How is it possible that over a month of summer is already over. Where did it go? My first attempt at a big breakfast came out really well, so there were high expectations this time around. I'm pretty sure I delivered, everyone loved what I made, my mom is a bread pudding convert (she claimed she hated it and knew she would not like it this time around, she was wrong), my Grandpa had flashbacks to his childhood where him and his brother would call dibs on the sticky pieces of bread that stick to the side of the baking dish, so I guess the winner of this breakfast feast was the bread pudding. Along side the bread pudding, I served two quiche's one with red peppers and parmesan and one with bacon, ham and chedder, also bougata (which I made a version of last breakfast, but this time I used a little bit of a different technique), Pommes Chef Anne and some toast.
I kind of combined a recipe for bread pudding by Ina Garten and Paula Deen. Basically I used Ina's recipe but added the chocolate chips, brown sugar and cinnamon from Paula Deen's recipe, and I nixed the orange zest from Ina's (Orange is one of my least favorite flavors). It came out great, and everyone loved it, as previously mentioned, it will definitely be a recipe I go back to and use again.
For the quiche's I used this recipe, to get an idea of how to actually make a quiche, I used the same amount of eggs and cream as it calls for in that recipe as well as the baking time, but added the extras that I wanted (e.g. bacon, ham, cheese and red peppers). I also used a store bought pie crust which worked just fine.
Since I had recently seen the episode of No Reservations where Tony ate the bougata on one of the Greek Islands, I had a better idea of how it should be made. Last time, I just layered filo dough with sweetened marscapone, but what this dish is actually made by using one filo sheet putting a pile of the marscapone in the center folding it into a pocket and baking it like that. This is how I tried to make it this time, I thought it came out a lot better doing it this way, but I wasn't careful enough transferring them from the baking tray to the serving dish and they cracked open, oozing the cheese on the serving dish. It still was great but if they would have stayed intact it would have been better.
Finally for the potatoes I used this recipe, I used this recipe from Chef Anne Burrell. It came out really good, maybe a bit to crisp, but I didn't use as many potatoes as she called for in her recipe, which is I think why mine shrunk so much and turned so crispy. I actually sliced the potatoes myself instead of using a mandolin (since I don't have one), and it still worked just fine.
Another breakfast success, but it's disappointing to think that the next time it's my turn to cook breakfast it will be August, and way to close to going back to school. No reason to dwell on that though, because for the next 10 days or so I will be in New York City and Boston to stay with my cousin (NYC) and my sister (Boston). I can't wait, I think I'm in need of a change of scenery and I can't think of any better places in this country to to get that change.
Eat well, Live well
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