese blend, but I plan to use my leftover Gruyere and Fontina cheese the next time I make this recipe, which will be Christmas day . . . er, actually, I’ll make it Christmas Eve, but it will soak overnight before I bake it on Christmas day.  

Enjoy!

 

Strata or Breakfast Casserole

8 eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. dry mustard

½ tsp. white pepper

2 cups milk

1 lb. bulk sausage, browned and degreased

6 slices of bread, cubed, about 8 cups

2 cup cheese, grated 

Fry sausage, breaking apart until cooked. Drain fat, blot excess fat with paper towels. Set aside. Cube bread. Set aside.

In large bowl, whisk eggs, salt, mustard, and pepper. Whisk in milk. Fold in grated cheese and bread.

Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan. Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake Strata for 35 minutes until browned and set.

Serve immediately.

 

Tips & Tricks

·         Use LARGE eggs

·         I don’t drink regular milk; 2% milk works fine. I added a little cream to the milk to give it a slightly higher fat content.

·         Use spray oil for the pan. It’s easier

·         When I baked this for my work gang, I put the casserole in a cold oven and turned it on to 350 degrees while I showered and dressed. I wasn’t about to putter around while waiting for the oven to preheat.  I added 15-20 minutes to the stated baking time and kept an eye on it toward the end.

·         The dry mustard and white pepper give the casserole a little zing. Put your own spin on the basic recipe. Add whatever seasonings you feel like.  

 

Foodie Friday -- Bread Pudding with Warm Bourbon Sauce

Yes, I already have a bread pudding under my Foodie Friday tab, but I was telling my swim mom buddy, Margaret, about this recipe and promised to send it to her . . . three days ago.

Yikes! I hate making promises and then taking so long to make them happen, which is why I tend to drop all other work to judge contest entries. . . maybe I have things a little skewed in my head.

It's been known to happen.

Okay, this recipe is the one I made for this last Thanksgiving--it's a big pan, so I tripled the recipe! It's the dessert in the pretty blue pan. Sauce is not shown in this picture. The reason I like this recipe is due to the fact it's made from raisin bread--I don't like raisins, but I do like raisin bread!

 

 

Bread Pudding with Warm Bourbon Sauce

4 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups day-old cinnamon raisin bread with crusts, cut into 1/2-inch squares

1/2 cup pecans, chopped and toasted

 

Butter 8-inch square baking Whisk, first 6 ingredients in medium bowl. Place bread and pecans in prepared dish. Pour milk mixture over and let stand 5 minutes. Push down bread into custard. Refrigerate 2 hours, pushing bread into custard occasionally.

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bread putting in large metal baking pan. Add enough boiling water to baking pan to come 1 inch up the sides of the dish with the bread pudding. Bake until pudding is puffed and golden brown on top, about 50 minutes. Remove dish with bread pudding from water and cool slightly.

 

Cut into squares. Serve bread pudding warm with sauce.

 

Bourbon Sauce

 

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tbls. whipping cream

2 Tbls. bourbon

Pinch of salt

 

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Simmer until thickened, whisking often, about 3 minutes. Cool slightly.

 

Tips & Tricks:

• make sure you have two pans, one that fits inside the other one before you start making this pudding. Yes, it has to have the 'steam' factor so it doesn't over cook on the sides and bottom
• I bought fresh raisin bread, but cut it up and let it dry in the baking dish for a few hours before making this. I would toss it occasionally to get all the pieces dry.
• you can refrigerate the unbaked pudding in the refrigerator overnight, instead of only two hours, and bake it in the morning
• place the pudding pan into the empty steaming pan and place on oven rack before you pour boiling water into the steaming pan. This way you don't take the chance of sloshing the water into your pudding or on yourself while getting it into the oven.
• Bourbon sauce is GOOD! *nom, nom, nom, slurp*
• Use a high quality of whiskey and the flavor will be outstanding. I used Devil's Cut Whiskey. Actually, I use this whiskey to make caramel and my chocolate truffle filling. It has the best flavor!

Enjoy, Peeps!

• 

Foodie Friday -- 7-UP Biscuits

Today was a snow day and all the schools were out, so I decided to try this biscuit recipe I saw on Facebook.

Now, I will mention that numerous people would post recipes on FB, but they were encrypted and you had to 'share' the recipe to get it. Well, my friends, home girl here doesn't play that game, and I found a way around this trick. This technique is right up there with chain letters, "SHARE" unless you want to go to He%%, or other such crap that people come up with.

Oh, and I found a way to copy the recipe . . .

I will also mention that I've made biscuits about three times in my entire life. Usually, I buy a can from the store and pop it open for fresh biscuits, or even buy the little hockey pucks in the freezer section.

This is a simple recipe requiring only four items. You might need to tweak the oven temps depending on your oven.

Makes 20-24 biscuits depending on thickness.

7-UP Biscuits

4 cups of Bisquick

1 cup sour cream

1 cup 7-UP soda

1/2 cup melted butter

 

Melt butter in two 9 X 13 pans.

 

Mix Bisquick, sour cream, and 7-UP. It will be very soft and loose. Knead and fold dough on flat surface using Bisquick to keep it from sticking. Pat dough out and cut biscuits using round cutter. Slosh melted butter around pans and pour excess into bowl. Place biscuits in pan and brush with excess butter. Bake 400 degrees F. for 12-15 minutes.

 

Tips & Tricks:

• I used glass Pyrex pans
• I made these biscuits 2 1/2 inch in diameter and 1/2-3/4 inch deep
• I ended up with 22 biscuits using these measurements
• Don't over crowd the pans. 12 biscuits per pan ended up being a good amount.
• The original recipe called for the oven to be 425, but I thought it would brown too quickly . . .it did one of my batches. 

Enjoy!

Foodie Friday -- Monkey Bread

I've been wanting to make Monkey Bread for a long time, but I've always been missing the key ingredient--Biscuits.

I never buy biscuits, but when I do, I buy the expensive, overly large, flaky ones. You don't need those biscuits for this recipe. Any old cheap cans will work quite well.

And if you trust your kid with a knife, this is the perfect recipe for them to bake.

Monkey Bread

4 cans biscuits

1 cup sugar

1 Tbls cinnamon, or more

2 sticks butter (16 oz)

½ cup brown sugar 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Prepare tube pan by coating inside of pan with vegetable spray (Pam).

Place sugar and cinnamon into resealable plastic bag (Ziploc). Shake to mix. Set aside.

Place butter and brown sugar in heavy saucepan.  Turn on low to melt butter.

Open two cans of biscuits, separate biscuits and cut into quarters. Place cut pieces into bag, seal and shake bag to coat each piece of dough. Shake excess sugar off dough pieces and evenly place into prepared pan.

Repeat above with remaining biscuits. I added about another teaspoon of cinnamon to the mixture before tossing the biscuit pieces. 

Turn up heat on sugar/butter mixture on stove. Boil 2-3 minutes, until foamy. Immediately pour over dough.

Place pan in oven and bake for 30 minutes.  When brown, remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Place large plate over top of pan and flip over to remove monkey bread . . . allowing ooey-gooey goodness to roll down the sides of bread.

Rip apart and devour.

Hints & Suggestions:

·        Find the cheapest cans of biscuits you can. They don’t need to look pretty if you’re cutting them into quarters.

·        I used a pretty Bundt pan instead of a boring old tube pan.

·        I added more cinnamon to the sugar before tossing the second batch of cut biscuits because the previous biscuits had removed almost all the cinnamon.

·        If you need to bake longer, then do, but you risk the ‘sauce’ caramelizing and burning in the bottom of the pan.

·        I didn’t have a plate large enough to place over the Bundt pan, so I used a Christmas tray. J

Enjoy!

Later, Peeps!