Southwest Breakfast Strata

Let's talk easy breakfast y'all!

So my boss/friend asked me to make some breakfast casseroles for a couple of gatherings.  I did not have any recipes so she pulled a few and I ran with them.  One turned out particularly good and popular.  The boss/friend found the original Southwest Strata recipe on the Jimmy Dean Sausage website.  I could not leave well enough alone.

What the hell is a "Strata"? Well, that is the plural form of "Stratum".  Latin for layer.  What does this mean to us?  We are LAYERING ingredients.

OK - sounded good anyway...

Southwest Sausage Strata (4-6 servings)

• 4 corn tortillas (for 6" square pan)
• 1 LB Ground Hot Sausage (Fried up)
• 4 Eggs
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
• 1 Cup Shredded Mexican Cheese Blend (divided into 1/2 cup portions)
• OPTIONAL - Chopped green onion and chopped up tomato

Large Southwest Sausage Strata (8-12 servings)

• 8 corn tortillas (for 9"x11"+-ish rectangular pan)
• 2 LB Ground Hot Sausage (Fried up)
• 8 Eggs
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin     
• 2 Cup Shredded Mexican Cheese Blend (divided into 1 cup portions)   
• OPTIONAL - Chopped green onion and chopped up tomato

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350F degrees                                                  

  

  Overlap...

• Grease pan with Crisco, Pam, or etc.
• Arrange tortillas in pan
• Sprinkle the first portion of cheese over the tortilla layer
• Sprinkle the cooked sausage crumbles over top of the cheese layer 
• This holds the cheese down so it doesn't get moved around or float up when the egg mixture is poured in
• Break eggs into container     
• Add the cumin and milk
• Beat together
• Pour "evenly" over sausage crumbles
• Bake

Place in preheated oven and bake 30 minutes for small version and 35 for large version (or until knife inserted in center comes out clean). Top with remaining portion of shredded cheese and heat until it melts.  Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting into squares for serving.
Top with the tomato and onion if desired.

Notes:                        

• Choose the 'hot' level of your sausage per your (or even your guests') liking  
• The green onions and tomatoes really do add to the visual and taste of this dish - Add!
• Serve with your choice of SALSA or Pico de Gallo!  Really, it adds.  Choose your heat level and flavor - or a smorgasbord of flavors! (I chose Pace Fire Roasted Tomato & Corn, Pace Mild Chunky , & Kroger's Private Selection Peach &Mango Salsa (mild)
• Consider serving with sour cream and/or guacamole
• This recipe was a BIG hit!

My plate at work today...

Zen and the Art of Boiling Eggs

Hard Boiling Eggs  

Don't you love it when you go to make pickled eggs or the perfect Southern delicacy - Deviled Eggs - and when you peel them, you end up with cut fingers AND the ever lovely ripped up, dimpled and ugly eggs?  You end up either eating the "Uglies" or being embarrassed by the 'beauty' of the eggs you serve up to guests (because how many of us make deviled eggs just for ourselves?).

When boiling eggs, there are things you can do to help make the peeling process go a little smoother.

Fresh eggs do not peel easily when boiled.  So, use the older eggs in your fridge!  Choose eggs that are “in date” of course when preparing food.

Start the pot with cold water and the eggs.  Dropping cold eggs into hot water can shock the eggs and cause the eggs to crack prematurely.  I luv the word “prematurely”.

Boil the eggs over medium high heat so as to not “hard/rapidly rolling boil” the eggs because that can cause them to bounce off one another and crack. Stay with a “low” boil.

Pull the eggs from the fridge and put into a pot.  Run enough cold water into the pot to cover all the eggs.

Bring the eggs and water to a low boil for about 1 minute. Turn the temperature down to low-medium heat and simmer for 3 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let the pot sit covered for 10 to 15 minutes. 

Pour off the hot water, cover with cold tap water and cool the eggs quickly.  I often go ahead and crack the shells at this point as I find that helps make peeling easier as well.

Once the eggs are cool to the touch, you SHOULD be able to peel fairly easily at this point.

Short of it: 

• Do not hard boil really fresh eggs
• Place eggs in straight from tap temperature water to start
• Don’t cook the eggs in water at a “rolling boil”
• Cool eggs down rapidly before peeling

If you use the above process and tips, you should have fewer "ugly eggs".

Now get to boiling those eggs because I am hungry...  And don't forget MY invite!

:) 

Pickled Eggs Revisited

On January 10th I posted my experience with a Pickled Eggs and Red Beets recipe from Cooks.com.

As a follow-up, I would like to let you all know that the eggs NOW (2 months and 8 days later) taste awesome. They are still very mild but I find myself putting them in an egg slicer and then snacking on them. I am ready to try a slightly stronger recipe next however. The onions are still not worthy. I will not add them again. The beets are yummy. Time to move the eggs to a smaller jar and start again this weekend!

Pickled Eggs and Red Beets from Cooks.com

Oh yea!

Last week, New Years Day actually, I made a half-gallon canning jar worth of pickled eggs and beets with onions.  Yes, to this recipe below I added slices of raw onion. 

Pickled eggs are not everyone’s cup of tea. I learned I liked them only a few years ago. They are a good way to preserve boiled eggs so you can boil a lot at one time and then eat them over a few weeks' time. I refrigerate mine. Some people say you don't need to. I prefer to refrigerate anyway or at least place jar in a cold room.

What is a "cold room" exactly?  When I was growing up, my grandmother had one bedroom where she kept foods that would benefit from being kept cooler, but would not fit in the refrigerator.  Shocking as this may seem to the city folk and the young'uns, refrigeration is a luxury that was not available to everyone even only 50 years ago...

I decided to make pickled eggs and here we are…

I doubled this recipe basically – save for the two boiled eggs that did not peel well.

Problem?  I cannot find which recipe I used. Below are the items I used, but no clue of the amounts. So, I guess I do not have to worry about making this one again unless I run across it on the Internets!

16 Hard Boiled Eggs

2 pints cider vinegar
Salt

Sugar

Cloves

Bay leaves
The juice from large can red beets

I boiled all my eggs. There are things one needs to know when boiling eggs in a way that will allow them to be peeled more easily.

• Choose older eggs – still good but not straight from the hen fresh
• Place eggs in enough cold water in a pot that they are covered
• Bring eggs to a light boil, place a lid on the pot and turn the eye off. Let sit 20 minutes
• Pour off the water, crack each egg and run cold water over them
• Don’t burn yourself

Boil all other (non-egg) ingredients for 10 minutes (full boil). I poured over the hard boiled eggs, the added onions and red beets in a half gallon canning Mason jar and tightened down the two part lid.

Refrigerate. Lightly shake jar every few minutes to evenly coat all the eggs.

Now, lesson learned here?

First, blanch or cook the onions before pickling. The onions in my jar have continued to mature. They are chewy and almost dry. Not unlike the exterior dryer layers we typically peel off.

Second, not all recipes work out for the best.  This one is too bland for me.

For a starter recipe, it works. For anyone not used to pickled eggs – it is mild enough. 

I will try another one