Spinach Strata

Over the summer I first ventured into the land of fritattas and stratas, but I think we hit the peak this past Friday. Right now, during Lent, vegetarian meals on Friday nights can sometimes get boring, especially when we have the same four vegetarian options for the entire season of Lent. So I've been pushing a bit for different and perhaps, new meals. So it all started with Mom's new issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food (which is a v. good magazine, I highly recommend it). In the March issue there is a recipe for a Swiss Chard Strada. We also went online and found a Spinach Strata recipe and kind of combined and made substitutions. Now, we made a few changes, but you'll see.

First the ingredients:
1 day old baguette
7 or 8 eggs ( yes, I know it sounds like a lot, but you don't eat all the eggs yourself)
2 3/4 cups of milk (skim worked fine for us)
salt and pepper
olive oil
2 bunches of baby spinach
6 oz of Gruyere cheese, shredded
nutmeg
couple of cloves of garlic


Spray a 9X13 glass pan or a dutch oven/casserole dish that is deep enough with Pam.
Okay, first you want to clean the spinach and then sautee it in garlic and olive oil, just until it wilts. Set it aside in a bowl.
Cut up the baguette into small pieces. Shred the cheese, preferably in a Cuisinart, unless you are really careful and can use a box grater. Me and my knuckles do not get along with box graters.
Arrange some of the pieces of bagguette on the bottom of the pan. Spread a layer of cheese, then artfully place some spinach over the cheese layer. Season with salt and pepper, as well as a few pinches of nutmeg. Put down more bread, then cheese, then spinach, salt and pepper and nutmeg. Continue in this fashion until all of the bread, cheese and spinach is used. End with just cheese on the top. When we made ours, the baguette peaked through the cheese, and that is a good thing because once it gets cooked it is crunchy and yummy.
Then in a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk together. Pour the egg/milk mixture over the pre-arranged bread/cheese/spinach. Don't worry if the milk and eggs do not come up very high and cover all of the bread.
Then put some Saran wrap over the dish and put it in the refrigerator to sit for a while. The Martha version of the recipe said to put it in the fridge for 10 minutes. However, the Epicurious recipe called for an overnight soak, which is what we followed.
After you have let the casserole soak up some of the egg and milk mixture, take it out of the fridge and let it stand for 30 minutes and preheat your oven to 350. Bake the dish for 45-55 minutes or until it gets puffy and golden on the top.

It was yummy. I promise. I wish I had a picture of it, but you're just going to have to believe me when I say it was good. I also recommend not taking a huge piece because between the cheese, eggs and milk, you have quite a bit of protein. This dish was a really nice, flavorful, and very filling dish, which really switched up the boredom that comes with Lenten meals. Enjoy!

Spargel-fry

I have always dreamed of being the Spargelfrau. Spargelfräulein, I suppose. Asparagus is one vegetable I never get tired of. Usually, roasting it or blanching it is just fine, but I've been craving stir-fry lately, because it's just so clean - right, Em?

So I started with some chicken and mushrooms (yes, Alex, I'm using the teflon-death-pan, because I didn't want to wash the other one). Mushrooms should, of course, be sliced using a hard-boiled-egg slicer. Because it's fun.

Fsssss. Frozen shelled edamame into the pan. How much protein, Sars?

A tasty generic brown sauce with splashes of soy, oyster, lemon juice, and an unintentionally large squeeze of sriracha. It made my nose run.

A tasty spring stir fry with mushrooms, chicken, edamame, sprouts and asparagus. It looked terribly green in my bowl, and I wish the photo did it justice. Not really Chinese and certainly not German, but most definitely tasty.

Edited to add that I further ruined any authenticity by having a piece of Italian bread with butter along with my stir fry.

Alto-y Banter

Typical :-) 

Erin: This is pure awesome on a stick, ~los - you are the best. I can't wait to see all of our culinary adventures/disasters :)

Rhianyn: Erin- you are in charge of adding the "awesome stick" recipe =] Cause I'm wondering what kind of stick would you use? It's holding the awesome so it IS an important ingredient. Is it a popsicle stick, or a toothpick? Or is a stick stick you have to carefully select, and inspect like when roasting 'mallows. Would substituting cabob sticks (cause ew stick sticks!) compromise the awesome?

Reason #232142123 it's good to be an adult

When you want a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast, you have a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast.

Best Blueberry Muffins

Another recipe I made today - blueberry muffins with streusel topping. These are really delicious, and Tom has been known to eat an entire batch (12 muffins) in a day!

Ingredients:



Muffin:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Streusel:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line muffin tin with muffin papers
• Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture
• Combine egg, milk, and oil; stir well. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened (important - do not overmix, or the muffins will be tough)
• Combine blueberries, 1 tablespoon flour, and 1 tablespoon sugar, tossing gently to coat. Fold blueberry mixture into batter
• Spoon batter into lined muffin pans, filling two-thirds full
• Combine 1/4 cup sugar, 2 1/2 tablespoons flour, and cinnamon; cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over batter
• Bake for 18 minutes or until golden. Remove from pans immediately
• Yield: 12 muffins

Spicy-Sweet Honey Chili

I thought I'd open by sharing my chili recipe, which I devised after lots of trial and error. This recipe is an interesting mix of savory, spicy and sweet. Feel free to play with the heat by adding or subtracting the cayenne - sometimes I double it to make it extra hot, depending on my mood. Give it a whirl - I hope you enjoy :-)

Spicy Sweet Honey Chili - serves 8

Ingredients:

• Olive oil 
• 3/4 of a chopped sweet onion (Vidalia, Maui, etc.) 
• 4 diced garlic cloves 
• 1 chopped green bell pepper 
• 3 diced jalapeno peppers (seeded and diced very small)
• 1 lb ground beef 
• 1 lb ground pork 
• Salt and Pepper  
• 1 (15 ounce) cans pinto beans, drained
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can of petite diced tomatoes (no salt added if you can find it)
• 1 (8 ounce) can plain tomato sauce (again, with no salt added, if you can find it)
• 3 teaspoons chili powder 
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
• 1 teaspoon cumin 
• 1 teaspoon thyme 
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 cup honey 

Directions:

• Heat olive oil and add garlic, onions, jalapenos and green pepper in a large pot
• Cook until veggies are slightly softened
• Crumble pork and beef into veggie mix and add salt and pepper 
• Cook until meet is browned
• Drain oil
• Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, chili powder, cumin, cayenne, thyme, salt and cinnamon
• Add about a tablespoon of water if it looks dryish
• Stir and simmer covered on low for at least 25 minutes
• Add honey; stir again. 
• Sprinkle with shredded cheese 

Delicious served with cornbread!

Welcome!

Hi guys,

I was so excited by the idea to set up an Altos cooking blog that I just went ahead and did it! As discussed, I thought this would be a fun way to share recipes, thoughts, articles, and just interesting tidbits to help us keep in touch :-)

Hope you like the blog!