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)

Local Luxury Dinner Party: Dessert

This is the fifth post in the Local Luxury Dinner Party series. The 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!

We’ve made it through the prep and three courses! The last course of the luxury evening is dessert. Coming up with a dessert dish was a challenge. I put out a call on Twitter for luxury dessert ideas and the first wave of responses were for chocolate desserts. The hubby isn’t a chocolate eater, so I asked for non-chocolate suggestions. The next set of ideas was cream based desserts. One of the restrictions for the party was nothing heavy on the cream. Back to the drawing board! I started thinking about ingredients that would fit the Italian theme and figs came to mind.

But what to make with figs? I had just made a fig and cinnamon jam, so I needed something new and different. I went to my cookbook shelf and pulled out a few favorites to look for inspiration. The first one I looked at was Kosher by Design, picture perfect food for the holidays and every day. On the cover is a beautiful pear torte. After scanning the book for fig recipes without any luck, I decided that I could swap figs for the pears and would have a perfect dessert!

To make dessert even more luxurious, I decided to make each guest an individual torte. When we registered for wedding gifts about 6.5 years ago (wow…time flies!) I excitedly added four mini-springform pans to the list. The hubby couldn’t understand why I needed the minis and the big ones. I tried to explain that mini-desserts are more fun, but he just shook his head and told me that they would probably end up in the basement with the salad spinner. He was right about the salad spinner…But the mini-springform pans are great!

I pulled out the four pans the night before the party and prepared the recipe. I love this cookbook because the recipes are easy to follow and always produce delicious results. I would highly recommend adding this book to your cookbook library.  I used this recipe as printed and substituted fresh sliced figs for the pears. The four pans are equal to one large pan, so I divided the dough into four equal amounts and pressed it into the individual pans. For the topping I thinly sliced the figs and pressed them into the dough.

The tortes baked while I prepared the other make-ahead dishes. I wrapped them tightly and set them aside until it was time for dessert the next day. In order to make a little room in our stomachs for dessert we took a board game break. After a strategy-filled game of San Juan I popped the tortes into the oven to warm for 10 minutes. While the tortes warmed I fired up the Nespresso machine and made everyone a fresh brewed espresso.

When I first started tweeting and blogging I entered a contest at The Hungry Mouse and was lucky enough to win the Nespresso. It was my first prize – and it comes in really handy for parties! Look how happy it makes the hubby!

After polishing off our dessert and espresso it was time to send our guests home, it was a school night after all. Since everyone said it wasn’t a luxury party without chocolate I sent Eric and Jen home with a chocolate truffle of their choice. I had a blast planning and cooking the party and it was great to see satisfied guests at the end of the night.

An important part of a successful party is having a hubby who is nice enough to do the dishes! We all cleaned our plates so he didn’t have too much scrubbing to do. Because most of the heavy duty cooking had been done the night before there were only dinner dishes and serving pieces. Thanks hubby!

The dinner might be over, but the series isn’t over yet! We put the leftovers to use for breakfasts, lunches, and more.

Fresh Fig Torte
Adapted from Kosher by Design by Susie Fishbein
Makes 4 individual tortes


1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
Dash of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
4-6 fresh figs, stemmed removed and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
Ground Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Spray non-stick cooking spray in four mini-springform pans (or a 9- or 10-inch springform pan)
In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar
Add vanilla, eggs, flour, salt, and baking powder and mix until combined
Divide the dough into four even portions
Press the dough evenly into the prepared pans
Arrange the fig slices on top of the dough and press gently into the dough
Sprinkle each torte with sugar and cinnamon
Bake uncovered until golden brown, about 45 minutes (up to 1 hour for a large pan)

Daring Cooks Challenge: The Magical Soufflé

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

The soufflé is an item that is found in the ovens of experienced pastry chefs. It inspires awe from diners and fear from the novice home baker. This was my first attempt at a soufflé. Baking in the Good Cook Doris kitchen is usually biscuits, breads, and the occasional batch of cookies. I was excited to try something new and searched for a recipe that caught my fancy. I settled on a coffee soufflé, mainly because I wanted to make individual servings in my coffee mugs. Now doesn’t that sound fancy?

Using a recipe I found at Cook Almost Anything I set out to create a beautiful, flavorful soufflé. I read through the Daring Cooks challenge tips, and made sure to prepare all my ingredients carefully. I should point out that the recipe is in grams. Without a high tech scale, that meant some mathematics conversions and a few best guess estimates on amounts.

With everything out and ready, I got to work. First up was making the custard. I had set aside some coffee from my morning pot and added that to the milk and sugar to create the liquid. After melting the butter and whisking in cornstarch to thicken, I added in the coffee flavored milk and set it aside to cook and thicken. I successfully added in the egg yolks without scrambling them. Success #1!

The last time I tried to whip egg whites I ended up with bowl of bubbly liquid egg whites. I made sure to follow all the tips this time – clean bowl, room temperature egg whites, and high speed mixing. After just a few minutes I had soft peaks! Success #2!

At this point, the recipe called for mixing in ¼ of the egg whites to ‘slacken’ the custard mixture. I probably could have looked that up, but figured I would gently mix them in and it would be okay.

The next step was to gently fold in the remaining egg whites into the slackened custard. I folded as best as I could and until I was satisfied with my effort. Because my coffee cups were differently shaped than those in the recipe I used, I estimated the amount of soufflé batter to pour in. The recipe said ¾ full and that’s what I did. I filled 2 prepared mugs ¾ full and then spooned the remaining batter into the third mug. I figured it would still rise, it just wouldn’t rise above the rim.

I carefully and delicately placed my soufflé mugs onto the heated baking sheet in the oven. I pulled a stepstool up to the oven and plopped myself down with my phone and camera to watch the soufflé magic happen.

After 10 minutes there was no action. I reset the timer and pressed my face back against the oven door window. 10 more minutes pass…I think I see something starting to happen. The soufflés are rising. And rising. I start to feel great about my first soufflé attempt. I try to take a few pictures, but they don’t come out through the door. So I continue to watch and wait. I see bubbles…and steam…and then it happens. The soufflés really come to life and instead of rising into the sky, they start pouring down the sides. I don’t think this was part of the recipe?

As I sat watching my soufflés bubble over, I just started laughing. Over the last year I’ve developed a new attitude in the kitchen. I find myself taking on more challenging projects inspired by Daring Cooks, personal interest, and inspiration from fellow bloggers. This soufflé challenge illustrated my new philosophy perfectly. I could get really upset and beat myself up for screwing up or I could laugh and appreciate the hilarity and enjoyment in failing at trying something new. I chose #2. Instead of crying over exploded soufflés, I let them continue cooking until the drips down the sides of the mugs looked golden brown and set. I removed my creative interpretation of the soufflé from the oven and proceeded with my photo shoot.

They may not have set and they may not have tasted exactly right, but I successfully whipped egg whites! And I didn’t scramble my yolks! And I had a blast trying something new. And that’s what it’s really about - being confident in your abilities and not being afraid to let your soufflés flop every once in a while.

I dumped them in a baking dish and tried to salvage them.