Weekend Brunch: Salmon Frittata, Potatoes and Strawberry Bread

For Mother's Day I wanted to plan a special, delicious (and somewhat healthy) brunch for my mom. I knew right away that I would be making a frittata with some of her favorite ingredients and along with that I made strawberry bread and rosemary potatoes. I made the bread the night before so it was ready to go and the potatoes and frittata were pretty quick to throw together in the morning and are perfect for a homemade brunch!

Salmon, Asparagus & Goat Cheese Frittata

This is definitely a "use what you have in the refrigerator" kind of recipe with no strict recipe or measurements to follow. For this combo I used the below ingredients, but you can really use any combo of ingredients that you want to use up!

Ingredients:
- Eggs (2 eggs per person) mixed together in a separate bowl
- Asparagus, chopped
- Red onion, chopped
- Smoked salmon
- Goat cheese

Directions:
Throw the asparagus and onion (or whatever vegetables you are using) into the pan and saute for a few minutes with olive oil, salt and pepper until they begin to get tender. Next add in the smoked salmon and saute for a few more minutes to combine the ingredients. Add the egg and do not stir. Let the frittata cook until the bottom is light brown (check by lightly lifting with a spatula). Once this happens, the top should still be pretty "eggy" and add in crumbles of the goat cheese. Once the egg starts to set transfer to the oven and broil for a few minutes to brown and cook the top. The broil will happen very quickly so watch it closely so it doesn't burn!

Rosemary Potatoes 

For this I used a small bag of fingerling potatoes that I had on hand and simple chopped, coated with olive oil, salt & pepper, and dried rosemary. Mix together and spread out on a greased cookie sheet. Cook time will vary for the amount and size of potatoes you use but at least 20 - 30 minutes. Watch and stir them every ten minutes or so until they become golden brown and tender.

Strawberry Wheat Bread

I was so excited when I saw this bread on a great blog, Cate's World Kitchen. It's such a fun, summery idea to use fresh strawberries in bread. This was the perfect pairing to the egg and potatoes, but I will also be making this on Sundays to have for breakfast or snacks during the week :).

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups fresh diced strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease an 8 x 4″ loaf pan.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until the evenly yellow, but not so much that it turns frothy. Stir in the yogurt, oil, and vanilla and stir until evenly mixed.

Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until there are no longer traces of flour. *Note: this will be rather sticky and you'll be wondering if you missed an ingredient b/c it seems to dry... not to worry though, this is normal!

Gently fold in the strawberries, then pour into the prepared pan.

 

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before slicing.

I hope you enjoy these recipes and would love to hear what you like to make for brunch!

Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. My family hosts the big meal which means I get to be the chef :). I have been making the Thanksgiving meal for the last four years and continue to tweak and attempt to perfect each dish. I love getting in a morning workout and then spending the rest of the day cooking away and listening to music until the guests arrive.

The turkey of course has to be the star of the show. For that I have been using a recipe from Giada the last few years in which you stuff the bird with citrus (orange and lemons) and onions. In addition you massage the turkey with a mixture of melted butter and herbes de provence which keeps the skin moist and gives it great flavor. I simplify the recipe a bit (see below) to keep the ingredients simple and cost-effective. These amounts are estimated based on the 21 lb turkey we had this year.

Recipe
(Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis)

3 oranges (cut into wedges)
3 lemons (cut into wedges
1 large red onion
8 Tbsp. butter
2-3 Tbsp herbes de provence

Directions:

After cleaning the turkey (see directions on Food Network for more), I stuffed it with the citrus and onion. In addition I put leftover citrus and onion wedges in the bottom of the roasting pan. I then roasted the turkey for 350 degrees for almost 6 hours (depending on the size of the turkey) and throughout that time I poured chicken broth in the bottom of the roasting pan and continously basted the turkey throughout. I kept a piece of foil over the breast of the turkey for most of the cooking time so that it did not burn.




Rather than make mashed potatoes I make scalloped potatoes based on a Rachel Ray Magazine recipe. I followed this one pretty closely, but rather than using *gruyere cheese I used a simple colby jack that we had on hand.

Recipe
(Adapted from Rachel Ray Magazine)

2 cups milk
3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
Salt
3 pounds baking potatoes, preferably Idaho, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 ounces Gruyère cheese, coarsely grated (about 3/4 cup) *see above
Pinch cayenne pepper
Black pepper
1 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Place a rack in the top half of the oven and preheat to 375°. In a large saucepan, combine 2 cups water with the milk, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the potatoes from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the potatoes are tender but still slightly firm, about 8 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and, using a slotted spoon, transfer half the potatoes to a buttered 9-by-13-inch baking dish; arrange the potatoes in an even layer.

Sprinkle with half the cheese and the cayenne; season with salt and pepper to taste. Repeat with the remaining potatoes and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Pour the heavy cream evenly over the top. Bake the scalloped potatoes until golden and crisp on top, 40 to 45 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Stuffing: I kind of threw together stuffing loosely based on a recipe that I had which includes italian sausage, apples, onions, fresh rosemary, and packaged stuffing. If you want more info on that let me know and I can figure out the amounts!

Cranberry Salad: My mom has a great cranberry salad recipe that we have each year that is very basic but fresh and delicious. Here's a quick run through:

Chop fresh cranberries (1 package) roughly in a food processor. Then mix those with about the same amount of crushed walnuts (crush by putting them in a large baggie and smash using a rolling pin). From there you want to make strawberry jello on the stove top with a cup of sugar. Put all of those ingredients in the dish you want the jello served in and as a last step mix in a large can of crushed pineapple (with the juice). Cover and let refrigerate until set.

Green beans: I tried out a roasted green bean recipe with garlic and shallots but didn't love it. If you have a recipe you like please share!

The meal: