Experiment 22 - 24-Hour Omelet

Ingredients list

This is not actually an omelet.  I believe technically it is a type of strata.

A few things to notice about my ingredients - I used skim milk, because I don't ever have whole milk in the house.  I used the "Mexican blend" shredded cheese that I had on hand, because hey, why not?  And if you look close you'll see the bag of mustard seeds there.  I don't have any dry mustard, but I have the seeds and the infamous "motar" and pestle, so it's all good.

The preparation was very simple.  First, grease a small casserole or baking dish (approx 3 cup or 5" x 7").  I ended up using a dish that was too big, which may have presented a problem (more about that later) Butter the bread, then cut into 1" squares.

Scatter half the bread and half the cheese into the baking dish.  Then do it again with the other half of the bread and the cheese. Whisk together the rest of the ingredients,

 and pour over the bread.  Press down on the bread to help it soak up the egg mixture, then cover the dish with plastic wrap and stick it into the refrigerator for at least eight hours, up to 24 (see also: name of recipe).

When it's time to cook, just stick it into a 350 degree oven for an hour.

Mine came out a little well-done.  I think that's a combination of using a dish that was too big and having an oven that's not well-calibrated.

Verdict - meh.  Maybe if I had used the proper sized baking dish, it would have been better.  As it was, this just seemed like eggs and toast, all mixed together.  If I wanted a breakfast bowl, I'd go to Bob Evans.  Which reminds me, I had bought sausage to have with this, and I completely forgot to cook it.  D'oh!
Lessons Learned - pay attention to the instructions on the size of the baking dish!.
Tools needed - I really need some measuring spoons that can help me with the 1/8 and 1/4 tsp measures that many of these recipes have called for.
Skills needed - nothing at all.

Experiment 22 - The Selection

Another break in the action, courtesy of good weather and an attempt to have one of those things, ummmm, a "social life" I think it's called.  I'm not going to go nuts trying to do too many things in a week, and cooking is, for better or worse, lower on the priority list than some other things.  I'll see how the summer goes.  I'll post as often as I can, that's all I can say.

For this week I decided to search through a great cookbook I'd gotten for Christmas - Cooking for Two, 2010 from America's Test Kitchen.  I searched the ATK site  for a copy of the recipe that I could link to, but didn't even find their "full-size" version of the recipe.  There are other sites out there that seem to have no qualms with posting verbatim copies of ATK's work, but we don't do that here.  I might have trouble keeping up with the schedule I initially set up for myself, but one thing I won't compromise on is my avoidance of copyright issues.

So I was flipping through this cookbook and landed in the breakfast section.  I got tempted by a recipe for a 24-Hour "Omelet".  The quotes are because this isn't really an omelet as you'd normally think of one.  More details on that in the next post.  One advantage to this one is that the prep work is done the night before the cooking, and even though I'll be using the oven, it will be early in the day, before the heat gets too crazy.  (First day of summer here and suddenly the temperature hit 98 F)

24-Hour "Omelet"
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
2 slices high-quality white sandwich bread
3 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (about 3/4 cup)
3/4 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup grated onion
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon hot sauce

I will not even have to shop for this, I have everything I need on hand.

Experiment 21 - Irish Whiskey Cake with Dark Chocolate

Ingredients list

A few years ago, I spent most of the spring and summer unemployed, but still getting paid, thanks to a relatively decent severance package.  An intelligent, frugal person would have saved every extra penny during that time.  Me, I bought things from eBay and Amazon, including a refurbished KitchenAid stand mixer.  The reason I mention that is that I got to use my mixer for this week's recipe; I haven't used it much since that summer of leisure, I guess I was just preparing for the time I'd start a recipe blog and randomly choose a recipe that called for it.

I usually don't just copy and paste the instructions, due to possible copyright issues, but I'm going to go out on a limb here.  I can't find anything with this exact recipe name in my searches, so I hope there's no problem. I'm surely not making any money from this.  And I did throw in a couple photos and notes in between the steps.

But first, here are all the ingredients --

Directions:
0. Preheat your oven to 350°
1. Butter and flour a bundt cake pan
I used some Pam made for baking, that has both the oily stuff and the flour, because I'm lazy like that.
2. In a bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking powder.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together whiskey, oil, and milk. Set bowls aside.
Since you've got the whiskey bottle open anyway, now would be a good time to have a wee glass o' the good stuff.
4. In a stand mixer, using paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth.
According to the label, one stick of butter is 113 grams.  Since the recipe called for 110g, I got crazy and used the whole stick.
5. Add sugar and vanilla and beat well.
Measuring the vanilla is the only time I had to check online for a conversion.  Turns out that 10 ml is just a tad over 2 teaspoons.
6. Add eggs and egg whites 1 at a time, beating after each addition.
7. Add liquid and dry alternately to butter mixture stirring just to incorporate.
8. Gently stir chocolate through batter.
9. Pour finished batter into prepared pan

(I took this photo mostly so you could see how much of a mess I generally make when doing these recipes)

 and bake in a preheated 350° oven 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs
10. Remove from pan to cooling rack and cool completely.
Completely?  But it smells so good, and warm cake is yummy.

Verdict: Oh my, yes.  Now bear in mind, this is not a "chocolate" cake.  This is a cake with small bits of chocolate in it.  And it's very very good.

Lessons Learned - nothing new this week.
Tools needed - I didn't have to buy anything this week, as I'd bought the KitchenAid mixer several years ago, just for this moment.
Skills needed - nothing new this week, although I used my relatively new skill of egg separating that I taught myself several recipes ago.