cheese

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Okay, so this is going to be my first guest blog and hopefully not the last. Since today was Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be nice to help out Lindz and put a special bonus episode on the site.

First off, I’m really lazy, and I like to be able to throw food together about a quickly as I can eat it. The fact that Lindzee makes delicious and healthy food has been a godsend for a guy that ate Bacon Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburgers and dollar tacos like they was going out of style. While I am no chef, there are some things that I can make that I am proud of. With a name like Javier Barrera, you can guess that it most likely involves a shell of some sort, or end with -urrito. Also, breakfast is my most favorite genre of meal since it generally involves either bacon or sausage. Having said all of this, you can only imagine that I’m going to combine the two to make the most perfect meal for my most perfect girl.

Continuing forward, this is what you’re going to need to make some delicious Sunday hangover – er, Valentine’s Day breakfast burritos. Since I’m a hungry man, I’m going to give you a recipe to make 4 breakfast delights, enough to serve an equal number of people.

  • 1 lb of turkey sausage
  • 1 lb potatoes o’Brien, frozen
  • 5 eggs
  • ¼ cup milk
  • 2 tbl olive oil
  • 4 large tortillas, I recommend jalapeno cheddar flavor if you can find them.
  • 8 oz graded cheddar jack
  • 1 handful of fresh cilantro
  • 2 avocados
  • 1 dash Cholula brand hot sauce

First off, let’s start cooking the turkey sausage in a large saute pan. Turn the burner to medium high, and squeeze the delicious ball of health into the pan. When it first hits, its going to look much like the container that it was in. Using a spatula, break up the sausage so that it can cook evenly. Cook the sausage for about 10 minutes so that its pretty well cooked, but not fully.

There will be a little bit of juice from the water in the sausage, and a bit of fat. Go ahead and drain that into an empty beer can or whatever you use for that sort of thing.

Put the olive oil into the pan with the sausage, and swirl the pan so that the oil completely covers the bottom. Turn the heat down to medium, and throw the potatoes o’brian in with the sausage. Put a lid partially on the pan so that the water can escape from the frozen potatoes as it cooks. We’ll let this cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally so that we can finish cooking the sausage and brown the potatoes evenly.

While the bulk of our food is cooking, let’s crack our eggs into a large bowl. Put a couple of dashes of Cholula hot sauce into everything. Pour the milk into the bowl and beat the eggs mercilessly with two forks. When you’re done, you should have creamy mixture. If you don’t see bubbles, then you didn’t do it hard enough.

I also take this time to layout my burrito shells and put the cheese on them. As long as my counter is clean, I just do it on there for simplicity sake. Put about two oz of the shredded cheddar jack on each of the shells. We’re also going to need to turn on our oven to 350 degrees at this time. Baking everything for about 8 minutes will allow for the cheese to melt fully, and give the outside a nice texture.

Check your sausage and potato mixture. When it looks like its safe to eat, let’s go ahead and turn the heat down to medium low and pour our eggs in. I was kinda experimenting and put some cilantro in with the eggs, however, I quickly realized that it was probably not going to release the flavor properly. I would just recommend that you enjoy the photo with my mistake, and just put the cilantro in after we’re done cooking this mixture.

Once everything has been cooked – which should be about 6 – 8 minutes or so, let’s evenly scoop everything into the 4 shells. It should be about two ladles full in each one. Let’s now take our cilantro and put a couple of pinches in each one. Slice up your avocados, and place a few slices evenly into each one.

Now, this is going to be the hardest part for most people, and is what makes burritos a true art form. The roll is crucial for a number of reasons. First off, its great to have a well rolled burrito when you’re driving in your car and trying to eat at the same time. Keeping the food in the shell allows you to get to work without looking like you require a bib – which may in turn lead to that promotion that lets you finally sell that 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the paint peeling off. Furthermore, a perfect roll is great because it gives your street cred with other Mexicans such as myself, and its nice to have that when its 2am and you’re the last person in line at the taco stand. Rant, off…

Okay, so take the sides of the shell that are perpendicular to the breakfast stuffing. Fold in, keeping your pointer and bird fingers on the top. Take your thumbs, and begin to roll the part of the shell closest to you forward.

Keep your two fingers on the side while you do this as it helps keep the shell nice and tight. Once you have the sides covered with the back, take your four fingers and repeat. Once everything has been rolled you can use your hands and pat it down and help the contents settle. Place this on a baking pan, and repeat for the other burritos.

Let’s go ahead an put them in the oven, and let them bake for about 8 minutes.

Enjoy this time with the fact that you only have one dirty pan, a spatula, two bowls, and a couple of forks. Once your food is done, grab a cup of coffee, turn on your DVR recording of COPS – Women Behaving Badly, and enjoy your morning.

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Merry Christmas to everyone!  The holiday season is my favorite time of year and Christmas Eve happens to be my favorite part.  My family has a tradition of hosting a fondue party every Christmas eve.  Lots of dipping, eating and having fun.

And any Frei family holiday would be complete without a lot of red wine spilling.  This year was no exception:

 

 Fondue? Don’t mind if I do!  I love fondue – I think it might be because I am a sauce person. I am obsessed with sauces.  Fondue is the only meal I can think of where you dip every course and every bite.  In the words of Lustopher Hardy – “A little bit of heaven”. 

We generally setup the fondue around my parent’s kitchen island, which promotes lots of socializing.

Even Mavie (who has severe IBS (not joking) and is not allowed people food) tried to get a piece of yumminess. 

 

For those of you not familiar with fondue, we have three courses for the party:

The Cheese

The Meat

The Chocolate

Easy to remember since it is the three basic food groups :) .

I am sure some of you will be able to relate to this, but all of our family’s Christmas recipes have been around for so many years that they are stored in this little messy handwritten card holder my mom keeps.

 I love looking through all these recipes every year.  I even found a couple of Tomato Aspics (sick).   We don’t make that anymore. My favorite was this recipe written on a Goodyear Tire notepad. Hehe.

 

 Here are the fondue recipes.

 Don’t worry, I retyped them :) .

The Cheese Course

As previously mentioned, the night begins with the cheese fondue.  I really could just have this course and be fine for the rest of the night.  It is sooo freaking good. I have seen people make cheese fondue with many different types of cheeses and ingredients.  We never stray from the traditional.  Why fix what ain’t broken? 

Important note: When eating the cheese you must be careful.  It has been said that if you drop your piece of bread or fruit into the cheese you must kiss the person next to you.  Generally, this gets a little strange because I am usually eating fondue with my family.

Traditional Cheese Fondue (Adapted from handwritten recipe circa 1972 by Pam Frei)


½ Pound freshly grated Emmentaler Swiss Cheese

½ Pound freshly grated Le Gruyere Cheese (Do not use processed Gruyere.  The year we tried the processed is the same year we tried the chocolate fountain.  It will forever be known as the year of the fondue failure and subsequently the year without a Santa Claus)

1.5 Cups Dry White Wine

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

1.5 Teaspoons Cornstarch

1 Garlic clove halved

½ Teaspoon Nutmeg

Salt and White Pepper to taste

3 Tablespoons Kirsch Cherry Liquor

Dippers

Loaf of French bread cubed

2 Apples cubed

Roasted potatoes for dipping (optional)

Rub garlic on inside of large pot with two forks.

 Remove garlic solids.  Add white wine and lemon juice and heat over medium heat.  Heat till air bubbles rise but to not boil.  Whisk in cornstarch so there are no lumps.  Reduce heat to low.  Add a handful of cheese. 

 When cheese is melted add another handful.  Do not boil.  Add in nutmeg, salt and pepper and Kirsch.  The Kirsch adds great flavor.  At this point, we add the cheese mixture to a crockpot on high, so it doesn’t burn.  Use fondue sticks to dip.

 The Meat Course

The meat course is a little different because the eater is actually cooking their own meat. 

There are fondue pots (we have 3-4) of heated beef bouillon and red wine (one year we experimented with peanut oil) and over the years we have tried the different combinations of the following:

Shrimp (peeled and deveined)

Steak (cut into chunks)

Chicken (cut into chunks and generally marinated)

Salmon (cut into chunks)

Mushrooms

Peppers          

 Heat the following over a stove until boiling and add to fondue pot.

2 Cups of Beef Broth

1 Cup Red Wine

We like to use Sterno, not tealights, as a heat source.  Otherwise, it doesn’t get hot very fast.

Now for the dipping sauces – I try to make these the day prior to the party:

Sweet and Sour (my personal favorite)


½ cup Apricot Preserves

¼ cup Catsup (this cracks me up!  Anyone know the difference between catsup and ketchup?)

2 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 Tablespoons Major Grey’s Chutney

Heat all ingredients until it reaches a simmering stage.

Mustard Sauce

1/2 Cup sour cream

1/3 Cup mayonnaise

1.5 Tablespoons prepared mustard (the French’s kind. Not the Dijon)

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Teaspoon horseradish

Combine all ingredients and mix well

Blue Cheese Dressing Sauce

This can easily be used as salad dressing to.

¾ Cup sour cream

½ Teaspoon dry mustard

½ Teaspoon salt

½ Garlic clove minced

1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

½ Cup mayonnaise

3 Oz. Crumbled blue cheese

Combine all ingredients with the exception of blue cheese in a large bowl.  Mix for 2 minutes on low speed.  Slowly add blue cheese and blend 4 more minutes.  Refrigerate 24 hours prior to serving.

Teriyaki Sauce
We take a shortcut and use Yoshida!

  The Chocolate Course

I am usually so stuffed at this point that I can barely walk, but I always make room for just a bit more since the chocolate is so good.  Our recipe is super simple but really yummy!

Chocolate Fondue

2 Large bars of Symphony Chocolate with Toffee Bits – This stuff is the best and adds a little extra crunch

½ Cup Whipping Cream

2 ounces of Bailey’s Irish Cream (optional)

Heat chocolate and whipping cream over double boiler over low heat.  Stir until melted.  Transfer to chocolate fondue pot.  

We have this super cute hot fudge warmer thing we use:

Dippers

Use any combination of the following:

Bananas sliced

Mandarin Oranges

Strawberries

Apples

Pineapple

Pound Cake (bite size)

Cheesecake (bite size)

Leftover holiday cookies

At this point in the party I am generally ready to pass out since I am so full. 

I hope you have all have a wonderful Christmas!  I would love to hear about your Christmas traditions.  Please post them in the comment section. 

Be safe, be merry and eat & drink with reckless abandon!  You can work it off later!

Love,

Lindzee

PS.  I wish Mr. Barrera could have been here!  Hope you are having fun in b-town!

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Last Saturday, the University of Idaho Vandals played the Boise State Broncos. The outcome of the game is quite trivial :) , but I did want to tell you a bit about our tailgate/champagne breakfast. We started out at 10:00am at my friend Michelle’s new beautiful home. Here is a picture of her celebrating her new home purchase:

We had some wonderful mimosas provided by Michelle and only a few bottles of champagne ended up on her new floor. Oops. Since Michelle provided the drinks, I said I would bring breakfast. I figured we would need something substantial for all the adult beverages we were about to consume. Never forget: a hearty breakfast is a morning drinker’s best friend.

I decided on my White Cheddar Chicken Apple Sausage Quiche since it is easy to make and great for a hungry crowd. Everyone seemed to like the quiche, except I felt really bad because Katie didn’t get any (the only meat she eats is sausage. Strange, but true.). She was late because of a work thang. I hope she will find it in her heart to forgive me.   This is me crying while chopping the onions and feeling really bad:

Anyways, the secret to this quiche is using really sharp white cheddar because it pairs nicely with the sweetness of the apple sausage. When I used to live near a Trader Joes I would buy their Irish Cheddar, but I have since switched to Tillamook and it is just as good. I love how it has little crunchy texture bits with the super strong flavor.


Also, I highly recommend (advice I never remember to take) putting your quiche on a cookie sheet in the oven because mine always overflow and result in smoking burnt egg at the bottom of the oven and then set the smoke alarm off which then sends the dog into a minor panic. This should be avoided if possible:

White Cheddar Chicken Apple Sausage Quiche

 Makes two quiches which serves 10-12 hungry people

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, chopped
4 large links of apple chicken sausage chopped (I use Isernio brand)
1 clove garlic chopped
½ cup sundried tomatoes packed in oil, drained, julienne cut (optional)
2 cups fresh spinach
4 tablespoons of fresh Basil chopped or any other herbs you have on hand
6 eggs
3 cups half and half
½ teaspoon nutmeg salt and pepper to taste
2 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crusts (I hope you didn’t think I would make my own.  I am unsuccessful after MANY attempts.)
1 small block of shredded Extra Sharp Tillamook White Cheddar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion, sausage together until onions are translucent (5-7 minutes). Add garlic and tomatoes then sauté 1 minute more. Then add herbs and spinach then saute 1 minute more.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and cream. Add Nutmeg, salt and pepper.

4.  Spread 1 cup shredded cheese in the bottom of each pie crust. Layer half the sausage mixture in each quiche over cheese. Cover with half of egg mixture in each quiche. (you might have some leftover before it overflows) sprinkle top with remaining  shredded cheese.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. Or until filling is firm and golden brown.

With all the excitement, I forgot to take a final pic, so I have included a bad uncooked one.

Love, Lindzee

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