South Western Egg Casserole

We had a pancake dinner last night at church and it was suggested that people bring breakfast like sides to accompany the pancakes. So since I could remain relatively anonymous I decided to try something different.

 . . . if you can't experiment on your brothers and sisters in Christ who can you experiment on?

I wanted something relatively plain. Something a child could scrape the top off of and eat. Something without bread or cheese or meat. I've got friends and family members who don't eat any of these things and they all seem to want to come to dinner at once!

If there's no bread I want it filled out a little anyway so I chopped up some new potatoes I had leftover from another meal. They were raw so I threw them in a pot with some cold water and a generous amount of salt. By the time they came to a boil they only needed about 5 more minutes of cooking time.

While the taters were boiling I buttered a 9X13 dish. Do you save your butter wrappers for this? My grandma always did. Of course, butter in wrappers was a lovely new fangled invention to my grandmother! They had their own cow. Evidently you are the milkman in central South Dakota in the 30's.

Potatoes are tender! Drain them and throw them in the bottom of the dish. Mine had some water clinging to them so I let them sit uncovered for a minute or two. Soggy potatoes are no good! The salt water should of soaked into them and flavored them nicely. As soon as they're dry looking you can cover them up with foil or a lid.


Chop up some red bell peppers too! They'll add a touch of sweetness to our dish.

I sliced up some mushrooms. I love a good meaty delicious mushroom! They're not very meaty at this point so we need to meatify them!

Heat some butter in a skillet. When butter browns it forms all sorts of lovely nutty flavors! You can make really delicious dishes based almost entirely on browned butter, lemon and salt.

Throw the mushrooms in and throw in a little salt. Just a tad to help them give up their moisture. At first it'll seem like they've soaked up all the butter and nothing else is happening but eventually . . .

They'll release their lovely mushroom juice and start to brown! I threw a touch of black pepper in these. Plus a really tiny minced clove of garlic and the smallest sprig of fresh thyme from the garden. After I threw the thyme in it occurred to me that a 1/4 tsp of cumin powder would of been more south westerny but heck I really like thyme in mushrooms.

When the mushrooms are all shrunken bites of meaty deliciousness take them out of the pan and put them in a bowl. Oh look! We have fond. We're going to have to do something with that later.

Throw the peppers in. I just want to wilt them a little. No salt for these babies. I only cooked them for a minute. I didn't want raw peppers on my casserole. If your pan is hot enough they might get a little char on them.

Take the peppers out and put them in a bowl like the mushrooms. Look at all that brown goodness in that pan! That is flavor! We've gotta retrieve that. Pour in half a cup of dry vermouth or any other dry white wine.

It should bubble and spit at you some! Scrape all the bits off the bottom and get them boiling in the wine. Go ahead and turn the heat off and set the pan of goodness aside. Mind you, if you taste this stuff it probably won't taste very good to you. It's sort of bitter and vinegary but acid is one of those tastes that balance out a dish!

Let's get crackin'

and pourin'

and saltin'

and seasonin', if you can't find dried ground chipotle peppers where you're at you could use some of the canned ones chopped up finely. This was convenient though.

Mix all of those things up really well . . .

. . . and pour it over your potatoes. Bake it for 30 minutes in a 375 deg F oven. Now if your potatoes were still pretty steamy hot this might be done in 25 minutes. If you were working with cold potatoes and had put this casserole in the refrigerator overnight I imagine it could take more than 60 minutes to get this cooked.

Go ahead and add your mushrooms and peppers to your egg dish while its hot and they'll warm right up! I also added some chopped fresh cilantro but for some weird reason neglected to take a picture of it! I personally think a little sliced green onion would be delicious on here or even inside with the potatoes!

The custard is firm with just enough salt to make the eggs a star. The chipotle pepper gave that hint of smokiness that us Midwesterners LOVE with eggs. The mushrooms were lovely rich chunks of umami flavor. The peppers were sweet, moist, and made the casserole stand out with pretty color. The cilantro added a vegetal bitterness and aroma that's usually only offered in classic french herb omelets.

I will admit my casserole was neglected a little because it didn't look like your average egg casserole but everybody who tasted it really liked it.

Or . . . at least . . . that's what they said to me.

I really liked it. I think I've finally found an egg casserole I can serve to my family!

South Western Egg Casserole

1 1/2 lbs red potatoes, 1/2 inch dice
1 red pepper, sliced into bite size pieces
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbsp butter
pinch of fresh thyme or cumin powder
1 clove of garlic minced
1/2 cup dry vermouth (any dry white wine will do)
12 eggs
1 pt. half and half
1 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp chipotle pepper
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 deg F.

Cover potatoes with cold salted water. Bring to a boil and cook till tender, drain. Place potatoes in a buttered 9X13 inch baking dish.

Heat butter in 10 inch skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Add thyme or cumin and minced garlic. Saute until all moisture has disappeared from pan and mushrooms appear golden brown. Remove from pan and hold in a bowl. Add bell pepper to pan and saute until wilted, approximately 1 minute. Remove peppers from pan. Deglaze pan with wine, scraping up fond from bottom of the pan. Turn heat off and allow liquid to remain in pan.

Mix eggs, half and half, salt, and chipotle peppers until completely mixed. Whisk in wine. Pour over potatoes and bake around 30 minutes.

Garnish with sauteed mushrooms, peppers, and chopped cilantro.

Boss Tom's Golden Bock

So Boulevard is out with it's late spring seasonal offering and I just had to snatch up a six pack. I was severely unhappy with the Irish Ale seasonal but had LOVED the Nutcracker Ale at Christmas time so I was excited yet distrustful at the same time! Maybe I'm becoming beer-polar?

The bottle label is a little weird.

An angry goat and rabbit? Further research indicated that Bock is another term for goat so they like to use goats to decorate the beer labels.

I've never thought of goats as decorative animals. Chickens? Yes! Geese? Most certainly! Kittens? Obviously! Penguins? Absolutely! Horses? Majestic! Dogs? Well duh! I don't think they make plates with goats on them . . . nor goat pillows . . . or little kitchen towels. There's a whole other world of animal marketing that has not been explored!

As for the rabbit further research explained that. From the Boulevard Box:  From 1925 until 1939 Kansas City was under the control of powerful political boss Thomas J. Pendergast whose "Goat" faction feuded with rival "Rabbits" for partisan dominance. The atmosphere of graft and lawlessness fostered a boom in jazz clubs and speakeasies, earning our town the title "Paris of the Plains." Isn't it nice they explain things on the labeling? It's so helpful!

I know it's a great history lesson and all but . . .

WHAT DOES IT TASTE LIKE?!!

It tastes pretty good.

It has a beautiful golden color that reminds me of sunshine and happiness. The aroma is unusual. My first impression was of sweetness. It has a sweetness similar to the Boulevard unfiltered Wheat. There was also a bitterness that was not unpleasant for me. Then I swirled some across the roof of my mouth and I tasted it. It is floral. Somewhere between a carnation and a hyacinth.

Do you think Hy-Vee would mind if I went into the floral department and sniffed their flowers a little? I'd just need a handkerchief dipped in beer and I could compare aromas . . .

It is not unlike the beautiful Stella Artois which is definitely hyacinth like. The Boss Tom's has a richness that Stella doesn't have though. The aromas seem a little more delicate too. The flavor doesn't linger in the mouth as long as Stella.

It's a dollar more expensive than the standard Boulevard offerings at my local grocery store. That puts it a dollar cheaper than a Stella so I'm thinking I'll be enjoying this beer all spring long!

Chicken on a Stick

My children love eating things on a stick. I think it appeals to their sense of danger. They haven't realized yet we keep them separated at table so they can't spear each other with dangerous pointy objects. They still think it's so we can make sure vegetables get on their plate! Ah, the innocence of youth.

We had these for dinner the other evening but if you use a smaller skewer and smaller chunks of meat you can serve these as an appetizer!

Now if you happen to live next to an Asian Grocery go get this stuff! If you read the label you'll see it's a Product of Indonesia. Which is appropriate since an Indonesian man I worked with introduced me to it!
It's like molasses and soy sauce all mixed together in some sort of twisted, salty, sweet, odd couple.

If you do happen to travel to the Asian grocery store check out everything there. Evidently there's plenty of call for prepackaged foods in the Asian immigrant community! It's a bond we share. I'm sure there's very little melamine in them too . . .

If you do purchase this just add a ton of garlic to it and you've got marinade! A suitable marinade for chicken, pork, beef, or salmon even. Unfortunately, I have to travel over to . . . gasp . . . KANSAS . . . to get it. Doesn't it seem a little weird that I have to travel to Kansas for exotic Asian ingredients?

Now for those of you not near an Asian store or who want to work with what you've got at home let's get started.

Grab some soy sauce and some molasses! I get the mega size at the Asian grocery for cheap! The molasses are leftover from molasses cookies at Christmas time.

I had to break out a new bottle of molasses! It's thick and sweet and has a licorice flavor to it. Can you believe this is the "light" variety? It's flavor is so strong I can't imagine what the full strength versions are like!

An equal part of soy sauce.

Give them a little stir.

Now for some garlic! Mince it in the manner you desire and stir it in too.

Take some beautiful ginger and peel it and minced it up into tiny pieces too. It joins the soy party!

I wanted more acid and citrus notes so I added an equal part of orange juice. This is fresh squeezed!

It's fresh squeezed because I have clementines that my kids won't eat because they're not "pretty" looking anymore. Frankly, they're also at the stage where they're losing some sweetness too. So I'm now adding orange juice to everything I possibly can sneak it into to.

Now I'm going to add a little heat to the party! You could add hot sauce too if you wanted to. Asian groceries have the BEST hot sauces.

I'm going to add a little of this too. I was reading the label and mine has SEVEN spices in it! Where's the authorities on this? Where is the FDA? Anyway it generally has things like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper, anise, fennel, and licorice root in it. So you could throw in a pinch of any of those if you liked.

I sliced up some chicken breast and put them on skewers.

Put the marinade on them and flip them around in this until they have a nice coating.

Now I was prepping this dinner so that I could do most of the work ahead of time and just throw things  under the broiler at the last minute. Most of the time I marinade the chicken and then put it on the skewers right before I cook it. It's much easier to marinade in a bowl or bag! It's a flexible thing.

I only marinated them about 45 minutes. Since they were in a flat pan I had to flip them over half way to make sure the other side was getting the goodness too.

I had to put them on a rack so that I could broil them. We had an unexpected cold snap you see. I've been waiting a week now for it to end. I am so ready to grill!

I like to throw on some sesame seeds. Distracts the eye from the irregularities of sliced chicken breast.

I broiled the first side 5 minutes and then I flipped them over to finish the other side for another couple of minutes.

There it is! Dinner is ready and the kiddos are right there to be handed pointy sticks!

The molasses caramelizes under the broiler beautifully. The chicken has a lovely salty sweet flavor with hints of ginger and garlic goodness.

The longer you leave the chicken in the marinade the better it is. Could you just stick whole chicken breasts in this marinade and grill them later? Yes you could!

Sweet Soy Chicken

2 lbs chicken breast, cut into strips
1-2 Tbsp sesame seeds
12-16 skewers

for the marinade
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup orange juice
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 tsp Chinese 5 Spice powder,


Mix marinade ingredients and pour over chicken. Marinade at least 1 hour. Two or three hours is ideal. Skewer chicken and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Grill or broil 8-10 minutes, turning once while cooking.

Out Like a Lion

Ah, March in Missouri!

As soon as all my herbs start to come up, we get a small snow storm. With more predicted tomorrow!

Oh the humanity!

Uhm, oh the herbality?

I had to check on them.

Oh rosemary! I don't think you're coming back. You were this same color all winter. Rosemary is the only one of my herbs that's considered a perennial. Yet it never survives the winter. I guess it's a perennial in mediterranean climes only. . . . It makes such beautiful flavors in potatoes and chicken and beef. Rosemary is piney and . . . and . . . muscular. Strong and vibrant flavor!

Flat leaf parsley! I can't wait to not have to pay for you anymore! So good at adding a hit of gentle bitter to a salad. It's herbaceousness for the herb challenged. You know the people who say they don't like basil, thyme, etc. . . freaks. I shouldn't judge . . .

. . . misfits . . .

Peppermint! Okay, I'm not sure but I suspect the peppermint could survive nuclear armegeddon. Where would I be without you though? We use you in ice tea and mojitos! I will admit I do add it to Greek salad and some yogurt dips. It's so fresh and peppery! Goodness, I bet that's why they call it PEPPERmint! I eventually figure things out you see.

Tarragon? Goodness what has gotten into you? I've spent years trying to find a good tasty tarragon to grow. It always is lackluster and barely survives. Two years ago I picked you up at the local hardware store. You were redolent of anise and survived! When you came back last year I was shocked. I went on vacation and by the time I got back you had literally mobbed your assertive next door neighbor sage. This year? Well this year? Just look at you!

There may be a doping scandal going on in my herb garden right now . . .

Sage, honey! You can do it. Come back! I won't let tarragon get to you anymore! Your beautiful silvery leaves are essential when I'm grilling! I like to throw a few of sage's branches on the charcoal when I'm cooking a chicken. They mingle well.

Oh thyme! What would I do without you. You're going to make it stronger and bigger than ever!

Savory! I bought you because you were mislabeled! You were the worst flat leaf parsley I had ever tasted. Then as you grew taller and taller I realized. You MUST be savory! You smell like celery. You taste like celery concentrated 50X. I really haven't found anything wonderful to do with you yet but you're sort of pretty so I keep you around . . .

Oregano . . . you are a sad disappointment. You're not a very tasty variety! You grow faster than the peppermint! You're coming out and I'm putting in a field of cilantro to replace you.

Basil? Are you in there? I suspect not. I even let you go to "seed." Something is coming up but I'm thinking its weeds . . .

Looks like I'm going to be buying some rosemary, basil, and cilantro this year. We'll do a hot pepper plant too of course! I'm going to try to get my husband to let me have some tomatoes . . . maybe in a pot? Any other herbs you'd recommend? Has anyone seen a curry plant around locally? Maybe I'll grow a fennel plant! I love fresh fennel.

What are you putting in the garden this year?

I need a zucchini supplier . . .