Local Luxury Dinner Party Leftovers: Breakfast Ideas

This is the sixth post in the Local Luxury Dinner Party series, and the first in the Local Luxury Dinner Party Leftovers series! The dinner party was part of the Next Food Blog Star competition hosted by Foodbuzz. While I didn't advance in the competition, the party was still fabulous! After dinner, I had a refrigerator full of leftovers and this series covers the creation of new and delicious dishes made with the leftovers.

Hosting a delicious dinner party means a refrigerator of tasty leftovers! It would be easy to recreate the same meal a few more times, but it’s more fun to transform the leftovers into creative new dishes. First up in the Local Luxury Dinner Party Leftovers series is breakfast. Here are three different ways that I repurposed my dinner party leftovers into delightful morning meals.

We were still stuffed the morning after the party and decided to have light breakfast. We topped toasted slices of the Italian sesame bread with leftover ricotta and a generous drizzle of the Herb Lyceum’s lavender honey. The cheese and honey melted into the warm toasty bread. With a freshly brewed cup of coffee this was a creamy and satisfying breakfast treat.

For the second breakfast we were craving something heartier. We settled on a homemade version of the two-egg breakfast plate. I heated up oil in a non-stick skillet while I diced up some of the leftover roasted potatoes. I let them crisp in the pan for 10-15 minutes while prepared the eggs. In a second skillet I warmed up diced leftover heirloom tomatoes before pouring in a few lightly beaten eggs. Just before the eggs were cooked through I stirred in a heaping spoonful of ricotta. We enjoyed our crispy potatoes and creamy eggs with some more toasted Italian sesame bread. As you can tell from most of my posts - it’s not a meal without bread! We washed this all down with coffee and a glass of grapefruit juice.

For our third leftover breakfast we went gourmet! The remaining ingredient in the fridge was the ravioli filling – pureed red kuri squash mixed with a little fresh ricotta. When we had leftover mashed potatoes after making pierogies, I turned them into mashed potato cakes that we topped with poached eggs. If it worked with mashed potatoes, I figured that it would be equally delicious with pureed squash! I formed the squash into patties and then coated them with panko bread crumbs. I fried them in olive oil in a small skillet until they were golden brown on both sides and warmed through. To top the patties I added over easy eggs and a sprinkling of scallions to contrast the sweet squash flavor. The runny yolk contrasted with the crisp exterior of the squash patty for a luxurious breakfast!

The next time you are staring down a fridge full of leftovers, challenge yourself to create something new! Next up in the Local Luxury Dinner Party Leftovers Series: Lunch two ways!

Leftover Potato Hash browns
2 servings of cooked leftover garlic roasted potatoes, diced into half inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat
Add potatoes and cook approximately 5-7 minutes, then flip and cook an additional 5-7 minutes until crispy and golden brown on both sides
Season with salt and pepper and serve hot

Red Kuri Squash Patties
Use ½ cup pureed squash for each patty
Coat each patty with panko bread crumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat
Cook squash patties 3-5 minutes per side, until browned and cooked through
They may not stay together perfectly, but they will still taste delicious
Top with over easy or poached eggs
Garnish with scallions, or parsley (or any leftover herb in the fridge)

When He Fends for Himself - Breakfast Edition

One of my favorite things about the weekend is that the hubby likes to make breakfast. His specialty is pancakes and French toast. He purchased an egg beater (two beaters with the hand crank) and enjoys mixing up the batter. I've had these photos of recent breakfasts and haven't had a chance to post them yet.

Since he's started experimenting more in the kitchen, he feels more confident in coming up with new flavors and twists on the standard pancake batter and egg-mixture for the french toast.

For the pancakes, he mixed in some vanilla extract for the twist. The pancakes were well done on the outside, but still nice and fluffy on the inside. A great breakfast served with warm maple syrup, a cup of coffee, and the Sunday comics.

The French toast was delicious. I had recently stopped into a local Brazilian bakery and bought something that looked like challah. It had a sugar glaze on top and we decided it would make great French toast. With the eggs, the hubby mixed in some vanilla and almond extracts and soy milk to give it a "nutty" (his words) flavor. The result was a sweet, almondy, well-cooked breakfast treat! We'll be adding this to the regular breakfast rotation.

Same Ingredients, Different Dish

To manage our food spending and stretch out our dollars, I've been trying hard to use up food items and waste as little as possible. Instead of buying for only one meal, I try to think of multiple meals incorporating the same ingredients (without repeating anything).

At our little dinner party this past weekend we started with a cheese plate and fresh crusty french bread (I can't take credit for the bread). We had some leftover Crystal Brook Farm's goat cheese from the farmers' market. It's marinated in olive oil and Mediterranean spices. You can't just have one cheese on a cheese plate - you need at least two (preferably 3). To go along with the goat cheese, we had a nice nutty manchego and fig jam. The perfect start to a meal (with my two favorite foods - bread and cheese!). No picture, we ate it too quickly!

The next night we were still recovering from our busy weekend and didn't feel like putting a lot of effort into dinner. A quick scan of the kitchen turned up some pizza crusts, the leftover manchego and fig spread, and some local apples. I spread some of the fig spread on the crust, topped that with thin apple slices, then put thin slices of the cheese on the top. I baked it at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. Here's how it looked out of the oven:

I think next time I'll bake the apples and fig spread for about 5 minutes and then add cheese for the last 5 minutes, as it got a little rubbery.

I scrambled up a few eggs on the side to add some protein to the meal. This was very tasty. It would be great with a variety of seasonal fruits and different combinations of fruit jams. This would also be a great brunch dish for company (or just for yourself!).

I think my next adventure will be to try to make my own fig jam.

When He Fends for Himself

This week has been busy with work, so the regular author of "When He Fends for Himself" has been unable to write his weekly post. Here are some highlights from the past week.

We had leftover dip from the Mediterranean appetizers that we made for our dinner out. He made a quick broiled chicken breast and used the dips to create pita sandwiches for dinner - one with tzaziki sauce and one with olive tapenade. Pretty resourceful! Here's a look:

He was also in charge of Sunday breakfast. Usually he has trouble coming up with flavor combinations on the spot - but this one was quite a hit. With help from Jiffy baking mix, he whipped up some delicious honey-almond-walnut pancakes. They were golden brown and nice and fluffy.

Stay tuned for the next When He Fends for Himself!

Farmer's Market Finds - Part 2

This year at the Farmer's Market there are some old favorites and some new vendors that I love! My go to lunch is the Goat Cheese picnic - a 3 oz. tub of marinated goat cheese, six slices of french peasant bread, and a bag of trail mix. They give you a coupon each week (I love coupons almost as much as I love free samples). I always eat about half the cheese (because I feel better about eating the dessert I buy myself) and have the rest left over to use for breakfast.

My new favorite vendor is Nantucket Wild Gourmet. The guy is really nice and they have free samples. Last week I picked up some smoked sable (black cod) and it was fabulous. This week I decided to go for the smoked salmon. We weren't disappointed!

After last night's steak dinner, we still had some veggies leftover. Using all these fun farmer's market finds, I made an omelet with the veggies and marinated goat cheese. I've previously posted on omelet making, check the post for details.

We put the smoked salmon on toasted sesame bagels with cream cheese. Served with OJ and a hot cup of coffee it was better than anything at the corner deli.

Stay tuned for another post with the farmer's market finds and another installment of "When He Fends for Himself".

Long Weekend...Time for Breakfast!

I've got a few posts to catch up on from the long weekend. While I'm busy working on those, here are a few ideas for your next weekend breakfast at home. Brew your favorite coffee, get the paper (or put on a good movie) and whip up one of these quick recipes! Cheaper and faster than your favorite diner.

Breakfast Idea #1 - Honey Nut Waffles with Banana

Waffle mix
1 to 1.5 tbsp. of honey (we keep Jiffy baking mix around the house)
2 tbsp. of chopped walnuts
1 tsp. vanilla (or vanilla extract)
A sprinkle of cinnamon
1 banana, peeled and sliced into quarter-sized rounds

Prepare your favorite waffle mix according to the directions on the box
Gently mix in the honey, walnuts, vanilla, and cinnamon
Preheat your waffle iron
Pour in about 1/4 cup of the waffle batter
Place 3-4 banana slice on top of the batter and close
Cook according to your waffle iron directions

Keep waffles in a 200 degree oven until you are done cooking all of the batter
Serve with honey or maple syrup

Makes 6-7 waffles depending on the size of your waffle iron. You can also make pancakes this way - just prepare your batter according to the pancake recipe on your mix.

Breakfast Idea #2 - Goat Cheese Omelet

I had some leftover goat cheese from the Farmer's Market on Friday. I decided to make a nice omelet and throw in the goat cheese. The trick to getting this nice and fluffy is to whisk the eggs really well, and then not to disturb them in the non-stick skillet. Just lift the edges and let the uncooked eggs run underneath. When it looks just about set, either flip it or use a large spatula to gently flip it over. Turn of the heat and top with the goat cheese. After about a minute, fold it in half and slide out onto your plate. Better (and less greasy) than any omelet you'll get at your favorite breakfast joint.

Passover Eats - Part 6: Frittata

Toward the end of the eight days, we had a lot of leftover veggies but not enough of each to make a full side dish. We were also a little tired of eating brisket leftovers every night! So I pulled out the frittata recipe and added in the veggies we had on hand. This variation included asparagus and onions. A bonus of making a big frittata is that we had leftovers for breakfast the next morning (much tastier than matzoh and cream cheese).

Passover Eats - Part 3: Breakfast!

Breakfast during Passover is always a hard one. I love to eat english muffins, bagels, cereal, oatmeal, etc. So this was my delicious Saturday morning breakfast. Matzo, kedem orange marmalade, and cream cheese. Quick and oh so unsatisfying. Sunday was matzo brei (no photos - it doesn't really photograph well).