Lake Party ~ Savory Bread Pudding with Manchego, Chorizo and Challa?

Cooking lakeside with awesome people is as fun as it sounds. And even twice as much fun when you have an air-conditioned RV with a hallway kitchen and one of those 1940's pullout drawer cutting boards. Us cooks love that sorta thing. And to make matters better, the only kitchen tool I brought along was a box grater that I threw into the trunk of my car at 4 AM before my 5 hour drive to the lake. Oh, it was gonna be fun.

And better yet, in the midst of loading bags of groceries, a boat and paddle boards Max forgot her tools, too. Like somebody said: great minds think alike. Or possibly, great minds get overwhelmed... Whatever. We just like a challenge anyway, or at the least don't mind one, and certainly wouldn't be chefs if that weren't the case.

But we did plan a menu and had much forethought about what meals would make our lake-crew happy in the 108 degree heat in Arizona. We factored in lake activities, sun exposure, laziness, and built a menu just a few days after Max and her guy Marco stepped off a plane from Peru, from Peru to Costco to the lake, amazing. We would keep it easy and guilty with lots of chips and dips, cheese and salami; tacos with margaritas; sangria; sandwiches for the boat and a big Chinese chicken salad... all kinds of goodness. We wrote our lists and headed to the market. 

I was responsible for a few meals with a suggestion from Max, it was her birthday weekend, to bake-up some bready, cheesy, custardy, sausagey mess for Saturday's brunch. It would be the perfect followup to Friday night's frozen Margaritas and pair real nice with morning mimosas. Plus, we had an oven and air-conditioning. Why not take advantage? Three things immediately came to mind: Manchego cheese, Spanish chorizo sausage and a braided loaf of challa. I would set it up the night before and bake it off in the morning while we nursed our coffee. Simple and lazy. 

So, when Max unhinged that cutting board from its cabinet, on Friday evening, laid it on the table and starting sectioning oranges for sangria with a knife that had probably never had an edge, we all laughed ourselves to tears. Marco blended the drinks and Deborah squeezed avocados from their skin into the only mixing bowl in the kitchen, a "Dorito" bowl... It was darned funny as we crowded around the kitchen table with four dogs at our feet; in wet bathing suits; with Max's mom and dad; and Deborah singing her anthem "this is how we do it", Montell Jordan; you can find it on Youtube, best affirmative dance song ever...

And we did it.

Here it is:

Savory Bread Pudding with Manchego, Chorizo and Challa 

It's a lazy persons recipe because you can throw it together the night before and bake it in the oven the next morning and feel like a champ. And the ingredients are simple:

6 eggs

2 pints of half and half

1 cup of shredded Manchego

1 cup of shredded Gruyere

1 loaf of braided challa bread

1 Spanish chorizo sausage

Salt and pepper

*marmalade onions-- I had some in my freezer from my Onion Marmalade post

pull the bread apart and remove the crust; it's easy

grate your cheeses and slice your sausage

make a custard by combining the eggs and the half and half; don't forget to season with salt and pepper

top the torn bread with the shredded cheese, chorizo and pour the custard of the top, pressing it down with the back of a spoon to evenly moisten and mix

if you have it, crown with onion marmalade

cover with foil and rest in the fridge over night

bake at 400' for 35- 45 minutes and make your coffee

And to be extra guilty, serve with a side of bacon; Max's dad Bo had some good stuff

And again, happy birthday Max, xoxo

Tuscan Bread Salad ~ Che Brava!

Summer is closing up shop and soon farmers will be ushering in a whole new crop of Fall. Ok, not SO soon, but kids are back in school and vacation is now a credit card statement, if you even had one. Another tip-off that Summer is coming to a close: TJ Max no longer has a swimsuit isle and I can't find a pair of weird "lake shoes" anywhere; you know the kind: gummy, spongy shoes you wear to wade through the slime on your way to the speedboat?  Looks like I'll be wearing my Chacos, circa 2000... Because the real reminder that Fall is upon us is Labor Day Weekend; the final hurrah before you are reminded, once again, of how hard American workers' labor for... That's another blog...


So, in an attempt to distract you from the inevitable season change, I thought I would share the simplest salad celebrating Summer's tomato and basil. And don't wait to try this, in fact, make it this weekend. If you wait too long, you may need a can opener...

Tuscan Bread Salad ~ Panzanella

An Italian Tuscan classic, panzanella makes use of hearty leftover bread and very ripe tomatoes; so ripe, the Italians are known to crush them in their hands over torn, dry bread. I added quite a few more steps and surprised myself by how well my stovetop approach worked.
It was too hot to heat the oven so I detoured and heated my iron "grill" skillet in the hopes that it would make the dryest, toastiest bread chunks; a necessity for this salad. And it worked! The bread was perfectly toasted with a lovely char; ready for juicy tomatoes and a garlicky vinaigrette. 

Here she is...

early girls again, awash with basil, ready to be dried

a hearty loaf of sourdough bread, crusts shaved down

save the crusts, they add a nice heft and crunch to the juicy salad

tear with your hands

olive oil and a garlic clove pounded together

dress the torn bread with the olive oil and garlic in a bowl

prepare for "grilling"

the skillet should be heated 10 minutes before, rub the hot skillet with oil and toast the bread 

the bread shavings at the bottom of the bowl should not be wasted and add great texture; fry in a pan and don't forget to toast the crusts too

the toasted tray ready for mixing

core and quarter ripe tomatoes, the more ripe the better

save a couple tomatoes and shave on a grater, saving the tomato juice 

shaved, juiced tomatoes

crush a sliver of garlic clove with one tablespoon of red wine vinegar, juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper; and stream in two tablespoons of good olive oil, to make a vinaigrette

sticky black olives and basil are a nice addition to the bowl with the bread and tomatoes

spoon the shaved tomato over the bread then combine 

spoon the vinaigrette over the salad and toss

che brava!

and with this guy ~ perfecto!

and great as a leftover

 and even better: 

bake in the oven like stuffing(!)

Melon Milk with Honey

Every summer I say I am going to step away from the Charentais and try all of the other varieties of melon. But there are so many I can't keep up, let alone remember their names while lugging them through the farmers market. Just this week I bought and carried three small melons and nearly dislocated my shoulder. Not to mention, it does not help that I am single-handed at the moment: lame. Someone needs a cart!

So, I've been slicing them open and ploughing through them for the last couple of days and here's what I have noticed: they really are the most wonderful things. Tiny and personal I feel like each one was grown just for me. Now if I could only remember their names...

And what could be better post-run than a blend of sweet melon with honey and milk?

I'm not sure and I don't care. Trust me, it's good.

Melon Milk with Honey

This variety may be a Honey Jack??? Sorry...

Blend melon, milk, honey...

You don't need a straw, unless it matches.