Basic Oven Omelet

Now that we have space for overnight guests, we realized we also need ideas for easy breakfasts when entertaining that go beyond bagels and cream cheese.  (Though we do love bagels and cream cheese, let's not lie.)   We also like the idea of dishes that can be prepped ahead so that no one has to get up extra early to start cooking, just early enough to pop something in the oven and be done.

A quick Google search for breakfast casseroles yielded tons of results, including this Basic Oven Omelet.  It can stay in the fridge for up to 24 hours before cooking, and it only takes about 10 minutes of prep work.  Whisk together 10 eggs with 2 cups of milk, add spices and a cup of Parmesan, and you're pretty much done.  The recipe also calls for chopped ham, but we opted to use fresh spinach instead.  Pour it all into a greased baking dish and you're good to go!

It only takes about 45 minutes to bake, and results in a tasty dish that can be cut into lovely squares to share with guests.

One thing we did notice is that our choice to use fresh spinach resulted in some water leaking to the bottom of the plate.  But it didn't affect the flavor of the eggs at all, so it's just something to keep in mind if you're planning for fancy presentation.

Crockpot Honey Sesame Chicken, a.k.a. "BOURBON CHICKEN"

Table for Two strikes again with a great recipe!  This Crockpot Honey Sesame Chicken caught our eye because the blogger said it tastes a lot like the bourbon chicken that they're often giving samples of at a mall's food court.  We've all grabbed at least 2 or 3 toothpicks worth of that yumminess at some point in life, right?  So of course, we had to see for ourselves... and it's true!  If you're in the mood for the fun of "bourbon chicken" with the satisfaction of actually knowing what's in it, then this is the recipe for you!

It's so easy it's almost laughable.  Mix all the ingredients for the sauce (the main components being honey, soy sauce, and ketchup)...

pour over your chicken thighs in the crockpot...

and cook on low for 3-4 hours.  (It smells delightful as it's cooking!)  Once the meat is fully cooked, take it out to cut into chunks and then put it back in to marinate in the sauce for a little while longer.

The blogger suggested adding a thickening agent like cornstarch for the sauce, but we skipped that step and it was fine.

Served over whole wheat couscous with a side of steamed broccoli, this chicken was a flavor powerhouse.  DJ exclaimed, "Who needs take-out when we have this?!"  Adios, mall food court; the slow cooker wins again!

Jersey Exploration: Verjus

To celebrate our wedding anniversary, we wanted to treat ourselves to something special so we made a dinner reservation at the lovely French restaurant, Verjus.

We fell in love with this place as soon as we discovered that it is run by a husband/wife team: the husband is the chef, and the wife handles everything in the dining room.  They, like us, had decided to relocate to NJ after years in NYC and the restaurant was born.  We learned all this because the wife is so friendly and would stop by the table every so often to make sure we were enjoying our meal and chat a bit.  It's clear that both she and her husband care a great deal about their diners' overall experience.  

Mel chose the Herb Crusted Roast Filet of Atlantic Salmon, which came with beluga black lentils, roasted cauliflower, wilted cucumbers, roasted tomatoes and Verjus beurre blanc.  Delectable!  The skin on the salmon was a perfect crispy complement to the rich sauce.  And though not the focus of the dish, the lentils and roasted vegetables were delightful.  Mel took one bite of the tomato and wished she could have a whole plate of them.

DJ was equally impressed with his choice: the All Natural Roast Pekin Duckling served with braised red cabbage, black barley and cranberry salmis sauce.  The duck was prepared beautifully, and the sauce absolutely took the dish to another level.  We don't often try red cabbage, and DJ really enjoyed how it paired with the meat. 

Thankfully, we saved room for dessert and we decided to try the Crisp Du Jour.  On that night, the fruits "du jour" were strawberries and blackberries.  After the first bite, it was complete dueling spoons until the last bit had been carefully scraped from the corner of the dish.  AMAZING!  The fruit was so fresh, and the sweet crumble on top did not overpower the natural taste of the berries at all.   What a treat!

We enjoyed every element of our special night at Verjus, and both agreed that we'd love to return in spring and summer to see what creative menu items appear in warmer seasons.  Definitely a go-to date spot!

Slow Cooker Smokey Ham and Split Pea Soup

Yet another fun soup recipe from one of our favorite blogs, Table for Two:  Slow Cooker Smokey Ham and Split Pea Soup.  This recipe is almost identical to the Black Bean and Ham Soup we enjoy.  We used the same ham shank we like from Whole Foods, which is proving to be a perfect addition to soups.  Also worth noting, we used yellow split peas instead of green because Fresh Direct didn't have green ones when we ordered and we figured it wouldn't make the hugest difference. 

The split peas have their own unique flavor that's less dense than black beans.  We also noted that this soup had more of a sweet note to it than the Black Bean and Ham, likely because of the carrots.  So if you're in the mood for a lighter bean soup that's not super savory, this is a nice one to try!

Mayo-Free Chicken Salad

Chicken salad is a pretty good dish to have on hand for lunch when friends are coming over.  It's hearty without being too filling for a simple lunch, and it shows a bit more effort than slapping some cheese slices on bread and calling it a day as we might when dining alone.  The only downside is that chicken salad calls for a lot of mayo, which is not very heart-healthy.  We had heard that Greek yogurt can often make a good substitute for mayo, but we don't love the taste of Greek yogurt on its own so we were always a bit skeptical.  But it was worth trying it in chicken salad at least once, and it actually wound up pleasantly surprising us.

One thing that may have helped the cause is that we seasoned the chicken itself very well.  Rather than just picking up a rotisserie chicken, we baked a package of chicken tenders sprinkled generously with this AMAZING spice rub from Whole Foods:  Jake's Grillin' Poultry Rub .  (This rub is such a great blend of spices, including COFFEE, that we've actually taken to putting it on our roasted vegetables as well!)

Once the chicken was fully cooked, we cut it into bite-sized pieces and added some sweet grapes for contrast.

In a separate bowl, we mixed a single-serve container of plain Greek yogurt with a squirt of Dijon mustard and a dash of dill.  Keeping it separate allowed for tasting and tweaking as necessary.  Once the mix tasted more like dressing and less like yogurt, we combined it with the chicken.

The tartness of the Dijon/yogurt combo still seemed a bit strong, so we cut half an apple into chunks to add some crunch and sweetness.  And with that magic combination, the chicken salad was pretty yummy!  

We'll be the first to admit it obviously did not taste exactly like mayo.  That would be weird.  But the taste is close enough that we will not mind making this a regular substitution in the name of keeping things healthy!

Dinner Party Pastas: Easy Ziti Bake and Lasagna Roll-Ups

When we're planning to entertain, we like to find crowd-pleasing recipes that can feed a large group without breaking the bank.  We also appreciate dishes that can be made ahead and just popped in the oven so that we can focus more on conversation with guests than cooking.  Pasta is often a go-to for such scenarios, and lately we've come to enjoy two recipes in particular:  Easy Ziti Bake and Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups.

Easy Ziti Bake

This recipe is delightfully simple and yields a huge dish of food to share with hungry visitors.  

The first step is set your pasta to boil (we used whole wheat, but go with whatever you enjoy).  While that's happening you can focus on browning the ground meat.  We vary between using turkey, chicken, or beef, and we throw in a bit of spinach or kale to incorporate a veg.  Once it's cooked, you add the marinara to create a delicious meat sauce.

Then you can get your cheese mixture ready, with egg being used as a binding agent.  

 

As soon as your pasta is drained, blend it into the cheese mixture.  Make sure all the pasta is nicely coated.

Finally, in a greased baking dish you layer the meat sauce and pasta.

 

The recipe says that the meat sauce should wind up being the top layer, but every time we've made it we always run out by the time we get to the top!  So if you like your pasta as saucy as possible, we'd recommend having an extra jar of marinara on hand to pour over the whole thing.  But even without that added step, the end result is delicious.  (If you make it in advance, just heat until it bubbles or a cooking thermometer reads 160 F.)

Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups

We love lasagna, but don't love the fact that it's often hard to cut without everything sliding apart.  That's especially frustrating when you have a table full of guests and a spatula strung with cheese struggling to dole out equal portions.  Fun solution: lasagna roll-ups!  We chose a spinach version, but you can put pretty much whatever you want in there.

In the case of using spinach, it's ideal to use frozen.  We toyed with the idea of using fresh spinach but realized that once it started to cook it would release a lot of water and shrink.  With frozen, you thaw it and squeeze out all the excess water to avoid that issue.  You then mix the spinach with your cheese mixture (very similar to the one used in the ziti) to create your lasagna filling.

Once you've boiled your lasagna noodles (again, we used whole wheat), lay them out flat.  The recipe didn't call for this, but we dribbled a stream of marinara sauce on each noodle to make each roll a little more saucy and flavorful.

Add your spinach/cheese filling, leaving a little space at the end to prevent overflow once you start rolling.

Roll the noodle carefully and place it in your greased baking dish with a layer of marinara at the bottom.  Put the seam side down so it doesn't come undone.  Repeat the process until you have rolled all 12 noodles.  It may seem like they won't fit in the dish at first, but if you gently press them to the side they will nestle perfectly and keep each other in line.

Pour some marinara over the tops of the rolls and bake until the cheese is bubbly.  You're left with rolls of lasagna that scoop easily out of the dish to serve and sit perfectly on the plate without sliding apart!

Jersey Exploration: Mosaico

At the closing meeting for our home, the lawyers were chatting with us about New Jersey and good places to eat.  One of them, who has lived here his whole life, said Mosaico is one of his favorite spots.  And after going there a couple of times, we completely understand why!

Mosaico is very unassuming from the outside.  But as soon as you walk in, you're greeted with a decor that is both upscale and welcoming at the same time.  There's a gorgeous old-timey wood bar, painted glass windows, and beautiful table settings in an expansive dining room with lofty ceilings.  All those factors could easily lead to a place feeling stuffy and pretentious, yet everyone you encounter is so friendly that you feel like you've just arrived at a friend's place for dinner.  You can make it a fancy affair and dress up for a special night out, but you'll feel just as comfortable if you arrive in jeans for a leisurely lunch.  Mosaico has struck just the right balance so that it's a place you'll consider going for any occasion, big or small.

And the food - absolutely stellar!  We went once with DJ's parents and we all loved every single dish. 

 Fresh Grilled Calamari

(perfect char on the calamari and beautifully dressed greens)

Seafood Salad

(light and refreshing; the dressing was a perfect complement to allow the seafood flavors to shine)

Boston Bib Salad

(shrimp grilled to perfection with just the right combination of cheese and greens for a most satisfying salad)

 Linguini Bolognese

(one of the best bolognese we've ever tasted, including in Italy)

 Mosaico Burger

(DJ's dad enjoyed this burger so much, he literally did not put it down until it was completely devoured)

"Warm Apple" - Caramelized Apples, Cream Puff Pastry & Banana Gelato

(there were 4-way spoon duels for each bite; loved the fact that the apples were allowed to be the star)

We went back again on our own and tried one of the pizzas, which was also phenomenal.  It's official: Mosaico will be one of our go-to spots in Jersey.  Love it!

Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie Soup and Bahamian Johnny Cake

Yes, another soup entry.  IT'S COLD OUT HERE, PEOPLE!  Fortunately, there is no lack of delicious soup recipes online and they're all a lot of fun to try out.  Another tasty one we made lately is Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie Soup.

As with many slow cooker soup recipes, we were attracted to this one because it has basic ingredients and not too much prep work.  We were also intrigued by the thought of enjoying the flavor of chicken pot pie without the not-quite-as-healthy pastry topping.

We followed the recipe to the letter.  The dish looks festive and colorful even before it starts cooking!

Then, in our constant effort to incorporate leafy greens we added some kale toward the end of the cooking time.

The end result was quite tasty and very filling on a cold winter night.  The potatoes really soak up a lot of the liquid, so next time we may add more of the condensed soup.  We also noticed that the addition of kale did lead to a slightly bitter aftertaste.  So if you want to stay true to the chicken pot pie flavors, skip the kale.  But if you don't mind altering the taste just a bit in the name of nutrition, go for it!

You may have spotted a small square of bread at the corner of the plate.  Good eye!  That is our first attempt at making bread from scratch!  Thanks to cold weather comfort food cravings (that should be deemed a legit condition), lately Mel has been remembering the taste of this amazing bread her grandmother used to make.  Her dad does not know the recipe or remember what his mother used to call it, but suggested looking up "Johnny Cake" recipes.  After some searching, this recipe for Bahamian Johnny Cake seemed to have ingredients that could possibly create the flavor Mel remembers.

Mel finds baking a bit intimidating because you have to be very precise with measuring ingredients.  With cooking, you can add a little more of this or that to correct for a seasoning mistake.  But with baking, too much or too little of one thing can mean back to the drawing board.  So she very carefully followed every step, first mixing the dry ingredients of flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder...

then adding the wet ingredients of oil and milk to create a dough that could be kneaded and spread into a baking dish.

 

After baking until golden brown, the bread actually did look similar to Mel's grandmother's.  However, the flavor wasn't quite a match.  It was good in it's own right though - a lighter cornbread which went well with the soup.  DJ loved it! 

But Mel is still determined to keep trying until she can recreate the flavor and texture she remembers.  We speculated that the missing ingredient could be lard, an old-school kitchen staple.  Mel's grandmother used it often, and it would account for the denser, saltier flavor of her bread.  Mr. B is going to try to see if his cousin remembers a recipe.  We'll keep you posted!

Slow Cooker Lentil and Spicy Sausage Stew

In the ongoing quest to find fun new soup and stew recipes, Mel stumbled across a wonderful foodie blog: Table for Two.  It's chock full of great recipe ideas that are relatively simple and don't involve tons of obscure ingredients.  It's definitely been bookmarked for future recipe searches!  This time around, the attention-grabber was a Slow Cooker Lentil and Spicy Sausage Stew.

Things we love about this recipe: minimal ingredients, minimal prep time, maximum flavor.  We admittedly took a bit of a risk and veered from the recipe in one major way: we used Thai chicken sausage instead of spicy Italian sausage.  We just weren't in the mood for super spicy, and we were curious about the Thai sausage flavor.  It was a bit of a gamble, but it wound up being absolutely delicious!  The lentils, sweet potatoes and broth absorbed the flavor of the sausage beautifully.  We may try a different sausage with this stew every time we make it just to keep it interesting!

Thanks, Table for Two!  We definitely will continue to visit your blog for kitchen inspiration.

Stuffed Tomatoes

Have you ever noticed that many winter meals are quite heavy?  Perhaps it's the desire to have something that will stick to our bones when braving the elements.  Or the temptation of having a plate of piping hot food to warm us from the inside out.  When autumn first begins, it's exciting to dust off all the stew and slow-cooked roast recipes.  But as these cold months drag on, our palates rebel and demand something else even though a light salad when it's 10 degrees outside just isn't going to cut it.  Enter the best of both worlds: stuffed tomatoes!

If you go healthy and avoid carbs when choosing what to stuff the tomatoes with, this dish is essentially the equivalent of a salad - just hot.  You can pretty much put anything you want in there since everything is cooked separately at first.  We opted for Italian chicken sausage and kale.  Then we loosely followed Sunny Anderson's Stuffed Tomatoes recipe to prep the tomatoes properly and know the best cooking time and temperature.

Step 1:  Slice the top off each tomato and take out the guts.  We found that a fruit/veggie corer really did the trick because you can scrape the walls of the tomato without having to worry about poking holes in the bottom.

Step 2: Sprinkle the inside of the tomatoes with salt, flip them over on a plate and let them sit to drain some water.  This step is very important.  One time we thought we could skip it and the whole dish was a soggy mess.

Step 3:  While the tomatoes are sitting, sautee up the sausage and kale (or your stuffing of choice).  We threw in some of the tomato guts for a little extra zip of fun flavor.  Season with whatever spices you enjoy.

Step 4:  Put your stuffing into the tomatoes and place in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the tomato starts to brown and soften a bit.  You can even sprinkle some cheese on top if you're in the mood!

Step 5:  Eat up your hot salad!  We enjoyed it with a side of roasted asparagus, but the beauty of these babies is that really anything goes.  And they're not soup or stew... again...  Is it spring yet?

Jersey Exploration: Roots Steakhouse

Anyone who knows DJ knows he loves a good steak.  So finding a good steakhouse in Jersey was high on the foodie priority list.  One place a lot of folks recommended:  Roots Steakhouse.  And it didn't take long for us to understand why!

Everyone we encountered was extremely friendly and talkative.  We felt right at home as we settled into our comfy booth.  The whole vibe is very mellow and classy.  Somehow the lighting and seating arrangement makes it easy to forget about the outside world and be completely focused on a fun dining experience from start to finish.  

After placing our order, we were presented with fresh-from-the-oven popovers.  So sinfully good, we wished we didn't know just how much butter and cheese went into them so we could devour them without guilt.  But we tried our best to be good and just take a few bites to save our appetites (maybe a few extra nibbles were stolen here and there, but we won't talk about that).

The lobster bisque was absolutely dreamy.  Large chunks of fresh lobster (which is appreciated since some places tend to skimp on that part) and so many layers of amazing flavor - they do not mess around in that kitchen.  We seriously wanted to lick the bowl.

Then Mel got the Steak and Arugula Salad, which was phenomenal.  She loved the fact that it was just the right portion size of steak, and the greens had just the right touch of dressing and cheese so as not to overwhelm the meat.  She would eat this every day if she could!

DJ got the Black and Blue Burger.  As we've said before, it's hard to go wrong with the burger/fries duo and these were prepared beautifully.

We enjoyed our first time at Roots so much, we actually went back with DJ's friend after he came to help us paint our garage.   He loved it as much as we did!  As with any steakhouse, you can't go too often if you care about your arteries and your wallet.  But for the occasional special treat, we will not hesitate to return to Roots Steakhouse for a meal that's guaranteed to be amazing!

Jersey Exploration: A Toute Heure - Lovely Gift from a Fan

One of our biggest fans, Mel's brother, and his wife thoughtfully sent us a gift card for Local Roots Cranford as a lovely Christmas present in 2014.  Local Roots - a collaborative of local restaurants, gardens, and farms - believes in fostering sustainable food experiences for the community.  Love that!  A Toute Heure is their main restaurant, so we ventured over there to check things out.

First and foremost, the vibe is very friendly.  The staff were all very welcoming and pleasant to chat with, and one of the owners came by several times to ask if we were enjoying our meal.  And indeed we were!

The complimentary fresh bread was absolutely OUT OF THIS WORLD!  We took one bite and wanted to scarf it all down at once, though we knew we must exercise restraint since more food was on the way.  We almost asked if they sold individual loaves for folks to bring home, but we refrained. 

The rest of our meal was tapas-style small bites so we could try a variety.  A Toute Heure, true to its name of French origin, actually changes the menu daily based on the freshest ingredients available.  So you won't necessarily see any of these items should you go.  But feast your eyes nonetheless since any food they prepare promises to be as fantastic as these dishes.

 oyster slider and scallop salad

 blackened octopus and grilled skirt steak

 mussels in pork ragu

molten chocolate with baked pear

Every bite was delectable, every dish clearly prepared with appreciation and respect for the seasonal items available.  We're always so impressed with the ability of chefs to create dishes that are unexpected and fun by combining just the right spices and ingredients.  A Toute Heure is a wonderful foodie adventure because you never know what to expect on the menu, but you can be sure it'll be delicious.  One thing to note: it is a bit pricey.  Had we not had the gift card, it would definitely have had to wait for a splurge occasion.  But for a cool farm-to-table experience, it's worth it!  We'll certainly be back - especially to see what they do with warm weather crops!