Stepping back

Southwest Breakfast Strata
Southern Living Annual Recipes 2005 Copyright 2005

1 pound mild ground pork sausage I used turkey breakfast sausage
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped I left this out
2 (10-ounce) cans diced tomatoes and green chiles
8 (10-inch) flour tortillas, torn into bite-size pieces
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded colby-Jack cheese blend
6 large eggs
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cook sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, stirring until it crumbles and is no longer pink. Drain and return to skillet.

Add chopped onion and bell pepper to sausage in skillet, and sauté over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in tomatoes and green chiles; reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.

Layer half each of tortilla pieces, sausage mixture, and cheese in a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Repeat layers.

Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, and pepper; pour over layers in baking dish. Cover and chill up to 8 hours, if desired.

Bake, lightly covered with aluminum foil, at 350° for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly.
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Brunch recipes have been requested in the past but for some reason I never think in this direction when I'm planning dinners. I've never actually served a brunch - that just isn't something that's ever come up here. Savory brunch dishes are perfect for dinner though.

I almost bought the pork sausage for this but as I hesitated after reading the fat content, a lightbulb went off above my head and I remembered I had some turkey breakfast sausage in the deep freeze. I picked it up for $2.09/pound on clearance. I had to remove it from the casings but it was worth it to save over half the fat of the pork sausage.

This worked out great. I baked it off right away on Sunday and then we just nuked it for dinner the next night. It was nice to come home and not have to cook at all. As far as assembling this ahead as they suggested, I think I would be sure to cool the sausage completely first. Something doesn't set right with me about putting together hot meat and cold eggs and then not cooking it through right away.

We had this Monday and I've just managed to finish up this post today, on Thursday. After a record amount of time for any hobby of mine, I think food blogging has finally run it's course for the most part. I'm not ready to walk away completely but don't expect to see daily posts here anymore. It's not so much the blogging as it is the food that needs to step out of the spotlight. I turned 40 in October. 40. The holidays and some other things managed to distract me for a while but now the realization that I'm old has hit me and I've decided that it's time to get back in shape. You might be thinking that I could just focus on lighter recipes but what I need to do is stop focusing on food, period.

So, I'll be around, just not as regularly. I almost feel like this is the beginning of the end for this blog but I really don't know.

Almost a failure

Thirty-Minute Glazed Ham Patties
The Good Housekeeping Cookbook Copyright 1963

4 cups medium-ground, cooked ham
1/3 cup fine cracker crumbs
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
Dash pepper
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
¼ cup minced onion
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon vinegar
½ teaspoon dry mustard
1 ½ tablespoons flour

Start heating oven to 350 degrees F. Combine ham, crumbs, egg, milk, pepper, thyme, onion; pack into 6 greased 3” muffin-pan cups. I just formed them into patties. Bake 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in saucepan, blend brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, flour; boil 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Spoon over hot baked patties; broil 2 minutes.

The glaze did not work for me - it set up before I could use it. I used the sauce from this recipe instead.

Makes 6 patties.
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This wasn't pretty but it was edible, actually not bad really, which is more than I was expecting at one point. Ham loaf, ham balls, etc are something I've wanted to make for some time but when I found myself with some ham on hand, I didn't have a lot of time to find a recipe. I grabbed one of the first ones that I found. I went back on forth whether or not to use one that used ground pork too (most do) since I had some in the freezer but I opted to go straight ham.

The patties came together fine but I cooked the glaze too early and it seized up and there was no going back by reheating it. I made mustard fudge. These needed something so I decided to find another glaze that might work and I thought about the sauce from Sweet-Sour Meatballs. I've seen ham ball recipes that called for similar sauces. It worked but since I made these ahead of time, the patties absorbed all of the sauce making them kind of ugly but probably improved the flavor.

Next time I will try a recipe with ground pork since I think that would cut the saltiness of the ham. I'm glad this made a passable dinner but it wasn't exactly what I had wanted. I will keep looking for what I want, even though I'm not exactly sure what that is.

Question of the Day: Have you ever tried a recipe that used ground ham?

Something a little different

Baked Pineapple
Southern Living 2005 Annual Recipes Copyright 2005

2 (20-ounce) cans pineapple chunks in heavy syrup
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ (8-ounce) block Cheddar cheese, shredded
38 round buttery crackers, crushed (1 sleeve)
¼ cup butter, melted

Drain pineapple chunks, reserving ½ cup syrup.

Sprinkle flour over pineapple chunks in a medium bowl, and toss to combine. Spread pineapple mixture evenly into a lightly greased 8-inch square baking dish. Drizzle with reserved ½ cup syrup. Top with cheese and cracker crumbs; drizzle with butter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until browned. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.
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This recipe has been around for quite a while but I'm just now getting around to trying it. I halved the recipe since I knew only my husband and I would be eating it. It was good but hey - cheese, Ritz and butter - what wouldn't taste good underneath that combination?

I was confused about the cheese.

"½ (8-ounce) block Cheddar cheese, shredded"

Is that half of an 8-ounce block or half of a 16-ounce block? I used about 1/4 of an 8-ounce block of cheese (for the halved recipe). That seemed like enough.

There are many variations of this recipe out there. Paula Deen's version uses 1 cup of sugar, 2 cups of cheese and an entire stick of butter. This version did not induce as much guilt as her's would and we enjoyed it.

Question of the Day: Do you like pineapple? I love pineapple, especially fresh, ripe, sweet pineapple.

It looks boring but it excited me

Vinegar Chicken
American Profile Hometown Cookbook Copyright 2006

5 chicken leg quarters
¼ cup white or cider vinegar I used cider vinegar
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon onion powder

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease a 13x9-inch baking pan. (!!WARNING!!The basting liquid will make a sticky mess on your pan. Use a disposable pan or line your pan with foil. Even with foil I got a sticky mess underneath but I used a ceramic-type baking dish that cleaned up with a little soaking.) Place the chicken in the pan. In a small bowl combine the vinegar, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. Sprinkle one-third of this mixture over the chicken. Season with salt and pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven, and baste with another one-third of the vinegar mixture. Bake 15 minutes longer. Baste again with the remaining vinegar mixture. Return to the oven and continue baking for 15 minutes, or until the skin is golden brown and crispy.
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This might have been the best roast chicken I've ever eaten. It looks like plain roasted chicken but the vinegar mixture gave the already flavorful dark meat a nice kick. I love roast chicken pieces and I will definitely make this again.

I found these chicken legs in the freezer. There isn't much left in there. I haven't stocked up on meat in ages. Somehow I keep managing to put together menus without a trip to Costco. I've been trying to get my grocery bill down but it's hard. It doesn't help that we are 4 people eating differently most of the time. We don't eat the same breakfasts or lunches. If I'm lucky we all eat the same dinner. It's not like I'm catering to anyone's whims (usually) but we all have different needs and it all adds up.

This cookbook has a lot of great recipes, as most reader-submitted cookbook do.

No time to think of a question today.

The last Christmas cookie

South Seas Cookies
The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion Copyright 2004

4 1/4 cups sweetened shredded coconut I used one entire bag that said it had over 5 cups
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large egg whites, at room temp.
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 2/3 (10 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup (3 oz) caramel (about 10 individual caramels) I used homemade caramel
2 Tablespoons (1 oz) milk or heavy cream

Preheat oven to 300'F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

In a large bowl, combine the coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. In a seperate bowl, combine the egg whites, lemon juice, and salt and beat (whip) at medium speed until medium to stiff peaks form. Fold half of the beaten egg whites into the coconut mixture, then add the remainder.

Drop the batter by the tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 25 minutes, until they are golden brown. Remove them from the oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

Melt the chocolate chips in a saucepan set over very low heat or in the microwave, stirring frequently. When the cookies are completely cool, dip the bottoms into the chocolate and set them on a rack upside down to let the chocolate set up. (I just put them bottoms down on wax paper and chilled them until the chocolate set.) Keep any left over chocolate warm.

In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the caramel with the milk or heavy cream. Drizzle stripes of caramel over the tops of the cookies. Repeat the stripes with any of the left over chocolate.

Yield: 32 cookies
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I believe this is the only new Christmas cookie that I made this year that I didn't tell you about yet. This picture was taken after Christmas and doesn't quite do this cookie justice. I received several favorable comments about these and damn, I wish I had one right now. It's torture being reminded of these so long after they've gone.

These were quite simple to make. In the past, I've had some trouble with macaroons but not this time. I actually could have stopped right there and enjoyed these plain but if the recipe calls for chocolate and caramel, I must obey. I had some leftover homemade caramel so I used that.

I think this is sort of a Samoa Girl Scout cookie knock-off but not as authentic as many that I've seem. It's much easier though.

I wasn't even sure if I was going to make any Christmas cookies and it turned out to be one of my best years. I think that was precisely because I recognized my limits and just did as much as I could.

This year I made:
South Seas Cookies
Welsh Cookies
Christmas Tree Sprintz
Butter Horns
Pretzels and Lorna Doones dipped in caramel and chocolate
Fudge Tassies
Chocolate Chip Brownies
Candy-Cane Twists
Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Gingerbread Men
Peppermint Patties

Question of the Day: Do you like coconut? Obviously I do!