This fourth brunch recipe makes two casserole dishes of sausage and egg goodness. And it’s another overnight casserole… breakfast for dinner two nights in a row… just saying! Once again, I thank the photographer, Laura, for providing the photo of her dish. (down a little farther, not the photo directly below)

Before Laura’s dish, here is a final description of the last recipe not yet included in the “four days of  le brunch”.  It’s all about Tram’s Banana Crunch Muffins.  You see, long story short, Tram got crunched for time and her hubby, Steve, couldn’t make it, so she brought her friend (and my friend too!) Matt. Matt is not only our friend, but also the producer of Tram’s afternoon show EVB Live, and the former producer of the old Valley Dish. Matt made the muffins, but since he doesn’t really like full-on banana flavor in his muffins, he made banana-pineapple muffins… yes that’s the short version! Matt’s muffins were a huge hit. But since I don’t have Matt’s recipe to share, I will share my “Crunch” recipe tomorrow.

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Here is the first of four brunch dishes that I’d like to share with you from our New Year’s Eve Brunch. Since I wasn’t the one cooking any of these, there will only be the one picture… no preparation photos. And in some cases, as with this one, I even forgot to take the picture myself and had to ask the creator of the dish to email me the photo taken from the leftovers they brought back home – thanks for this one, Mary!  Oh, one more thing – This is my 800th Post! Wow 800!

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A cassoulet, which originated in the south of France, is a hearty cold-weather meal filled with meats and baked in a thick stew of beans and vegetables.  So why am I making a cassoulet when it is 109 degrees outside?  Answer – because I’m crazy, that’s why! Actually along with the craziness there is a practical reason.  I had just less then a pound of leftover lamb cut from a shank that I used for THIS RECIPE.  And I know, without a doubt, that if I tucked it into the freezer and waited till fall to make the cassoulet, it would be lost forever in the depths of my freezer and eventually thrown away.

Cassoulets generally take between 6  – 8 hours to prepare… plus the overnight soaking of the beans.  I’ve pared this down to about 3 hours and with only 1 hour of bean soaking time.  For that reason I am calling this a quick cassoulet, although 3 + 1 hours isn’t exactly quick, I know!  Bookmark this for winter and you’ll enjoy having the kitchen all warm and aromatic for that length of time, I promise. This recipe can be easily doubled or even tripled to serve a crowd.

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I’ve taken four of my favorite Spanish ingredients and stuffed them into a pork loin, creating a perfect Sunday supper. I believe you could take Spanish dry-cured chorizo, piquillo pepper, Marcona almonds, and smoked paprika and make just about anything more wonderful than it was before!

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Sometimes the best recipe is no recipe at all. Our tradition on New Year’s Eve is to stay home, watch movies, and cook something fancy together. Sometimes the kids are involved in this, sometimes not.  This year, it was just Dave and me. We made an elegant lobster pasta dish and this antipasto platter. Honestly, I enjoyed the platter more than the pasta.  Don’t get me wrong, the pasta was delicious and decadent, but the platter was more fun and much less work. I marinated sliced bell peppers and radish halves in olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper and served it along with the usual assorted meats, olives, cheeses, and crackers. One of our favorite go-to dishes is the marinated blue cheese mushrooms. This time, I added substituted feta for the blue and added in cherry tomatoes, still outstanding!

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These little pigs-in-a-blanket, dressed up as Halloween mummies, will disappear before you eyes!

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Finally! For two nights now we have had our windows open. The first evening we could hear the falling rain, all night long. Joy! Although the word from the weatherman is that it’ll be back up in the mid to high 80′s next week, we’re just enjoying it while we can. On that note, the winter squash dish yesterday made me crave more of the same. Today, instead of the exotic Red kuri squash, we’ll go a little more traditional and work with the super fun spaghetti squash. Although the spaghetti-like strands of squash taste nothing like pasta, it’s a tasty and healthier way to “feel” like you’re eating pasta…

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It’s been a strange week. Dave was out of town on business Friday – Friday. I was in California that first weekend for a wedding (gorgeous wedding). Then Marissa went down to Tucson for her boyfriend’s birthday (Happy birthday, Alberto!).  And on Thursday, I took Connor up to Flagstaff to begin his sophomore year at NAU (Have a great first day today, Con! Missing you!).

The four of us were never home at the same time, and now we won’t be again until … Thanksgiving, probably (insert sad face here). After all that disruption, what we need is breakfast for dinner. There aren’t too many things that feel more cozy than having traditional morning food in the evening.

These sandwiches are delicious with or without the addition of a poached egg. I did four with and four without. Use any cheese you like, but I’m using pepper Jack to go with the jalapeno sausage I purchased at The Pork Shop… so darn good!

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On Saturday, I’ll be serving a pre-Easter brunch to the hardworking people in my husband, Dave’s, office.  It’s a CPA firm and Easter usually falls during the crunch time of tax season, so these people need a break! This recipe is on the menu. I confess, I totally ripped it off out of the Williams-Sonoma catalog. They sell these cute little “breakfast pigs in a blanket”.  The Williams-Sonoma version uses Aidell’s chicken-apple sausages. While I did fine Aidells sausages at Costco and was planning to use them, I spotted some mango-chicken sausages and decided to go that route… happy I did because – Yum!

So here are your choices… purchase from the catalog and pay $48.50 (that’s with shipping) for 24 “pigs”…  or… make mine, and pay less than $25 for the pastry and sausages and you will wind up with 60 – as in “six- zero”  little pigs!!!

I know what you’re saying to yourself right now…. “I do not need Sixty Pigs, even if they do cost $1.58 less per piece.”  Oh yes – You do!!!  These are delicious, easy, and so great to have on hand in your freezer.  That’s right, you can bake and serve some now and freeze the rest for later. Of course, you can always cut the recipe in half, and use just one package of puff pastry and find another and smaller (meaning a smaller quantity then sold at Costco) package of sausages. But once you get into the roll of putting these together, it takes no time at all and you’ll feel rich and wise with the knowledge that you have these little gems stocked away. They can go directly from the freezer to the oven -at the ready for a quick cocktail appetizer or as a fun breakfast, any day of the week. Finally, I call for whole-grain mustard, because I like it, but if you only have regular Dijon, that works too.

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