WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOODBLOGGING

Since She Who Must Be Obeyed is usually off attending classes Wednesday evenings, it’s Bachelor Food Night for Elisson.

Tonight I did a little multitasking. SWMBO was on the hook for a couple of pans of Breakfast Strata, so I volunteered to prep them while she was at class. That way, all she has to do is fire up the oven in the morning and she’ll be good to go.

Breakfast Strata

5 cups day-old bread, cubed
4 links sweet Italian sausage
½ cup chopped onion
¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
6 oz Monterey Jack, Cheddar, or Colby cheese, shredded
1 ½ cups milk
6 eggs
1 tsp dry mustard
¼ tsp nutmeg (optional)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Spray a 9 x 9 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray and throw in the cubed bread. Remove the sausage from the casing and brown well; scatter the crumbled, browned sausage over the bread.

Using about 1-2 tbsp of oil from the sun-dried tomatoes, sweat the chopped onion until it is soft and translucent. Chop up the sun-dried tomatoes and add them to the onions. Add in the rosemary and stir together to mix. Remove from the heat and scatter the onion-tomato-rosemary mixture over the sausage and bread.

Cover the whole mess with the shredded cheese.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, mustard, nutmeg, salt, and pepper until blended well. Dump this on top of the stuff that’s already in the pan. Now, cover the pan and refrigerate at least ten hours, or overnight.

When you’re ready to prepare the strata, allow it to come to room temperature and bake in a 350°F oven for ~30-45 minutes, or until the eggs are set. Serve it forth and enjoy.

Will feed a small army, or two desperately hungry individuals.

While I was throwing this together for SWMBO, I decided to have a Small, Yet Manly Dinner. Sliced heirloom tomato, with scattered bleu cheese crumbles on top and a healthy squirt of olive oil. A puddle of balsamic on the plate and a twist or two of fresh pepper – so much for the Salad Course.

The entreé consisted of an inch-thick slab of sirloin, seasoned, oiled, and grilled until a perfect medium-rare. For plate decoration and Starchy Goodness, buttered green peas.

All of this washed down with a cool Orval Trappist Ale.



For dessert? Fresh strawberries with a little drizzle of half-and-half, followed by a healthy shot of Fernet Branca to help move this whole Bolus o’ Goodness through the kishkes. And perhaps a small cup of coffee.

And the best part of all this is, She Who Must Be Obeyed ditched class and came home early, so I didn’t have to eat this whole mess by myself. Yay, Wednesday!