Baked Victorian French Toast

Brunch with a couple of lovely ladies!

You can prepare this delicious recipe the day/night before! What's not to like about that?
It takes around 35 minutes to bake in the oven (don't bother to preheat it, just stick it in and turn it on). In the morning your only tasks are washing/slicing up some strawberries, frying bacon, putting out fruit salad and a pitcher of orange juice, setting the table/etc.
This recipe is very rich and filling.
You will enter into a food coma after eating it. Hours later, I am still satiated.
It was good to go on a walk to the Allston Artists Open Studios afterward!

Baked Victorian French Toast (feeds 4 hungry people)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter (salted or unsalted, doesn't matter)
2 Tb light corn syrup
8 slices of "Cinnabon" bread (or any bread you'd like to try)
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk (2%)
1 tsp cinnamon
sliced strawberries
maple syrup
(optional: powdered sugar)

In a small saucepan cook and stir brown sugar, butter and light corn syrup just until butter is melted. Pour brown sugar mixture into an ungreased 12 x 7 1/2 x 2 inch baking dish (approximate size/determine how 4 slices of bread fit in your baking dish/cut if necessary). Arrange bread slices in a single layer on top of the brown sugar mixture. Flip to coat. Add additional layer of bread slices, flipping to get some sugary goodness on those slices as well.

In a medium or large mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk and cinnamon until combined.
Pour egg mixture over bread in baking dish. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.

Remove the cover and bake in a 350º oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the center appears set and the top is lightly browned. Let stand for 10 minutes to cool before serving.

Top with fresh fruit: sliced strawberries, peaches or pears or blueberries or raspberries.

Optionally dust with powdered sugar. Offer maple syrup.

Serve bacon and fruit salad on the side. Don't forget mimosas!

Steelhead Trout

I was about to buy the usual rainbow trout and just requested, "A filet of trout" to the fishmonger. To which he replied, "Steelhead or Rainbow?"
I looked right past the Steelhead since it appears very much like salmon (pinkish flesh). It was $6.99/lb as opposed to $8.99/lb so I was sold!
How to cook it? As quick as possible (hunger dictates).
This method was simple enough, yet very satisfying. I ate it straight from the baking pan, only leaving the skin behind.
While baking in the (toaster) oven, I ran out to the garden and picked some cilantro to sprinkle on top. I love cilantro!

Dot with pats of butter (next time I will melt butter and drizzle over).

Mix 2 Tb or so of soy sauce and chopped garlic (jarred to save time). Pour over carefully, to distribute the garlic evenly.

Season with black pepper then smoked paprika. Smoked, not regular paprika!
No need to salt; the soy sauce fulfills that requirement.

Bake at 400º for 10 minutes.
Yummy, plate licking delicious!
Tried the skin but was not a fan. No big deal, the fish flakes easily from it.
Had 1/2 lb steamed mussels as an appetizer.

Pizza with Greek Toppings

We always make pizza like this 11/10/09 entry.
Tonight I wanted to try something different! After all, I love feta cheese and we had a half container which needed to be used up. I'm also addicted to peperoncinis, kalamata olives, and garlic.
Don't forget some chopped onions and green pepper.
It turned out much lighter than I'm used to and it was delicious! In the future, I won't be afraid to experiment more....
For this pizza, I'd like to try low fat feta and low fat mayo; I don't think you could tell the difference. The olives? You just can't cut down on those!

Alex's toppings (top part of cutting board), my toppings (lower).
I made 2 pizzas with 1 hunk of store-bought dough.

The feta was dry. I added a glop of mayonnaise and a healthy spoonful of (jarred) chopped garlic and stirred it into a mash.
My helper was very helpful this time. He never resists tasting cheese and olive samples, with the occasional pepper. In fact, I have to guard them. He helped stretch the dough and put all the toppings on (except the feta topping, it's just too messy). Yay!

Chicken Salad

I almost didn't "blog" about this, since after all, it is so basic a recipe. But then I remembered why I write this blog, http://alexandheathereat.blogspot.com/ and the whole point is that I have a point of reference when I run out of ideas for what to cook, and as a personal food diary. The posts then magically appear in my facebook notes, random hours later due to an RSS feed.

Alex and I have long made chicken salad from a leftover roast chicken. In this case, it was even easier since we used a store bought rotisserie bird from Russo's! This birdie was lemony but dry. Perfect for salad.

Pick it apart and toss any tough pieces. Be picky and snack while you pick ;D.
Chop 2 stalks of celery and 1/3 of a sweet onion.
After veggies are chopped, give the shredded chicken a fine chopping. Toss chicken & veggies to desired amount (we left some onion out).
Mix with a decent glop of mayonnaise. Season with fresh ground sea salt & pepper.
This time it was on the tad salty side yet we couldn't help "sampling" it over & over again!
Make sandwiches using Scali bread (has sesame seeds) and lettuce & tomato.

Cheese Tortellini with Sage Mushroom Cream Sauce

Dishes like this are guaranteed to put on the winter weight but they are oh-so-good.
This was easy to put together: store bought fresh tortellini and an easy to prepare sauce.


First, have on hand some fresh sage leaves, green onions (scallions) and mushrooms (I used boring white mushrooms since we had them on hand, feel free to use other varieties).
Melt 2 Tb butter and put in mushrooms, saute a bit until they begin to soften. Add a large sprig of sage leaves, salt & pepper and a spoonful (I just used jarred) of chopped garlic.
Saute on medium heat until the mushrooms are cooked to your liking, slightly browned.
Add a teaspoon of flour and toss it up.
Pour in approximately 1 cup of heavy cream. Allow to simmer and thicken up. Chop some green onion into the mix.
Meanwhile, cook the tortellini to your liking. I found 8 minutes to be a good time.
Remove sage leaves from sauce. Toss amount of desired sauce with pasta and grate fresh parmesan on top. Sprinkle with more snipped green onions.
YUM!
This sauce can be used for all sorts of pasta. Next time I hope to have some better mushrooms on hand, though it was plenty flavorful with what I used.

Birthday Breakfast Casserole

Happy Birthday Alex!

Last night we enjoyed dinner at La Casa De Pedro. Alex is very pleased that you can now buy their fiery hot hot sauce (he used to ask for a container to bring home).
This casserole was definitely enlivened with it.
Also, we used Chip-in-Farm eggs and Niman Ranch ham purchased at Russo's.
This was a new recipe for us to try, adapted from a 1991 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, "Recipes From Country Inns". Thank you to the Park Row Bed & Breakfast for their Honeymooners' Casseroles recipe (we made it one instead of two). We adapted it to our liking and it's one that we'll definitely make again! It is far better than the make-ahead Country Casserole blogged about last month.

Leftovers were packaged up for Nana!

THE hot sauce of choice! Made with habanero and jalapeño peppers.

1 1/2 cups refrigerated or frozen loose-pack hash brown potatoes
1/2 cup shredded (or 1/2 bar Cabot) Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeño peppers
4 slices of your favorite ham
3 slices of your favorite baby Swiss cheese
2 beaten eggs (we happened to use 2 medium and 1 large)
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon of your favorite hot sauce
Chopped chives or green onions and parsley

Thaw potatoes, if frozen. Use paper towels to press out excess moisture.
Grease (we used Pam) a small 1 qt. (4 cups) capacity baking dish.
Arrange potatoes evenly in the bottom of the dish and bake at 400° for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, shred cheese and chop ham (we used ham slices but next time we'll chop it).
Remove potatoes from oven and let stand about 10 minutes to cool slightly.
Reduce oven temperature to 350°.
On top of the potatoes, layer Monteray Jack cheese, ham, and Swiss cheese.
Sprinkle on chives and parsley to your liking (we didn't do this but will, next time).
In a small bowl whisk together eggs, half & half and hot sauce. Pour into the casserole.
Bake, uncovered, for 17 minutes or until the center appears set.
Let stand about 5 minutes before serving.
Makes 2-3 delicious servings.

Beet Soup

Today while shopping at Whole Foods, I discovered these little gems, "Love Beets".
I do love beets, especially when they're pickled!
The variety I bought was "dipped in a fine mild vinegar".
I didn't have any plans other than snacking on them, but when I got home I noticed the cashier never rang up my sushi and it wasn't in the bag! Dang.
This got me thinking, I can use these beets to make soup!

First saute up 1 Tb chopped onion (I used red) in 1 Tb butter. Check the heat, you don't want to brown them.
Once softened after 5 minutes, add the 8oz package of beets. I used a knife to slice them in half once they were in the pot.
Add 2 cups of chicken broth and 1 bay leaf. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Turn off heat, remove bay leaf.
Add a sprinkle of dried marjoram leaves (or thyme), a grind of pepper, a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, and 2 Tb of heavy cream.

Pull out the immersion blender and blend away! (Or a regular blender.)

Serve with a grilled cheese sandwich off the panini press.
Taste and adjust seasoning. Optionally put on a dollop of sour cream and some snipped chives.
Serves 2.