Heaven in the Hill Country: Recipes from Hoffman Haus

Heaven is Hoffman Haus on a warm, sunny day.

FP and I both adore Hoffman Haus, a unique bed and breakfast in the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg.  Comprised of several guest cottages surrounding a generous home and dining hall, the property is naturally landscaped for a casual Central Texas feel.  Each room has its own theme, but all share owner Leslie Washburne's classic, minimalist style.  In other words, you won't find any doilies or porcelain knick-knacks at this B&B.  And that's just one of the many reasons to love it.

The best part of any stay at Hoffman Haus just might be the food.  Each morning, a basket filled with homemade treats is delivered right to the door of your cottage and no matter what it holds, you know you're in for a treat.  Maybe you'll enjoy some home-baked muffins while watching the sun rise in the courtyard (feed the last bite to a lucky koi fish in the pond), or you might decide to curl back into bed with a cup of coffee and a plate of cheesy, comforting eggs.  Good morning, indeed.

As I was organizing my kitchen yesterday, the following recipe fell from between the pages of a cookbook, and it seemed like the perfect time to share it on the blog.  Leslie gave me her recipe for easy Eggs Florentine years ago, and it's a simple way to get a little taste of Hoffman Haus whenever you're in need.  I've also thrown in a recipe for Artichoke Phyllo Packets from an article I wrote on the Natural Palate, Leslie's farm house cooking school just up the road from the inn.  It's not as easy as the eggs, but it's well worth the effort.  

Enjoy!

Hoffman Haus Eggs Florentine

1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

8 eggs, beaten

4 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled

1/2 lb. havarti cheese, grated

1/2 lb. feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a round pie plate or quiche pan and set aside.

Using a colander or your hands, squeeze as much liquid out of the thawed spinach as possible.  Combine spinach with remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl - mixture will be thick.  Pour into the prepared dish and bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Artichoke Phyllo Packets with Creamy Lemon Tahini Sauce

Artichoke Filling:

1/2 c raw almond slivers
2 tbsp. pine nuts
1 c frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
1/4 c vegenaise (vegan mayo)
2 tsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. sea salt

Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor and process until combined and mixture is the consistency of a coarse paste. (This filling is also great tossed with pasta and served hot or cold.  - C&S)

To make packets:

Frozen phyllo dough
Canola, olive, or other vegetable oil

Thaw phyllo dough overnight in refrigerator.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Cut the stack of sheets lengthwise down the center, along the fold.  Depending on the
brand, you may need to make two cuts.  Sheets should be approximately 12x4
inches.  Use three of the cut sheets per packet, with a light brush of oil in between
each layer.  Place 2-3 rounded teaspoons of filling toward one end of stack and fold up triangularly, like a flag, trimming any excess phyllo after the last fold.  Brush top of packet lightly with oil.  Bake packets on a cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Serve with Creamy Lemon Tahini Sauce.

Creamy Lemon Tahini Sauce

2 tbsp. tahini
2 tbsp. mellow white miso
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 c water

Place all ingredients in bowl of food processor and process until smooth.

Esquire Mag's Ode to the Most Important Meal

In case you had trouble getting past the Clive Owen cover of this month's Esquire Magazine (not saying that I personally had a problem...), here's recommending you go ahead and flip to page 107 and drink in the heady food porn that is Esquire's All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast.  

Beginning with a drool-inducing photo of Banana Bread French Toast dripping in vanilla bean infused maple syrup and capped with a quivering crown of lemon sour cream, this special section proceeds to persuade the reader through essays, recipes and restaurant listings of the absolute indispensability of the modern American morning meal.  Divided into two parts - dining in and dining out - you'll first enjoy eight pages of how-to's from chefs around the country interspersed with witticisms and observations on the subject at hand.  A case in point, from Scott Raab's Love, Or Scrambled Eggs: "Breakfast is breakfast.  No metaphor, no symbol - save maybe in the sense that any social custom mirrors every other social custom, which is to say that either everything is a metaphor or symbol, or that nothing, especially not so fine and free a thing as breakfast, is.  Breakfast is too good to screw it up with meaning."  And that, my friends, is why I love Esquire.

Also contained in the first section is a recipe for Jalepeno and Ancho Oatmeal from Chef Edward Lee of 610 Magnolia in Louisville.  Combining such divergent ingredients as dried cherries, Hungarian paprika, coconut milk and (you guessed it) jalepeno peppers, it may just be the most peculiar recipe I've ever read.  The photo of another offering, Pulled Baby-Back Ribs Benedict from Chef Raymond Chen of the Inn at West View Farm in Dorset, Vermont, actually forced me to lay my head between my legs and count slowly to ten, lest I faint from overwhelming desire.  (Sorry, Clive.)

The dining out section that follows provides an "unranked, incomplete, and unimpeachable list of the best breakfasts across America."  I'm sorry to report that Dallas is not represented, however the list makes for great reading nonetheless.  Who knew that Minneapolis loves a little bison-sausage bread in the morning?  Waffle House also gets a shout-out in this second half, and New Orleans is named "America's Best Breakfast City".  Anyone who has ever felt a beignet from Cafe du Monde melt on his tongue under a hot blanket of cafe au lait will absolutely agree with that honor.

And that's not the half of it - I've only scratched the surface here, people.  Pick up a copy for yourself, and while you're at it, help me come up with a few North Texas suggestions for the next time around:  Where's the best breakfast in the Metroplex?

C&S

Free Booze at BuzzBrews!

Just a little pre-weekend tip for our 

Mimosa-loving readers:

BuzzBrews' Lemmon Avenue location is offering a free bottle of Korbel Brut with the purchase of a 60 oz. party-sized pitcher of o.j. ($30).  

Sounds like a great excuse to head out for brunch this weekend.  Or tomorrow, for that matter - this special is good any day of the week!

C&S

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Buzz

Ever since BuzzBrews opened in the former Pitt Grill spot at Fitzhugh and 75, I can't seem to keep from drooling every time I head north on the highway.  But being the lazy little thing that I am (Three exits?!  Might as well be three hours!), and being not particularly disposed to my local outpost of Cafe Brazil (I explained why here), I often found myself wishing and praying and hoping against all hope that one day this 24/7 great food/great coffee joint would grace me with a presence nearer to the Oak Lawn area.

Well, lo and behold, my prayers were answered.  When I heard what was going into the hard-luck space at Lemmon and Herschel, I could barely contain my excitement.  A real live BuzzBrews right in my own back yard!

Crowds of shiny, happy people have packed the new spot since it opened just a few days ago, feasting on bountiful breakfasts, lip-smackin' lunches and all manner of other delicious dishes in the wide-open dining area overlooking (wait for it) the Radio Shack parking lot.  Oh, well, maybe my new Brews doesn't have a view, but it's got some righteous coffee, friendly service and someone in the kitchen who may very well be my new culinary best bud (sorry, FP).

Take the Griddle Toast, for instance.  Think French Toast's rich uncle.  Soaked in a silken egg custard and grilled golden brown, it's oh, so much more decadent than the average pain perdu.  And that's before it's topped with Vermont AA Maple Syrup and a sprinkling of nuts.  Add two eggs and two slices of bacon, and you've got the Pitt Grill Griddle Toast breakfast.  It's an homage of which the dive of my high school days would be proud.  

Other clucking delightful egg dishes sampled included the Popeye (spinach, tomato, onion and feta cheese wrapped in a fluffy omelet) and the Californication (you'll have to look that up yourself), both of which can also be served as crepes.  Alongside you'll receive buttery, brioche-type toast and BuzzBrews' "garlic marbles" -  seasoned potatoes that were were, unfortunately, underdone when sampled on a recent visit. 

I took the misstep in stride, however, considering the crowd that morning and the exceptional quality of everything else on the plates.  To prolong my pleasure, I carried home an 8 oz. bundle of joy:  my very own bag of Buzz Brew, ground to my own particular specifications, which has awakened me with the appropriate combination of strength and encouragement every morning this week.  (For me, coffee is all about tough love.)

I can't wait to get in for dinner, and once I do, you'll hear all about it.  For now, however, I think you know where you're headed for that 2 a.m. post-party fix.  Or for brunch on Sunday.  Or both.

http://buzzbrews.com/

New location:  4334 Lemmon Avenue, Dallas

The Ultimate I-35 Road Snack

What is the first thing you think of when you contemplate a road trip from Dallas to Austin? Is it a Longhorn football game? A wild night out on 6th street? Carl’s Corner?

If you’re anything like me, you can’t help but get excited about stopping in West, Texas (just North of Waco and South of Hillsboro) to sample some of the famous kolaches from the Czech Stop. For those of you who haven’t yet had the pleasure of sampling one, a kolache is a traditional Central European dish of a pastry roll filled with any number of things, from fruit to meat to cheese. They are popular in West (and a few other towns in Central Texas) due to their large Czech populations. These heavenly pillows of pastry and various fillings make any road trip down 35 worthwhile.

I love the plain sausage (no molten American cheese, thank you very much), which pair perfectly with a cold bottle of Dr. Pepper. The sausage has just enough smokiness and spiciness to make it interesting without overwhelming the pastry, and the sweetness of the Dr. Pepper really rounds out the meal.

My absolute favorite, however, is the cream cheese kolache. These are pretty good when you get them mixed with fruit (strawberry, blueberry and apricot are a few of the choices they offer), but I prefer just the plain cream cheese. It tastes like a cross between cheesecake and a dinner roll, and while that may not sound all that appetizing, it takes both of those standards to new heights. The cream cheese is rich and sweet, so the flaky, buttery pastry cuts that a little bit while adding some texture. I highly recommend you give one a whirl the next time you venture down 35.

I’m sure many of our readers have had the pleasure of visiting West, and I’d like to hear if you all love it as much as I do…

New Breakfast Obsession: Banana Chocolate Vivanno

For those of us that work an 8-5 Monday-Friday job, how often do you rush out the door in the morning without eating breakfast? If you’re me, it’s approximately 5 days a week, and the other two days you just sleep through breakfast. But somehow, I do make the time to stop at Starbucks almost every day.

The problem is—those pastries and muffins they sell at Starbucks really don’t appeal to me. They’re just sugar-laden obstacles in the way to getting my Triple Grande Soy Latte. So, basically, I end up drinking my breakfast every morning, and am starving by 10:30.

Starbucks, however, has introduced a new drink that has changed my life. It’s called the Banana Chocolate Vivanno, and it has revolutionized my breakfast routine. The shake combines a whole banana (Fruit! Actual, honest to goodness fruit!), 2% milk (Calcium!), bittersweet cocoa (Chocolate!), fiber powder (Powdered regularity!), and whey protein (Hello, South Beach!). But the best part is, if you ask, they will also blend in a shot of espresso (Caffeine!), making it the most well-rounded and efficient breakfast I’ve ever consumed.

On top of that, this is no uber-sweet and sugary Frappuccino. It’s actually relatively low in fat and calories (5 g/270 calories), especially considering that it works as a meal substitute. And with 6 grams of fiber and 21 grams of protein, it actually keeps you full all morning.

Thank you, Starbucks! You’ve once again earned my love, along with my $5 a day.