I decided to make French Baked Eggs or Oeufs Cocottes for Easter simply for the reason that I wanted to use the new lavendar Le Creuset Signature Petite Cocottes that I had found for a steal at Home Goods a couple of months ago. I already own the cocottes in navy blue, green and brown so when I stumbled upon three of the lavendar beauties for 2/3 the price, I snapped them up.

This recipe may be one you want to have in your back pocket and wait to make. Why? Because it is for deviled eggs.

Eggs! What is happening with eggs!?! If you live in a cave or maybe you’re a vegan and don’t know but there is a world-wide egg shortage. They are hard to find in stores and may cost up to $10 a dozen for organic right now!

The Avian flu is the cause. It is predicted to last into the first month or two of this year. I believe the shortage hit right around the time of our party (12/18/22). I don’t think Peggy, who made this recipe, had a problem, but it would have been an issue a week or so later. These devils are darn good, so how about you bookmark this and save it for Easter?

Before I begin with a new recipe, I have to confess, I did not make any headway on the master closet yesterday. The reason is that I spent 4 hours online at defensive driving school after a photo radar ticket came in the mail. I hate photo radar!

I admit that I speed, going the speed limit is against my very nature but I am usually hyper-alert to photo radar traps. The worst part about it is that on the day I was flashed, I was on my way home from doing good deeds, delivering face masks and food to others. As they say, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Anyhow, I’ll try to get after that closet today.

I don’t know if any of you ran into the same issue with your Easter meal as I did. For weeks we were asked to only buy enough groceries for the week ahead, which I abide by. Then the week before Easter we were asked to avoid going to grocery stores altogether, if at all possible. Since Easter brunch only consisted of Connor, Dave, and myself, I decided that I could make that possible.

I knew that I had cooked chicken and caramelized onions in the freezer, about a cup of milk and eggs in the refrigerator, tomatoes on the counter, herbs in the garden, potatoes in the pantry, and, of course, plenty of cheese. I could make a tart! The only thing I was missing was butter to make a homemade crust. I generally have puff pastry in the freezer, but I’d used that a couple of weeks ago and had not remembered to replace it. No butter, no puff pastry, no crust … hmm, I could use the potatoes as a crust. I gave that a try but would advise against it. A fair amount of the egg filling ran out of the tart pans, so I’m writing the recipe using a puff pastry crust and layering in the potatoes with the other fillings.

Note #1: I also did not have heavy cream, so I boiled down my 1 cup of 2% milk reducing it to 1/2 cup. Not as rich and creamy, but it worked. You should use cream, as the recipe calls for.

Note #2: I also used 3 rectangular tart pans instead of a round, only because I was taking food to my dad and I knew that squares would be easier to cut and easier for him to reheat instead of wedges.

Our Easter tart was still delicious, and if you make this recipe, yours will be prettier with the puff pastry setting off the scalloped edges of the tart pan.

Quarantine Easter Tart with Caramelized Onions, Thyme, Potatoes, and Chicken

Caramelized Onions

• 2 pounds sweet onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chicken broth and/or white wine
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Tart

• 2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, sliced into 1/8-inch-thick rounds
• Olive oil
• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed according to package directions
• 3 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, divided
• 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped, divided
• 7-ounce package Trader Joe’s Unexpected Cheddar (or another white cheddar of your choice), grated and divided
• 8 ounces brie, rind removed and cut or torn into small pieces
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Garnish

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• Mixed fresh herbs (such as dill, parsley, sage, and basil. Stir clear of rosemary and cilantro)

Caramelized Onions: Place an extra-large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, turn the heat to medium-low and add the sliced onions, separating them into individual rings as they are added to the skillet. Once the onions are wilted down and are soft and translucent, add the garlic, and dried thyme, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Slowly cook until the onions are a medium caramel color, about 50 minutes to 1 hour.

Do not try to rush, it takes time and patience to get perfectly caramelized onions. Stir often, and as needed, as the onions stick to the bottom of the pan, add 1 tablespoon of chicken broth or white wine at a time. This will bring up the brown bits at the bottom and prevent the onions from burning. After cooking for about 40 minutes, add the balsamic vinegar and cook for the remaining 10 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Tart: Soak potato slices in a large bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. Drain well; pat dry.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the puff pastry to fit a 12-inch round removable base tart tin, prick all over with a fork. Place in the freezer while you cook the potatoes.

Place a medium skillet over medium-high heat and add enough oil to reach a depth of about 1/4-inch; when the oil is hot, add potato in one layer, working in batches, pan-fry just until the potato slices are softened but not brown, about 3 minutes per batch.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer potato slices to paper towels, in a single layer and immediately sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Remove the tart pan from the freezer, and cover the puff pastry with a layer of potatoes. Top with half of the caramelized onions; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the fresh thyme leaves. Next, add half of the chicken. Sprinkle on half of the grated cheddar.

Layer again with the potatoes, onion, and chicken. Dot with the brie pieces and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, the remaining 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves and cream, and pour over the filling.

Sprinkle on the remaining cheddar. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the filling is set and the pastry is golden. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from tart pan and cutting.

Before I get to today’s post, I want to give you a heads up about next week. My friend, Ronnie, had an ingenious idea for a new feature. On March 31st, she challenged me to help her create a dish with what she had on hand in her pantry and refrigerator. She gave me a list of four items and asked for a menu idea. She said, “… just use your experience and wealth of knowledge to come up with a plan.” She’s right, with all of us doing our best to STAY HOME, shop less and use what we have, this is the perfect time for such a challenge.

So yeah, challenge accepted!

On Monday I will share what Ronnie’s items were, what I suggested she make with them, and exactly how she could go about doing that. I’ll also share the photos of her process and her finished dish and exactly how she did go about doing it.

Between now and then, if you would like to send me a Pantry/Refrigerator Challenge – PLEASE DO!

Please shoot me an email at [email protected] with a list of what you have on hand and I will come up with a plan for using those items to make a dish/meal. Then you make the dish/meal and send me photos of the process and the finished dish to share here. This will be FUN!

NOTE: Please type Pantry/Refrigerator Challenge or something similar in the subject line so that if it goes into my spam folder, it will catch my eye and prevent me from tossing it in the trash.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming….

Ann asked me to show the colored and filled eggs from yesterday’s post. Ann, my pleasure!

There will only be three of us for this unusual and unprecedented Easter Sunday, so only three of the eggs were filled with egg salad.

The remaining six hold mini spring bouquets sitting in my collection of pretty egg cups.

Yesterday, I received an email from eagle-eyed reader, Jennifer, after she spotted something unusual in one of the photos from my New & Improved Zucchini Bread post.

Can you see what it is that she spotted and had a question about?

I believe this is the last of the recipes from Anne’s birthday dinner. Don’t you love dragging out birthdays for a month!?!

The peas I used are the same that I used in this recipe for Easter. I found them in the fresh produce section of Trader Joe’s. Since they are only available for a limited time, I bought a few packages and froze them for the long hot summer.

For the bridal shower, I not only made a quadruple recipe of the breakfast potatoes, but I also made 5 of these frittatas. The most challenging part of that was finding a place to slide the frittatas out after I cooked them. It had to be something that could then be transported to the home of the hostess, Whitney, and placed in her oven to reheat. The best I could come up with was to turn over baking sheets and place 2 frittatas on each sheet.

It may not have been the perfect solution but it worked. Once again, when you see the photos, don’t be alarmed by the quantity of food. If you make this, it will be a fifth as much.

[Read more →]

This is the last of the creole recipes from Connor’s birthday, which was now more than two weeks ago. Plus, I still need to post the recipe for the dessert he requested, banana cream pie. Oops.

[Read more →]

This is the last of my Easter brunch recipes. The real reason I made these was so that I could use the adorable green mini Le Creuset Petite Cocotte (little Dutch ovens) that my kids gave me for Christmas several years ago. The green was the perfect pop of color for my Easter table.

[Read more →]

Even when the centerpiece of your Easter brunch is a spiral-cut ham – that does not mean you can’t throw in a little bacon too!

The original Southern Living recipe called for a cast-iron skillet. Since my cast-iron skillet was in a storage cupboard in the garage that was blocked by a bunch of boxes and folding chairs, I used a large heavy skillet instead.

I’ve mentioned this tip before, but it’s worth repeating. If you have a pot or pan that needs to go in the oven that does not have an oven-safe handle, or even if you’re not quite sure if it is oven-safe or not. You can still use that pan. Just double wrap the handle in heavy-duty foil (or wrap 4 times with standard foil) and just like magic, you have an oven-safe pan.

Hash Brown-Asparagus-Bacon Quiché

• 6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 8 ounces fresh asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 4 cups frozen shredded hash browns (about 12 ounces)
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 6 large eggs
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 cup shredded Gruyère cheese (about 4 ounces)
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup sliced green onions
• Fresh minced chives, for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook bacon in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet or another oven-safe heavy skillet over medium until browned and almost crisp, but still tender, about 6 minutes. Transfer bacon to a plate lined with paper towels. Reserve drippings in skillet, and let cool slightly.

Add asparagus to skillet, and cook over medium-high, stirring often, until lightly browned and just beginning to soften, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer asparagus to a medium bowl.

Add hash browns, bacon, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper to hot drippings in skillet over medium-high; stir to combine.

[Read more →]