Raisin Bread Strata

Here is a recipe.  Something a little different.  Our store had a BOGO on the bread. 

Raisin-Bread Strata with Sausage and Dried Plums

8 – 10  servings

1 pound bulk breakfast sausage

8 large eggs

4 cups whole milk

1 ½ t. salt

¾ t. ground black pepper

1 16 ounce loaf sliced raisin-cinnamon swirl bread, each slice halved on the diagonal.  (Pepperidge Farm makes a good raisin cinnamon swirl).

18 dried pitted plums (prunes) each cut into 3 pieces

Pure Maple Syrup

Sauté sausage in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until brown and cooked through, breaking up with back of fork, about 6 minutes.  Using slotted spoon, remove sausage to bowl; cool. 

Butter a 13 x 9 x 2 inch glass baking dish. 

Whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper in medium bowl.  Arrange half of bread in bottom of prepared dish with bases of triangles facing in same direction.  Scatter half of sausage, then half of plums over bread.  Arrange remaining bread in dish with triangles facing in opposite direction.  Scatter remaining sausage and plums over.  Pour milk mixture over; press on bread to submerge.  Cover and chill overnight.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Place strata on rimmed baking sheet.  Bake uncovered until strata is pulled and golden and knife inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Cut strata into squares and serve with maple syrup. 

If you don't want is so sweet, forego the maple syrup.  Serves more like 10.  I have a photo someplace. 

From Bon Appetit

I Squandered on Swordfish

Sometimes you just have to buy something wonderful that just ain't cheap.  Last week, at our house, it was fresh swordfish cooked up with three pepper butter.  The swordfish was lurking there in the Whole Foods Fish counter, looking to tasty, so meaty, all the while screaming "buy me!  buy me!" and so I did.  $25.00 worth!  Eeek! An issue of my eyes being bigger than our combined stomachs. 


So I cooked it up, and served it forth and it was truly delicious.  We had baked tomatoes and a bit of rice from the bowels of the freezer.  the sauce was toothsome, and there were two pieces of fish left, enough for a dinner of fish tacos the following night. 


I made a salsa from fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic and cilantro, and a "crema" of sour cream, garlic and Mexican seasonings.  Yum!  Had no cabbage but some past-prime iceberg, sliced fine, worked just as well.  We made two meals from the sword fish and I didn't feel nearly so guilty.  


This morning when I started to make blueberry muffins to take to a writing event with brunch, there were no frozen blueberries and no buttermilk.  I substituted mixed berry yogurt for the buttermilk, and frozen mixed berries for the blueberries and the result was moist and tasty and the extras came home to the freezer.   I've no idea what a dozen muffins would cost if one bought them, but surely more than that half hour of baking prep, probably less.  In the early a.m. (or even not-so-early a.m. I am not too swift.  

Apropos the three pepper butter.  You can buy black, green and red peppercorns in a grinder for $2.98, and it's not a bad deal.   Sometimes it is good to survey the supermarket spice shelves.  And now to put dinner on the table, a dinner I scrounged from today's brunch when no one wanted to carry her food offering home.  Someone even provided sealable bags for the leftovers.  Now that was a thoughtful gesture.  


Onward, 


The Cheese Parer

Chicken With Forty Cloves of Garlic revisted

The sweet garlicy sauce was totally to die for.  Yum!  Although the chicken was small, we  kept enough for a second meal.  I served it with onions roasted in olive oil and fresh thyme from the garden, and cooked up the other half of cabbage I had used earlier for some slaw.  I put some bacon fat in the cabbage along with more thyme!  All the dishes had a hint (just a hint) of thyme, the unifying presence.  
recipe

I can't tell you how much fresh herbs from the garden will spice up (!) your meals. 
We also had two more small helpings from the pear tart.  All I will have to cook tonight are some mashed potatoes out of the box (we like Hungry Jack, which I find sometimes at the Ocean State Job Lot), and  some baby carrots to supplement the left over cabbage.  We gobbled down the roasted onions.  Another super-cheap side dish, along with the cabbage.  
Eating well does not HAVE to depend on spending a lot.  Be creative.  Oh boy, was that garlic sauce good.  I used the last bit of a bottle of white wine and made my own chicken stock out of the back and neck.  To repeat:  be creative. 


Speaking of which, crepes stuffed with whatever can be a delicious, elegant meal at little cost.  I will post my recipe soon.  Remind me if I forget.  You will, won't you? 

I found  a pasta recipe for Italian sausage and chicken thighs, both always on sale around these parts. 
Do not neglect your fruits and veggies.  Delicious squash (we're partial to acorn) will be on sale in the stores soon.  It keeps if cold, so stock up.  


The Cheeseparer

Chicken With Forty Cloves of Garlic

Tonight we're feasting on a braised chicken, actually with only twenty cloves of garlic, because forty is for two chickens.  Home grown garlic, home grown oregano and rosemary, a good quality chicken, now defrosting on the kitchen counter. 


Last night we shared a steak that was on sale, and we shared a baked potato (a big one) and we shared a pear tart I made for dessert.  All this sharing has nothing to do with frugality but more to do with keeping one's weight in check.  Also shared a long walk through the woods.   Walking is a great activity, and it's free. 


When I got out my walking stick, the orange cat (a new cat to the household) took one look and raced upstairs.  He has perhaps an interesting story about sticks which he can't tell us.   Many years ago my father was visiting us, and he took it upon himself to sharpen all the dull kitchen knives.  My god, the cat freaked and took off at fifty miles an hour.  Another interesting story.  Animals can talk in their own way. 
The garden is just about gone except for the herbs and a couple grape tomatoes.  I only have two bulbs of garlic left, having eaten ((or almost eaten) nine and gave one away.  It was great garlic.  There is a lot of bang for the buck with herbs, too.  


The nasturtiums are still blooming, and for some reason, the aphids left them alone this year.  We had a big hawk sitting NEXT TO the bird feeder yesterday.  My husband wanted to take a picture, but I chased him before he could eat any of my birdies.  Wish the hummingbirds would migrate.  I'll worry about them until they show up again in May. 


With the cooler weather, one begins to think pot roast,  chili, beef stew, chicken pot pie and spaghetti and meatballs, the heartier fares.  Shop the sales.  Eat seasonally.  Clip those coupons!  Make out your menus for the week from the specials.  You do make out menus and a food plan, don't you?  Shopping willy-nilly is not paring any cheese. 


Yours in thriftiness, 

The Cheeseparer




Italian prune plum tart.  Found all over Germany in late summer, made with either with a crusty dough somewhat like shortbread  (muerberteig) or a yeast dough (hefeteig).  I sprinkle a few sliced almonds on top.  Tastes as good as it looks.

Betty Crocker and the Taco Pie

 My favorite Bisquick recipe is Poppyseed Onion Cheese Supper Bread, a real winner.  We always buy the lo-cal Bisquick because, unlike 95% of reduced fat products, we can't tell any difference.  For heaven's sake use real butter instead of margarine.  Remember how  you were fooled into thinking margarine was healthier and then we discovered all those icky transfats that were worse than butter.  

  Onion Cheese Supper Bread

Another Bisquick recipe, this one using canned chili. A recipe which Betty Crocker emailed me.  Not the real Betty Crocker. The dough was hard to  handle.  I think some more kneading and then a rigorous rolling would have solved the problem. 

I liked that it had fresh lettuce and tomatoes on top.  I also added sauteed onion and jalapeno and got the "spicey" chili con carne because I feared it might be a little bland.  A clove of garlic would not have been amiss.  If you get the regular chili add a little extra seasoning. Chopped avocado on top takes it to a new level.  But then avocado takes most things to a new level.  And all those good healthy-for-you oils!  Yum!  


 Paring away, 


The Cheeseparer

here is the link. 

California Taco Chili Bake

Rujak--What to Serve with Hot (Spicy) Entrees

What kind of salad works best with Thai food, curries, Indonesian Reistafel  and all those fiery-to-the-taste-buds, sinus clearing dishes?  Years and years ago, when I made curry often (the kids loved it!) I came across a recipe that was absolutely perfect for my spicy concoctions.  I've never seen it before or since.  The  page where I typed (yes, typed) it is even yellow and curry-spattered, with the holes fortified with reinforcements.  The salad is a tart fruit salad.  Here is the recipe.
You will note that the ingredients are common and therefore relatively cheap.  I think a kiwi would work well.  The recipe predates kiwi's availability in the stores.  The recipe predates almost everything, except the Cheeseparer.  

Note:  the "sour salt" is citric acid which many grocery store will sell, but you can also find it at the drug store and if that doesn't work crush a vitamin C tablet if the ingredient is citric acid.  It keeps the apple and banana from turning that yukky brown. 


Rujak--Tart Fruit Salad


4 cups water 
3/4 cup  dark brown sugar  (light brown in a pinch)
1/2 t. crushed chili peppers (hot pepper flakes)
1/2 t. sour salt
1 T. lemon juice
1 lemon cut into eighths 
sliced banana (not overly ripe)
orange sections (canned mandarin in a pinch)
peeled apple wedges
thinly sliced unpeeled cucumber 


Boil sugar and water until it makes a clear syrup--about 4 minutes; remove from heat.  Add hot pepper flakes and sour salt; stir until salt dissolves.  Stir in lemon juice after syrup has cooled slightly.  
About 2 hours before serving, mix syrup with the cut up fruit and cucumber.  Chill in coldest part of refrigerator and serve ice-cold.
This is  served as a side dish and eaten as a "refresher" between mouthfuls of hot food.  
 No idea where this recipe originated.

The Cheeseparer. 




 

Dinner is served

We finally had a dinner party, and it was kinda, sorta frugal and totally delicious.  I found some fresh wild Atlantic salmon at Whole Foods for $10.99 a pound.  Cheap for what it was.  I made a lime butter sauce for the fish (limes were on special).  We grilled corn along with the fish (over oak) and I cooked up some green beans, likewise on sale now as was the corn.  I made a fab gazpacho with tomatoes from the garden, as was the garlic and the herbs.  So delicious.  For desert, we had homemade berry (raspberries and blackberries) ice cream.  Berries were on special, too, as was the wine. 

We had enough salmon left for lunch, beans for another meal, and the ice cream lasted for nine servings.  Being in diet mode, we didn't exactly heap it into our bowls.  Which was fine.  What I liked about the ice cream was that it wasn't so sweet that you couldn't taste the tartness of the berries and the creaminess of the cream.

The meal was not a lot of work, especially with my better half doing the corn and the salmon, and making the ice cream the day before and the gazpacho in the morning so it would be well chilled. How much would this meal have cost at a restaurant?  I don't even want to know! 

Now, the rains have come.  We had a chicken salad on spinach tonight, with heirloom tomatoes and feta.  As good as it gets.  Had to cook indoors due to the weather, but I have a grill pan, and it was no big deal.  We decided to make another ice cream over Labor Day.  Maybe a gelato or an ice milk. Something delicious.  As always.