Savory Bread Pudding

Remember the Easy Bake Oven?  I loved that thing growing up.  What a great idea; independent cooking for kids.  You didn't have to ask Mom to open the oven for you or help you stir thick batter.  You just opened a little pouch of mix, added a couple tablespoons of water, got out a cereal spoon, and viola, ready to be poured into a cake pan the size of an English muffin, and put into the Easy Bake Oven to be cooked by the heat of a light bulb.  Ten minutes later and you were enjoying a thumbprint-sized cookie or a small mouthful of cake.  Yum!  Once I tried to create my own recipe.  I put some strips of raw potato in hoping to net a few french fries.  I got distracted and came back to three charred inedible black potato strips.  My Mom kindly showed me how to use the timer to "remind" myself to check the oven.  This memory came back to me as I pulled my bread pudding out of the oven and thought, hmm, a little browner than I had intended.  Glad I caught it before it got too dark. 

We ate this for dinner, and really enjoyed it.  It would also make an excellent dish for a brunch or Sunday breakfast.  It's so versatile too.  You could add any number of different vegetables and/or some chirizo or bacon if you feel the need for some meat.  Just do yourself a favor and set the timer!

From Edible Santa Barbara, Winter 2010

 3/4 loaf or about 1/2 pound of day-old bread
4 eggs
2 Cups whole or skim milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
black pepper
4 ounces grated cheese (Gruyere or cheddar)
1/4 Cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
Olive oil

1 onion or 2-3 leeks, white portion only, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 small bunch of chard (or kale, or any other green), stems removed and leaves cut into thin slices
1/4 grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut bread into 1-inch cubes to loosely fill an 8-inch souffle dish or 2 quart baking dish.  In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk.  Add the dry mustard, salt, and pepper.  Add the bread cubes and combine until bread is thoroughly moistened.  Stir in the grated cheese and chopped parsley and set aside.  

In a saute pan over medium heat, add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom.  Add the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until softened.  Add the greens and a little salt.  Reduce heat, cover and cook until greens are tender, 5 to 15 minutes depending on the thickness of the leaves.  Add a little water to the pan if it dries out.

Place half of the bread mixture in the baking dish, then add the greens and onion mixture.  Then add the remaining bread mixture.  Top with the grated Parmesan cheese.  Bake for 45 minutes or until pudding is set and lightly browned on top.  Let sit for a few minutes before serving.          

Sweet Potato and Zucchini Bread

Today I am thankful for my wonderful husband and my beautiful daughters.  You inspire me and fill me with love.  Sometimes I wish I could freeze time and stay in any one of those amazing moments I have with you all.  But then I remember that life moving forward means even more of those moments.  Love you three! 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.  It makes a great day after Thanksgiving morning treat. 

Adapted slightly from Bon Apetit
Makes 1 large loaf or 2 smaller loaves

2 Cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 Cups sugar
3/4 Cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 Cups grated zucchini
1 1/2 Cups grated peeled sweet potato
1 Cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray loaf pan(s) with non-stick spray.  Stir together first five ingredients into medium bowl.  Beat sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla to blend in large bowl.  Mix in zucchini and sweet potato.  Add dry ingredients and walnuts and stir well. 

Transfer batter to prepared pan(s).  Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes-1 hour for a large loaf or 30-40 minutes for smaller loaves.  Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes.  Cut around bread to loosen.  Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Shakshuka (Eggs Poached in Spicy Tomato Sauce)

What?  What on earth is shakshuka??  I had no idea before about a week ago, but, since I have fallen off the blogging wagon recently, I figured I had to fix something with a catchy name!  I know, I know, where have I been?  I really thought it had only been a few weeks since my last post, but it has been a whole month, sorry.  There hasn't been a lot of cooking going on recently.  I am due to have a baby in a few weeks and have been super busy with finishing up work projects and home projects.  Anyway, we have not starved for an entire month.  I do have a recipe or two to share.  This one was a huge success, and so easy.  It also got us through the dry spell of no ready-to-pick vegetables from the garden. 


Fun tip:  I recommend calling up a friend and casually saying, "hey, want to come over for some shakshuka?"   


Adapted from Saveur and http://www.smittenkitchen.com/
Serves 4 to 6


1/4 Cup olive oil
5 Anaheim chilies or 3 jalapenos, stemmed seeded, and finely chopped (I used canned jalapenos and it was decently spicy without burning your taste buds!)
1 small yellow onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed then sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes, undrained (I used a chopped tomatoes)
kosher salt, to taste
6 eggs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 Tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
Warm pitas for serving (optional)


Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes.  Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.


Put tomatoes and their liquid into a medium bowl and crush with your hands (or just use a can of chopped; I never really understood why you use whole tomatoes just to break them up!).  Add crushed tomatoes and their liquid to skillet along with 1/2 Cup water, reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes.  Season sauce with salt.  (I found it salty enough without adding any additional, so taste before you add).


Crack eggs over sauce so that eggs are evenly distributed across sauce's surface.  Cover skillet and cook until yolks are just set, about 5 minutes.  Using a spoon, baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk.  Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve with pitas, for dipping.  Or, you could serve this for breakfast with some toast!

Raspberry Banana Bread

We planted four raspberry plants this year along our south facing fence. The plants were all short stubby bare sticks when we bought them. We treated them all with loving kindness, water, compost, some fertilizer. It was warm and sunny along the whole fence. We tried really hard to treat them equally and not play favorites. The result? Two of the four are now as tall as me. The other two have grown barely a leaf. Maybe someday after years of gardening I will know why. For now I can only speculate. Maybe the two small ones were expecting a Montecito address and our 1950's tract home just disappointed them? Who knows? We have faith that another year and they will grow to love their new home. Just between us, the tall ones weren't anything to write home about either. They produced a meager crop of pretty tart berries. But we figure we'll excuse all of the poor behavior this year and set our sights on next year. I struggled with what to do with this tiny crop, but here's what I came up with. The tartness of the raspberries is actually a nice compliment to the sweetness of the bananas.

1/3 Cup Agave nectar
1/3 Cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 Cup butter, melted or very soft
2 ripe bananas
2 well beaten eggs
1/2 Cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup all purpose flour
1 Cup whole wheat flour
a few pinches of salt
1/2 Cup crushed raspberries, sweetened with a little agave or sugar, if necessary)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients together except for the raspberries. Fold half the raspberries into the batter. Pour batter into medium sized loaf pan. Pour remaining raspberries onto the top and cut through with a knife to make a zig-zag design. Bake for 45 minutes-1 hour, being careful not to over bake. Loaf is done when knife comes out clean.

If you don't have buttermilk, just put a little lemon juice into regular milk and let it sit for five minutes. Agave is a natural sweetener. You can use white sugar in place of the agave if you don't have any on hand. No whole wheat flour? Just use all purpose. I don't recommend all whole wheat though. The bread comes out a little dry if you do that.