LOCATION: In our tiny house in Mission, Texas
WEATHER: Nippy in the AM. Warmer – 60 in PM
STEPS: 8502
CLASSES: None offered; too cold to swim
I almost didn’t do my morning walk as the wind from the Northwest was fierce, but I decided to go for it.. My last leg was directly into the wind and I was almost bent over. Interesting – I saw one neighbor out in a T-shirt, shorts, and barefoot. Another neighbor had a heavy-duty furry parka on with mittens and heavy snow pants. I guess it depends on where you come from?
Back home, with a nice hot coffee, I planned my day. It would be a day of cooking/prepping for Christmas Day brunch and dinner.
I spent the afternoon making an egg bake for tomorrow’s brunch. A really good and easy recipe. These are so nice as you can make ahead and then bake the next morning. (Recipe below).
I also made the filling for stuffed mushrooms caps. I will finish them up tomorrow before we go to our friends’ house for dinner.
Copying my friend Tony Scott, who experimented with a new recipe, I did a trial run of the gyosa (Japanese wontons) today. I made a filling with ground pork and lots of finely diced veg. The recipe calls for deep-frying them, but I experimented (George is a great guinea pig) with baking them instead. They turned out nicely. I will assemble them tomorrow before the get-together. Oops – just one left!
We saw the Christmas star a few nights ago, and people are still out watching for it every night. A neighbor got a good photo of it…
We had a nice telephone conversation with our daughter, and many, many Facebook Christmas messages. So nice!
DINNER: After cooking all day, I wasn’t in the mood to make anything complicated for dinner. We started with salads and steamed asparagus. Main course was thin spaghetti in a cream sauce with smoked salmon and capers. Very nice and light.
EGG BAKE RECIPE
Recipe says it serves 4 people, but I would say it is enough for 8!
1# pork sausage
6 eggs
1/3 cup milk
4 green onions
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
20 oz frozen hash browns, thawed
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves minced
Cook sausage.. Remove and drain to large bowl. Reserve about 1 T grease. To the grease, add the onion and peppers, and saute about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 2 more minutes. Pour veg mix in with sausage. Add hash browns and 1.5 cup cheese.
In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Add to hash brown mix. Pour into a greased pan. Top with remaining cheese. Cover with foil. Refrigerate overnight.
When ready to cook – take out of the refrigerator 1-2 hours ahead of time. Bake 30 minutes at 375. Remove foil and cook 15 more minutes. Sprinkle with green onions.
