Meyer Lemon-Vanilla Sourdough French Toast

Good Morning Readers!

As you know, lately I've been quite interested in egg recipes, since my weekly eggs from Happy Tortoise Farm began gracing my kitchen. These fresh little light green and brown eggs have endeared themselves into my heart and my belly. Sometimes I get them so fresh from the farm that the dirt and straw still cling to their delicate colorful shells. I eagerly anticipate cracking open each egg and never cease to be surprised and amazed at how solid and orange the yolks are.

Today I choose to make a delicious french toast with some of my eggs. I indulged in some sourdough bread, which is a gluten-free no-no for me. Life is too short for shame people, so I say honor your indulgences and jump in with both feet! Oh taboo-full-of-gluten sourdough bread, how I've missed you. Typically, I favor a fresh local Challah bread for french toast. I had sourdough loaf in my pantry because yesterday I was really craving toasted sourdough with my curry egg salad recipe.

Today's french toast recipe is sans maple syrup for good reason. I once had a lover who cooked me breakfast in bed and arrived with delicious smelling french toast. I asked her where was the maple syrup and she handed me a halved lemon and a spoonful of powdered sugar. I thought she was crazy. I followed her lead and squeezed the lemon on the steaming hot french toast and then the powdered sugar. Maybe it was the morning-after-glow, but that combination of sugar sweet and tangy sour lemon was heavenly. It's the only way I've eaten french toast ever since.

In this recipe I call for meyer lemons, which in my book are the absolute royalty of lemons. The flavor is unequaled in the world of lemons. They are literally bursting with flavor onto your french toast. The tang of the sourdough bread and lemon, is a perfect compliment for the sweetness of the vanilla and powdered sugar. They meld together in lovely harmony for your taste buds.

The smell of this recipe cooking is delightful and intoxicating. I recommend you make it as breakfast in bed for someone you love and create your own french toast memory. Enjoy!

In Health,
Miss Jolie Ann

Meyer Lemon-Vanilla Sourdough French Toast
Makes 4 pieces of french toast

butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened plain soymilk or cow milk
1 tbsp pure alcohol-free vanilla extract
4 meyer lemons
1 tsp lemon zest
4 slices sourdough bread
nutmeg
powdered sugar

1. Warm about 1tbsp butter in a skillet over medium-low heat.
2. While the pan is warming up, in a wide shallow bowl combine the eggs, soymilk, vanilla, lemon zest and juice of one lemon. Beat with a whisk until just combined.
3. Dip each slice of bread in the egg mixture, one at a time. Let each slice absorb egg mixture, but not linger in the bowl too long. Add slices to the awaiting warm butter skillet.
4. Cook bread slices over medium-low heat. Cook each side a few minutes until they are browned and egg is cooked. Flip after cooking first side. Sprinkle with a dash of nutmeg. Not a lot. Just a sprinkle per slice on one side.
5. When bread is browned on both sides remove from the pan. Halve the 3 meyer lemons. Squeeze one half lemon on each slice of french toast. Sprinkle with as much powdered sugar as you desire. I use about 1 tbsp per slice. Garnish french toast with lemon slices. Serve hot.

Broccolini Quiche with Potato Rosemary Crust (Gluten-Free)

Dear Readers,
I love a good quiche. What's not to like? Eggs, cheese, veggies, and a buttery crust. Yum. Yum. Yum. Quiche is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. It's leftover keep well for me to nibble on all week.

My co-worker Kelly & her partner operate Happy Tortoise Farm on Sauvie Island and I'm getting fresh delicious eggs from their flock every week. Once you've had fresh eggs, there is no going back. The yolks are an amazing shade of bright orange and incredibly dense. When you whisk fresh eggs they have a completely different texture and a brightness of color that store bought eggs can not compare. With these beautiful eggs I was eagerly planning a quiche recipe for this week.

Then my friend Carrye forwarded me a link about a gluten-free quiche crust challenge from the blog "The Gluten-Free Homemaker." Game on. I'm up for a good challenge. Rather than construct a standard pie crust-flour, butter, cold water with a gluten free flour I went for the extraordinary. I created a gluten-free pie crust out of grated red skin potatoes, fresh rosemary from my herb garden, toasted pecans, and of course butter. It's flavors are amazing. The edges of the crust peaking up above the custard get toasted brown & crunchy tasting like heavenly little potato chip bites. And, while this gluten-free crust doesn't have the same flaky consistency of a flour based pie crust, I believe it totally holds it own.

For the filling I choose broccilini, because it just looked so seductive in the produce market. Often my ingredients choose me. It's rarely the other way around. It seems they see me coming a mile away and put on their best and freshest faces. Broccolini is basically a type of broccoli with loose flowerettes, rather than forming a tight head like typical broccoli. I combined the broccolini with bright gold ribbed swiss chard and mushrooms. For cheese I choose Chevre, because it's creaminess is a perfect compliment to the eggs in the custard. And Asiago cheese for it's nutty flavor.

This recipe is a little labor intensive, taking in total about 2 hours to prep, cook, and bake. It might be a little quicker for you if you aren't taking photos and writing notes every step of the way. Ha! Everything in my kitchen takes longer. Thankfully, it's a labor of love.

If you take the gluten-free quiche crust challenge and create your own recipe, be sure to leave me a link in your comments. I'd love to check it out. Have a wonderful day.

In Health,
Miss Jolie Ann









Broccolini Quiche with Potato-Rosemary Crust
Makes 6 servings

Gluten-Free Crust:
3 red skin potatoes
1/4 of a red onion
1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp toasted pecans
1 beaten egg
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix

Filling:
1/2 purple onion, minced
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt & black pepper
1 bunch broccolini, chopped, about 2 cups
8 mushrooms, coarsely chopped
2 large swiss chard leaves, stems & greens chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup Asiago cheese, grated

Custard:
6 eggs
sea salt & black pepper
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1/8 tsp dried mustard
2 oz Chevre goat cheese


Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Grease a 9 inch pie pan

1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Peel the red onion. Using the shred attachment on your food processor, drop in the potatoes and onions. Remove the shred attachment and add the normal blade to food processor. To the shredded potatoes and onions now add the rosemary, lemon zest, sea salt, pecans and butter. Pulse a few times to combine. You don't want it to turn to mush.
2. Remove this mixture from the food processor. In a bowl combine with the beaten egg and gluten free baking flour. Stir until just combined.
3. Press crust batter into the greased pie pan.
4. Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Turn down oven to 350 degrees.

While pie crust is baking, prepare the quiche filling:

5. Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions with a dash of sea salt & black pepper and saute for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and saute another 5 minutes. Add the broccolini and swiss chard. Add the lemon zest and squeeze in the juice of 1/2 a lemon. Saute for a few minutes more. You only want the broccolini and chard to slightly wilt. They should still be crunchy and bright green. Remove from heat.
6. Place the cooked veggie mixture in the cooked pie crust. Sprinkle on the grated asiago cheese.

Set aside while you make the custard:

7. In medium sized bowl beat the eggs with a metal whisk. Add the chopped chives, a pinch of sea salt & black pepper, and the dried mustard. Whisk until combined. Crumble the Chevre into small pieces and add to the eggs. Whisk until combined. There will be pieces of Chevre and that is just perfect.
8. Pour the egg mixture over the waiting veggies in pie crust.
9. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
10. Let cool for 10 minutes before cutting. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Curry Egg Salad

I love a good egg salad. And, this is the season for eggs with Spring Equinox and Easter holidays. Did you know that eggs and bunnies are potent feminine fertility symbols hiding behind all the commerical peeps candies and easter baskets? Easter eggs find their origin as a symbol of the ancient Goddess Astarte. There's your spirituality lesson, now on to egg salad...

Make no mistake, the quality of the eggs makes all the difference in this recipe. Use eggs from your own chickens, your friend's flock, the farmer's market, or your CSA. And just a note for all you animal luvas out there...just because the egg carton says it's organic does not mean those little chicken babies were treated humanely. So please investigate what various labeling on eggs means: white vs brown, organic, free-range, hormone-free, etc, because I'm not going into it here. Enough said.

This egg salad recipe would be fabulous on warm sourdough bread hot out of the oven. Mmm, if only I was eating gluten. These days I eat my egg-salad gluten-free style with corn tortilla chips or on a rice cake. I also like my egg salad fresh and warm. I don't like it if it's been refrigerated. Though, this egg salad will keep in your fridge for about 2 days before it begins to get watery. As with most of my recipes, texture is important and my egg salad is chunky full-o-bits-o-goodness. The recipe makes enough for 2 smaller servings or one big meal if you love your eggs! Enjoy! And, as always, please drop me a comment.

In Health,
Miss Jolie Ann

Curry Egg Salad Recipe
Serves 2

4 eggs
1/4 cup mayonaise
sea salt & black pepper
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp smoke paprika
1 tbsp chopped kalamata olives (that's about 4 whole olives)
1 celery stalk, minced
1 tsp minced red onion
1 tsp minced cilantro

1. Place the eggs gently in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low boil and cook for approximately 10 minutes. Remove pot from heat. Drain the water. Fill pot with cold water and let sit for 5 minutes. Peel the eggs and place in a large bowl.
2. In a large bowl use pastry cutter (my favorite method) or fork to mash the eggs. You want the eggs to be finely chopped, but not turn to mashed mush.
3. Add the mayonaise and stir. Add the coriander, curry, and paprika. Add a pinch of salt & pepper to your taste. I don't even salt this recipe because of the existing sodium content in the mayonaise. Stir until the spices are well mixed.
4. Add the olives, celery, onion & cilantro. Stir until everything is combined.
5. Serve on bread or bagels for a sandwich. Or on a bed of greens for a salad. Or go the dip-ish route with tortilla chips or crackers.

Corn Tortillas Layered with Garlicky Wilted Cabbage & Chard, Black Beans & Eggs

Dear Readers,
My friends Sherrie & Mindy gave me these adorable little eggs from their backyard flock of hens. I wanted to create a recipe to feature these delicious cute tiny eggs. What I came up with is this recipe that features soft corn tortillas layered with garlicky wilted cabbage & swiss chard, black beans, fried eggs, and I used some roasted green tomato chipotle sauce I preserved in the Autumn. You could use any salsa, enchilada sauce, or hot sauce for this dish. The flavors stand on their own. Whatever sauce you choose, don't use a lot. A little goes a long way to mingle with the other flavors of this recipe. And, this is a VERY improvisational recipe so there aren't exacts. Play with it. Play with your food. Just play as much as possible. Create beautiful food and follow your bliss. Life is short. Enjoy!

In Health & Joy,
Miss Jolie Ann

Corn Tortillas Layered with Garlicky Wilted Greens, Black Beans & Fried Eggs
Serves 2

2 cups shredded purple cabbage
2 cups thinly sliced swiss chard
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
1 clove garlic, minced
Butter (less than one tablespoon)--or more olive oil to keep it vegan
4 corn tortillas
14oz can black beans
2 eggs
1/2c cup salsa, enchilada sauce, or hot sauce--your choice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the cabbage and a pinch of sea salt. Saute for 3-5 minutes. You want the cabbage to be slightly wilted, but still firm and retaining it's color. Add the swiss chard and garlic. Saute for 1 minute, no longer. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Add a very thin slice of butter to the pan. Add one tortilla and cook on each side approximately 1 minute. Set aside. Continue to cook all 4 tortillas individually. If the pan gets dry, add it more butter. (If you don't do dairy you can easily substitute olive oil)
3. While the tortillas are cooking, drain and rinse the black beans. Set aside.
4. Once the tortillas are cooked, use the same pan for the eggs. Add a tiny bit of butter if the pan is dry. Fry the eggs over medium heat until the yokes are firm but not hard.
5. Put 2 tortillas on each plate and begin layering. First tortillas, then sauce, then cabbage & chard, then black beans, then 1 egg, and garnish with cilantro.

Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus on Feta Toasts

Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus on Feta Toasts
Recipe from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop

Asparagus Lovers,

Hi there! Asparagus season is here, and are you loving it or sick of all the asparagus recipes yet? I'm still eating asparagus once or twice a week while I can. Some day I'll own my own property with a perennial asparagus bed. Until now I'm reliant on my local produce market...But, I do have lots of fresh homegrown mint varieties in my kitchen-garden. Perfect for this recipe.

In Health & Peace,
Miss Jolie Ann

Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus on Feta Toasts

Feta Toasts

4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)

1 tablespoon minced fresh mint leaves

Freshly ground black pepper

1-2 tablespoons milk (**Jolie's note: I used unsweetened plain soymilk)

2 large slices country white bread, at least 8 inches long and about 1 inch thick

Scrambled Eggs

Salt

4 ounces thin asparagus, touch ends snapped off

5 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

Freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons unsalted butter

1. For the toasts: With a fork, combine the cheese, mint, pepper to taste, and 1 tablespoon milk in a small bowl. If the mixture is still lumpy, add more milk as needed until smooth. Place the bread slices in the toaster, but do not toast them yet. (The bread slices can also be placed on a baking sheet, ready to go under the broiler, if your toaster wont' accommodate such large slices.)

2. For the Eggs: Bring about 1 quart water to boil in a medium saucepan. Add the salt to taste and the asparagus and cook just until crisp-tender, about one minute. Drain the asparagus.

3. Beat together the eggs, milk, and salt and pepper to taste with a fork in a medium bowl. When combined, add the asparagus and beat just to incorporate.

4. Place the butter in a medium nonstick skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. When the butter foams, swirl to coat the pan bottom with the butter. Add the egg mixture and wait until it just begins to set on the bottom, about 20 seconds. With a rubber spatula, begin to fold the set eggs back toward the middle of the pan. Continue using a folding motion to turn the set pieces back on top of each other. After about a minute or so, the eggs should be fluffy and piled about 1 inch high. Use the spatula to divide the eggs into several pieces and flip them to finish cooking. The whole process, from start to finish, should take about 2 minutes. The idea is not to scramble the eggs, but rather to fold them so they emerge fluffy and light from the pan.

5. To finish the Dish: At the same time the eggs are cooking, toast the bread. Spread the feta mixture over the two toasts and place one on each plate. Divide the eggs between the toasts, piling them high over the feta. Serve immediately.

Broccoli Quiche

Broccoli Quiche
Original Recipe by Miss Jolie Ann

Quiche is good. There's something so yummy and satisfying about it. You can eat it for dinner, lunch or brunch. I make a veggie quiche for every season. Spring & Fall: broccoli or spinach; Summer: tomato or summer squash; Winter: mushroom. They are all delicious and relatively quick & simple when I use frozen pie crust. Yes, sometimes I feel like making homemade pie crust from scratch. Which really isn't that difficult except I don't own a mixer or food processor so sometimes I want things to just be quicker. So I stock up on frozen pie crusts from Trader Joe's. They only carry them during the winter holiday season so you have to get them then. Come late January you are out of luck. I buy several and they freeze well. That being said, with pre-made pie crust you can focus on whipping up the quiche fillings. While the quiche bakes you can make a salad and clean up your dishes. Voila! Beautiful quiche in under an hour. This week I used broccoli, swiss cheese and fresh marjoram because that's what I had. Once you have mastered the simple formula of crust, cheese, filling & custard (which I learned from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest) I encourage you to experiment to your heart's content. Enjoy!

In Health,
Miss Jolie Ann

Broccoli Quiche

6 Servings

Pre-made or Home-made Pie Crust

1 cup grated organic swiss cheese

1 large organic broccoli crown

1/2 of an organic lemon

4 organic brown eggs

1 cup organic unsweetened soymilk

Fresh organic marjoram, chopped about 1 tsp

Sea salt & black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Wash the broccoli crown and chop it into small pieces.

3. Place a small amount of water in the bottom of a sauce pan and insert metal steamer basket. Bring water to boil over high heat. Add the broccoli and lightly steam for approximately 3 minutes. I like my broccoli to be bright green and still firm. Remove broccoli, still in the steamer basket, from the heat and plunge in cold water to stop it from cooking. Place drained broccoli in a large bowl. Squeeze lemon half over broccoli and set aside.

4. In another bowl place eggs and soymilk and beat with a metal whisk until fluffy. Add broccoli and marjoram and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Place cheese in the prepared pie crust. Pour egg broccoli mixture over cheese.

6. Bake for approximately 40 minutes.