My most recent lunch kick has been this Fried Egg and Avocado Sandwich. Egg and avocado are just made for each other. And holy dang, this is delicious. I have eaten it no less then 5 times in the past three weeks. Maybe more.

And avocado for breakfast, you betcha. Poached Egg with Grits and Avocado completely hit the spot, but to make it even better, I added bacon. I wanted a bit more crunch! And some smoky flavor too. Yum. And uh, I added extra avocado.

And I can’t add bacon to everything, so we used tofu for this traditional Korean dish, bibimbop. I froze the tofu, thawed it out and then pressed it in some towels under a heavy cookbook for about an hour. I know, tofu is high maintenance, but it was SO GOOD in this dish. Jude and Jason devoured it. This is a hugely time consuming meal to cook, but there are several things you can do ahead of time – pickle the carrots, slice the mushrooms, cook the rice, mix the marinade and prep the tofu. Once all that is done the meal comes together pretty quickly, and it’s well worth it!

What have you been cooking?

I didn’t really do too much in terms of Easter decorations but when I saw this blog post on ‘tie’ dying eggs with old silk ties, I knew I wanted to try it! This egg turned out the best and I think I decided that you have to use dark colored ties to make the colors show. I used a yellow one and a pink one, both with stripes and the results left a little to be desired. This one, however, turned out awesome! Yeah, imagine that print on a tie. It was nuts.

We did check out the Easter Egg hunt in our neighborhood.

It was a bit of a bust. We got one egg. . .

. . . with a girl’s necklace inside. But on the flip side, we put some cheerios in the egg and now it’s an awesome egg shaker. We (well, we = my mom) shook it while singing Peter Cotton Tail. All in the Easter spirit.

The obligatory chocolate bunny made an appearance. Jude ate his ears off with much relish. Although, he did keep calling it a duck.

Sadly, Easter ended with a sick little guy. Poor little Monkey.

But we still managed to eat some tasty things for Easter Brunch. Like crepes with nutella inside and strawberries on top. (PS The unfilled crepes freeze amazingly with a small piece of parchment paper between each crepe.)

And overnight French toast. We used cinnamon raisin Challah bread. Pretty tasty.

Most of all, I took a some time to dwell on the incredible hope that exists in Jesus. My faith isn’t the most stable at times, but I hold tight to the amazing miracle that happened on Easter. He is risen indeed.

How was your Easter Sunday?

Recipe for Shakshuka

This recipe is essentially a savory bread pudding. I added some bacon because, really, bacon makes everything better (I need that on a shirt or something). This one even reheated the next day well. I think the one thing I would do differently is either reduce the recipe, cook for longer at a lower temperature, or use a bigger pan. The first day, the middles was a bit soggy and everyone enjoyed the edges the most. The second day, everything was cooked through more evenly and there were no complaints. Not that I get that many complaints when I feed people.

So yeah, come on over. You’ll get fed.

Recipe for Spinach and Cheese Strata

Crust
* 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
* 1 large egg
* 1 teaspoon cold water
* 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

For crust:
Blend flour, salt, and sugar in processor. Add butter; using on/off turns, process until coarse meal forms. Whisk 1 egg and 1 teaspoon cold water in small bowl; add to flour mixture. Using on/off turns, process just until moist clumps form. Transfer to work surface and knead gently until dough comes together, about 4 turns. Form into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour. Do ahead Dough can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.

Butter 9 1/2-inch round fluted tart pan with removable bottom. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer dough to pan, pressing onto bottom and up sides of pan; trim any excess dough. Chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter large square of foil and press, butter side down, onto crust. Freeze for 30 minutes. Bake 20 minutes. Using fork, pierce bottom of crust all over (about 10 times). Bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Cool. Do ahead Can be baked 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature

I fought with this crust quite a bit and ended up using more water than the recipe asked for to make the dough come together. I’m going to blame this on my not having a pastry blender and using my food processor instead! It ended up tasting fine.

The filling was absolutely delicious! What’s not to love about bacon and cheese (and zucchini too)? Overall, a great recipe for any meal.

Recipe for Zucchini, Bacon and Gruyere Quiche

I have always wanted to try my hand at eggs Benedict because it has two things involved that I’d never done before: poaching an egg and making a hollandaise sauce. Thankfully because of the clarity of the recipe I found, both first time ventures went off without a hitch!

I had always associated eggs Benedict with special occasion brunches but now I know it’s some I can create in my own home. Although, still only for special occasions because, dang! It’s not a healthy breakfast. But it’s certainly tasty!

Recipe for Eggs Benedict