Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Ptomaine Wednesday- Baked eggs edition





This week, instead of looking through Rachael's cookbook to make my weekly grocery list, I flipped through a couple issues of Everyday Food, which I subscribe to but rarely use. I used the newest issue which focused on cheap eats and an issue from last fall which featured comfort foods.

I selected a Greek meal, pork slouvaki and Greek salad, which I made last night. It was good, everyone agreed. I thought we would need another side dish so I made Rachael's orzo with parsley and lemon zest. I chose orzo because it counds like ouzo, which is Greek. That meal turned out fine. I didn't take a picture, but here is a picture of the Greek lunch I had Saturday and the things that looked like buttholes.
As for tonight.
I chose a recipe that is really a departure from what I normally cook or my family really eats. It is: baked eggs and tortillas in creamy tomato sauce, which is a casserole. I chose this recipe because it calls for many things that I already have on hand, including half a bag of corn tortillas.
It's meatless, which automatically qualifies it as suspicious in my husband's and daughter's minds.

The dish is a layered casserole- the bottom layer is a creamy spicy tomato sauce, then a layer of corn tortilla strips, then tomato sauce, then you crack 8 eggs onto the top, sprinkle on some cheddar and bake. Sounds simple enough, right? Well leave it to me to complicate things.

I sliced my 8 corn tortillas into 1/2 inch strips as the resipe directed. The recipe called for the strips to be layered evenly on top of the first tomato sauce layer, but I read it as : lay the tortilla strips in a single layer over the tomato sauce. So I did, which only used about 1/3 of my strips.
I continued to assemble the casserole, and only broke 3 of the 8 egg yolks.

I got it in the oven, and as soon as I closed the oven door, I started fretting about the leftover ortilaa strips. I considered freesing them for tortilla soup.
Then, I got to thinking about what I had in the oven. It was basically a 9 x 13 pan with tomato soup and a few tortilla strips topped with eggs. I realized that a EVEN layer is not the same as a SINGLE layer, so, in order to give my casserole some substance, I removed the pan from the oven and considered my options.

In the end, I decided to delaminate my casserole. I scooped the eggs off the top and transferred them into a bowl, and although they were now mixed with the cheddar, I don't think I broke any more yolks. After that, I scraped off the second layer of tomato sauce and added the remaining tortilla strips in an even layer. I put Humpty together again and set it back to bake.

25 minutes later the moment of truth arrived. My creation was met with a resounding "Meh."
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And just for fun, here are some pictures of things I have mentioned this week.
Here is the fort that Madison commandeered last week.
And my crochet bag is nearly finished, I just need to trim thread and work in ends.

6 comments:

  1. LOVE THIS BAG!

    Great job! I wish I knew how to crochet (pretty sure I've said that before).

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  2. And I don't know how the casserole tasted, but...umm, 'meh' is a great word.

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  3. Last thing - what the hell were the Greek buttholes?

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  4. I don't know what the buttholes were, we ordered Combination Plate so we didn't have to say the greek words. They tasted fishy, could the be octopus suction cups?

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  5. could be actual lamb butt holes - those Greeks will eat just about anything. just be glad they weren't raw.

    Love the bag!

    I think your baked egg casserole actually looks better than it sounded, especially considering it was de-constructed; but for dinner? meh

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  6. Yeah, it was definitely brunchy.

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