Hang Over Cure Breakfast-3 Pepper Black Bean Scramble

Sorry-no pictures! Mirs got wasted with some college friends last night while I was working. My roommates, Casey and Kelly also got wasted. Erika was at work until midnight and then took a cab home with her cute, drunk girl friend and came home to a drunk roommate...

So this morning I made the following breakfast for all three of them, and myself. It was amazing and cured all of their hang overs. Well, it at least made them feel better :)

You Will Need

3-4 Medium Potatoes-Yukon or Russet
small Red Pepper
small Yellow Pepper
small Green Pepper
5-7 Green Onions
Salsa
5 Eggs
Mushrooms
Sour Cream
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Canned black beans
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Butter
Tabasco Sauce
Salt and Pepper

Start with an extra large skillet and coat it with extra virgin olive oil and a teaspoon of butter. Turn your burner to low-medium and wash and cut your potatoes. Cut them length wise in half and then once more in half and then chop them so you have long dices.

When you have all of your potatoes cut, turn your burner on medium high and wait until your olive oil is almost smoking. Add the potatoes to the pan and turn the heat to medium. Watch out! You may get a splatter of oil.

While your potatoes are cooking cut each pepper in half and dice. Only use one half of each pepper. When finished dicing, add the peppers to the potatoes and stir. Next, cut your mushrooms into a long dice and add to the potatoes and stir. Add your green onions next, both white and green pieces. Make sure to stir after.

At this point your potatoes should be soft-ish and possibly browning in places. If not, turn your heat up slightly. Add a bit of salt and black pepper to taste-but not too much, the cheddar will have a little salt in it.

I used a half of a 12 oz can of black beans, rinsed and strained before adding them to the potato mixture. Lastly, I added about 1/4 cup of salsa to the potatoes. Make sure to stir up the salsa and beans to the mixture to bring up to temperature. At this time you can grate some cheddar cheese on top and leave it, it will melt on it's own. Depending on how your potatoes are cooking you can either keep the temperature where it is or turn it to medium low to cook your eggs.

I scrambled 5 eggs with about 10 drops of Tabasco in a separate pan. The Tabasco sauce adds an amazing depth to the taste to the eggs-it's not at all spicy-hot when you cook it in the raw eggs. Soft scramble your eggs in a separate pan until done, adding a bit of salt to them while cooking.

For Plating.

The first layer will be your scrambled eggs, then layer spoonfuls of the potato mixture to the eggs, top with a table spoon of salsa and a dollop of sour cream. I promise you-oh so yummy. Enjoy!

Dinner Tonight; Stewed Tomatoes, Chicken, and Polenta

Also Known as Chicken Caccitore ~You will need

About 8-11 Small Tomatoes (I used the heirloom tomatoes on the vine)

Sun Dried Tomatoes

2 small breasts of chicken cut into cubes

1 small yellow onion

3 cloves of garlic

package of portebella mushrooms

polenta

extra virgin olive oil

butter

red wine
whole milk

parmesean cheese

garlic powder

oregano

basil

salt

pepper

*Start with a small sauce pan and add a sprinkling of of extra virgin olive oil at the bottom of the pan and a small slice of butter. Set the temperature to the lowest setting to melt your butter and warm the oil.

*Meanwhile, cut your onion length wise and then into strips thin strips. Add your onions to the warm oil and butter combination and let them cook, stirring occasionally. They should be soft and browning slightly-you can turn up the heat to medium low.

*While your onions are cooking, rinse and cut your tomatoes into quarters. Make sure to keep all of the juices on your cutting board...it makes everything more yummy!

*So, when your onions are nice and soft you'll be adding your tomatoes and their juices into the pot. Cover the pot with a top and turn your heat to medium-high, stirring constantly.

*While your pot is going, slice up about 10 sun dried tomatoes into slices and add them to your pot as well. Add, salt, pepper, spices as preferred and stir.

*In a separate saute pan, start a bit more oil and a bit more butter to a medium-high saute pan. You'll be adding an entire package of sliced baby portebella mushrooms to the warm oil. Sprinkle the mushrooms with salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and garlic powder to taste. Make sure to let them cook for a bit-about 3-5 minutes before touching them! Gotta let 'em cook.

When your mushrooms are completely cooked-another 5 minutes or so (when they're golden brown) add them to the tomato combination but keep as much oil as possible to the saute pan. Add your wine, stir, and cover your pot. Depending on your stove, you should cook the tomatoes until they turn a rich red color are soft and fragrant. Make sure to taste. I like a lot of spice, so I kept adding them in. It should taste like tomatoes, not salt, though.

Add the cubed chicken to the hot oil and turn temperature up to medium-high. Add the spices and cover to cook. Add more oil to complete cooking and to prevent sticking to the bottom. When your chicken is done cooking-about 10 minutes or so turning frequently. When the chicken is done cooking, add to the tomato sauce. Turn the sauce down to simmer and cook the polenta according to the package instructions.

To the cooked polenta, add 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and pepper to the polenta.

*For plating, add a large spoonful of polenta to the middle of your plate. Add two large spoonfuls of the chicken and tomato sauce directly on top of the polenta. Add grated cheese to top and ENJOY!

Erika's Eggs Florentine

Brunch Today for my girl Mirs, Erika's Eggs Florentine*

I made my version of Eggs Florentine for Mir this morning for brunch. I am now going to share this recipe with you.

Start with corn bread (yes, corn bread) I used the recipe below
1 cup of corn meal
1 cup of organic all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of organic sugar
3 tsps of baking powder
1 tsps sea salt
1/4 cup of organic salted butter
1 cup of organic whole milk
1 organic brown egg
1/2 cup of frozen corn kernels rinsed to thaw out

Pre Heat oven to 425 and grease with butter an 8X8 glass baking dish

Mix the dry ingredients in a larger bowl and the wet ingredients in a small bowl. When the flour mixture is completely mixed, add the milk mixture and stir with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter in the greased dish and back for approximately 25-30 minutes. This can be made a day ahead. Since I used day old corn bread, I fried it slightly in olive oil. You may not need to do this with just made bread. You'll get really thick slices, be sure to cut them in half, length-wise for your Eggs Florentine.

On a side note, it's amazing with butter and honey as an indulgent snack.

...so back to the Eggs Florentine.

You will need
about two handfuls of spinach rinsed
about a handful of mushrooms (i used portabella)
salt
pepper
garlic powder (to taste)
3 egg yolks
about a stick and a quarter of butter
Cheyenne pepper
extra virgin olive oil.

I started by sauteeing the spinach. Make sure to sprinkle some of the olive oil in a saute pan. Let the oil heat a bit before adding the spinach to the warm oil over medium heat. I used about three twists of fresh ground pepper and a sprinkling of salt and garlic powder before covering the spinach with a glass top and reducing the heat slightly. You want the spinach to wilt, but to remain bright green. Depending on your stove it should take about 3-5 minutes.

...meanwhile, you'll want to oil another saute pan with more olive oil to saute the mushrooms-same process, essentially, but you want to let these sit for a bit before reducing the temperature. The heat should be medium/high-ish but you don't want it too hot. Let them rest before messing with them, about 5 minutes then flip them with a fancy wrist flip or with a spatula. The mushrooms should be golden-brown. Make sure to sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and garlic as well.

At this point you can combine the spinach with the mushrooms and keep covered on the lowest heat setting.

To make the Hollandaise sauce...
You'll need a lemon
about a stick and one quarter of butter
Cheyenne pepper
3 large eggs
rubber spatula
a large slotted spoon

Start by putting a medium to large sauce pan on medium heat. Add all of the butter, cut into cubes and whisk butter until it's completely melted. Make sure you do NOT let the butter burn or boil in any way. When butter is completely melted turn off heat.
In small bowl separate your egg whites from your yolks (you only need to yolks) and whisk them together, lightly, until they are smooth.

Back to your melted butter, squeeze the juice from one whole lemon into butter mixture, making sure not to get any seeds in. A slight sprinkling of lemon zest is also good if you have a fine grater or microplane. At this time you can also sprinkle in some Cheyenne pepper. Mir likes her things spicy (she's a Texan, after all). Add a bit more lemon juice if your sauce is too thick.

Bring your heat up slightly but still on low. Add the egg yolks to the butter mixture and whisk until you have a thick and smooth sauce. Whisk lightly here, don't take out morning aggression out on your Hollandaise or you'll get a lumpy and gross scramble.

Poached Eggs...
You'll need a large-ish pot to boil some water. Add salt and a bit of lemon juice or vinegar to keep your eggs together. Depending on how you like your eggs (slightly runny, runny, or very runny) you'll have to edit your poaching time.
You want your water to be boiling, softly, not violently. I added my eggs one at a time. The whites got a little out of control and a bit foamy when adding the vinegar and lemon juice.
Mir says you only need to boil them for a few minutes, but she likes "very runny" eggs, I like mine a little on the jelly-like/slightly runny side, so I'd say poach them for about 3 minutes, give or take your stove.

Time for assembly.
Start with the toasted corn bread on the bottom, add warmed spinach and sauteed mushrooms, your yummy poached eggs and last, but not least your Hollandaise sauce...Enjoy!

I made some mimosas and bacon on the side...


*Next time I'll remember to post pictures