The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

finely chopped
½ cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1½ cups shredded cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, or a blend, your choice)
1 can (10¾ oz.) cream of mushroom soup
    Place the bread cubes into a greased 9 × 13” pan. Beat the eggs, 2¼ cups milk, mustard, salt, and pepper. Pour over the bread cubes in the pan. Evenly sprinkle the ham or bacon, onions, bell pepper, and mushrooms over the top of the egg mixture. Top with the cheese. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
    In the morning, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Mix the can of soup with ½ cup milk and pour over the refrigerated egg mixture. Bake, uncovered, for 90 minutes. The dish will puff when baking but will deflate after it is removed from the oven. Cut into squares and serve hot.
    Submitted by Debi Murray

EGGS BENEDICT
    TIME: 15 MINUTES • SERVES 4
    INGREDIENTS:
    ¼ cup mayonnaise ( not salad dressing)
1 rounded tsp. brown mustard (not honey mustard, but horseradish mus-
tard or champagne mustard works very well)
¼ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
2 English muffins or 4 leftover biscuits
4 slices sandwich ham or Canadian bacon
⅔ cup water
Pinch of salt
A few shakes of Tabasco sauce (or your preferred pepper-vinegar sauce)
4 eggs, room temperature, as fresh as possible
    This takes a little practice in terms of timing because the heat goes on the sauce, the eggs, and the meat from different directions at the same time. Once you get the timing down, however, it’s the easiest Eggs Benedict you’ll ever cook.
     
    Mix the mayonnaise, mustard, and yogurt or sour cream in a small, cold saucepan. Set aside. Split your muffins or biscuits and lay them, torn side up, on a cookie sheet. Preheat the broiler but don’t put the bread in yet.
    Lay the meat in a cold skillet, preferably with a touch of bacon grease, and place the skillet over low heat to brown the meat. If not using a castiron skillet, start with a very low heat. Allow meat to cook, making certain it does not burn. Note: The meat cooks better if it is cut into strips before being laid in the pan, but then it looks less like Eggs Benedict.
    As soon as you have the meat pan on the heat, turn to the eggs. Pour ⅔ cup water into a 1-quart bowl. Salt it. Shake in a few good jolts of Tabasco or your favorite vinegar-based pepper sauce. Stir. Crack the eggs and gently slip them (minus the shell) into the water, pricking each yolk once with a toothpick.
    Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Microwave on full power for 2–3 minutes. Let the eggs stand, covered, to give the whites time to completely set and the yolks time to thicken, about 2 minutes.
    As soon as you turn on the microwave, put the saucepan with the mayonnaise mixture over low heat and stir pretty constantly for about 5 minutes, until heated through.
    When the microwave dings, pull the sauce off the heat long enough to put the bread under the broiler to toast the torn side lightly. While the bread toasts, put the sauce back over low heat and stir. Allow the bread to lightly toast, and then remove it from the oven. The sauce is done when the bread is.
    Once the bread is out, quickly drain your eggs and roughly divide them. Shuffle your hot bread onto plates. Top with the meat, then the eggs, and then the sauce. Don’t agonize over the nonround eggs or piles that slip over sideways.
    Submitted by Amber Green

FRENCH MARKET BEIGNETS
    TIME: PREP TIME 15 MINUTES, REFRIGERATION TIME 8 HOURS, COOKING TIME 15 MINUTES • SERVES 8
    INGREDIENTS:
    1 package dry yeast
½ tsp. plus ½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup water, warm to the touch
1 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Oil for frying (preferably canola, but whatever oil you’ve got in the Fry
Daddy will do)
1 cup powdered sugar in a brown paper lunch bag
    The night before you plan to eat these, dissolve your yeast and ½ tsp. granulated sugar in the warm water in a big mixing bowl. Stir gently until the yeast dissolves; let rest for 5 minutes until the yeast is nice and bubbly.
    Add the evaporated milk, ½ cup sugar, and the salt to the bubbly yeast. Crack the egg into a small bowl, beat it well, and add the beaten egg to the big bowl. Stir until well blended. Add the flour, ½ cup at a time, blending well. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and refrigerate overnight.
    In the morning, fill your Fry Daddy, your electric wok, or a deep and sturdy saucepan or skillet at least 3” deep with