Green Chile Breakfast Casserole

Saturdays are probably my favorite day of the week. The primary reason is the ability to sleep until I wake up and spend the day working around the house, which right now means continuing to unpack boxes and get our life in order. In our previous residence, we lived a 2 minute drive behind Bubba's, a delicious southern fried chicken joint with great breakfast and a drive through. We could roll out of bed, hop in the car and get eggs, bacon and biscuits and gravy and continue on with our lazy Saturday.

Unfortunately, it's no longer that easy to get Bubba's breakfast on Saturday morning. However, this week I think I may have come across our new lazy Saturday breakfast norm, the breakfast casserole. The beauty about the breakfast casserole is that all the work is done the night before. So when you finally wake up, but before you're really ready to get out of bed, you can heat the oven and put the ready-to-go casserole in the oven and crawl back in bed until it's ready. Easy peasy.

This recipe actually comes from my mother and a cookbook she and the youth at First Baptist Monahans Texas put together as a fundraiser when she was Youth Minister before I was born. My grandmother bought me a book at the time and gave it to me when I went to college and started cooking for myself. Mom always called it "Youth Breakfast Casserole" because it was what she always made for breakfasts for the youth group and for the disciple now groups staying at our house. To my knowledge, we only had this when we had guests staying at our house.

That being said, I think this is the new basis of a weekly breakfast ritual for Robert and I. We've already discussed ways to add variation (mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc) and we love how the quantity takes care of us on Sunday as well. If we come up with any brilliant combinations, I'll be sure to post the here. Because lets be honest, who couldn't use an easy breakfast for those lazy Saturday mornings?

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Green Chile Breakfast Casserole


Ingredients
3 slices of bread torn into small pieces
6 eggs beaten
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 teaspoon pepper
1 small can green chiles
1 cup grated cheese
1 pound sausage, browned and drained

Instructions
Brown the sausage and break into crumbles.

 Break the 6 eggs into a medium to large bowl and whisk until beaten.

 Add the 2 cups milk, salt and pepper to the eggs and stir to combine.

 Add the green chiles and stir to combine.

 In a 9x12 pan, place the bread pieces evenly across the pan.

 Pour the egg mixture on top of the bread.

 Top with the sausage

 and cheese. Cover and place in the fridge overnight.

 In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the casserole in the oven and bake uncovered for 45 minutes.

Serve with coffee and enjoy.

Italian Wedding Soup

What is Italian Wedding Soup? I always assumed that it was something that authentic Italians ate at Italian weddings. I equated it in my mind to the Groom's Cake in Southern weddings, a longstanding tradition that you do not question, you just let your groom's imagination and taste buds run wild, and in the end create an entertaining conversation piece for your wedding guests. However, after doing some extensive research (aka...wikipedia!) I now know that I was wrong, so very wrong!

My ever loyal sous chefs, Cort and Shafer! 

Italian Wedding Soup actually has nothing to do with the happy marriage between two people in love. Rather, the original Italian name for the soup, minestra maritata, refers to the happy marriage between ingredients. I agree fully with this accurate translation. The flavors and textures in this soup are wonderfully balanced, and "marry" well. I love this version which is creamier than any canned variety you will ever find. This is also incredibly economical. The ingredients cost about $15 and includes many things that you have on hand, and serves at least 8 servings. Enjoy with hearty thick bread on a chilly evening.

This recipe is brought to you by: The Kitchn, a super cute food blog.

Another beautiful and creative person in my life is just amazing me with her fun creations! Adrienne Norwood Dougherty has the most adorable Etsy shop where she makes custom made banners. Here is an example that she made for our 100th post celebratory dinner. Please check out her little shop and get in contact with her if you want something sweet and handmade to make an evening turn into a special event! Here is the link: Hawthorne Ave Arts and Vintage!

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Ingredients:
3/4 pound of ground beef (you can also use ground chicken, turkey or pork)
1/2 cup of dry bread crumbs (I used Italian)
3 large eggs (one used on its own and 2 used together)
1 cup of freshly shredded Parmesan, divided into 1/2 cups
1 teaspoon of dried oregano, or 1 tablespoon of fresh oregano, chopped
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
3 tablespoon of olive oil, divided
1 medium yellow onion, diced (per usual in the Curnes house...I omitted the onions)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
8 cups of chicken stock
3 cups of spinach
2 cups of cooked orzo pasta
Dash of red pepper flakes (optional)
Squirt of fresh lemon juice (optional)

Steps:
1. Combine the ground meat, bread crumbs, one egg, 1/2 cup of the cheese, oregano, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

2. Mix these ingredients together (I used my hands..this is a recipe where you really have to get your hands dirty!).

3. With your hands, form the mixture into 1 inch balls. I ended up with about 20. You want them to be smaller rather than larger because these should be bite sized and they should be able to fit on the spoon size that you will use while eating the soup.

4. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium high heat.
5. Add the meatballs to the oil in about 3 batches (you do not want to overcrowd the pan), and cook until browned all over. They might still be a bit pink in the center, and that is okay because they will keep cooking once you add them to the broth.

6. Once browned on all sides, place the balls on paper towels so that the excess oil is absorbed.

7. In a large soup pot, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil over medium high heat and add the onion and garlic, and saute until they soften but not browned. About 5 minutes.

Again...note the absence of onions here. It turned out delicious without them and my husband was happy!

8. Add the stock to the onions and garlic and bring to a boil.

9. Add the spinach.

10. Reduce the heat to low and then cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
11. Add the meatballs and cook for another 5 minutes at least (I didn't plan perfectly...so mine simmered at a very low temperature for a bit.

12. While this is cooking, use a small bowl to combine the two eggs and remaining cheese. Stir to combine.

13. While stirring constantly, slowly pour the egg and cheese mixture into the hot soup.

14. Add in the fully cooked pasta.

15. Cover and let simmer for about one more minute.
16. I also added a dash of red pepper flakes for spice and a generous squirt of lemon juice to brighten the flavors.
17. Serve and enjoy with hearty bread!

Prosciutto and Gouda Soufflés

I was inspired to try something new when Bunker came home late last Thursday night from the airport after a long week of work. He is a consultant and travels most weeks, all week, and works incredibly hard. He called when he landed at DFW and sounded just exhausted. He said he was rather hungry and craving something comforting but light. Poor Bunker! I just wanted him to come home and relax and not have to think about anything for a bit! I actually did not expect him to want dinner as he did not land until 9 pm, so I had not been grocery shopping and our fridge was embarrassingly bare.

I hung up the phone and the clock started ticking! I had about 40 minutes to whip up something tasty and fresh (it takes 40 minutes to get home from the airport). I was not sure what to make...I did not have a ton of things in the fridge...but I had a ton of eggs, milk that was about to go bad, and Prosciutto and Gouda left over from appetizers last weekend. So I decided to try my hand at soufflés! I decided that if it failed, I could use the rest of the eggs to make an omelet. I am delighted to report that I was actually successful with the soufflés, and Bunker loved the fresh and rather impromptu dinner at home.

This is the gazebo at one of our neighborhood parks. I thought it looked just beautiful with all of the flags up for September 11th...a day that I know we will never forget. 

This recipe is from Food and Wine, but I changed a few things due to my bare fridge. It is an easy recipe to follow, and the results were really phenomenal! But true form, the soufflés fell rather quickly, so bake them right before you want to serve them so they a presented in all their puffy glory!

PS: As I write this post...it is 105 degrees outside. Broke the record...70 days over 100 this summer.

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Ingredients:
4 tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of flour
1 1/2 cups of milk
3/4 teaspoons of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne
8 slices of prosciutto, cut into smaller pieces
6 large eggs, separated
5 ounces of shredded Gouda
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar


Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and gather your ingredients.

2. Spray four to six ramekins with a non-stick spray and coat with half of the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

3. In a saucepan, melt the four tablespoons of butter.

4. Add all of the flour to the butter, whisk and cook over moderate heat for about 1 minute. 

5. Whisk the milk into the butter and flour mixture over moderate-low heat for about 2 minutes, until smooth and thick.

6. Add the salt and cayenne to the mixture.

7. Remove the saucepan from the heat and in the egg yolks, stirring quickly to combine.

8. Stir in the Gouda and prosciutto. Set aside.

9. In your electric mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until you get firm white peaks. To ensure firm peaks, make sure that you get as much of the egg yolk separated as possible and make sure that your equipment is dry and clean.

10. Carefully fold the egg whites into the soufflé base until the mixtures are fully combined.

11. Spoon the mixture into each ramekin to about 1/2 an inch below the rim.

12. Sprinkle the remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano onto the tops of the soufflés. Place the ramekins on a baking dish to make it easier to remove the finished soufflés from the oven.

13. Enjoy hot out of the oven!