Derby Day Brunch

Off to the Races! I hosted a brunch on Saturday for members of one of the organizations I belong to. This group of women shares special friendships and enjoys a good time together. In honor of the Kentucky Derby and the Eureka community's history of horse racing, we chose a Derby Day theme. 
As I searched for Southern style foods to serve on a spring (wish Mother Nature would have checked the calendar!) morning, I found several ideas. We did reject the ideas of grits, Kentucky bourbon, and fried chicken; but chose a Bacon Cheese Frittata, Sour Cream Bundt Coffee Cake, Fruit Salad with mint sprigs, and fake mimosas (with ginger ale instead of champagne). Decor included a Kentucky Derby flag to greet guests at the front door, candy favors in tiny trophy cups, and 3 horse centerpieces including a bronze horse awarded to the retired-vet husband of a cohostess. 
We had a wonderful time with our morning of brunch, meeting and visiting. The program - Hearts and Flowers - given by a member even tied in to the theme with the story of racehorse "Secretariat", the 1973 Derby winner. 

Here are the recipes. The Frittata basic recipe is similar to a quiche without a crust, or a baked omelet. This recipe is small enough for a light family supper. I doubled the recipe for each of two 13 x 9-inch casserole dishes and cut 15 servings from each pan. It did take longer to bake in the larger pans - about 45 minutes.  After baking, I covered the pans with foil and turned the oven off to keep the Frittatas warm until serving. This makes a good breakfast casserole type of dish as it it lighter than many, without bread, crust or potatoes, so you can serve a quick bread with it. 

Bacon Cheese Frittata Recipe:

Basic egg mixture:

6 eggs

½ cup milk

¼ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Dash of paprika

Other Ingredients:

¼ cup chopped green onion  
5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

(add additional ingredients as you like. I used asparagus, green and red sweet peppers, chopped tomatoes and sliced mushrooms as well. I also sprinkled chopped fresh chives over the top of the egg mixture.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray the baking dish (pie plate or quiche dish) with cooking oil (butter flavor is preferred).

Then arrange the ingredients in the dish…. Make it look attractive…

Pour the egg mixture over the ingredients.

Veggies - tomatoes, green & red peppers, mushrooms,
green onions & asparagus in the bottom of pan.

Cheese is added to the veggies. 

Then egg and milk mixture. Ready to go in the oven. 

Bake the Fritatta for about 25-30 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Do not let the frittata brown too much on top, if you see yours browning, lay a piece of foil over it to keep it from getting too dark.  Allow time for the Frittata to set before attempting to cut it, about 5-7 minutes. About 8 servings. 

Sour Cream Bundt Coffee Cake

Ingredients

⅔ cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

Batter:

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

 ¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

confectioners’ sugar

Directions

·      In a small bowl, combine the pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition.

·      Pour half of the batter into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan; sprinkle with half of the pecan mixture. Gently top with remaining batter and pecan mixture.

·      Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. 

·      Yield: 16 servings.

 How ever you placed your bets, these recipes are winners! 

Very Most Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chewy, soft, sweet, chocolatey, mmmm. My very favorite recipe for Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. When they're warm from the oven I can easily slip into a sugar overload, especially when I tell myself they must be healthy, they have oatmeal!
I've always know cookies were thicker and more chewy if I refrigerated the dough before baking, but never really knew why. This month's Cuisine At Home magazine explained all that. They recommend chilling the dough until it's very cold. This way, the fat stays firm long enough for the shape of the cookies to set, meaning they won't spread thin and become crispy. Chilling also allows the proteins (gluten strands in the flour) to relax and the liquid to absorb, giving the cookies better texture and flavor. It's also important to let the cookie sheets cool between batches, then let the cookies cool completely on the sheets after baking. (if you can leave them alone long enough to cool!)

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies      (from Taste of Home, adapted)                      

 1 cup butter, softened (I use 1 stick/1/2 cup each of butter and margarine)
3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
3 cups quick-cooking oats
1 3/4 cups all-purpose (or half all-purpose/half whole wheat) flour
1 package (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding mis
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter/margarine and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the oats, flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded teaspoons 2 inch apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks (or let cool on cookie sheets)

Someone once asked me in my Extension educator job "how do you keep cookies from going stale?" I was stumped! That has never, ever, happened at our house.

Spring Treats

The calendar says it is spring, and all the organizations are having their spring Guest Days, recognition ceremonies,  and other spring activities. But this year the pastel light clothing usually worn to these events has been replaced with what we've been wearing for months - sweaters, dark slacks and heavy socks! I guess Mother Nature hasn't watched the calendar.

Thank You treats from a 4-H Club!

But in spite of the weather, there are some signs of spring. And these special spring events are still spring-like. For most of them the regular members of the sponsoring organization are asked to bring cookies or other treats. When my husband sees me making cookies this time of year, he asks "where are those going?". But we were the lucky recipients  of a box of tasty treats earlier this month. A local 4-H Club presented us with a large box of a variety of cookies to say "Thank you" for being a 4-H Journal sponsor in our county. We certainly enjoyed the treats, and it was nice to bring home cookies someone else made! The beautiful selection is the picture above.

So when it was my time to take cookies to the next event, I was inspired to try something besides my favorite traditional Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip cookie (I can't believe I haven't written a blog on these, I make them frequently - it will come soon!)
I thought these looked and tasted like spring. Both recipes start with a cake mix so they are simple and quick to mix up. Both were good, but the Lemon  were my favorites.

Strawberry Angel Cookies

Strawberry Angel Cookies

Ingredients:

1 (16 oz) pkg. Angel food cake mix

¾ cup Smucker’s Strawberry Sugar Free Preserves or Smucker’s Special Recips Strawberry Preserves

3 tbsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

 

Just a few ingredients!

     1.     Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray baking sheets with no-stick cooking spray. (even if you use parchment paper, spray it).

     2.     Beat together cake mix and preserves (do not add water) at low speed of electric mixer for 1 minute or until evenly moistened. Continue to beat an additional 1 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet

Its a meringue like batter

  3.     Bake 10 – 12 minutes or until tops are just lightly browned. Cool 1 minute on baking sheet. Place on cooling rack to cool completely. Cookies will be soft and chewy.

Store between sheets of wax paper to keep from sticking together.

From Taste of Home

Lemon Cookies

Ingredients:

 (18.25 oz) package lemon cake mix

2 eggs

⅓ cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. lemon extract

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar for decoration

1.     Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.     Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended.  Form into balls (about 1 ½ tablespoon each) and roll in a bowl of confectioners’ sugar to cover.

3.     Set cookies on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6 – 9 minutes. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy.

I'm anxious to try these with other flavors - orange cake mix + orange extract - strawberry cake mix + strawberry extract - or even cherry!

From Allrecipes. Com

A Chicken in Every Pot?

Do Americans have a "Chicken in Every Pot"? This phrase with the addition of "and a car in every garage" has been attributed to Herbert Hoover's 1928 Presidential campaign. While it was used in the campaign, history says Hoover never actually said that - but he did urge voters to support him as a vote for prosperity. The original promise can be traced to Henry IV of France (1553-1610). He stated "I want there to be no peasant in my realm so poor that he will not have a chicken in his pot every Sunday". It's hard to imagine that scarcity when we see the abundance of food available in today's U.S. grocery stores! Sometimes we forget how fortune we are when we're 'just serving chicken'.

This recipe for Baked Chicken Parmesan has become one of our favorites and does make chicken a special meal. It is not only easier than the traditional preparation on the range top, but it is healthier by being baked instead of fried. It is out of season for basil in my garden, so I used 2 teaspoons of dried basil and mixed it with the other seasonings and oil. Two pounds of chicken makes several servings, and it does reheat well. IF you reheat it in the oven cover with foil so the cheese doesn't overbrown and fuse together. Or reheat in the microwave. It's just as tasty a couple of days later as when first served!

Easy Chicken Parmesan Bake

Ingredients:

5-oz package of garlic croutons

2 Tbs. olive oil

2 cloves garlic (minced)

½ teaspoon dried oregano

2 pounds chicken tenders (or breasts cut into strips)

5-6 fresh basil leaves (chiffonade) 

2 cups tomato sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

salt and ground black pepper

Instructions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place garlic croutons in a plastic bag and pound with a meat pounder or heavy object until they are crushed into smaller pieces (not tiny breadcrumbs). Set aside.

2.     In a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish, drizzle olive oil. Add chicken, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. Stir well to coat the chicken pieces with the oil and spices. Spread the fresh basil on top.

3.     Pour tomato sauce on top of the chicken, distributing evenly. Slide into a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove (leave oven on).

4.     Spread half of the mozzarella and Parmesan evenly over the sauce. Next sprinkle all of the crushed croutons onto the sauce. Finish with a sprinkling of the remainder of the two cheeses.

5.     Return the pan to the oven for another 25 – 30 minutes. The casserole is done when all cheeses are well melted. Remove pan from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting into squares or spooning onto plates.