A little baby goodness and some damn good strata

Posted by random olio

This past weekend my sister came to visit for her last trip before she has a sweet baby girl. We had a baby shower with my sister’s friends that live in my local area. It was a fun time. I always enjoy a group of women who get together and bond, even if 75% of the conversation is about babies. Even so women can be very sassy!

My sister is gluten-free. When the mom-to-be does not eat gluten, you make sure you have food just for her. For each item I had a gluten-free option. Cupcakes, scones, macaroons, and Eggs Benedict strata. What I want to tell you about is the Eggs Benedict strata. We took this recipe from the Taste and Tell blog, and made one pan that was exact to this recipe + red peppers. We then went to a local market and purchased gluten-free English muffins and substituted them for the regular english muffins to make a gluten-free option. Um. It. was. damn. good.

My apologies as I was caught up in the moment and never took a photo of the strata so you will have to go to the Taste and Tell blog to see their version (it looks exactly like it turns out). This is the perfect dish that you can prep and make the night before, and then bake just before your guests arrive. I am actually a bit excited for the next time we make it. I could not have enough. I even liked the gluten-free version!

For those of you that hate to make poached eggs, this might be the perfect brunch option to make at home. The hollandaise sauce is superb, and just the right added touch to this dish (it better be with all the butter it contains). I definitely suggest adding the red peppers. It gave it just the extra bite that was needed. Enjoy this quick and amazing recipe:

EGGS BENEDICT STRATA

6 whole English muffins
6 oz Canadian-style bacon, chopped
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
salt and pepper

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
dash of hot sauce
1/2 cup butter, melted and very hot

INSTRUCTIONS

Spray an 8-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Cut the English muffins into 1-inch cubes. Place half of the cubes in the prepared baking dish, then sprinkle with half of the Canadian bacon. Top with the remaining English muffin cubes and then the remaining Canadian bacon.
Whisk together the eggs and the milk. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the top of the bread. Use your hands to press down the bread to make sure that it has all been soaked with the mixture. Cover and refrigerate for several hours, preferably overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the strata from the oven and let it sit on the counter while the oven comes up to temperature. Bake, uncovered, until puffed and golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes.
When the strata is almost finished baking, prepare the hollandaise sauce. Place the egg yolks, Dijon, lemon juice and hot sauce in a blender. Blend for several seconds. Very slowly, stream the hot butter into the sauce, keeping the blender on the entire time. Blend until the sauce is thick.
Serve the strata warm with the hollandaise poured over the top.

random olio 2013

Posted by random olio

I know most blogs probably look back at their year, so I am just another cliché. Yet I have to do it. I need to take a moment to ponder all that poured forth out of my mouth and my fingertips. It was fun to look back on some of my favorite posts of the year. A few of my favorites were of course about my better half, who inspires me, keeps me afloat, and well probably the most important, keeps the cranky me away because he feeds me. Other posts were about finishing my first 1/2 marathon, food, farts, and you know those days when your pants are on backwards. These were my top ten favorite posts of 2013 (in no particular order), okay so I could not stop at ten so you get a top thirteen:

Since life is not always about what is MY favorite. I thought I would also share the most read 2013 posts:

I hope you enjoyed my random mumblings, musings, and words this year. It has been an adventure of books, food, introspection, growth, and gratitude. Here is to many more blog posts in 2014!!

Lessons come when we are open

Posted by random olio

There are a few authors that I have read every book they have written, and a few of them I have had the pleasure of seeing in person. Ann Patchett is one of those authors. Her new book: “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage” is a book that is not in the usual realm of her writing. It is a compilation of articles she has written over the years, many that were published in magazines. While they are each stories that were written years apart, her writing, story, and life are weaved so well together that they flow so beautifully, you would have thought they were written together on purpose.

You learn about her younger years and the oddity of her childhood, about taking care of her grandma, about her early years of writing, her dogs, her marriages, and the ups and downs of a writer’s life. Her other books are novels, ones that once you open and get into the story, you are a goner. You might as well know that after the first few pages, you’ll be snuggling on the couch for the long haul. Cancel any plans that you have made, you will not want to put any of her novels down.

Patchett does have a memoir “Truth and Beauty” that is about her life with her best friend and author, Lucy Grealy, yet “This is a Story of a Happy Marriage” goes deeper in many more aspects of her life and she communicates many ideas that resonate on marriage, family, and the writing life. This idea particularly stood out to me about openness:

“It’s a wonderful thing to find a great teacher, but we also have to find him or her at a time in life when we’re able to listen to and trust and implement the lessons we are given. The same is true of the books we read. I think that what influences us in literature comes less from what we love and more from what we happen to pick up in moments when we are especially open.” Page 33

This happens so often for me. I gravitate towards a book and I am not sure why, and then as I begin to read and absorb the ideas shared, I gradually, page by page learn a bit more about myself. You know the books that do that for you. The ones with a plethora of highlighted, dog-eared, or post-it note adorned pages all with ideas that you want to remember, cherish, or share with another individual. This book did that for me. Her story and life experience made me think about my life experience and story and I found myself jotting down notes of special moments from my life that I want to put on paper.

I encourage you to read “This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.” It is slow in the beginning and takes a bit more to get into than her novels, but once you get to know her a bit more I know you will find a few morsels to take away.

No more cupcakes

Posted by random olio

We are diehard cupcake fans. When it comes to cupcakes, trust me we know them. On every trip regardless of state or country I seek out the different cupcake bakeries and decide which one we will try. Often we cart a to-go box throughout a city, and indulge in the sweetness in our hotel room. I cannot tell you how many times we have shared many a cupcake in our pajamas before brushing our teeth and crawling into bed before another day of adventures. We have been to most of the famous big city cupcake places, and have a few favorites around the country, but somehow we got lucky and our true all-time top of the list was right here in Portland.

Saint Cupcake has been baking cupcakes since 2005. We were there from the beginning, through a few design changes to their storefront in the Northwest part of town, to when they opened a small Eastside location (Saint Cupcake Deluxe), to their move downtown (under the name Saint Cupcake Galore) and the welcome addition of pastries and cookies. The new baked additions only made it that much harder to decide. We would walk in for cupcakes and leave with a sticky bun, cookie, and cupcakes, because they are just THAT GOOD. They know just how to make them taste homemade, not too much icing and not too sweet. Just the right balance of all the right ingredients. Recently they opened a small storefront in the West End part of Portland called QUIN. It is their newest venture selling locally made chocolate, caramels, lollipops, gumdrops, and more.

So why am I telling you about Saint Cupcake? I am having a get-together with some women soon and was so excited to pick up cupcakes for the event, and found out that as of December 31, Saint Cupcake will be closing all locations and focusing solely on QUIN. I am happy for the owners and their next adventures, but sad to see my #1 favorite cupcake bakery go away. They have been here almost as long as Chris and I have been in Portland. I will miss their pumpkin and red velvet cupcakes, and I know Chris will miss their “Big Top” which had a crunchier chocolate chip cookie top with cream cheese frosting. They also always had amazing seasonal offerings (think Egg Nog cupcake and the like).

I do not know what I will do without Saint Cupcake. Sounds like we will have to visit our #2 place more often, Kara’s Cupcakes in San Francisco.

#bummedinPDX

What is inside the Bawx?

Posted by random olio

I am a bit of a minimalist. That does not mean I do not get giddy when I find a unique item that I hope only a few others have, or maybe is even one-of-a kind. I would rather wait for that very special thing, rather than finding a zillion other items that I only partially like and that fill my closet only to be worn once, or not at all. No, I am one to cherish and wear out something I love. Chris often asks me why I get on a trend of an outfit, bag, or a pair of earrings. It is not that I am a creature of habit as much as a creature of comfort. I like something and then I latch onto it, and wear it in nicely.

So when I heard about Bawx, I thought maybe it was just the right thing to share the day after Christmas. Many of you may have gift cards or cash burning in your pockets, ready to hammer it out with other more than crazy people returning their Christmas gifts for a different size or color. I encourage you to wait a bit and think more about your purchase. Do you really need that thing? Or the other one? Or that one? Instead you can buy a cardboard box. Yes, that is what I said. You can buy a cardboard box.

Bawx is for all the possibilities. It originated when two guys started looking at how children play. The result is a company that raises conscious thinking and supports children’s charities. The idea behind it is that often children like to play with the box more than what is inside. I wholeheartedly agree, except maybe if there was an iPhone or iPad in that box. They tend to be kid magnets regardless of the age.

In any case, I hope that Bawx makes you think before you make a mad dash out to Best Buy today. Do you really need it? Will it eventually just collect dust on your shelf? Maybe instead you will buy a Bawx. Prices range from $24.99 to $499. I am intrigued, are you?