Ham and Cheese Strata

I thought I'd attempt my first strata since I've been drooling over pictures of them for the past couple weeks. I'm for sure making more of them! Prep the night before and cook it in the morning for an easy breakfast or brunch. And what doesn't go better with eggs than ham, cheese, and bread? Then throw in a little onion for flavor and spinach for color. I basically followed America's Test Kitchen's method with ingredients that I had on hand. And I might add, that it's so nice that I can still have fresh spinach from my garden this late in the season here. But frozen spinach will do fine as well, just be sure to drain and squeeze all the liquid from it before you add any. 

Ham and Cheese Strata

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen's Breakfast Strata

One 8x8 pan

Ingredients

10, 1/2 inch thick slices French bread or other artisan/Italian bread 

Unsalted Butter

1/4 medium onion sliced

7 oz ham diced 

4 oz cheddar cheese grated

2 oz mozzarella cheese grated

1 1/2- 2 cups sliced fresh baby spinach

6 lg eggs

1 3/4 cup whole milk or half and half

1 Tbs Dijon mustard

Directions

With oven rack in middle position, preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Place bread on on large baking sheet and bake until dry and crisp. About 40 minutes flipping halfway through. 

Remove from oven and spread a bit of butter on one side of each piece when they've cooled.  

**While the bread is baking**spray a nonstick pan generously with Cooking spray and heat over medium/low heat. 

Add onions and a few good shakes of salt, stir often until they become caramelized, about 30 minutes. You don't want them to brown. Low and slow.

Add spinach to the pan, allow to wilt and lose most of its moisture. Only a 3-4 minutes here, if you used frozen spinach it may take a bit longer, but not much. Remove from heat. 

Whisk together eggs, half and half, and mustard in small bowl, set aside. 

Butter a 8x8 glass baking dish

Lay one layer of bread onto the bottom of the dish, followed by half the onions and spinach, half the ham, and half of the cheeses. Repeat with remaining ingredients. 

Slowly pour egg mixture over the bread layers to evenly coat. 

Cover with plastic wrap and weigh the strata down with 2 lbs of evenly distributed pressure. I used a bag full of 2 lbs of rice. 

Place In fridge at least 1 hr and up to 24 hrs. 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and while its preheating remove the dish from the fridge and allow to sit at room temp for 20 min before putting in the oven. 

Remove the weight and plastic wrap. 

Bake for 50-60 minutes until the edges AND center have puffed and the edges seem to have pulled away slightly from the edges.

Cool on a wire rack for 10 minute. And serve. This thing stays piping hot for a while, careful not to burn your tongue! 

Butter Toffee Popcorn

This popcorn is pretty addictive.  I didn't used to be quite a fan of toffee flavored anything but since I have now been married to my husband for 7.5 years, he has slightly converted me. Slightly.  I find myself seeing recipes and wanting them, needing them, in my life, when in the past I could have cared less and passed right by.  But, I really am a sucker for anything popcorn, besides the Jelly Belly popcorn flavored bean. That's just not right.  Back to this butter toffee popcorn.  It's for sure making its appearance on my neighborhood gift plate this year.  You can make it ahead of time, and its simple so no stress there.  I found this from treatssf, a lady I follow on Instagram. Her treats and goodies she makes are so pretty.  She has a blog too but I'm all about the pictures on Instagram.  She got the recipe for this popcorn from Cooks Country (of course the recipe is from them, its so good). I think the only difference are the nuts.  They suggest salted peanuts but I put in raw pecans that roasted in the oven, and I think that's what treatsf did too.  yum yum.

Butter Toffee Popcorn

Cook's Country

3 1/2 quarts

Ingredients

3 quarts popped popcorn (just shy of 1/2 cup un-popped)

10 Tbs unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking soda

1-2 cups raw pecan halves

Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 250 degrees. 

Grease large roasting pan and place popcorn in the pan.

Melt butter in a large sauce pan over medium/high heat. 

Add brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium/low and simmer stirring occasionally until it's slightly thickened ~3 min.

Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and baking soda (it will foam)

Add nuts and pour over popcorn, toss to coat.
Bake, stirring occasionally until popcorn is deep golden brown and caramel has set.  1-1 1/2 Hours

Cool and serve.  

Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to about 5 days.

Almost No Knead Bread

You have to make this bread. This week. You will not be completely happy until you do. America's Test Kitchen has done it again, giving such fantastic results. It's so easy the only problem I have is remembering to start the dough the night before to give it its proper amount of rest time. Next time I make it I will make two loaves -it gets eaten too quickly. My four year old tonight at dinner told me, "Mom, every time you make this bread I say, mmmmm breeeaaaaad". He and my two year old love it. I especially love it for breakfast the next morning. We eat this crusty bread at most family get togethers and I have to thank my Mom for trying the recipe first and sharing her results. 

**Here's a helpful hint: I buy one can of beer and measure 1/4 cup amounts into ziploc bags and freeze them. Then, when I make bread I pull out a bag and add the other wet ingredients to the frozen bag to thaw it, then add it all to the flour mixture. I think one large can gave me 20 portions of lager. That's a lot of bread! 

Almost No Knead Bread

America's Test Kitchen

Makes one loaf

Ingredients

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp yeast

1-1.5 tsp salt

3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs water

1/4 cup mild lager, or water

1 Tbs white vinegar 

Directions

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Be sure to incorporate all flour. Knead a few times to form a ball. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature 12-18hrs. 

Knead a few times and form into a loaf. Line bowl with a parchment paper and place dough on paper. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and rise at room temperature 1-2 hours. 

With 30-40 minutes left of rising time, place a large oven safe pot with lid on the middle rack in the oven and Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Let the pot sit in there and heat up 30 minutes. 

Turn the oven down to 400 degrees.

Slice 1 or 2 shallow slashes on top of dough with a serrated knife. 

Pick up parchment paper carrying loaf to the preheated pot. Cover with lid and bake 20 minutes. 

Remove lid and bake 20 minutes more. 

Loaf should be beautiful dark golden brown.

Remove from pot, let it cool on a rack. 

Devour.

Ham Bone Soup

So this meal came from Easter, 6 months ago. I froze the ham bone from the ham and am now just getting around to using it.  It was kind of cool and rainy today so soup was a must. Cool for here means 70 degrees haha. 

This ham bone soup is full of vegetables and the broth gives the best meaty flavor. And since it's not boiled for too long it's not too salty, in fact, you will have to add salt to it.  The crunch of the bacon gives good texture and a touch of salt. Make sure you have some good crusty bread to go along with it. 

Ham Bone Soup

Serves 4-6

Ingredients 

1 ham bone

4-5 slices bacon, diced and cooked until crispy

1/2 tsp dried thyme, rubbed between your fingers 

Dash of garlic powder 

2 bay leaves

1/2 onion, chopped 

2-3 celery stalks, chopped 

2-3 carrots, chopped 

2 medium potatoes, diced

1 1/2 cups chopped green cabbage

1 can white beans, like kidney

1-2 cups frozen corn

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

Place bone in a large pot and fill the pot with water until the bone is barely covered. 

Bring to a boil over high heat then simmer on low for about an hour. 

Remove bone. 

Turn heat to medium high heat. Add bay leaves, thyme, onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, and cabbage. 

Bring to a boil then turn heat down to low to simmer 20ish minutes until potatoes are almost cooked through.

Add corn and beans and salt and pepper  and simmer another 5-10 minutes. 

Serve with bacon sprinkled on top. 

Enjoy

Chicken Salad with Raspberry Balsamic Dressing

I've been making this salad pretty consistently this summer. It's sweet and salty with a bite of Parmesan and crunchy toasted pecans. Mmm. I found a recipe for Arugula Salad with Figs, Prosciutto, Walnuts, and Parmesan in the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook and doesn't that sound dreamy? All but the walnuts, yes ;)  I never have figs or prosciutto on hand, and my fridge was bare of arugula, so this salad was born. I basically took their dressing and subbed raisins for figs, and onion powder and garlic powder for a shallot then poured it over a ton of veggies and chicken and said "Voilà! Dinner." So thank you, Cook's Illustrated, for a delicious dinner! I love the leftovers from this. I know, weird, to love leftover salad that could possibly be wilty. I think I mostly just love sitting down to something yummy I didn't cook myself that same day. The best combination on the fork, I think, is a piece of chicken, celery, raisin, Parmesan, and pecan, all in one bite. Yumm 

You can use pretty much any veggies you have on hand and I think any flavor of jam would go too. It's just the sweetness you're looking for. 

Chicken Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette 

Adapted from The Cook's Illustrated Cook Book, Arugula Salad with Figs, Prosciutto, Parmesan, and Walnuts 

Serves 4 as a main dish

Ingredients 

1/4 c balsamic vinegar 

1 heaping Tbs raspberry jam (any jam really)

1/2 c raisins

1/4 c canola oil

1/8 tsp onion powder 

Dash or 2 of garlic powder 

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

2 heads romaine hearts, chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, diced

2 celery stalks, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

1/2-1 cup sliced cucumber 

1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped 

1 cup shaved Parmesan 

3 chicken breast 

Directions 

In small bowl, combine vinegar, jam and raisins. Cover with plastic wrap and puncture a few holes for ventilation. Microwave about 30 seconds-1 minute just until raisins are plump. 

Add oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Mix well with fork until oil is evenly dispersed. 

If your pecans aren't already toasted, heat a small pan over medium heat and toast them until they are slightly browned and fragrant. 

In a large bowl combine veggies.

Heat medium pan over medium high heat. Spray with oil. 

Dry off and salt and pepper the chicken and cook about 8 minutes per side. (Or grilled on a preheated grill sprayed with oil) 

Pour dressing over salad and top with sliced chicken, pecans, and Parmesan. 

Serve immediately