Trust your gut! And eat good risotto!

Today I was reminded twice of one very important cooking rule: the recipe is not always right!

Coincidentally, both of these pleasant reminders came as slightly undercooked ingredients.

The first was in my 15-minute prep meatloaf – a bacon-Gruyere meatloaf from Real Simple magazine that requires very little hands-on time. The most time I spent was on grating the Gruyere cheese, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite to cook with.

The issue here was when the oven called my name, saying, “Elise… time to take the meatloaf out,” the meatloaf was still clearly undercooked. I’m always very paranoid about undercooking meat (a seldom-occurring quality, as I’m generally calm as a toad in the sun… J), so when my instant-read thermometer read 140 instead of 160, I knew it needed to go back in. Twenty minutes later of checking on it every five minutes, I came to my very calm executive decision--- Screw it! If it’s not done now, we’re eating it row! Lucky for my dinner guests, it was done and delicious.

My second reminder that the times listed on recipes aren’t always correct occurred in dish number two: Risotto with Butternut Squash, Leeks, and Basil. The recipe called to sauté the squash for 5 minutes or until starting to soften and brown. After 8 minutes, I used the tried and true fork test and thought it wasn’t quite done but that the rest of the cooking process would soften it up a little. When it was all done and time to serve and the squash was the same texture, I wished I had listened to my gut. While my kind dinner guests said that the squash were good, there were some pieces that were a little crispier than I’d like. Because I didn’t cut them all the exact same size, the larger pieces were a little underdone. So, as you all should when you find something about a recipe you’d like to change, I made a note on the recipe.

So today let’s raise our glasses to one of the most important cooking rules:

Go with your gut!

Bacon-Gruyère Meatloaf

[from Real Simple magazine]

Ingredients

            1 1/2 pounds ground beef chuck

            1/4 cup bread crumbs

            1/4 cup ketchup, plus more for serving

            1 small red onion, coarsely grated

            2 slices bacon, chopped

            2 cloves garlic, chopped

            1 large egg

            3/4 cup grated Gruyère or Cheddar (3 ounces)

            kosher salt and black pepper

            2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

Heat oven to 400° F. In a medium bowl, combine the beef, bread crumbs, ketchup, grated onion, bacon, garlic, egg, ½ cup of the Gruyère, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Transfer the mixture to an 8-by-4-inch loaf pan and sprinkle with the

remaining ¼ cup of Gruyère.

Roast the meat loaf until cooked through, 40 to 45 minutes. Pour off any accumulated fat and let rest 10 minutes before slicing.

Slice the meat loaf and serve with additional ketchup.

Risotto with Butternut Squash, Leeks, and Basil

[From Bon Appetit magazine]

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

4 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled butternut squash (from 2 1/4 pounds squash)

3 cups 1/2-inch-wide slices leeks (white and pale green parts only)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

2 cups arborio rice

4 14-ounce cans (or more) vegetable broth

1 cup chopped fresh basil

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus additional for serving

Directions

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add squash and sauté until beginning to soften and brown around edges, about 5 minutes. Transfer squash to medium bowl.

Reduce heat to medium; add remaining 1 tablespoon oil, leeks, and thyme to same pot and stir until tender but not brown, about 5 minutes. Add rice and stir 1 minute. Add 1 cup broth and simmer until absorbed, stirring frequently, 3 to 4 minutes. Add remaining broth by 1/2 cupfuls, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding next, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Return squash to pot. Continue to cook until rice is just tender but still very creamy, stirring gently and often, about 10 minutes longer (about 25 minutes total cooking time). Remove from heat. Stir in basil and 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to large bowl and serve with additional Parmesan cheese.

... And it was all yellow (Shrimp dinner leftover turned alfredo pasta)

So let’s see if I completed my Mardi Gras checklist:

Get a sunburn?... Check!

Get to the parade route 2 hours before the parade actually started?.... Check!

Stand bundled up under and umbrella in the rain waiting for a parade?... Check!

Pick up the random doubloons left all around the house by my Mardi Gras obsessed husband?... Check!

At least you can’t say that I’m not dedicated…

Now that I’ve had time to recuperate after two weeks of South Louisiana fun, it’s back into the kitchen! 

This Friday, Vandebilt Regiment’s Band Boosters hosted a shrimp boil and, lucky me, I got four dinners!! (What can I say? I’ve got connections. ahem…thanks, Mom…ahem) I’m one of those people who prefer shrimp in dishes rather than just boiled, so while my husband was chowing down on his two trays, I decided to incorporate mine into a pasta dish. And don’t you worry, there was no waste. I incorporated all the items in the dinners into a dish.

My theme was yellow. (Really my theme was using whatever I happen to have in the refrigerator, but we’ll just pretend like my theme was yellow.) I sliced up some summer squash; they’re small right now, but still tasty. I julienned a yellow bell pepper from my tri-colored pepper pack. I cut the corn off the cob from the shrimp dinner. And off I went…

I keep a couple of things in stock for nights like this when I just want to whip up a quick pasta dish, such as heavy cream and Parmesan cheese. You can also use half & half, or a low-fat alternative is low-fat milk and nonfat evaporated milk with a tablespoon of flour to thicken it up.

The basic strategy for a veggie-included creamy pasta dish is as follows:

1.   If you’re including a protein, have it seasoned, cooked, and ready to go before you start. In my case, the lovely parents of the Vandebilt Band Boosters took care of that step for me.

2.     Set your pasta to boil. When you drain you pasta, reserve some of the boiling water. This is the best liquid to use to thin out the sauce if you need to after you’re done cooking. It helps the sauce stick to the pasta, versus regular water which would not work as well.

3.     Cook down the veggies (onions, peppers, squash, garlic, or whatever you feel like) in some butter or olive oil.  Get them to the consistency that you like them to be when you eat them.

4.     Add in any veggies that are already cooked (peas, corn, etc.) and add your cream/milk mixture. Let it thicken up if you’re using a thickening agent such as flour or cornstarch.

5.     Add any cheese you’d like, such as parmesan, and add your seasonings (parsley, salt, and pepper… maybe some thyme for all the veggies… but this part is really up to you).

6.     Toss with your drained pasta, adding some of the reserved boiling water as you see fit.

This is my basic strategy, but I’ll post for you exactly what I did last night with measurements below. 

So I used the shrimp and the corn; the only thing leftover were the potatoes – one of my favorite parts of a seafood boil and somehow always the part there are leftovers of. With my leftover shrimp boil potatoes, on Saturday for lunch I made mashed potatoes. The potatoes were already boiled, but not quite enough to cream them the way I like, so I peeled them and quartered them, then boiled them for another 5 minutes. After draining them, I added some evaporated milk and melted butter and used a hand-mixer to blend them to my desired consistency (which is creamy with no lumps), adding evaporated milk as needed to reach that desired consistency. I added salt to taste, but it didn’t require much because they had the flavor from the shrimp boil already incorporated. So next time, don’t let those potatoes go to waste. Stick them in the refrigerator for mashed potoatoes later in the week!

Don’t forget to comment and let me know what you think or how yours turned out!

Shrimp Alfredo with Yellow Vegetables

Ingredients:

8 ounces fettuccini pasta

¼ cp margarine

¼ cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

2 small summer squash, sliced thin

1 yellow bell pepper, julienned

½ cup corn

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus additional for serving

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 teaspoons thyme

salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1.     Cook fettuccine according to package directions; drain and keep warm, reserving boiling liquid for sauce adjustment.

2.     While pasta is cooking, melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, 3-4 minutes or until onion is tender. Increase heat to medium-high; add squash and yellow pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, 5-6 minutes or until crisp tender (or until it has reached your desired consistency).

3.     Stir in corn and cream; cook 1-2 minutes, or until heated through, but do not boil. Stir in Parmesan cheese, parsley, thyme, salt and ground black pepper. Toss with drained fettuccine. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese if desired. Use the reserved liquid to thin out sauce if necessary.

Playing hard to get

Lasagna. A classic, right? Everybody has her own way to make it. Personally, I still swear by my mother’s recipe. I’m not sure what it is, but I love it, and it’s my husband’s favorite dish, so I don’t think I’ll be veering away from that if I’m going for the basic. I do, however, like to try different varieties on lasagna, in particular vegetable lasagna’s. I’ve made one with spring veggies – zucchini, squash, eggplant, and the like. But flipping through my new Southern Living Ultimate Christmas Cookbook that Santa brought me, I came across another vegetable variety – Roasted Vegetable Lasagna. I thought this would make a good choice for tonight’s post because it calls for several vegetables that require specific prep.

First is the squash. Butternut squash to be exact. Now as you may realize from the frequency of squash in my posts, I’ve got quite a crush on squash. Squash, however, likes to play hard to get. It’s not as easy as peel, chop, and go like the sweet potatoes in this dish (winter squash, that is). No, squash makes you work before it’ll warm up to you. In fact, warming the vegetable up is one of the best ways to make it easier to work with. I’ve read that boiling it for several minutes works. The downside of that is that it makes too hot to handle immediately. I’ve also heard that baking it for a bit will soften the skin for peeling and the flesh for dicing. This method, however, takes a lot of time, as you have to preheat the oven and then bake it for a good while. My most recent attempt – and most successful – is to just microwave it on high for two minutes. It doesn’t leave it too hot to touch, and it just takes two minutes.

Next come leeks. They look like huge green onions, but they actually work just the opposite. For green onions, it’s the dark green leafy part that you want. For leeks, you want the white part. Slice it like an onion all the way up until the green part, then rinse.

The last prep tip that I’ll leave you with is for garlic. Most people that I know just used the precut garlic in the giant jars, but if you’re working with a recipe that calls for whole garlic (as this one does) or if you’re stuffing something with garlic, then buying it fresh and peeling it yourself is the way to go. I find pushing down on it with the flat side of your knife just enough to hear that crush sound makes the paper peel off easily and allows the flavor to more easily be drawn from the garlic itself.

So now that you’re prepped to prep, get out your chopping knife and cutting board and give this winter lasagna a try. My husband wished it had meat. (What can I say? He’s a man.) But it was a very filling vegetarian white-sauced twist on the Italian classic. Comment and let me know what you think!

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

[from Southern Living Ultimate Christmas Cookbook]

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash (about 2 pounds)

½ large sweet potato, cut into ½” cubes (about 1 cup)

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 cups sliced leaks (about 5 medium)

1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

4 cups milk

4 garlic cloves, halved

3 tablespoons butter or margarine

¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

9 dried precooked lasagna noodles

1 cup grated Asiago cheese

1 cup whipping cream

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.     [Microwave butternut squash at high 2 minutes to soften.] Cut squash in half lengthwise, remove and discard seeds. Peel squash, and cut into ½” cubes. Set aside 3 cups cubed squash, reserve any remaining squash for another use.

2. Combine 3 cups, squash, sweet potato, and 2 tablespoons olive oil on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 450° for 10 minutes. Combine leeks, bell pepper, and remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in the large bowl. Add to partially roasted squash mixture, stirring gently. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring after 15 minutes. Return roasted vegetables to bowl, set aside.

3.     Combine milk and garlic in a large saucepan. Bring just to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. Remove and discard garlic.

4. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, whisk in flour until smooth. Cook 1 minute, whisking constantly. Gradually whisk in warm milk, cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, 12 to 13 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat, stir in salt and pepper. Add to roasted vegetables, stirring gently.

5. Spoon 1 cup vegetable mixture into a lightly greased 13”x9” baking dish. Top with 3 lasagna noodles; spread half of remaining vegetable mixture over noodles, and sprinkle with ½ cup Asiago cheese. Repeat procedure with 3 noodles, remaining vegetable mixture, and remaining Asiago cheese. Break remaining 3 noodles in half and lay on top of casserole. (Breaking the noodles keeps them from curling up.). 

6. Beat cream at high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Spread whipped cream over noodles, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake, covered, at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 13 more minutes or until golden and bubbly. Let sit 15 minutes before serving.

There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's

I originally had something else planned for today’s entry [apple crisp – a perfect dessert for the cold nights we’ve been having], but yesterday I made a childhood favorite candy for a group of friends at a poker game, and it was such a hit I thought I’d share it.

This recipe for homemade Reese’s comes from a cookbook my family put together in 1992. Everyone in the family participated. At 4 years old, my contribution was riveting.

Peanut Chip Cookie

[by Elise Michel, age 4]

Ingredients:

6 chocolate chip cookies

Creamy peanut butter

Directions:

Spread creamy peanut butter on the top of each cookie and eat.

I know. Impressive, right?

When I grew a few years older, one of my favorite snacks was the Reese’s bars that my Aunt Julie made. I remember one New Year’s Eve sneaking back into the kitchen for more conveniently not asking mom if it was OK to have another… and another… and another.

When I made this treat yesterday, it literally took 15 minutes to put together. So when you’re looking for a low-effort crowd pleaser for kids and adults alike, give this one a shot.

Remember, there’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s.

Reese’s Bars

[by Julie Michel]

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter

1 stick oleo

2 cups powdered sugar

1 (8 oz.) bar Hershey’s chocolate [I used chocolate chips (milk chocolate).]

Directions:

Combine peanut butter, powdered sugar, and soft oleo. [You may have to add a little more powdered sugar. You want it to be a thick consistency, so that it's sticking to itself more than to the sides of the bowl.] 

Pat in 9x13 inch pan. Melt chocolate over boiling water and pour over mixture. [I have a handy dandy pampered chef microwave bowl that is perfect for melting butter and chocolate quickly and easily.] 

Chill in refrigerator [until the chocolate is solid again] and cut in squares.

Tip for measuring out sticky stuff: When I'm baking with sticky/greasy things like peanut butter, Crisco shortening, and other similar ingredients, I use the back of the spoon to scoop them out. It still allows to get it out quickly, but makes it easy to scrape it off on the side of the measuring cup.

Song, song of the south. Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth.

Tuesday marks the beginning of National Potato Lovers Month (not to be confused with National Potato Month, which is September). Yes, I know. Google nerd alert!  As we toe the threshold of this less than well-known holiday, I’m going to focus on a particular potato that calls Louisiana home – the sweet potato.

The sweet potato actually has two varieties. One type, found in the North, are white-fleshed and drier than the second type, which is grown mostly in Louisiana. This second version is probably the one you’re more familiar with. I grew up calling them yams and refusing to taste them. [Yams actually have brown or black skins and off-white, purple or red flesh, depending on the variety. The African slaves of the Old South thought Louisiana sweet potatoes were reminiscent of this veggie, called nyami in an African dialect and, thus, shortened to yam.]

Even the ones baked with marshmallows on top didn’t make it to my taste buds until last year when I started off with sweet potato fries and realized what I’d been missing out on all my life. Since then I take them anyway I can find them. Baked. Mashed. French Fried. In a casserole. In the slow cooker. In a pie. Call me the Bubba Gump of sweet potatoes.

To pair with the Croque Monsieur and Brussels sprouts of last week’s blog, I added another version of sweet potatoes to my recently developed repertoire. Sweet potato bisque. As many of you know, I’m a huge fan of buying in season due to the price factor, but I’m also a supporter of local businesses, so cooking with sweet potatoes is a win-win!

This particular recipe will stay on my short list of soups because it is super easy to make, inexpensive, and yummy! It also is lighter than your usual bisque because it only requires ½ cup of heavy cream, using apple juice and chicken broth to fill it out, and of course the sweet potatoes add thickness.

Jen's Sweet Potato Bisque

[By: Janet Johnston on Food Network]

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, for seasoning, plus 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups apple juice
• 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning (recommended: Savory Spice Shop s Sage and Savory Stuffing Seasoning) [I use Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic]
• 1/2 teaspoon finely ground white pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

Add butter and oil to a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the butter foams, add the onion and garlic and saute until soft, about 3 to 4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add the corn and cook for 1 more minute.

Add the sweet potatoes, chicken broth, apple juice, 2 teaspoons seasoning, white pepper, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, allspice, and cayenne. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through and fork tender, about 20 minutes.

Use an immersion blender and puree the bisque until smooth. Taste for seasoning, then stir in the heavy cream. Rewarm over low heat. 

I Gotta Feelin'

            Since I started working in August, I’ve worked to hone my lunch prep plan.

First try: Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers. They don’t require refrigeration like frozen Lean Cuisine meals, they’re quick to prepare, and they actually taste pretty good for pre-made lunches. The problem? They’re about 3 bucks a pop, which makes them slightly out of my price range.

Second try: Whatever happened to be leftover in the fridge. Good in theory price-wise, but didn’t quite work out because our dinner menu isn’t steady enough to guarantee that we’ll always have leftovers in the fridge. So I was back to square one.

Finally, I decided to turn to my mother’s method with a twist. Why I waited so long to follow her advice, I have no idea. So what’s the ingenious method? Simple: Cook a big pot of something delicious. Freeze it in lunch-size portions. Whenever you need something for lunch, grab something out of the freezer and voila! The good thing about Mom’s method is that if you start with enough things frozen then you can have something different every day!

My problem? Patience. Because I’m starting fresh, I don’t have enough of a variety already frozen. And of course I don’t have the patience to cook one item a week and get that variety built up. I do, however, have one thing on my side. I don’t mind eating the same thing for lunch every day for a week. So I use Mom’s method, but I just alter it a little. Cook a big pot of something delicious. Put lunch-size portions into leftover bowls and put in the refrigerator. Bring one to work each day for lunch.

This week, I’m cooking Black-eyed Pea Gumbo, a dish that my sister made for New Year’s Day lunch.  This dish, like most of the dishes I choose as week-long lunch dishes, is super-easy to do. It’s not often you find a successful recipe with only 3 steps! Chop all your basic cooking veggies in a quick chopper/food processor. Cook them down in olive oil. Then add all the canned goods and let it cook for 45 minutes. Can’t get much easier than that, and it makes a really good soup-like dish that we served over rice. Another prep step I learned from my mom is to cut up and freeze the basics (like bell peppers, celery, green onions and the like) so that when it comes time to cook, all you have to do is throw them in there. It makes a super-simple recipe super-quick.

The third benefit of this particular dish (aside from ease and tastiness) is price. For a half recipe, which made five portions (enough for the work week) with some extra for a couple of weeknight suppers or for a couple of lunches for my husband, the supplies easily add up to less than $10.  That’s 7 meals for less than $10.

So if you’re looking for something quick, easy, inexpensive, and flavor-rich, give this recipe a shot! Let me know what you think.

Black-Eyed Pea Gumbo

[From Allrecipes.com]

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

5 stalks celery, chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup brown rice [I used white rice, and I didn’t cook it with the soup. Following my sister’s lead, we just served it over whatever rice you prefer  in gumbo style.]

4 (15-ounce) cans black-eyed peas with liquid

1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles [With the half recipe, we just did this and left off the next ingredient. It gave it a little added kick.]

1 (14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and cook the onion, pepper, and celery until tender.

2. Pour in the chicken broth, and mix in rice [Again we didn’t do this step. We just served over cooked rice, but to each his own.], black-eyed peas with liquid, diced tomatoes and green chiles, diced tomatoes, and garlic.

3.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 45 minutes, or until rice is tender. Add water if soup is too thick.

Paris holds the key to your heart (... or your stomach)

Anticipation. 

Ever since my husband put in his request about a month ago for Brussels sprouts, the anticipation has been slowly building… along with the doubt. [I’ll admit, probably more doubt that anything else.] Tonight it finally made it to the table. And I learned a lot about Brussels sprouts in the process: for example, the spelling and thus its origins. Although now it seems obvious, I never knew that Brussels sprouts are a Belgium produce (and hence the name Brussels sprouts with a capital B and an s). I was also surprised to learn that Brussels sprouts are in the cabbage family. In fact in French – one of the languages spoken in Belgium – Brussels sprouts are called choux de Bruxelles or Brussels cabbage. Now that I’ve shared my random culinary encyclopedic information, I’ll move on to the actual cooking.

While the dish itself [My Brother Brussels – a Guy Fieri dish] was technically successful and looked appetizing, it turns out that I’m not a fan of this particular choux. I’ll give you the recipe in case you happen to like Brussels sprouts or want to give them a shot, but I don’t think I’ll be saving it in my recipe collection.

The rest of the meal, however, was extremely successful. (I know… I need to work on my modesty.)  An involuntary and proud (or should I say haughty?) “yum” slipped through my lips at the first bite of the other recipe I’m going to share with you today. A classic Parisian café dish – Croque Monsieur – is basically a twist on grilled ham and cheese. Using Gruyere cheese and a béchamel sauce with a sourdough exterior. The dish was frequently ordered on both my trips to the City of Lights however I’d never quite worked up the courage to make it myself. Turns out that it’s as easy to make as it is to eat! Although the Gruyere is a little more pricey than your everyday cheese, if you get it from Sam’s it’s much more reasonable.

This French classic has many variations, including the most popular Croque Madame, which is basically a Croque Monsieur with a fried egg on top. Give this dish a shot in its original form or make it your own. And let me know if that “yum” slips out. 

The rest of the meal included an easy-to-do and easy-to-freeze soup as well as a very pretty dessert. We'll save those for another post another day. But until then... bon appetit!

My Brother Brussels

(By Guy Fieri)

Note: One benefit of this recipe, even if your anti-Brussels sprouts, is that it can be adapted to fit a variety of veggies. My mom suggested green beans. My husband recommended zucchini. I’m thinking maybe asparagus. It’s a good recipe… even if the Brussels sprouts part of it isn’t to my taste.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons salt

¾ pound Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed, loose leaves removed

½ pound bacon, thinly cut into 1/4-inch pieces

1 ½ cups diced yellow onion

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

¼ cup grated Parmesan, for garnish [I used Pecorino Romano because it’s what I had on hand.]

Directions

Fill a large pot 3/4 of the way with water and add 1 teaspoon of salt and the Brussels sprouts. Put the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Let boil until the Brussels sprouts are just fork tender about, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain the sprouts and transfer to an ice bath. Let cool completely, then drain and set aside.

Cut the Brussels sprouts into 1/4-inch lengthwise slices and set aside. Add the bacon to a medium sauté pan, and cook until just crisp, then remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Adjust heat to medium-high, add the onions to the pan and sauté until they are translucent and just beginning to caramelize, about 5 or 6 minutes. Add the butter to the pan, then add the Brussels sprouts and sauté for 3 to 4 more minutes. Season with the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Transfer to a serving bowl or platter and sprinkle with the reserved bacon and the cheese. Serve immediately.

 

Croque Monsieur

(By Ina Garten/the Barefoot Contessa)

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups hot milk

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pinch nutmeg [You guessed it! I left this out.]

12-ounce block of Gruyere, grated (makes 5 cups)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

16 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed [I only made six sandwiches with the same amount of cheese sauce.]

Dijon mustard

8 ounces baked Virginia ham, sliced but not paper thin

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and add the flour all at once, stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Slowly pour the hot milk into the butter–flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened. Off the heat add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup grated Gruyere, and the Parmesan and set aside.

To toast the bread, place the slices on 2 baking sheets and bake for 5 minutes. Turn each slice and bake for another 2 minutes, until toasted.

Lightly brush half the toasted breads with mustard, add a slice of ham to each, and sprinkle with half the remaining Gruyere. Top with another piece of toasted bread. Slather the tops with the cheese sauce, sprinkle with the remaining Gruyere, and bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned. Serve hot.