Fruit Salad... Yummy Yummy

There typically isn't a whole lot to say about fruit salad (though there is plenty to SING.)  They tend to be boring and mushy and overly-reliant on various melons.  I attempted to make the most brilliant fruit salad of all time by adding every color of the rainbow and finding something to make it special.  That something extra turns out to be....mint.  It's perfect.  It makes it taste like a mojito!  I am a FRUIT NINJA!

(GREEN) I started with 1 green apple.  I didn't want it to brown, so I doused it in the juice of 1 lemon.  This turned out to be a great idea.  I layered all of the fruit on top of each other and didn't mix it up until the very end.  The apples sat there, stuck at the bottom of the bowl, marinating in lemon juice.  It gave them a nice tangy flavor.

(RED) Next up, straw-babys.  You can never have enough straw-babies in a fruit salad!

(ORANGE) Next, mandarin oranges.  I was originally just going to dump a can of mandarin oranges in the bowl, but *somebody* bought fresh ones, so I had to peel them (annoyingly time-consuming!).

(YELLOW) Next...bananas.  Now, I know some people don't like bananas, but I personally love them.  They do tend to get soggy, so that was a definite concern.  But I'm still glad I put them in there.

(GREEN) Next, green grapes.  I sliced them in half.  I'm not sure if that was totally necessary, but it was too late after I had done a couple of them.  In retrospect, I should have done purple grapes to get one more color of the rainbow in there.  Dang it!

(ORANGE) Next, peaches.  I will confess....they were frozen peaches.  I find frozen peaches to be much more reliable than fresh.  Fresh peaches are soooooo unreliable.

(GREEN) Next, the star of the show...mint.  Brilliant!

(BLUE!) Last up, blueberries.  Yeah, I should have added the blueberries before the mint, but I forgot.  No worries, it all gets mixed together in the end!

Next, a picture!

Lovingly MIXING the salad.  Mixing, mind you.

Next, another picture!

Yummy, yummy fruit salad!

Next, the end!

Bunch of Brunch? It ain't Nada but a Strata.

We have been delinquent in posting pictures from a brunch extravaganza we held a few weeks ago in honor of some friends who are getting married.  What better way to celebrate than to overeat and drink mimosas and bloody mary's in the A.M.?

First we'll show off the spread (because it was pretty awesome).  Then we'll get into the details for one of the highlights:  Mama Venza's Christmas Strata.

Boo-berry cinnamon muffins

Naner bread

Apple pancake

Casserole time:  Xmas Strata & French Toast Casserole (x1.5)

Mint Fruit Salad (Yummy Yummy)

Mount Bacon (w/ Apple Pancake).
Cast the ring into that mountain, Frodo.

Now onto one of the star attractions - the Christmas Strata.  This is classic Venza recipe, traditionally served Christmas morning.  It's easy to make, all the prep work is done the night before, and it's not such a big deal when there's a lot of family over and a lot of chaos going on.  Plus, its freaking awesome.  It proved to be a huge hit.

 

Ingredients are pretty basic for a single 9x13 pan - 6 eggs, 1 lb Jimmy Dean sausage (we like it hot), loaf of French bread, 4 cups milk, Italian seasonings, cheddar & mozzarella.  The recipe also calls for mushrooms, but we left those out this time. 

Browning the McSausage.  Here at Chez Venza
we overuse the prefix "Mc" for no reason whatsoever.

The French bread has surrendered.

Mix bread cubes & sausage in a casserole dish

Whisk the eggs, milk, & seasoning together.
We used a TON of milk and eggs at this event.

Pour egg mixture into casserole dish.
Soak, my pretties!  SOAK!

At this point, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit overnight so that the bread can absorb all of the egg mixture.  The next morning, pop it in the McOven.  We also added some scallions for color.  After an hour in the oven, add the cheddar & mozzarella cheese.  Then back in the oven for another 15 minutes to finish browning and melting.

Rapscallions

We made a 1.5x batch so, no, you aren't seeing 1.5x.  Do people see 1.5x?
  Serve with picante sauce and enjoy!

Strawbaby Balsamic Ice-cream with Grated Chocolate

What drives us here at Chez Venza?  Food TV and magazines... hunger... boredom... and also, the need to efficiently use leftover stuff so we don't have to throw it away.  This mania for frugality can really inspire us to try new and different things.  Or to shoehorn into an old favorite, like Strawberry ice-cream!

So, when we had our brunch party and bought our huge honking box of Starbucks coffee, they gave us a large coffee cup filled with nothing but half-and-half.  That's a lot!  What were the odds we'd turn that half-and-half into ice-cream?  50/50.

Half-and-half really works for ice-cream cause its half milk and half cream... and that's more or less what most ice-cream recipes require.  This recipe was ultimately a little light on the cream aspect, but you can't tell in the end product.

We combined this recipe with a sort of basic ice-cream base from a Ben and Jerry's ice cream recipe book. We really like the combo of balsamic and strawberry.

Interesting note, a strawberry is not a berry or a fruit, but is the stamen of the strawberry plant!

Leftover strawberries from fruit salad, leftover cream (just a little bit), and leftover half-and-half (which is half milk and half cream).

Strawberries soaked in balsamic and sugar for hours.  A touch of vodka to soften (leftover vodka).

Whipping the egg....eggcellent

Pureeing the strawberries

Straining out the seeds

A billion of the buggers.

Stir in some leftover shaved chocolate from the Tiramisu episode just prior to churning.  So many leftovers!

Who says recycling can't be delicious? (Did anyone actually ever say that?)

Homemade Frappuccino

So after we had our little brunch party, we were left with a fair amount of leftover coffee from the big old Starbucks traveler we had bought for the occasion.  Normal people might have just poured it out like the leftover coffee it was.... but not us.  We have a bit of a fascination with the miracle of ice cube trays.  Really good for freezing liquids in a way that can be easily measured and quickly defrosted.  So, we didn't really know WHAT we would use them for... but uses have been found! Here is a simple application:

Coffee Cubes, Milk, Sugar (not pictured) and a blender

Tray cubes are hefty.  The blender got a workout.

That is a tasty beverage!

Going Bananas Bread!

This will probably be the first in the line of a couple breakfast related posts.  Chez Venza hosted a bit of a brunch party with lots of homemade breakfast goodies.  The first thing we made, in part cause we were able to make this a couple days in advance, is banana bread!

You can click here to see the recipe

The barrel of monkeys.

They may not entirely look it, but these are some really mushy bananas

Now they look it.  They got a lot more mushed than this

Toasted walnuts

Flour, cinnamon, etc.

Sugar and oil... kind of weird.

Eggs and vanilla.

Baking soda and buttermilk.   Also weird.

Batter up

 

Banana goo and nuts get mixed in at the last minute

Loafin' around on a Wednesday night

A little slice of heaven

The Tip of the (Asparagus) Spear

Not too long ago, we made a recipe for Cream of Asparagus soup.  It was so good that we've made it a couple of different times.  So when we saw asparagus was on a really good sale at the store, we decided to do it again!  The homemade chicken stock has really fueled soup making.  That, and it turns out that homemade soup is simple (like weeknight simple) and tasty!

As we'd only bought 1 lbs of asparagus, we could only make a half recipe, which is too bad.  Less leftovers to freeze!

The celery is not called for, but we had some leftover so we threw in a rib.

Off with their heads!

Chop, chop, chop, chop.

Blanching the tips separately

Chill out

The Simmer-illion

So, we've pureed soup in the food processor, but we figured we'd try it in the blender, as some tv show said that it turns out better.  Its kind of scary.  You really have to hold that lid down with a towel when you turn it on, or you'll get a face full of scaldingly hot soup.

A little cream at the end

So, the end result was very tasty.  In addition to adding the lemon juice that the recipe called for, we also added the zest of the lemon, which adds a really nice, bright flavor.  I think i probably added a bit too much stock, as the soup was a bit thin for my taste.