Sunday Morning

I love Sunday mornings. They are, without a doubt, my favorite part of the week. I’m usually out walking in the park with my dog and some old friends, followed by bagels & coffee at our usual spot. But every once in a while, when my walking buddies aren’t around, I get to spend Sunday morning at home – and that’s a real treat.

Coffee, toast and watching A&E are my Sunday treats but I woke up this morning to discover that the beautiful bread I got earlier in the week had gone stale. Really stale. Like too-far-gone-to-be-revived-by-the-toaster stale. So toast for breakfast was out.

I don’t know about you, but stale bread always makes me think of bread pudding (I know, I have a one-track mind) so I pulled out one of my favorite cookbooks – Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and found an easy recipe. I stuck to the basic recipe, but bread pudding is a perfect canvas for adding your own twist. If you’re into raisins (which I’m not), some golden raisins would be perfect. Really any fresh or dried fruit would work and you can vary the spices – nutmeg, cardamom, ginger – whatever you’ve got.

Clockwise from top left: Bittman's book, the star ingredient, out of the oven, good morning!

I put the pudding together, put it in the oven, took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood, and got back just in time to make a pot of coffee, pull the pudding out and sit down to watch Private Sessions with Gene Simmons followed by an episode of Barefoot Contessa. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

Basic Bread Pudding
Adapted from How to Cook Everything

3 cups milk
4 TB butter
1.5 tea ground cinnamon
.5 cup sugar (I used Vanilla Sugar, see below)
Pinch salt
8 slices white bread, cubed
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat milk, butter, cinnamon, sugar and salt over low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter melts. Do not let it come to a boil! Place bread in a small baking dish and pour hot milk mixture over it. Let bread soak for a few minutes, pushing it down to make sure everything is submerged.

Beat the eggs and add them to the baking dish, stir to combine. Sprinkle sugar over the top and place the small baking dish inside a larger one. Add hot water to the larger dish until it’s about an inch from the top (you’re creating a water bath so the pudding cooks gently).

Carefully – very carefully – put the whole contraption in the oven and bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until center is softly set.

Usually bread pudding is dessert and you’d serve it with whipped cream or ice cream. Since I was having mine for breakfast I topped it with a little maple syrup. Gilding the lily a bit, I know - but it was delicious. Next Sunday? I'm going to pray for rain so I can do it all over again... 

How to: Vanilla Sugar

This is silly simple... go to a high end market and splurge on a whole vanilla bean. Come home, put a pound of sugar in an airtight jar, nestle the vanilla bean down in the middle, put the lid on and let it sit for a few days. The longer the bean is in the sugar, the more flavor you'll get. And when the first batch of sugar is gone, just refill the jar - the bean will keep working for awhile. Use it in your coffee, on oatmeal, or as the finishing touch on cookies or cakes. 

How to: Bread Salad

Pop Quiz:

On one very lucky day you are given a bag of home-grown cucumbers, tomatoes, jalapenos, and cubanelle peppers AND a bag of fresh herbs including oregano, rosemary & basil AND three delicious loaves of bread. What do you do with them?

Answer:

You make a Greek-Style Bread Salad of course!

Before & After

How to make it:

There's not much of a recipe here - really just assembly instructions. 

Peel a cucumber (half of one if they're large) and roughly chop the cucumber, one tomato, one cubanelle and half a sweet onion. Add two ounces of cubed or crumbled feta, a handful of chopped fresh oregano and a handful of olives (if you have them, I actually didn't!). Add two handfuls of cubed bread and toss with a few tablespoons of basic vinaigrette. I made an easy red wine vinegar and olive oil vinaigrette but any oil and vinegar combo will work. Allow the dressing to soak into the bread, add salt and pepper to taste. 

This is actually a great way to use day-old stale bread. Since my bread was fresh, I toasted it for a few minutes after I cubed it. That way when it soaks up the dressing it becomes soft - not soaked and squishy.

Big thank you to all the sweet folks who gifted me with beautiful produce and bread!

Just stopping by

Oh, hello there.

How are you? oh good. I trust you had a nice weekend? Great.

I've just stopped by quickly to share two things with you:

1. You have to get some za'atar.

I read this post by The Leftoverist (you should check her out - I love her attitude) about a delicious looking Mediterranean platter she whipped up in no time at all, and it sent me off in search of za'atar - the delicious spice mix you often find sprinkled on everything at Turkish restaurants.

Turns out it wasn't that hard to find - the fancy new Kroger had some so I snatched it up. And I came home tonight and whipped up my own easy dinner.

The package lists roasted thyme, ground sumac, sesame seeds and salt as the only ingredients . 

I sprinkled it on grilled chicken, pita, cucumber, feta and yogurt. 

It was quite delicious and I can't recommend highly enough that you go find some for yourself. Or, if you live nearby, I'll share with you.

2. Haagen Dazs tricked me.

I work in advertising so I'm pretty savvy when it comes to sneaky marketing tricks. I can usually tell you that a product won't make you thinner, help you clean faster or re-grow hair. So imagine my surprise when I fell for Haagen Dazs' new advertising campaign!

Have you seen it? They have a new line of ice cream called 'five' that's only made with five "natural" ingredients. It also has less fat than regular ice cream and comes in flavors like mint & ginger - I was sold. I picked up the mint flavor, looked at the pretty picture of a mint leaf on the front, read the ingredients listed next to the picture - milk, cream, sugar, eggs, mint - and got ready for an all-natural, delicately minted, semi-healthy ice cream experience. Ok, I was pushing it with the health thing...

So I popped the top, grabbed a spoon, dug in for a big bite and... yuck. Really yuck. Turns out when they say "mint" what they really mean is "fakey-tasting mint extract that closely resembles the flavor of toothpaste". And, in fact, if you turn the carton around, put on your glasses, and read the very small print on the back... they do list mint extract as one of their five ingredients. 

They got me - I hate that.

A soup for every season

This is a creamy & comforting soup that, at first glance, appears more suited for cold weather. The spicy ginger and tart lime juice really brighten it up though, so it makes a quick, easy and delicious year-round dinner.

Dinner For One: Gingered Lentil Soup

Generally if I was writing a recipe like this I’d start with chopped onion & garlic, but the first time I went to make this soup I didn’t have any onions. I did have shallots though, so I tried them and it came out great. I’ve listed them as ingredients here but if you don’t have shallots, just sub back in half of a large onion and a clove of garlic. The jalapeno adds heat and the carrot adds sweetness but if you don’t have/like one - feel free to leave it out.

What you need:
.5 cup olive oil
3 large shallots, peeled & chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded & chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
1” piece of fresh ginger, peeled & chopped
2 TB curry powder, mild or hot
Salt & pepper
1 cup red lentils
14oz. can chicken broth
5.5 oz. can coconut milk, light or regular
1 lime

How you make it:
Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute shallots, jalapeno, carrot and ginger until the vegetables are soft. Add curry powder, a few shakes of salt & pepper and cook for one minute. Add lentils, stir to coat in the oil and let cook for one minute. Add chicken broth, cover pot and simmer until lentils are soft, about 15-20 minutes. The lentils will absorb almost all the liquid, if it’s becoming too thick add water a quarter cup at a time until it loosens up. When lentils are soft, remove from heat and puree soup in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth.*

Reheat lentil mixture over low heat and add coconut milk and lime juice. Stir until everything is combined, taste to see if it needs more salt and serve immediately.

*Not in the mood for soup? Just stop here and serve the thick lentil stew over white or brown rice.

I Spy

A taco truck!! 

In Atlanta!!

Ok, not exactly in Atlanta but certainly within striking distance... a hell of a lot closer than LA. So I can get a taco fix without the cross-country journey. My life is perfect now.

Clockwise from top left:

1. The menu. Yep, that's right, tacos are just $.99

2. Ordering truckside.

3. Tacos. Muy bueno tacos.

4. Why does soda from south of the border taste so good? 'cause it's made with real sugar!

A big, big 'thank you' to my dear 'ol Mom for finding this little treasure. I promise you never have to go back...

Cherry Jubilee

This recipe is a lot like penicillin – On my way to making some turnovers I discovered something even better… the cherry filling that goes inside.

I like cherries. Kind of a lot actually. So when I came across some for $1.99 a pound at the farmer’s market this week it was easy to convince myself that I could eat almost three pounds of them. By myself. In a week.

Yeah… that’s a lot of cherries for one gal to eat before they go bad. I’ve been grabbing a handful every time I walk by the fridge but there was no end in sight… so I went looking for a way to use them up. This recipe for Sweet and Sour Cherry Turnovers caught my eye b/c I actually had every I needed to make them without another trip to the store. Yep, I even had a box of puff pastry in the freezer…I know, I was pretty surprised too.

I wasn’t prepared to make the goat cheese cream included in the recipe but I did have some plain cream cheese so I added a spoonful in the middle of each turnover and I thought it worked fine. And that’s exactly how I felt about the finished product: they were…fine.

The cherry filling was better than fine though…it was downright delicious and it couldn’t be easier. More like a quick jam, it’s a rustic, sweet & tart compote that would be great on ice cream, oatmeal, toast or pancakes. Actually, it would be incredible on pancakes…

So the next time I go overboard in the produce department I’ll skip the pastry, make a big batch of this sauce and invite a few buds over for breakfast-

Don't you just love the cute recipe card? I found the card generator through my new favorite site - go check them both out...

You've gotta...

scoop these up.

Ciao Bella Gelato & Sorbets are freaking amazing - nevermind the super cute packaging, the flavors are intense and actually taste like what they're supposed to! The Espresso tastes like the best iced coffee you've ever had...

I've tried a few different ones: Espresso, Hazelnut (smooth & creamy), Mango (like you bit into a perfect juicy fruit), Blood Orange (incredible color, tart & tangy), Maple Gingersnap (delish)... Chocolate Jalapeno is next on my list. Or maybe Coconut. Or Key Lime Graham Cracker...

You can stop by their site to find a local retailer or even order some on-line. Trust me, it's so worth it & you'll never feel the same way about Breyer's again.