Watermelon Caprese Salad: Christmas Eve Brunch Menu

I was so proud of myself for coming up with this riff on a tasty cold soup we had in Mexico, only to discover that lots of other people on the internet had the same idea! Oh well. It's pretty tasty all the same.

chunked watermelon
cherry tomatoes
fresh mozzarella
salt
fresh basil leaves
good olive oil

Combine watermelon, tomatoes, basil and mozzarella in desired quantities, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil. Stir and devour!

Boozy French Toast: Christmas Eve Brunch Menu

(adapted from The Smitten Kitchen)

This was a hit. A little like a bread pudding, with a sticky caramel topping and custardy French toast texture, this is much easier than the fried versions Brazilians do or even the American weekend staple. Make it ahead of time and all you'll need to do in the morning is pop it into the oven! We served ours alone, but maple syrup wouldn't hurt...

1/2 loaf of stale French (or other) bread, sliced or chunked
3 eggs
1 cup milk
pinch of salt
ground cinnamon, nutmeg or clove
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (for non-boozy version)
2 T (or to taste) of your favorite liquor (Frangelico, Amaretto, Bailey's, etc...)

Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
2-3 T butter
1 T sweetened condensed milk

Put butter and brown sugar in the bottom of a glass baking pan or pie plate and microwave on high for one minute, until bubbly. Stir, microwave for another minute and then stir in the sweetened condensed milk to make a caramel. Grease the sides of the pan. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, milk, booze or vanilla, salt and seasonings to taste. Soak the chunks or slices of bread into the egg mixture, then lay over the caramel until the bread is used up. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator overnight, then bake at about 400 F for 30-40 minutes or until dry/golden on top. Turn out onto a serving dish and serve warm.

Looks are everything

I admit it. I care, terribly, about appearances. In my opinion, presentation is the second most important aspect of wowing people with the fruits of your kitchen labors. (Taste comes first, obviously). No matter how easy the dish, if it looks elegant on the plate, it will be perceived as more “gourmet,” with better flavor and more preparation time than one with identical ingredients served right out of the baking dish and slopped into a bowl.

Food styling, food plating...you can google these terms and come up with more than you ever imagined existed in the realm of putting dinner on your dishes. Growing up, with five kids, my mother served almost everything out of baking dishes. Since I don’t need that much practicality in my life right now, I like to get a little bit artistic with every meal. Now, I’m not a queen of plating, by any standards, but I wanted to share a couple of examples of what breakfast looks like in our house. Nothing really fancy. After all, it is the most rushed meal of the day.

This is really the only rule I follow when it comes to putting meals out on the table:

Pay attention to colors in both your foods AND dishes.

I like white plates because they don’t compete with my foods; when we married, V- had green plates, which are lovely but tended to make food look blah. I try to plan my meals with plenty of color variation as well. This ensures you’re getting a nutritional meal: if you’re eating a brown or beige themed meal, I can almost guarantee that it’s carb and protein happy with barely a real vegetable in sight (unless you’re big on turnips and cauliflower).

In the first picture (the scrambled eggs and fruit salad), note the ADORABLE fluted bowls we received as a wedding present from my sister. They are so, so, so useful!




Photo #2 is from breakfast today: a simple egg casserole (basically, scrambled eggs poured over some chunky bread crumbs, cheese and some bacon/onion/peppers that had been previously sautéed) and a citrus salad (orange, grapefruit and lime).



I peeled the oranges and grapefruit, sliced them into rounds and squeezed half of the lime over the slices, topping it off with a little honey drizzled over everything. I peeled thin strips from the lime rind in a symmetrical pattern, diced them fine and dumped over the top for a bit of lime zest and extra color. The zested lime, now decoratively striped as a result of the missing peel, perched on the edge of the salad. It took five minutes (the oranges were already peeled as I’d used them for candied orange peel; I just plastic baggied the naked oranges overnight). I’m not sure we would have eaten two oranges and a grapefruit for breakfast if they’d just been sitting in a bowl on the table...this way, we licked the plate clean!

Beyond the pretty quotient, there’s another reason why attractive plating is worth considering. Beautiful food may actually encourage appropriate portion sizes, helping control overeating. I prepare our plates in the kitchen and bring them to the table restaurant-style. Everything is already on the plate and if seconds are desired, we have to get up and serve ourselves from the kitchen. As we’re fairly lazy, it takes a little while to decide whether it’s worth it to get up, which gives our stomachs time to say “Enough! Full!”

Cream Cheese Dip

package of cream cheese
plain yogurt
fresh herbs
ground pepper
salt

Mix the cream cheese with enough yogurt to get the consistency you desire, them stir in finely chopped herbs, ground pepper and a little salt. I've got sage and basil on my windowsill, so I used that with a little dill I had sitting up in the cupboard. Yummy with all those fresh vegetable sticks or those bad-for-you-buttery crackers.

Word Made Flesh Lunch Party Menu

The recipe for the Soy-Ginger Chicken can be found here; the Banana Pudding here.

My only alterations for the recipes were:
-used a mix of chicken thighs and breasts
-used more soy sauce on account of the Brazilian stuff being weak
-added a bit more water, as we wanted plenty of sauce
-no cilantro (didn't have any in the house)

For the pudding, it's best if you temper the eggs, by adding a little of the warmed, but not boiling, custard to the beaten eggs and thinning them out as you raise their temperature. Then, when it's time to add the yolks, pour slowly while whisking with a vengeance. This ensures your egg yolks won't turn into nasty scrambled clots instead of creamy pudding! I didn't bother with the meringue because I don't have a broiler.

For the oriental salad, I shredded or diced Chinese cabbage, carrots, celery and celery tops, broccoli, red bell peppers, and green onions. About an hour before we were ready to eat, I whisked up a dressing with the following ingredients and quantity approximations:

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I added a little sesame oil too)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2-4 T soy sauce
1/4 cup white sugar (but honey would also work nicely)
1 T jaboticaba jam (for a hint of fruit flavor)
1 teaspoon pepper

Toss the dressing with the salad. Add some cooked shredded chicken if you'd like a bit of protein or a more substantial salad.

If you want crunchy noodles, crush up a packet of ramen noodles, toast with almonds in a touch of oil in the saucepan (or bake in the oven until golden brown). Pronto!

Amish Caramel Sauce/Molho de Caramelo

This is really divine on ice cream, over plain cake, in crepes, with fruit...and it keeps well in the refrigerator.

American Version:

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter, salt and sugar together on the stove and stir frequently. Bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat, allow to cool slightly and add the other ingredients. Can be served hot or chilled.

Versão brasileira:

1 copo americano de açucar mascavo (eu prefiro misturar um pouco de açucar refinando com o mascavo para não ser tão escura)
100 gramas de manteiga (com ou sem sal dependendo da sua preferência)
1/2 copo americano de creme de leite
pitada de sal
um colher de chá (ou menos) de essência de baunilha

Leve a açucar, o sal e a manteiga ao fogo médio e mexe bem até que comecar a ferver. Deixe ferver por 2 a 3 minutos, sem parar de mexer com o colher para não grudar e queimar. Desligue o fogo, deixe esfriar só um pouco, e acrescentar a creme, o sal e a baunilha. Pronto! Pode ser servido quente ou frio.

Granola

Definitely a "dump" recipe, this is our go to breakfast. With fresh fruit and yogurt, it's a great way to start off the morning.

I keep the syrup recipe on a sticky note on the refrigerator, so it's always handy, as I have to make a batch every 15 days or so.

Granola:

2-3 cups oats
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped or whole nuts of your choice
1/4 cup seeds (sesame, pepitas, sunflower, etc)

Place in a large pan and toast in the oven until lightly browned. While toasting, make the syrup.

Syrup:
1 t salt
1 t or more of cinnamon
other spices as desired (nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, etc)
1 t vanilla
1/4 cup syrup (maple, honey, corn or a combination...or make your own sugar syrup with equal parts sugar and water)
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2-3 T flax seeds, preferably soaked in a little water

Mix together in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar has dissolved and peanut butter melts. Remove granola from the oven, and pour syrup over granola mixture, stirring well to coat. Put the pan back into the oven to toast for 15-20 minutes.

Let cool completely, add dried fruits if desired, and store in an airtight container.

Cilantro, lime and hot pepper are the key to marital bliss

Really.

When I made this, my husband grinned, lavished me with compliments, ate seconds AND did the dishes afterwards.

Need I say more?

It's so, so easy and would have been about a 15 minute meal if I hadn't bought whole shrimp, which needed deveining and shelling and decapitating. Next time, I'll go for the frozen kind, I think!

(Take out the meat and this is still tasty, a great vegetarian/vegan option for those so inclined.)

Many thanks to Gina whose recipe was my starting point.

Cilantro-lime shrimp stew with Tabasco rice

2 tomatoes
1/2 bunch cilantro, divided
3 green onions
1/2 bell pepper (green, yellow, or red)
3 garlic cloves
olive oil
500 grams shrimp, deveined, etc...
salt, to taste
red pepper flakes, to taste
Tabasco sauce, to taste
lime juice (about 2)
1 cup coconut milk (or more if you'd like)
rice
water

Dice all the vegetables. In a saucepan, prepare your rice according to package directions with one change: add several good shakes of Tabasco to the cooking water. While the rice is cooking, pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil into a deep skillet and cook the bell pepper five minutes. Add the garlic, 2/3 of the green onions and 1/2 the cilantro, cooking until the garlic is fragrant (about 4 more minutes). Dump in your tomatoes, coconut milk, salt and hot sauce/peppers. Allow to cook for 10 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, check the rice. If it's done, put it into a serving bowl with the rest of the cilantro, green onions and the juice from one lime. Stir to combine and set aside. Return to the sauce, and add the shrimp and the rest of the lime juice, cooking until the shrimp turn pink, and serve over the rice.

*I had some leftover salsa in the fridge, which I dumped into the sauce at the end...this is a great recipe for cleaning out the fridge!!!

Yogurt and Yogurt Cheese

We're making cheesecake here today (yes, I am speaking of myself in the plural, just feeling a bit "royal" at the moment). I could be on the beach, but that feels too decadent and inappropriate, given that everyone else I know if working hard in some air-conditioned office. Now, the big issue with cheesecake is cost and calories. Here in Rio, a 150 g packet of cream cheese runs you R$4.99, a little less when it's on sale. According to one of my recipes, I'd need NINE packets to make a good cake. Ouch. Now, I have some leftover mascarpone in the fridge, as well as a big container of homemade yogurt. Yogurt on its own is too thin to use in cheesecake, but if it's strained overnight in cheesecloth, you'll have a thicker substance that subs in nicely for some of the fattier cream cheese. I usually substitute up to 1/2 of the cream cheese in a recipe for yogurt cheese and add a tablespoon of flour to help thicken the mixture.

What is this homemade yogurt stuff? I hear someone asking.
It's pure, cheap heaven, that's what it is. I've been making cardamom lassi (hm, what's the plural of this?), yogurt parfaits and so forth with all the extra yogurt we don't know what to do with! Here's how to make your own, followed by yogurt cheese directions.

Yogurt

1 container (single serving) plain, unsweetened yogurt with active cultures
powdered milk (whole is good, but I've heard skim works as well)
Clean pot and stirring utensils
Plastic Film

Mix up your powdered milk with 1 liter of water according to package directions. Add a little bit more powder--you want the milk to be a tad more concentrated than the directions call for. Heat the milk slowly until it begins to form a film; remove from heat before it boils. Allow to cool. When the milk is room temperature, stir in the yogurt, cover the container with plastic film and place in a warm place (about 90-100 F) for 6-10 hours. I wrap my container in a big towel and place it in a warm oven (some people just turn the oven light on) overnight. In the morning, I have yogurt! The tangy yogurt flavor improves after a day or so. Obviously, please refrigerate after the yogurting process is achieved!


Yogurt Cheese

Cheesecloth
Strainer
Bowl
Yogurt

Line a strainer with damp cheesecloth (2-3 layers) and place over a bowl. Pour your yogurt into the cheesecloth, cover with a lid or plastic film and allow to sit overnight in the refrigerator. Scrape off the cheesecloth in the morning and refrigerate until ready to use.

Ina Dell's Chocolate Pie

This recipe comes from a friend of mine in Peru. It is phenomenal. I describe this as "the inside of an undercooked brownie" pie. The recipe makes two pies. You'll want both. Trust me.

4 1/2 squares of bitter baking chocolate*
3 sticks butter (the real stuff)
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 lightly beaten eggs

Melt the butter and chocolate in a saucepan. Remove from heat, let cool and then add the sugar, vanilla and eggs. Pour into an unbaked or pre-baked pie crust (a salty crust is a good counterpoint to this pie) and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. The center should be loose and gooey. Don't overbake! Allow to cool and set before eating or cutting.


* Substitution is 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon oil/butter for every square of chocolate.

Cayenne Cheese Sticks

These would have been sprinkled with sesame seeds, but I forgot. They're phenomenally easy and a great way to use up those cheese rinds in your freezer. You DO save your ends and bits, right? I keep a plastic bag with all the tiny bits of cheese that are left over from other projects just for this recipe. It doesn't matter what you use: this particular batch was a mixture of mozzarella, Swiss and Parmesan, but you can use whatever you have on hand.

1/4 pound (about 1 1/2 cups) grated cheese
1 cup flour
3/4 stick unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cayenne (or more if you're brave)
1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Pulse all ingredients but milk in a food processor (or use your hands) until it resembles coarse meal. Add milk and form into a ball. Knead a little to combine. Roll out dough on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into strips, transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes, until golden.* Switch racks halfway through baking time. Cool on racks and store in airtight containers.

*If you're blessed or cursed with a gas oven, as I am, note that it's best to cook these on parchment paper. Halfway through the cooking, remove the pan from the oven, pick up the edges of the paper and lift out the crackers, then carefully flip them over into the pan again. This ensures that both sides get nice and brown. (If they don't, you can always double-bake, like biscotti).

Quail Eggs with Truffle Mayonnaise

Hard-boiled quail eggs are a breeze. Have a big bowl of ice water waiting in the wings. Fill up a saucepan with water an a good teaspoon or so of white vinegar. Gently lay your eggs in, bring the water to a boil and then count off 2 minutes 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and remove the eggs with a slotted spoon, transferring them to the ice water. After they've cooled, carefully remove the shells. There's definitely a trick to this, as the membrane is pretty tough, so plan on cooking at least a few extra than you need, as a few will break open. Or, as was my case, slip out of your fingers, get squashed between a thigh and the cupboards and STILL manage to end up under the stove. (It tasted fine, once the shell came off, but was cracked and un-pretty. You want pretty to serve to company!)

These babies have such beautiful spotted shells that I'm contemplating only half-shelling them, and accenting with a green onion bow around their cute little middles.

The truffle mayo is simply a drop of truffle oil (white or black) and a good grind of black pepper. Not authentic, I know, but do I look like someone who can afford truffles in or out of season???

Cheese Plate

If you serve a cheese platter, don't forget to let the cheese get to room temperature first. That's where the flavor really shines! Just ask my father...I think I might have gotten them hooked on real Parmesan the last time I visited. There's NO COMPARISON to the white fluff you've been shaking over pasta for the last 20 years! And for eating with some crackers while watching movies or playing chess, well, it's sensational.

For the birthday dinner, we'll be serving 4 cheeses. The first three aren't "authentic" being Brazilian in origin, but they should be fine:

1) a crunchy, salty Brazilian Grana
2) Brie
3) Boursin-like cheese with fresh herbs
4) Cablanca from Holland. It was on sale, and turns out to be a good "entry-level" goat cheese, according to online reviews.

I'm not a big fan of "stinky" cheese and really have to be in the mood for it, so I've stayed with rather safe options for the evening. If you're more adventurous, more power to you!