Cornbread Breakfast Casserole

Back in September, Steven and I took a mini-staycation.  I know you'll hardly be able to contain yourselves when you hear what we did...

We purged and did a thorough cleaning of our bedroom.  Exciting right?  Honestly, our bedroom really needed it, after having the 4 kids living with us and re-arranging our space to accommodate them, then remodeling to give them better spaces, our bedroom became the dumping ground for everything that didn't otherwise have a home in our house.  So we purged and we cleaned and we purged and cleaned some more.  Boy, does our bedroom look great, even now, several months later. That was day 1 of our staycation.  For day 2, to reward ourselves for getting that huge chore done, we drove to the college town of Ellensburg - which is just on the other side of the Cascade Mountains from where we live - to see my brother, whom we hadn't seen recently.  He'd just moved to a new place, which we toured, and where I got my kitty fix (after having been catless for the entire summer... a problem which we recently remedied), treated my brother to lunch, walked around downtown Ellensburg, which is very nice, and came back home.  During our tour of the downtown, we visited a couple of galleries and I picked up this little gem of a cookbook.  I do a lot of outdoor cooking workshops with my friend, Janet of Chuck Wagoneer and I'm always on the lookout for good breakfast recipes for us to try.  This cookbook is really excellent because it's truly written for outdoor cooking with your dutch oven right down to details like how many coals to put on the bottom and how many coals to put on your lid.

Anyway, there are some recipes in there that I was really excited to take for a spin and this Cornbread Breakfast Casserole is the first I have tried so far.



The first time I made it was for my gaming group and I thought I had bell peppers at home, only to discover I didn't when I got started making it (don't you hate when that happens?).  It came out just fine, but I felt the sweetness of the cornbread was a bit too strong.  After reviewing the recipe with Janet and her husband, we decided that it was worth trying again, but making sure to include the bell pepper and using green bell pepper instead of red to balance against the sweetness.



So this time around, I've used green bell pepper.  Also, I used Chicken Italian sausage for that first go round, and it was really good, but not everyone is a fan of the fennel that's commonly found in Italian sausage.  This time around, I decided to spice it up with some Chorizo.  I also used the entire can of diced green chiles - the recipe calls for 2 tablespoons, which is 2/3 of the can anyway - and we couldn't really tell they were there.  Because Janet's husband has some dietary restrictions that eliminate whole kernel corn from his diet, I omitted that as well.  Last, but not least, I used both Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese for this dish and used 1 1/2 cups total, rather than a single cup.  I wanted the creaminess of the Monterey Jack to offset the spiciness of the Chorizo.



This is an excellent recipe.  When we do cooking workshops we always have a couple people with one food allergy or another and gluten free requests have become very common - this recipe just happens to be gluten free - so you don't have to make any additional substitutions or adjustments to the recipe to accommodate folks with gluten allergies.  Its super versatile - use any color bell pepper and your favorite bulk sausage; use whatever cheese you have on hand - or leave it out.  Jalapeno would be a nice addition to the cornbread for those who like it spicey.



The cornbread is dense but moist, and the eggs bring it all together.  By-the-way, I know it seems like a lot of salt and pepper, but I've put it in as per the recipe both times and it's definitely not too salty, neither is it too peppery.



There are a couple things I did differently for use in my home kitchen.
1) I used one skillet for the whole thing.  (Easy to do at home, but I'd probably prepare it as instructed at camp.)  Today it completely slipped my mind to do that until I already had the cornbread in the oven.
2) I adjusted the cooking time for the cornbread base, and also for the final step.  Not to worry, I'll post the recipe as I feel works best for the home kitchen - if you're going to make this at camp, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this excellent dutch oven cookbook.



Cornbread Breakfast Casserole
(serves 8)

Filling:
1 pound ground sausage or chorizo
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp cumin

In a 12 inch cast iron skillet or dutch oven (the size is important, if you use a different size, plan on adjusting cooking time) brown sausage with onion and bell pepper.  Stir in garlic and cumin. Remove mixture from skillet and set aside.

Wipe out skillet with a paper towel.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place skillet in the oven to preheat while you prepare the cornbread base.

Cornbread Base:
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
4 TBLS melted butter
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1 can (14.5 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained (optional)
1 can (3.3 oz) diced green chiles

Add baking soda to buttermilk and set aside while you assemble the rest of the base ingredients.  In a large bowl, combine melted butter, cornmeal, sugar, salt, egg, corn and chiles and mix well.  Add buttermilk and stir to combine.  Pour cornbread mixture into preheated skillet and bake for 7 1/2 minutes.  Remove skillet from the oven top with sausage mixture.  Set aside while you prepare the eggs.

Eggs:
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3/4 cup Cheddar cheese, grated
3/4 cup Monterey jack cheese, grated

In a large bowl combine eggs, milk, salt and pepper and beat until well combined.  Pour mixture over the cornbread and sausage.  Bake 35 minutes.  Turn oven off.  Remove from oven and sprinkle the cheeses on top.  Place back in turned off oven for approximately 5 minutes, just until cheese melts.

Enjoy!

Huevos Rancheros for 2

Some things are just easier to cook for 2 (or one). Fried eggs are definitely one of those things - or at least I think they are. I prefer my fried eggs to be served immediately upon coming out of the pan, they just aren't the same if you have to hold them and keep them warm for a substantial amount of time. So I find Huevos Rancheros to be an ideal recipe for 2 (or one).

I actually picked up this technique from watching Rachel Ray - she made it on 30 Minute Meals once and I immediately had to try it. In my version I've added steamed rice in a decidedly untraditional twist, but the method is otherwise the same.

This is a great dish for any time of day - we tend to have it for a quick dinner when we haven't planned anything and, honestly, you can make it in less than 30 minutes easily, if you are making it for one or two people.

I'm sorry to say I am totally guilty of deciding as I was finishing this dish (and just couldn't resist taking a picture) that I wanted to include it for the blog (it's true, I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants blogger) so I didn't take pictures along the way, but it's really simple to make and, like a lot of my "recipes", it's really more about the method than a specific recipe.

This is an especially good dish to make when you have leftover beans and/or rice in the fridge and tortillas hanging around. I try to keep a small variety of canned beans in my pantry for occassions like this when I just haven't planned ahead for dinner (you'd be surprised how often that is considering how much I like to cook).

Huevos Rancheros

1 can (15 oz) pinto beans or black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup cooked rice (optional), warm
1 can (4 oz) diced, fire roasted green chilis
2 green onions, chopped
2 tbls taco sauce or salsa
1 tsp Ground Cumin
2 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Ground Coriander
1 tsp Cilantro
Salt & Pepper to taste
approx 1/4 cup chicken stock, beer or water
2-4 corn or flour tortillas (1-2 per person depending on size)
2-4 eggs (1-2 per person, to personal preference)
2 oz Shredded Cheddar or Monterey Jack Cheese (optional)
2-4 eggs (2 per person)

Have two plates or pasta bowls ready for plating before you start cooking so you can "build" the dish as each component is complete.

Place beans in a small saucepan on medium low heat. Add taco sauce or salsa (I used green taco sauce but I have used salsa in the past too), green onions (reserving a few for garnish), spices and stock, beer or water - just enough to keep everything moist (you can add more later if you need to). Stir occassionally. Just let the beans hang out getting heated through and soaking up some tasty flavors and keeping an eye on them while you get everything else together .

Heat tortillas over the open flame of your gas stove or in a dry, cast iron skillet - just until blistered and warm through. Place them right on your plates or bowls.

When the beans are heated through, fry the eggs according to your personal preference.

On each plate, top tortillas with about 1/2 cup rice, 1/2 of the beans and fried eggs. Top with shredded cheese and sprinkle with reserved green onions. Serve immediately.

Scrambled Egg & Rice Casserole - For 2 Please!

I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer - I know I have - I hope you're not all out there melting in overly-hot temperatures. Our sunshine returned Thursday afternoon and we have had lovely, sunny and not too hot weather since then, in fact this weekend has been as close to perfect as any.

I got to talk to my best friend on the phone today and catch up with her (more like download). I made a delicious, summery dinner tonight that my spouse complimented me on several times. And now I'm watching one of my many favorite movies, Top Gun, while my wonderful husband enjoys a football game over at the bachelor pad (my brother-in-law lives in an apartment above our detached garage/shop).

Remember this from my last post?

I promised to share what I did with those scrambled eggs and, at long last, I am finally getting this post put together.

I believe I may have mentioned that our great neices who were living with us moved out when school got out this year so I've been working at "downsizing" our favorite meals and preparing just enough for the two of us. You might think it's an unusual combination - scrambled eggs and rice - but I first discovered I enjoyed it when I starting having leftover rice with scrambled eggs, ham and cheese on top for breakfast and then my husband took it to a whole new level by turning it into a dinner casserole and we've been eating it for years now. This casserole is certainly one of our favorite go-to meals when we haven't made specific plans for dinner. Its so easy to make - perfect for enlisting the help of the kids if you're making it for a whole family and its so versatile you can add anything you have in the fridge.

There's been a lot of talk about meatless Mondays in the last couple months or so and although we haven't made a habit of necessarily having our meatless dinner on Mondays, we have been trying to have a meatless dinner at least once a week and one of our favorite choices so far has been portabello burgers. The reason I bring this up is that when I fix the mushroom burgers, I save the stems and put them in the fridge to use in another dish later in the week. So for this casserole, I sliced up those wonderful stems. Of course, depending on what you put in it, this dish also qualifies as meatless!

Prepare your favorite type of rice (leftover works great too) and set aside, then scramble up some eggs and set them aside.

Saute the portabello stems (or any other mushrooms you like) in a skillet with a bit of extra virgin olive oil (you can add butter too, if you like). Cook until the mushrooms start to carmelize, then add salt & pepper to taste. Remove them from the skillet and set them aside. Chop up some green onions and set them aside as well. (If you prefer to cook them, you can throw them in with the mushrooms when they are almost ready.)

Let's take a moment to talk ingredient quantity when cooking for two. For the eggs - cook the same number per person as you normally would. In other words, my husband and I normally eat 2 eggs each if we were having fried eggs for breakfast so I prepared 2 eggs per person for this dish. For veggies being added to a casserole or stir fry in most cases I have been prepping a one half serving per person. I've just found that if you prepare a full serving of each vegetable per person, you end up with way more food than 2 people can eat (and far more leftovers than we want too)! So for this dish I used 2 portabello stems (about the equivalent of 2 mushrooms) and half of a green onion. When it comes to cheese, however, I do go ahead and prep a full serving each. After all, it's going to top each dish and really, can you ever have enough cheese ? I mean, really? I'm just sayin'...

Ok, so now that we got that out of the way... Scoop the rice into a casserole dish (or individual ones like I used). My husband really likes to have a bit of EVOO drizzled over the rice at this point - so I did that, just to make him happy, see how I am? Then I grated some parmigiano reggiano cheese over that (because that's how I like it). Now top it with the scrambled eggs, mushrooms and green onions (or anything else you'd like to include).

Top it with shredded cheese - I used Monterey Jack here, which I love because it melts into such a creamy, yummy consistency that, I think, goes especially well with eggs and mushrooms.

Put your casserole dish(es) in a 375 oven just until the cheese melts and starts to bubble, then serve hot (add a salad if you like). I was so hungry and ready to eat this by the time it came out of the oven that I forgot to take a picture!

So here's the recipe, such as it is:

Scrambled Egg and Rice Casserole For 2

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2 cups steamed rice
4 eggs, scrambled
2 portabello mushroom stems, (or 2 small mushrooms of your choice) sauteed
1/2 green onion, chopped
2 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (or any cheese you like)
1 oz. Parmigiano Reggiano, shredded
salt & pepper to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil to taste
Butter (optional) to taste

Prepare a casserole dish or other oven-safe dish with non-stick spray or butter. Spread rice in bottom of dish. Drizzle with EVOO. Sprinkle on Parmesan cheese. Top with scrambled eggs, season to taste, then add mushrooms and green onions. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes, until cheese it melted and bubbly.