Mediterranean Baked Eggs

These Mediterranean Baked Eggs are in a blue box off to the side of another recipe.  While the recipe takes up a whole page, it's set off to the side, not a featured recipe.  The book is Ancient Grains for Modern Meals, and these baked eggs have no grains in them.  However, they've stuck in my mind since I got the book.  This is funny for a few reasons - one is the sheer number of recipes I see.  For any to stick in my mind means they must be something special.  The second reason?  I'm not big on eggs.  Specifically egg yolks.  But... these were delicious.  Granted, I did not eat my yolk (which cooked too much to be good, anyway), but I still enjoyed the eggs.  The tomato sauce was extremely flavorful, despite my forgetting to "season" it with red wine vinegar and brown sugar.  You can make the sauce ahead, so this makes a perfect brunch recipe - keep an eye on it in the oven, then take it out and let it finish cooking while you're finishing up everything else.  The toast is essential, but you can multitask in the oven and just lay the slices across the racks to toast.  What a great little weekend brunch this was for the two of us, and I expect to be adding it to my spread the next time I host a brunch for friends.

PS: note my Le Creuset Mini-Cocottes.  A birthday present that I absolutely adore.  :)

Baked Pasta with Cabbage and Potatoes

I was skeptical about this recipe.  Baked pasta... good.  With cabbage... a little weird.  And potatoes... with pasta?  The cabbage mixture has mustard in it... and there's cheese.  But I needed a recipe that would use up a decent amount of Napa cabbage, so I gave it a shot.  Well, it was really surprisingly good.  I actually plan to make it again, though it won't be for me (more on that at a later date).

There are a few layers in this recipe.  You repeat each layer twice, in the same order.  First, a whole grain pasta - I used a whole wheat fusilli.  Next, the potatoes, followed by grated Parmesan and cubes of fontina.  The final layer is a mixture of Napa cabbage and leeks, flavored with garlic and whole-grain mustard.  I added extra mustard until I found the cabbage mixture absolutely delicious on its own.  After being baked in the oven, the cheese melted and the mustard flavor developed a new dimension.  We gladly ate the leftovers for a few days.

Apple Crisp

A few weeks ago we went apple picking.  My mom and sister made pie and my dad eats like 20 Stayman Winesap apples a day because he is a crazy person.  I, on the other hand, ate a few each week, but that's about it.  I had intended to can applesauce and/or apple butter, but things don't always materialize the way I want them to, so I had a bunch of apples that really needed to be used.  I decided I wanted to make an apple crisp, and a fairly healthy one at that.  I got this recipe from Clean Food.  Pretty basic stuff here, with a cookie-like topping made of oats.  I followed the recipe pretty closely, though I subbed applesauce for the oil as I always do in baking.  I honestly never notice the difference.  I was supposed to cover it with foil, but didn't have any, so the topping did get a little overcooked.  It actually worked out really well for reheating, because the topping softened up to be more like a cookie.  The filling seemed watery, but thickened up as it cooled.  When you have a lot of apples to use up, you're not looking for a complicated recipe - this worked out really well for me.