Breakfast Egg Bake

With the holidays coming up, it's always nice to have some quick breakfast ideas in your pocket for when people drop by unexpectedly. Nobody will notice you're still in your PJs when they show up and you've got this Breakfast Egg Bake ready for them!

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Look how easy this looks already.

Measure out half of the sausage and start it browning on the stove.

While the sausage is cooking, chop up your favorite vegetables. I used onions, peppers, and mushrooms, but feel free to use whatever you like.

Once the sausage is browned, spread it out evenly in a baking dish.

Then spread the cheese over the top.

Saute the vegetables in the same pan you browned the sausage. Add the potatoes, too.

Now leave the vegetables alone. You want the potatoes to get nice and crispy, and they won't if you keep poking at them.

So instead you can start on the eggs. Crack a bunch of eggs into a bowl. There are only 6 eggs in this picture--I thought I could get away with using fewer eggs--but you really do need 10. I swear. Use 10.

Add a bit of half and half or milk to get a creamier texture. And don't forget to add salt and pepper.

Then stir everything together, taking care to break up the yolks.

Once the vegetables are softened and the potatoes are crisp, spoon them over the sausage and cheese.

Then pour the eggs over the top.

Bake at 350F for 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of the bake comes out clean.














Mmm. Baked deliciousness! Make this for your unexpected guests--they'll never notice that you haven't cleaned the house and are still wearing your bathrobe and pajamas. And if they do, they won't be able to say anything because their mouths will be full.

Recipe: Breakfast Egg Bake

1/2 lb. ground sausage
1 c. shredded cheese
1 1/2 c. vegetables, diced
1/2 bag (1 1 /2 c.) pre-cooked potatoes
10 eggs
1 tbsp. half and half or milk
salt and pepper, to taste


In a large pan, brown sausage until cooked through. Pour into a baking dish and spread out. Sprinkle with cheese.

Using the same pan the sausage was cooked in, saute vegetables. Add potatoes. Let cook until vegetables are softened and potatoes are golden brown. Spoon mixture over sausage and cheese.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, half and half, and salt and pepper. Stir until combined. Pour over potato and sausage.

Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the bake comes out clean. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Fennel and White Wine Meatballs

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It seems like The Kid asks for spaghetti and meatballs for dinner every day. I would love to oblige, but I ate a lot of jarred sauce in my early 20's. At this stage in my life, I like to have adult meals every once in a while. So I made these Fennel and White Wine meatballs the last time The Kid asked for "sketti." And guess what--she loved them as much as I did.

To make the meatballs, I used ground pork and some Italian sausage.

Pork and fennel go really well together.

I put a bunch of garlic cloves and some onion in my food processor and chopped them up finely.

Then they were added to the meat mixture.

Some hot pepper flakes will wake your taste buds up (but don't worry, these meatballs aren't super spicy, I promise!)

And of course, some fennel is added, because these are fennel meatballs. For optimum flavor, toast the seeds in a hot, dry pan before adding them.

And, as always, don't forget to add salt and pepper.

An egg will bind your meatballs together.

As will some breadcrumbs.

Regular breadcrumbs would have been more traditional--unfortunately, I was all out and Panko crumbs were all I had. Worked out okay though.

Drizzle in about half a small bottle of white wine. You know those little bottles that they sell in 4-packs? Yeah, those. You'll need two of those for this recipe in total. Or just buy a big bottle of wine and measure it manually.

Finally, some olive oil will add some moisture and richness to your meatballs.

Remove any jewelry you don't want to gunk up with meat, and start mixing!

Wash your hands well and pour some olive oil into a large pot.

Form your meat mixture into meatballs.

Then (very, very carefully!) drop them into the hot oil.

Now, here's the thing about these meatballs. They're very, very delicate. If you're the person who likes to touch their food constantly, open the oven to check on baked goods every couple of minutes, etc., I would put someone else in charge of these meatballs. You need to let them form a nice crust before flipping them, or they'll fall apart.

And flip them carefully. I used my little spatula to slowly lift them, making sure that there was no sticking (if they're sticking, just let them cook a bit longer.) Then slowly roll them over.

You'll also want to make sure that you have plenty of room to flip the meatballs, since there will be no lifting and moving them to other parts of the pot until they're completely crusty on the outsides.

When all your meatballs are golden brown on the outside, carefully remove them and put them in a bowl or plate and set them aside for later.

Oh, and if some of your meatballs break, don't sweat it--they'll melt into the tomato sauce and will ust make it more hearty and delicious.

So anyway, once your meatballs have vacated the pan, add more olive oil if necessary. You'll need it to saute some onions and garlic.

Once the onions and garlic have soaked up the meat bits and are softened, pour in the remaining wine. The rest of the bottle from before, and another whole bottle (and remember, we're talking mini bottles here!)

I decided to use a can of tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes in the sauce.

Pour the tomatoes in. Sauce first.

Then diced.

To tie the meatball flavors to the sauce, both have white wine and fennel seeds.

Stir the sauce together and then add the meatballs back in to the pot.

Cover and let the sauce poach the meatballs for at least half an hour.












That should give you the perfect amount of time to make some spaghetti to serve under your sauce and meatballs! Long noodles are great for this--the sauce is on the thinner side, but the noodles absorb it so well that you get the taste of tomato in every bite.

Recipe: Fennel and White Wine Meatballs

1 lb. ground pork
1/2 lb. ground sausage
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 large onion, peeled
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 egg
2/3 c. bread crumbs
1/2 c. white wine (about 1/2 a small bottle)
1 tbsp. olive oil
olive oil, for frying


Recipe: Fennel and White Wine Tomato Sauce:
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 1/2 bottles white wine (about a cup and a half)
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tsp. fennel seeds

Fresh Cabbage Kraut

During our last CSA pickup, Chuck Thompson gave me a copy of his wife's book, It's a Dream Life ... With a Few Nightmares Thrown in For Fun. What a fun read. Heidi about the adventures the Thompsons have experienced since becoming farmers, with some advice on farm-raised food and some recipes thrown in for good measure. One of the recipes, by the Guldan family, is for fresh cabbage or kohlrabi kraut. The Guldens are New Ulmers, which, if you're not local, means that they know their kraut!

It just so happened that smoked sausage was on sale last time I was at the grocery store, and was looking for an interesting way to cook it. What goes better with sausage than kraut?

This is much milder than the fermented sauerkraut you're used to. I know it looks like a lot for something that's usually just a condiment, but trust me. It works really well as the accompaniment part of the dish.

This is a slight deviation from the Gulden recipe, but no less delicious.

I forgot to take a picture of potatoes. It was kind of crowded though, potatoes might not have fit. They don't come into play until later anyway.

The first thing you do is chop the bacon and start it frying. I had thick-sliced on hand so I used that, but regular bacon would be fine.

While your bacon is getting yummy, start on the cabbage. Peel the dirty and tough leaves off the outside.

Sit the cabbage on its root end and cut it in half.

Next, you'll want to remove the core. Just make a trianguler cut to get ride of the core.

Flip the cabbage over and start cutting it into thin strips. It's going to look like a huge pile, but remember, it's going to wilt down.

Next is the apple. Quarter and core it but don't peel.

Slice it very, very thinly.

Do the same to an onion.

By this point, your bacon should be getting crisp. So you'll want to think about getting your spices ready. I'm using mustard and caraway seeds.

Once your bacon is cooked and has rendered out its fat, pour in the spices and a couple tablespoons of sugar.

Watch out, the seeds pop a little. Don't burn yourself!

Stir everything around until the sugar is dissolved.

Now add in your cabbage, apples, and onions, and sprinkle in some salt. Give everything a stir to help the cabbage wilt.

Next is what's going to make this cabbage so krauty--a couple big spoonfuls of vinegar.

Now give everything a final stir, add some black pepper, and pour in some chicken broth (or vegetable broth, or water.)

Put the lid on the pot and let your stove do the work.

Here it is after about 90 minutes of cooking.

It's time to shred your potatoes. I use my handy-dandy mandoline.

It makes a nice pile of shredded taters.

Toss the potatoes in the pot, along with whatever sausage you're using. I'm just using smoked kielbasa.

Cover and let everything cook for another half hour or so. The sausage will heat up and the potatoes will thicken your kraut.

Uncover your pot and let things simmer for another 15-20 minutes. This will thicken your kraut even more.

There's enough sausage and kraut here that even a Korean can pretend to be German for the evening.

Recipe: Fresh Cabbage Kraut

4 pieces thick-cut bacon (around 1/3 to 1/2 a pound)

2 tbsp. white sugar

1/2 tsp. caraway seed

1/2 tsp. mustard seed

1 small head cabbage, shredded

1 apple, cored and thinly sliced

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp. salt

pepper, to taste

3 tbsp. white vinegar

2 c. chicken broth, vegetable broth, or water

2 potatoes, shredded

salt and pepper, to taste

1 smoked sausage

Saute the bacon in a large pot.

When bacon is crisp and fat is rendered, add caraway, mustard, and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Add cabbage, apple, and onion. Add salt and pepper, and stir to wilt cabbage.

Pour in vinegar and chicken broth. Cover and let simmer for at least 90 minutes.

After 90 minutes of cooking, add shredded potatoes and sausage. Cover and let simmer for another 30 minutes.

Remove cover and let simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes.

Serve!