Breakfast for Dinner (Sort Of)

Last night we had bacon and eggs for dinner. Just not the way you probably think.

My newest favorite thing is the BLT salad. Iceberg lettuce (I know, not the healthiest of lettuces but it's so nicely cool and crisp in this particular salad), tons of fresh tomatoes from my garden, (no salmonella scare here) and crisply fried bacon pieces (I cut them large since they are part of the flavor of this salad) along with fresh ciabatta croutons and just a touch of ranch dressing. This salad is light, flavorful and oh, so delicious.

It's a great salad, but not exactly a full meal so I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner to go with it when I decided to pair it with deviled eggs (such a yummy favorite) and some cheese puffs. No, not Cheetos, a delicious little warm biscuit made with lots of sharp cheddar cheese. I was actually going to make some mini potato pancakes (to continue the breakfast for dinner idea) but my mom wanted cheese puffs.

The recipe for the cheese puffs came from a Peanuts cookbook I bought when I was in the second or third grade. My mom still has the little book which is full of easy little recipes named for Charles Shultze's characters and little cartoons. I'm not sure what the book calls this recipe, but we always call them Charlie Brown Cheese Puffs. I have made these since I was a kid and they are so yummy! I have made them for parties and they always get RAVE reviews. They are best eaten warm.

Charlie Brown Cheese Puffs

1 heaping cup grated cheese (I love sharp cheddar but you can use swiss or pepper jack too)
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
1/2 c. flour
water

Mix cheese, butter and flour together with just enough water to make a dough (I mix the ingredients by hand and add water after they are pretty well incorporated, You'll only need about a teaspoon of water to make the dough come together).
Roll into balls (this makes about a dozen) and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until puffs are golden brown. Serve warm.

You can add seasonings, wrap the dough around olives or fancy them up however you want, but the plain recipe has never failed for me. I have had people stand by my oven, waiting for the next batch to come out. Of course the recipe can be doubled or tripled and these are a great cocktail party snack.

I finished off our 'breakfast for dinner' theme with Rice Krispies treats for dessert. I think it was one of my mom's favorite meals because she likes everything so much. And it was fun for me to think outside the box, then outside the box again.

Clafouti To You Too!

Okay, I have a friend who loves clafouti, so I thought of her when I ran across this recipe. Despite it's name (which sounds vaguely like a disease to me) it's a French dessert with fruit and batter. Some have described the batter as a cross between a flan and pancake. Traditionally it's made with cherries but I saw this version with fresh apricots and had to try it. (I'll admit it, I figured pitting apricots was easier than pitting cherries). I liked it, but the apricots were a bit tart, I would have added some sugar to them while they were macerating in the Amaretto if I had known. I will definitely make clafouti again, I'm thinking next time with berries and Grand Marnier or if I can find them, Italian plums. Try making clafouti yourself, it's really easy and looks so pretty. It's a great way to make a fruit dessert in no time at all.


APRICOT ALMOND CLAFOUTI

1 pound fresh apricots (about 8 medium), pitted and cut into wedges
1/4 cup almond liqueur, such as Amaretto (or you can uses orange juice)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus 1/3 cup sugar, divided
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
1 cup low-fat milk
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon sliced almonds
Confectioners' sugar for dusting

1. Combine apricots and almond liqueur (or orange juice) in a large bowl. Stir 2 teaspoons of the juice into the apricots. Let stand for at least 1 hour. (This is where I would have added some sugar since my apricots were a bit on the tart side.)
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 10-inch round baking dish, such as a ceramic quiche dish, or oval casserole, with cooking spray. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar evenly over the bottom. Drain the apricots (reserving syrup) and arrange in the baking dish.
3. Combine eggs, egg white and the remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until pale yellow (This takes a while, like 5 minutes). Add milk, flour, almond extract, salt and the reserved syrup; beat well to blend. Pour the batter over the apricots; sprinkle with almonds.
4. Bake the clafouti until puffed and golden, 45 to 55 minutes. Let cool for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and serve warm.

Perfect Grilled Chicken Breasts

Okay, so for Mother's Day (yes, it has been a long time since I've posted, please forgive me) I made grilled herbed chicken breasts with a lemon basil butter sauce. I always worry about grilling boneless, skinless chicken breasts because they dry out so quickly. So I tried brining them this time. Now I know many people have touted the benefits of brining but honestly I associated it with whole turkeys and whole chickens, not with skinless parts. But I thought I'd give it a shot anyway.

I brined six breasts in a quart of water mixed with a quarter cup each of kosher salt and sugar. Mix the brine mixture until the sugar and salt dissolve. Put the breasts in and refrigerate. You want to brine them for only about an hour, no more than two. If you brine small pieces like this longer than that you will make them too salty.

Once you remove them from the brine, brush them with a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, black pepper, crushed red pepper and herbs (I used parsley, basil and thyme from my garden) and grill over medium high heat for five to six minutes per side (check their temperature with a meat thermometer to be sure, you want chicken to reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees).

These were fantastic. The chicken was so moist, even after grilling. They were flavorful both inside and out. I put goat cheese and lemon basil butter sauce on them, but honestly, it was gilding the lily. (Of course, I never met a lily that couldn't use a little gilding!) Try brining the next time you grill chicken breasts, I think you will be impressed with the flavor.

Lemon Basil Butter Sauce (I like it on chicken, but my brother uses it on steak as well)

1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1Tbsp. minced shallot
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 c. white wine
1/4 c. lemon juice
6 Tbsp. cold butter, sliced
1/3 c. chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp. white pepper*
1/2 tsp. salt*

Saute shallots and garlic in 2 Tbsp, butter in a small sauce pan over medioum heat until tender. Stir in the white wine and lemon juice, increase the heat to meduim high and bring to a simmer. Simmer until reduced by half. Remove the saucepan and add the cold butter, a pat at a time, stirring until completely incorporated after each addition. Stir in basil; salt and pepper to taste.

* I use salted butter for this recipe so I omit the salt. I also use black pepper since I'm not concerned about the color of the sauce so feel free to use whatever you have on hand.

Adventures in Cupcake Land

Okay, so a while back I threw down on The Cupcakery and Retro Bakery, saying I could make a better cupcake at a better price. Well, I've been baking cupcakes whenever I can and having them taste tested by friends and family. So far the results have been fantastic. The cupcakes have gotten rave reviews. And I can tell you that I could easily sell them for $1.50 per cupcake and still make a profit, and that's with being a home cook and buying ingredients at retail. So pfffft to the upscale cupcake bakeries, I AM the cupcake cutie!


These I call Banana Covered Chocolate Cupcakes. They are a rich chocolate cupcake with fresh banana (yes, fresh) buttercream accented with dark chocolate ganache. The only criticism they got was that my brother wanted some chocolate chips in the cupcake. I can't argue with that, more chocolate is always better!


These I call Great Scots. They are a butterscotch cupcake with a brown sugar buttercream crowned with butterscotch ganache. I loved them but I made such a rookie mistake, I added butterscotch chips to the batter but forgot to flour them first so they all sunk to the bottom. Some people liked the chips at the bottom but honestly, it wasn't right and I can't believe I did it, I know better. But the cupcakes had great flavor and I could eat a vat of brown sugar buttercream. It was so good. It was a little grainy but that was actually part of the appeal for me.


And these are Lemon Drop Kids (I love Bob Hope movies!) A lemon cupcake with lemon buttercream and garnished with crushed lemon drop candies. If it sounds too lemony, it wasn't. The cupcakes were so super moist and light (my brother raved about the texture, and he's one of my toughest critics) with a lemon kissed frosting and the candy adding a sweet/tart/crunchy note. The only issue was that after a few days the lemon drops weren't crunchy any longer, they got soft and kind of gummy. So you have to eat these within a day or so, not like that's a big problem.

I'll be making more cupcakes this week. I'm working on a fruit cheesecake cupcake but I don't know if that will be this week's flavor or not. Stay tuned!