Brown Sugar Baked French Toast

This is a company breakfast. I don't know why you wouldn't make this without company being over, but I know I wouldn't.
In a small bowl, combine 2/3 cup packed brown sugar,
1/2 cup melted butter and 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
(if you like cinnamon)
Cut a loaf of French bread into 1 inch slices.
In a large shallow bowl, whisk together 6 eggs and
1 1/2 cups milk.

Place bread slices in bowl - and you know how to make french toast, right? Turn them over once... take them out of the milk bath and sprinkle the brown sugar mixture on one side of the bread.

Place bread slices, brown sugar side down, in a lightly greased 9x13 pan.

Bake uncovered at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve brown sugar side up.

Chakchouka

From Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home - I gave my copy to one of my cousins many years ago. Sigh.

2 tbsp olive oil (although I use canola and am fine)
1 cup chopped onions (I like to use a mix of regular and red)
2 red peppers (or whatever colour you have)
2 or 3 garlic cloves
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
pinch of cayenne or a dash of hot pepper sauce
a can of diced tomatoes
salt and pepper
4 large eggs

In a large skillet, heat the oil and saute the onions for 5 minutes or so. Add the peppers and garlic to the frying pan and add the spices and hot sauce. Continue to cook for another five minutes, until the peppers soften. While the stuff in the frying pan cooks, drain the tomatoes, reserving the juice. Stir the tomatoes and 1/2 cup of the reserved juice into the frying pan. Add salt and pepper.
When the vegetables are hot and simmering, make four even holes in the goop and carefully crack an egg into each hole. Lower the heat, cover the skillet and cook for several minutes until the eggs are set and the yolks are soft cooked.
Makes 2 servings

Six Layer Dinner

6 small potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3 small onions, peeled and thinly sliced
4 small carrots, peeled and - guess what! - thinly sliced
2 large green peppers, cored, peeled and thinly sliced
salt and pepper
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp honey
1 can diced tomatoes

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly oil a 10x12 baking dish.
Layer the vegetables in the dish: a layer of potatoes, a layer of
onions, then carrots and green peppers. Sprinkle the layers evenly
with salt and pepper, garlic and herbs. Repeat until all the
vegetabels and herbs are used, ending with the peppers.
Mix the honey with the tomatoes and pour over the vegetables. Cover
the dish and bake until the vegetables are tender and blended
together, about 2 1/2 hours.
Makes 8-10 servings.

Everyday Food - The Christmas Issues

I LOVE Everyday Food - it's always chockful of elegant yet simple little recipes and they're always doable while not being full of cans of soup. At the same time, they're also not needlessly elaborate - so often the recipes in Martha Stewart Living are beyond frilly and goofy. They're a nice medium.

So this is what I do: I get a new food magazine, make a ton of things out of it over the following weeks and then put it away, never to be read again. Then, a while later, I'm wondering where that certain fantastic recipe went, and der, I don't know. Hence this little index, which has links to my favorite recipes from all of my past Christmas (right now - I'm going to gradually add all of them) issues of Everyday Food. Handy!

Everyday Food December 2003
Bolognese Sauce
Cranberry Scones
Cranberry Avocado Salsa
Grand Raspberry Trifle

Everyday Food December 2005
Mushroom Tart
The kids' favorite - Ricotta Manicotti with Tomato Sauce
Cream Puffs with Ice Cream and Hot Fudge Sauce
Ginger Sesame Bok Choy
Peppermint Bark

Everyday Food December 2006
Warm Chocolate Puddings
The famous Mint Chocolate Brownies

A really good cookie

... with a really stupid name. "Snickerdoodles." They sound like one of those horrible poodle hybrids that dog breeders are always making. Half poodle and half horrible teenage girl. But nope, they're actually a tasty cookie and REALLY easy.

I hesitate to say that they're a good Christmas cookie - I think of them as one, but I'm lazy. They're not decorative and you can't freeze them but they have a singularily pleasant buttery tenderness and a gentle cinnamon taste - just the thing with a cup of coffee.

To make the cookies:
2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and then set it all aside. Cream together the butter and sugar (you'll need an electric mixer) until it's pale and fluffy and then add the eggs. Mix that all together and then add the flour mixture, GENTLY mixing together with the electric mixer on a nice sedate speed.

Now mix together 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar in a little bowl. Shape the dough into 20 balls and roll in the cinnamon-sugar. Place them on the cookie sheets, giving them enough space to spread out quite a bit.

Bake cookies, turning your sheets around half way. They're done when they have golden edges - about 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on the sheets and then remove. They don't KEEP well, so just eat them. (but if you have to, you can keep them in airtight containers for up to 3 days.)

Cubana Sandwich

This is from Sheila Lukins' All Around The World Cookbook, which was a HUGE favorite of mine when I was in my early 20s. My copy has lost its cover, its spine is broken and many pages are falling out and stained, which is always the sign of a much-loved cookbook.
But the truth is that I haven't cooked out of it for probably a decade and it's hard to say WHY. Looking through it, the recipes are still fresh and interesting and I can see lots of things that I cooked back in 1995 and loved. There's the problem, I guess - the food is too much the food of THAT period in time, when I was so unhappy.

Still a good cookbook, and when my son wanted a grilled Cuban sandwich for lunch, I knew just where to find one.

Vinaigrette:
1 teaspoon orange juice (the recipe calls for "fresh" orange juice, which makes my eyes roll RIGHT into the back of my head.)
1 teaspoon vinegar (again, the recipe calls for red wine vinegar. Use it if you have it - I never do.)
1 teaspoon olive oil
Mix the ingredients together and lightly brush on the inside on two slices of a soft baguette.

For the sandwich:
1 thin slice of Monterey Jack Cheese
thin slices of sweet gherkins
2 thin slices of baked ham
2 or 3 thin slices roast pork
Dijon mustard.

And you know how to make a sandwich, right? Either grill in a frying pan with a heavy lid squishing the sandwich flat, or use a sandwich press. It's a spiffy sandwich.

Cornmeal-crusted pizza

This is what I'm making for supper tonight!

(from the original Moosewood Cookbook)
Butter a 9 inch pie pan
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 cup cold water
1 cup boiling water
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup grated parmesan

Place the cornmeal in a small bowl and add cold water. Stir until well mixed. Add cornmeal mixture to a pot with one cup full of boiling water. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until thick. This should take about five minutes.
Remove from heat, and add the salt and parmesan. Form a crust in the buttered pan (make sure your hands are wet) and bake uncovered at 375 for 30 minutes.

Filling:
Saute a large clove of crushed garlic, a cup of minced onion and 1/2 diced green or red pepper in olive oil. You can also throw in a few sliced mushrooms if they don't make your kids throw up.
Add 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp basil, salt and pepper. Spread the vegetables on top of the cooked crust and arrange slices of tomato and mozzarella on top. Sprinkle on some parmesan and bake for 20 more minutes at 350.