CEiMB - Vegetable Cheese Stratta and Barefoot Bloggers make Ina Garten's Gazpacho

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly selection is Vegetable Cheese Stratta, selected by Jenn of A Mid-Life Culinary Adventure (gee, that's what I feel like I'm having!)

This one was such a pleasure to make and eat. It had loads of veggies (a great use of my CSA goodies) and was very flexible (I didn't have an onion, so I substituted scallions; I felt like adding spinach, so I did). It was a great make-ahead, and I ate it for lunch rather than for breakfast. It would even be great for dinner. Since I'm still on my own this week, I made 1/8th of the recipe so I wouldn't have to eat it for 8 meals.

I added some crushed red pepper flakes for a little kick and I used the last of an olive oil rosemary bread. It wasn't whole grain, but it worked well with the flavors, and it was what I had on hand.

After having this for lunch the next day, I regretted making 1/8th of the recipe. It was fantastic! So cheesy and flavorful from the garlic and nutmeg. This one is going into the rotation.

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Meryl of My Bit of Earth chose this week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe and it was perfect timing, as summer officially began in the northern hemisphere and many Barefoot Bloggers live in parts of the US and Canada that are already sweltering. We're finally heating up in northern California, so this was still a great option to use summer's bounty.

Thankfully, this one didn't dirty a kitchen full of dishes, just the food processor, a measuring cup and a large bowl. I used some of my Nudo olive oil (which I learned about thanks to Nancy), but I reduced the vinegar and olive oil by half. The only ingredient that came from my CSA was the red onion, although later I realized I could have added diced yellow squash and it would have been perfect. I used orange peppers because that was what I had, and I added a diced small avocado. I ate the first bowl after I made it, and it was good and fresh, but needed more salt (I used low sodium vegetable juice, so I wasn't surprised). I'm thinking about adding hot sauce or cilantro, or maybe both. Ina says this is better after it sits for a few hours, so I'm really looking forward to enjoying it after it cures.

Many thanks to Meryl for a great pick! If you'd like to join us as we cook and blog our way through Ina's cookbooks (and why wouldn't you, her recipes are easy and great!), check out how to join here.