eggs on sunday

I’m slowly emerging out of lemon territory now that berries are starting to show up in our market. Organic strawberries are finally arriving (yay!!) and it’s so nice to have a new fruit to play with in the kitchen (the Ithaca Farmer’s market started last weekend, and while I am thrilled to have it back, selection at the moment includes potatoes, more root vegetables, and some herbs. Delicious, no doubt, but nothing muffin-worthy fruit-wise yet.) When I saw the strawberries, I knew that I would make these muffins — they’ve been a long time coming. (more…)

Another ricotta dish! Are you ready?

This one comes from the April issue of Bon Appetit. What’s interesting to me is that I stir chives into scrambled eggs quite often, but never thought to add a little creamy ricotta — more often I do goat cheese, but the ricotta is a great addition. A lovely spring morning breakfast…and spring it was this past weekend when I made these eggs (we really did have “eggs on sunday!”) The temperature got up to a balmy 59 degrees. Yahoo! All you tropical climate-dwellers, don’t laugh: after a long winter in upstate New York, 59 degrees F feels like t-shirt and shorts weather. Almost. (more…)

Fleeting whispers of spring are starting to appear, here and there — the light seems different, birds are starting to sing their spring songs, and I’ve even seen some spring robins — and though these signs are still just hints of the full-blown spring to come in another month or two, I know what’s coming, and I’m waiting with open arms to welcome the new season!

And as much as I love winter food, I’m antsy to shed the warm, fluffy, cozy blanket of winter soups, stews and hot drinks for some fresh, light tastes. (more…)

We love our scones on weekend mornings! Occasionally I like to mix it up a bit from the traditional white flour cream scones, though. You may know by now that I sometimes fiddle with substituting white whole wheat flour into baked goods; I try to do the substitutions only when the flavors seem like they can take it — i.e. I wouldn’t use whole grain flour in a delicate, light lemon cake. Maple and oatmeal, though? They’re made for whole grain flour!

I use Arrowhead Mills oat flour in these scones instead of white flour, and there’s whole oats ground up a bit in the batter. I love the combination of brown sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon in the dough. Instead of cream for the liquid, I use a mixture of milk and yogurt. (more…)

Instead of sharing a soup recipe this weekend, I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite breakfast dishes.

We usually have some sort of egg dish on the weekend for breakfast…actually, that’s how the name of my blog came about! Our “eggs on sunday” dishes take different forms — when B makes our eggs, they’re usually scrambled with some chopped vegetables and cheese. Yum. When I make the eggs, I tend to gravitate towards poached or baked eggs…I really love an egg with the just-set whites and a sunny yellow oozy yolk…mmm, just thinking about it makes my mouth water!

I adore poached eggs. I go through phases when I really crave them and think up different ways to eat them (other than for breakfast): I’ll slip one on top of pasta, the yolk creating a creamy sauce over the noodles. I’ll serve some over a slice of a Mexican-style tortilla pie with cheese, salsa and black beans. They’re heavenly over roasted asparagus, with a little Parmesan grated on top. And, in a time crunch, I think they’re just plain delicious served simply over some whole-grain toast, sprinkled with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.

When I have a little more time to spend on them, one of my favorite ways to eat them is this breakfast crostini: a thick slice of crusty toasted bread rubbed with garlic-herb olive oil, topped with two slices of bacon, some sauteed spinach, a poached egg, and shaved Parmesan cheese. I love the contrast of the crunchy bread with the creamy poached egg, and how the yolk makes a little sauce with the cheese for the spinach. It’s a perfect dish for a weekend breakfast (or for dinner, too — we’ve done both!) And, if you’d rather make it vegetarian, it’s equally good without the bacon (poached eggs love spinach!) (more…)

Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a mom who — among many other wonderful qualities — baked a lot of muffins. Weekend mornings were often filled with the warm, spicy smells of cinnamon wafting from the kitchen; on the table would be a basket filled with treats like pumpkin muffins, zucchini spice muffins (especially in the summer, to use up the bumper crop of zucchini that was always bigger than we’d planned), and applesauce oatmeal muffins. Her baking extended beyond muffins to other delicious treats, but the muffins are one of my fondest memories of our breakfasts together as a family.

The applesauce oatmeal muffins she used to make were one of my favorites, because they combined some of the flavors and ingredients dearest to my heart: apples, oats, and cinnamon. Last year, when I received Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful tome “Baking: From My Home to Yours” — from none other than my sweet mom! — one of the recipes that I immediately wanted to try was the Oatmeal Breakfast Bread. It has lots of applesauce, cinnamon, oatmeal and raisins in the batter, and a brown sugar-walnut streusel on top. Call it a variation on the applesauce oatmeal muffins my mom used to make!

This bread is unbelievably moist, and when it bakes, it perfumes your whole house with the comforting, welcoming, homey smell of cinnamon. Something about the aroma of cinnamon, for me, evokes feelings of being home — and because of that, it’s one of my favorite ingredients to cook with, hands down.

Have a slice as a delicious accompaniment to a hot mug of coffee or tea. Also, if you’re like me, you could consider the bread to be slightly more on the healthy side…applesauce takes the place of butter in the batter, and I like to make mine fully whole grain, using King Arthur white whole wheat flour along with the whole oats. The recipe actually takes really well to using the white whole wheat flour; it blends really nicely with the spices and oats without losing any of the — as Dorie puts it — “pudding soft” texture. And, I cut down just a smidge on the amount of sugar in the recipe, using 1/2 cup in the bread instead of the 3/4 cup in the original recipe, and I find it to be plenty sweet.

This is also my entry into this month’s Master Baker challenge. It was started by Nikki of Crazy Delicious, and each month of the challenge has a different theme — this month’s theme is cinnamon! I can’t wait to see the other entries.

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Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

From Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours

Ingredients

For the topping:
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

For the bread:
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup flavorless oil, such as canola or safflower
1/4 cup buttermilk or whole milk (I’ve also used plain yogurt with good results)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose or white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
1/2 cup dried figs, apples, apricots, or raisins (I usually use raisins)
1 cup old-fashioned oats

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan, and tap out the excess flour.

In a small bowl, use your fingers to toss together the streusel topping ingredients (brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon.) Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, applesauce, oil and buttermilk (or milk or yogurt) until they’re well blended.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir in the oats.

In a separate small bowl, toss the dried fruit with 1/2 tsp of the flour mixture, just to coat. Set aside.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture in the large bowl, and fold with a spatula just until they’re combined (try not to overmix.) Fold in the dried fruit, just until distributed throughout the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Scatter the streusel over the top, and lightly press it onto the surface of the batter with your fingers. Place the loaf pan on a baking sheet (just so it’s easier to lift out of the oven when it’s done), and place in the oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes; I usually take mine out around 50 minutes. You can check that it’s done by inserting a sharp knife in the middle of the bread; no batter should stick to the knife.

Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully run a knife around the edges of the pan and unmold the bread. Invert it back to right-side-up and cool it completely on a rack before you cut it.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We had a delicious breakfast of heart-shaped dried cherry and chocolate chip scones with lemon curd and raspberry conserve, and an appropriately pink “Sweetheart Smoothie.”

We are wild about scones, and this is one of my favorite recipes. I’d posted it previously (you can find the recipe here) so this morning I thought I’d post the recipe for my “Sweetheart Smoothie.” It’s got raspberries, pomegranate juice, yogurt and a bit of honey in it; it’s just tart enough to be a good match against the sweetness of the scones.

More Valentine’s recipes to come later…but for now, enjoy, and sweet wishes to you and your valentine!

Sweetheart Smoothie

Ingredients (makes enough for 2)
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1 cup pomegranate juice (I like Knudsen organic or POM)
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp honey

Directions
The quick way to make this is to just blitz all the ingredients in a blender or food processor, and serve (easy!)

If you want to go through the trouble, you can puree the raspberries beforehand (if you’re using frozen, make sure they’ve thawed) and pass them through a mesh strainer to remove any seeds. This will give you a smoother drink, but it’s not necessary at all!

This is my go-to recipe for granola, which I arrived at after experimenting with some different combinations of ingredients. Because my favorite way to eat granola is mixed in with some plain yogurt and fresh fruit, I’ve left dried fruit out of this base recipe..but the nice thing about granola is that you can mix in whatever you like. Add a handful of dried apricots, raisins, cranberries, etc. — they would all be good! I like my granola not too sweet, so this has only a little bit of maple syrup in it…mixing a bit of applesauce in gives it a nice semi-clustery texture after you bake it, and it’s nicely nutty with walnuts and almonds. It is just delicious on top of some plain organic yogurt with some fresh berries.

Ingredients

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup almonds, coarsely chopped
pinch of salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a large bowl, stir together oats, nuts, cinnamon and salt. In a saucepan over medium high heat, stir together oil, applesauce and maple syrup. Bring to a simmer and remove from heat, then stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the liquid mixture over the oat mixture and stir to thoroughly combine.

Spread oats out on a baking sheet and bake for about 35-45 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer to a cooling rack. If you like clumpy granola, press down on the oats with a spatula when they come out of the oven and let cool completely, then break up the oats into clumps with a spatula. If not, just stir with a spatula when it comes out of the oven and let cool completely (it will crisp up the rest of the way as it cools.)

Makes about 5 cups.

Delicious for breakfast or with a cup of coffee or tea. I sometimes substitute half white whole-wheat flour.

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Ingredients

For the crumbs:
5 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (you could use almonds or pecans, too)

For the cake:
1 pint (2 cups) blueberries (preferably fresh, or frozen, not thawed)
1 cup plus 2 tsp all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur brand)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2/3 cup sugar
6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and put it on a baking sheet.

To make the crumbs: Put all the ingredients except the nuts into a food processor and pulse just until the mixture forms clumps. Scrape the topping into a bowl, stir in the nuts and press a piece of plastic against the surface. Refrigerate until needed.

To make the cake: toss the blueberries and 2 tsp flour together and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup white whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla extract. Turn the speed down to low and add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, the flour in 3 parts and the buttermilk in 2 (start and end with the dry ingredients.) Gently fold in the berries by hand.

Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top gently with the spatula. Break the topping into bits and pieces with your hands and scatter it over the batter, pressing down gently.

Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden and a thin knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool just until warm, or until it reaches room temperature.

Serves 9.

You can adapt this recipe to use any combination of vegetables, greens, and cheese you like. It makes a wonderful breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner dish — served hot or at room temperature.

Ingredients

1 cup mushrooms, sliced thickly
about 3 cups (packed) spinach leaves, washed and drained
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced (you could sub. 2 tbsp chopped onion)
salt and pepper, to taste

8 eggs
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese (or any other cheese you like - use as much as you prefer.)

Equipment: a 10-inch oven-proof skillet

Directions

Preheat the oven on broil.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and mushrooms, and saute until the mushrooms are browning around the edges, about 7 minutes. Add the spinach leaves and saute the mixture until the spinach has wilted, about another 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, wisk together the 8 eggs, fresh chopped basil, and salt and pepper to taste.

Spread the mushroom/spinach mixture around in the skillet to evenly distribute it. Pour the egg mixture over the veggies, and tilt the skillet (or use a spatula) to create an even layer of eggs. Cook on the stovetop over medium-high heat until the eggs are beginning to set around the edges, about 5 minutes.

After the eggs have begun to set around the edges, sprinkle the goat cheese over the top of the mixture and place the skillet into the oven under the broiler. Broil until the eggs have set in the middle and the cheese is starting to melt and brown, usually about another 5 minutes (keep checking so it doesn’t burn!)

Remove the skillet from the oven (careful, it will be very hot!) and set it on a cooling rack. Using a knife or spatula, cut the fritatta into wedges and serve.

Makes 4 generous servings.