Menu revised

Hubby is now walking, haltingly, short distances without the crutches, and driving bothers him not at all, so the trip is on for tomorrow.  Our activities may be curtailed in the particulars, but the escape is not foiled.  It fell to me, though, to run the necessary errands today, and short as they were, relatively speaking, they weren't short enough to keep me from being wobbly by the time I was home.

I had to carry groceries in, ferrying bags inside the front door so that the car was empty, then reconnoitering on what I could handle at once into the kitchen.  I took up the lightest ones together, weight was fine, and started through the passage, only to feel one slip away just as I got almost there.  I lost it to the floor.

It wasn't the bag with two pineapples ($1 each, did you ever see such a price?).  It wasn't the bag with bananas, blueberries, and two yogurts.  Oh no, it had to be the bag with a dozen and a half eggs. Of which, two were completely destroyed and four more were definitively cracked.

At least the mess was still confined to the plastic bag.  I could not have cleaned the floor with the state of my back. (Styrofoam may be an environmental evil, but a small exemption could be made for egg cartons--I would have been a lot better off than with the cardboard.)  From the counter I removed the undamaged eggs, placing them carefully aside, and then took the cracked ones and cracked them fully into a bowl, then the portion of one of the decimated two, which was still in the bottom half of its shell; the last one was hopeless.

I bought these so that I could hard-boil some for our getaway, so I did that, and put away the cleaned-off remainder into the open slots of the carton (styrofoam! different brand) in the fridge (which is how I decided how many to hard boil), and put the bowl away, with its five-ish liquid eggs to ponder.  I was not up to baking, I am barely up to packing.  We were going to have potato soup for dinner to use up leftover ham, and nothing that went with that was going to use up all those eggs.  Popovers! only two of us. Quiche?  Maybe, still not enough.

Ah! a strata casserole--use up the ham, some sharp cheddar, leftover spinach (which I haven't actually tried in this before). I just bought half-and-half yesterday.  I have some mild sourdough, also a new try.  Easy, portable tomorrow for leftovers, good cold for breakfast, and a cook's cardinal incentive:  to use up stuff that needs using up.

So here is the recipe, with the caveat that I usually make half a recipe [the original is double this], which fits into a good deep 9x9 inch pan.  Cut up one of those pineapples and make fresh fruit, cook a vegetable, and it's dinner.  Voila!

[note--recipe originally had a typo, now corrected on amount of half-and-half]

EASY STRATA CASSEROLE

½ lb. each of meat or vegetable or of two vegetables

1 pint half-and-half 

6 eggs

½ tsp salt 

Several grinds of pepper, or to taste

6 slices white bread

1 ½ cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

¼ cup thinly sliced scallions (or minced onion)

Prepare meat or vegetables, as needed.

Whisk half-and-half, eggs, salt and pepper until smooth.  Spray 9x9x2 inch pan with cooking spray.  Line bottom with half the bread.  If using meats and/or vegetables, scatter half of each over the bread, then sprinkle with half the scallions and cheese.  Pour one cup of egg mixture over top..  repeat layers with remaining bread, meat, vegetables, scallions, and cheese.  Slowly  pour remaining egg mixture evenly over top.  Cover with plastic wrap, then weight down casserole with another pan on top with 3 one-lb cans for at least 15 minutes, to submerge ingredients.  You want all the bread layer to soak in the liquid.

Bake in  preheated 325o oven, on the middle rack, for about 50 minutes, until custard is just set.  Turn on broiler and broil until top is spotty brown and puffy (watch carefully), about five minutes.  Remove and let stand for 8-10 minutes before cutting.  Serves 6.

Meats:

Bacon—cut into ½ inch pieces and fry until crisp.  Drain well.

Sausage—fry bulk sausage until fully cooked and drain well.

Ham—cut into small bits (can use sandwich ham)

Kielbasa—slice thinly

Vegetables:

Mushrooms or bell peppers—slice and sauté in olive oil.  Salt.

Baby spinach—steam, covered, with 1 Tbl. Oil and salt until wilted, 3-4 minutes.  Drain.

Asparagus—cut in 1-inch pieces.  Steam, covered, with 1 Tbl. Oil, salt, and 1/3 cup water, 3-4 minutes.  Uncover and cook off liquid.