Sunday, February 27, 2011

We grew up with Croque-Monsieur, progressed to Croque-Madames and now Croque-Uncle Jimmy!

Sunday mornings have become rather lazy around here so even though I may rise early, it doesn't mean I'm moving around early.  Today was perfect example, up @8, surfed the internet; read emails; created and emailed a client's menu and read some news.  Finally, around 11 o'clock I got up from the computer desk and exercised on the elliptical. Once I was done I realized I hadn't eaten breakfast and was now famished.  So instead of our typical breakfast of fruit, cereal and toast, I opted to make brunch!  Had watched Melissa D'Arabian make Croque Madames, while exercising, so wanted something substantial like that based on what ingredients I could find. 


Check out this Wikipedia list of different Croques!


The results of my search:


Bacon; Gruyere Cheese; Eggs; Whole Wheat Tuscan Pane; ingredients for a mustard dressing; a variety of fruits for a Fruit Salad.


First while the bacon was baking with fresh ground black pepper on it, I made the fruit salad: Pink Grapefruit, Orange, Sliced Strawberries, Blueberries; Blackberries and sliced Banana.  Easy to prep, very tasty, sweetened the grapefruit and orange juices a bit with raw sugar, tossed all together, see the pretty bowl it made!


All the other ingredients were for Paninis.  To make the dressing I used a simple to remember proportioned recipe:  1/2 teaspoon, 1 tablespoon, 2 tablespoons, 3 tablespoons.  


!/2 teaspoon fines herbes
1 T Capers chopped
2 T Dijon Mustard
3 T Mayonaisse
if it's too mustardy for your taste just add more mayo!


Brushed the dressing onto one side of each slice of bread, topped one side with 3 bacon slices and 3 planks of cheese, fried the eggs in butter with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper placed one egg on top of cheese and covered with the other slice of bread.  Spray outside slices of bread with Pam and place on Panini Grill.






Simple yet tasty, served them with additional dressing as desired.


So that takes care of breakfast and lunch---now dinner?  Leftovers or something new and fresh?  Hmm, there is grilled Flat Iron Steak, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Fava Bean & Corn Succotash and Salmon Croquettes from last night's dinner with Tiff & Howie!  Or maybe save that for Monday after cooking all day!


Need to read a cookbook for inspiration!  Enjoy the day, and don't forget the evening will be all about Oscar night!

1 comment:

Medifast Coupons said...

Very nice looking lunch, but could so have this sandwich for dinner too, and I am thinking I just might. Thanks for tonight's dinner idea.