Sunny-side up eggs atop baked potato pancakes

Eggs and toast are David and my usual weekend breakfast fare. Every Saturday and Sunday morning we choose between scrambled versus over-easy, toast a couple slices of bread, and put on a pot of coffee. The Recipe Redux challenge for this month is breakfast, so I’ve been experimenting with egg-based dishes on weekend mornings instead. I wanted to include both eggs and potatoes — two of my favorite foods that usually get a bad rap. Neither is actually a deal-breaker for people looking to eat healthy, and this recipe showcases both ingredients’ flavors without adding a ton of fat and salt. Instead of frying the potato pancakes, I baked them with a minimal amount of oil at a fairly high temperature to ensure they’d get a nice brown, crisp exterior.  The pairing of runny egg yolk with a starchy base is a classic combination, and swapping these potato pancakes in place of toast or English muffins worked well.

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Sage and Walnut Risotto

I created this recipe based on the recent Food52 challenge to combine the flavors of sage and walnuts. Toasting the walnuts and gently crisping the sage in the rendered pancetta fat transforms the ingredients and intensifies their flavors.

After traveling for the holidays last month, I came home to a DVR loaded with episodes of Chopped and spent last week catching up. In one episode a contestant was eliminated because she cooked a risotto using only simmering water, not stock. I’ve written before about how the clerks in my neighborhood shops prefer skipping the broth in favor of water. When I make my own stock, I do tend to use it when I make risotto, but if you’re making a dish with more subtle flavors or without a central protein, the saltiness can overwhelm other ingredients. With this recipe, I dilute a few cups of stock with water, which lets the flavors of the toasted walnuts and crisped sage come through. Then I stir in a small amount of Parmesan cheese to add a little depth.

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Saveur’s Pickled Shrimp

I made this pickled shrimp recipe from Saveur magazine at least four times over the past few weeks, and I’m sure they’ll keep finding their way into my menu planning throughout the spring and summer months, too. My family always serves shrimp on Christmas Eve, and this works well as an elegant holiday appetizer. I could also see it being a convenient and portable snack for Super Bowl parties. I’ve been lucky enough to stumble upon a few new recipes this fall that will make their way into my repertoire, but I’m kind of surprised that this is one of them. For one, the shrimps are marinated overnight, so it’s not the kind of dish that can be a last-minute menu idea. But each time I’ve made it and brought it to parties or dinners, it’s gotten rave reviews.

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Cheddar & Black Pepper Scones

I returned Saturday from a great 2-week vacation to the Midwest, visiting both David’s and my family for Christmas. It was a great holiday, in part because I found this waiting for me under the tree on Christmas morning (thank you David!).

I am actually an owner (shareholder) of the Green Bay Packers. Of course there’s thousands of us, but it’s still fun. The Packers have had a great season, and since I’m no longer working Sundays at the restaurant, I’ve been able to catch every single game. And every Sunday I wake up thinking it’s a great idea to make cheddar biscuits, cheddar scones, or beer bread. But as lazy Sundays go, I never quite managed to get a batch together before the game started.

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