Breakfast Enchilada

by Irene Lindvall

I found a use for the six egg white I'd saved from my botched hollandaise sauce! Weight Watchers recipes often call for egg whites and I love it. I added just one more egg to this recipe and made two enchiladas and served it for brunch. The tortilla turned out crispier than I thought it would and we had to eat it with a knife and fork, but who cares? It tasted great!

Things I learned from this recipe:

I wouldn't skimp on the sour cream or the salsa. Both were a necessary taste with the slight dryness of the tortilla after baking.

For reference, Weight Watchers believes three egg whites are about equivalent to one egg calorie wise.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Sure

The recipe

Pizza

by Irene Lindvall

We didn't eat a lot of pizza growing up and we certainly never made it at home. What we did make was Boboli. It was invented in the 80s and I'd say we started eating it in the early 90s. I started making it for Eric a few years ago and he loves it. We use the personal size so the pizza is just the way each of us likes it. I often do a vegetarian but tonight I added turkey bacon. Eric's had Italian sausage. I like to add a little green after baking in the toaster oven. Mine had baby arugula and Eric's had basil.

Things I learned from this recipe:

Eric said I should think about crisping my bacon before adding it. Love the idea!

Would I make this recipe again?:

Of course.

The recipe:

Boboli

Pizza squeeze

Cheese - anything cheese works!

chopped garlic (1-2 cloves for two)

turkey bacon (two slices)/Italian sausage/pepperoni (10-15 mini slices)

pineapple (two slices of canned Dole)

thinly sliced red onion

baby arugula/basil

Neiman Marcus Cookies

by Irene Lindvall

We celebrated a birthday over brunch and felt like burgers for dinner so that meant I got to bake! I have a cookie cookbook I've barely opened so it felt like a good time to try something. After realizing the peanut butter recipe wanted to cool over night I settled on an easy recipe called Neiman Marcus Cookies. The cookbook told a short story about how a woman thought she was paying $2.50 for the recipe and actually ended up paying $250 (two fifty) for it. After baking (and sampling) I decided to look up the backstory to figure out why it's called the Neiman Marcus cookie. I ended up finding this instead. Very funny. Oh, and the cookies are delicious!

Things I learned from this recipe:

The recipe called for sweet butter. I thought this was different from "regular" butter so I went to the store and it turns out 99% of butter says sweet butter on the box. *Bowing my head in honesty* I did not know this. 

Would I make this recipe again?:

Definitely

The recipe

 

Crab Eggs Benedict

by Irene Lindvall

Oh how we love brunch. I know i've mentioned this several times now, but we really do. I recently had brunch with a friend and we both ordered the crab eggs benedict. I thought it was fitting I try to make it myself since we had discussed that making hollandaise was actually feasible (I've been intimated thus far). 

I should start with the positive and say that the crab did not hurt me this time. Yay! I also did not drown the eggs while poaching, however I don't know that they came out any better than when they were drowned. They were much more slippery and the white seems to be a bit more slimy and didn't want to stay on top of the crab for very long. They were definitely not overcooked though and the yolk was perfection.

Now onto the not so great part. The hollandaise. I read the recipe instructions several times before starting the meal because I wanted to be prepared. It was mildly complicated and since I don't have a double broiler I opted for the bowl on top of the boiling pot. That worked fine. What didn't work fine was the whisking. Or maybe it was the temperature, or the timing, or something. I honestly don't know what didn't work. I made the sauce twice. Three sticks of butter and six egg yolks later the photos would've been identical had I taken a second set. The irony is both times the sauce thickened and then I saw the sauce turn into liquid. I have no idea what happened. I was whisking for the two minutes and I was trying to get an accurate temperature (I will be investing in a better thermometer) and I was whisking and whisking, and nothing. The second batch recovered enough to use it (first photo) but it does not look like hollandaise. Eric and I both noted that it tasted exactly like it should - thank goodness for that.

Things I learned from this recipe:

There is a secret to hollandaise sauce that I need to learn.

I need a better thermometer for the kitchen.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Yes

The recipe

Brunch

by Irene Lindvall

I'm really not sure what to call this dish! I got the recipe from the pulled page of the September 2011 Sunset Magazine and it doesn't have a name. It is one of their "4 fast dinner ideas" sidebar and it had a photo so of course both of those things intrigued me. It involved poached eggs and I haven't done that in a while and I still had turkey bacon (a suitable replacement for pancetta) so I thought it'd be a great dish to try. The dish was easy to make, but I had a slight snafu with the eggs. My pan was not big enough and they got crowded and starting drowning. By the time I noticed it was a little too late for two out of the three (the pan wasn't big enough to hold the fourth) and I just decided to let them go. It turns out drowning is okay or at least in this instance it was okay. I still need to read up on the proper way to use these silicon cups. I'll be poaching again for tomorrow's recipe so I guess I better get on that. This dish says it's a dinner idea, and I originally thought it'd be a fun "breakfast for dinner" kind of a dish but it turns out it's nice for brunch as well. 

Things I learned from this dish:

I need more practice poaching eggs.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Maybe. I ended up adding pepper over everything since the only real flavor coming through was the rosemary. I would've liked something other predominate flavor/spice.

The recipe:

Saute diced onions, pancetta, and celery until soft. Add chopped ripe tomatoes, canned cannellini beans, and chopped rosemary, then simmer. Serve with poached eggs on top.

I used: 1/2 onion, three slices of turkey bacon, and two stalks of celery. I then used two medium sized tomatoes, 3/4 of a can of beans and 2 - 3 sprigs of rosemary, and two eggs per person. I would say you could feed three ideally with that, four if you're eating a lighter meal and adding a bread.