I have far too many eggs in the house. Don’t ask, it’s a long story, but there are dozens of eggs taking up room in my fridge. Conveniently, there were also some peppers, some leftover cheddar cheese and, in the freezer, some hot Italian sausage. So I put together this concoction last night and baked it up as breakfast today. Feeds a crowd. Also, you can use a biscuit cutter, cut rounds and toast yourself an English Muffin, and you can make a kick-ass breakfast sandwich.
So every year, as always, I go Pick-Your-Own Strawberry Picking at Russell Orchards in Ipswich. It’s well documented here on this site, so I won’t go info all the details of the Strawberry Festival and all that. This of course means that I am working on this year’s strawberry treats. First up, this year’s variation on the strawbeey jam… this time with hibiscus which gives the jam a great floral punch. Yum yum!
The story of this loaf of bread (condensed version): I’ve been meaning to make this style of bread for a while, but always forget the overnight rise, so remembered last night at about midnight that I was going to start it. I really must have messed up the water to flour ratio (I think I put in 2 cups or more of water, when it should have been only 1 and a half cups). But I figured I’d run with it, put it in the fridge and this morning — well, while it had risen, it was a gloppy mess. I almost didn’t even bake it up, but thought at the last minute that it would be a waste of good flour if I didn’t even go through the entire experiment.
Into the pre-heated Dutch oven, in the oven, it went at 450F. I had no faith.
But then, after 40 minutes, I opened the lid to a lightly tan, but certain the right shape and with a semi-crusty crust loaf of bread. Fifteen minutes later, uncovered, it was beautiful, risen, crusty and frankly, quite lovely looking. I mean, if you think bread is pretty. 🙂 While the crumb / consistency was a little too dense and chewy, not all was lost and I am completely sold on the “baking bread in a dutch oven” method. Gets out your Le Creuset, kids — I’m going to do some more bread baking (without messing up the water/flour ratio next time)!
It isn’t often that I post pictures taken from my mobile phone as the photos accompanying recipes, but I forgot to bring my Canon with my over the New Year’s long weekend up in the woods. I did want to share this amazing — and crazy-easy — recipe for Blueberry Croissant French Toast Casserole though, and without photos just wouldn’t do. I love this recipe and the best part about it is that you actually make it the evening before so as your drinking your first cup of coffee in the morning, you have nothing to do but wait for the blueberry goodness to arrive. This turned out to be perfect on New Year’s Day morning as I was still feeling effects of the bubbly the night before. Even if you aren’t hungover, what’s better than having your breakfast ready in 25 minutes with minimal effort.