Sometimes I like to make a "breakfast at dinner" meal. It's easy to throw together and when I make an accompanying salad, I feel oddly French and superior. "Look at moi! I am making zee elegant menu du jour that is tres jolie!" Even though, I'm only making, you know, scrambled eggs.
The mood to make a breakfast dinner struck me the other day and I turned to Ina for suggestions. The omelet for two and easy cheese danish seemed like the perfect, and decadent option.
First up, here's the mise en place for the cheese danish:
I'm going to take a moment here to shout out Trader Joe's puff pastry. It is AWESOME. There are two sheets in the box, and unlike the other brands, you don't need to unfold it, so there aren't any creases. I've found quite a few uses for it so far and always keep it on hand since I can whip up some delicious cheese straws quickly when company comes over. Highly recommended.
So, first we make the filling. Cream the cream cheese and sugar until smooth:
add lemon zest and vanilla.
Mix together until the filling is smooth. I didn't want to take out my hand mixer so I did it by hand. It would be smoother with a mixer, but mine was pretty smooth anyhow.
Spoon the filling on the puff pastry and pinch the opposing corners together. This puff pastry square is slightly smaller than the Pepperidge Farm one, so there was actually way too much filling. Since I didn't want to waste it, I tried to spoon in as much as I could. As you can see, my danishes are bulging dangerously.
The recipe calls for placing the danishes in the refrigerator to firm up a bit. In the meantime, I will start the omelet for two. Here is the mise:
What's that in the middle? Is it... bacon??
Yes it is. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. A moment, please.
My, my. What to do with that bacon fat. Fry some potatoes in it of course!
While the potatoes finish cooking, whisk the eggs and milk together with seasonings. Oh yeah, and put the danish in the oven to bake!
Yay! Potato and bacon bowl. Seriously, I could stop right here and be happy.
Here we go... omelet time. Now, in this recipe you only cook the omelet on the stove until the bottom sets. Then you pop it into the oven to finish.
Here is the omelet straight out of the oven!
Ditto with the danish. As you can see, my danish exploded open due to the amount of filling. Don't worry. Totally worth it.
Easy Cheese Danish
The result: Fantastic of course. How can you really go wrong? the danish was really easy to make and very tasty. The filling wasn't too sweet or too cheesy. It was light and eggy. I would definitely make this again, but I might chop the zest a little finer next time. It wasn't a big deal or anything, but I personally would just like it a little finer. The omelet was delish. It looks like a huge thing, but I actually only used one potato and three strips of bacon with the 5 eggs for two people, so it probably ended up the same size as a restaurant omelet. I can see making lots of variations on this recipe since it came together so quickly. Maybe some sausage and cheese or spinach with the potatoes. It's more a method of cooking instead of the actual ingredients. Joel loved everything, so there's hope yet that the all breakfast all the time diet could work out. ^-^ Overall, this was a very pleasant meal and we had leftover danish for the next morning. Fabulous!
