Day 2 Yes I'll have a little cheese with that wine.
Day 2 MONDAY Cheese and Wine Bake
Hello Dears, here we are Day 2 of my little experiment on keeping the kitchen intact, family fed, and trying out all the recipes from Peg Bracken’s book: “I Hate to Cook Book.” A little background before we get started: in my normal menus, Monday is a meatless dinner as a general rule. That being the case, I was excited to find a dish that fit the meatless menu plan called “Cheese and Wine Bake.” Although, I have to say I was a tad reluctant because I am not a fan of most wines, and to make matters worse, am usually very unsure what types of cooking wines to get. Thankfully my husband knows a few things and can offer a little advice in this regard. The trouble is if I ask him then he starts explaining all the different wines by style and match and my eyes glaze over in a blank stare. Pretty similar to when he tries to explain something about computers. He gets as far as “ok a dry white wine is….” and you could hear the flatline beep in the back of my head.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to listen but not when planning a menu. Here I am staring at the recipe and I just want to know what wine to get. So after trying to remember the second half of the soliloquy as I stood in the store, I finally just grabbed the closest thing that resembled what I wanted. It is very important to write down EXACTLY what you want in a shopping list, by the way, and not something vague.
This recipe is also very simple, which is kind of nice at the end of the day. In fact, it seems at this point that many of Peg Bracken’s recipes are simple to make. This, of course, makes perfect sense because when you hate to cook you want easy, fast, and not a lot of standing around preparing the meal. You know cutting, chopping, choosing from an entire aisle of wine, that kind of thing.
Cheese and Wine Bake**
4 servings
6-8 slices stale or lightly toasted bread* butter, garlic clove
½ cup chicken bullion* (see note) 1 teaspoon salt
½ lbs Swiss Cheese, grated (2 cups) 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup dry white wine ½ tsp mustard
3 eggs ½ tsp paprika
½ tsp pepper
Directions:
Let’s get started. First, you are going to mince the garlic clove and cream it into the butter. You only need enough butter to spread on one side of each piece of toasted bread. Grab a shallow cake pan or a casserole dish and lay the buttered sides down in the pan. Next, you are going to beat up the eggs and to make them feel better from the beating add the white wine, chicken bullion, and the remaining seasonings and mix it all together. Now add Swiss Cheese. Pour this over the bread slices, pop that baby into the oven and bake it uncovered at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.
I have to say I really loved the meal, only one kid didn’t like it but that is because she really does not like Swiss. The other kids were skeptical but warmed to it. We decided though a sturdier bread well toasted would be better than regular sandwich bread. Or you could go all out and get some freshly baked bread sliced thick and then toast it. Anyway, aside from one child, the others asked for more.
I am only going to suggest sides, as they really are up to you. Maybe you like stir-fry, or mixed vegetables, potatoes, salad, fresh fruit. Whatever your taste I really liked ours with sauteed green beans in a little butter and onion and garlic and pepper to taste. A side of coleslaw and fruit cocktail rounded out the meal.
Not a huge success because my bread was soggy so it was a tad mushy. I loved the flavor though, and I might go a little more on the seasonings. It is a great idea to the Meatless Mondays we usually have around here though. Next month might see a better outcome. Next up “Maxie’s Franks.”
*NOTE: My husband and I racked our brains trying to figure out what Peg Bracken meant by “bullion.” At first, we were thinking cubes, but that didn’t make a lot of sense and would most likely be really bad. The thought of dumping a half cup or so of powdered bouillon (the equivalent of dozens of cubes) into a couple cups of wine made us shudder. The end result would require drinking a lot of water and the remainder of wine to wash this down. Setting about looking online we found similar recipes and decided that dear Peg is talking about chicken broth. Whew! That was a relief.
What do you think? Have you tried this recipe? Will you try it? What changes would you make? Comment, rate, and share your ideas. Until next time have fun and stay Flamboyant my Flamingo friends.
**Bracken, P. (1960). The I hate to cook book. (pg. 21). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
