Morning glories: a casual brunch with friends

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - Warm up this winter with a cheery impromptu brunch.

Now, we know winter mornings are not a time when you feel like expending a lot of effort, so we have a couple of strategies.

One is a brunch that is assembled rather than cooked _ a buffet-style bagel bar, for example. The other is to choose a main dish you can make the night before and just pop into the oven the morning of.

A BAGEL BUFFET

For this, you'll want to set up a toast-your-own bagel bar. If you don't have a toaster that accommodates bagels, ask around among your friends to see if you can borrow one or two. Having two toasting stations rather than one will avoid bottlenecks among hungry guests.

_Buy the best and freshest bagels you can find, in an assortment of flavors. Slice them just before you're ready to serve.

_You'll want to offer plain cream cheese, at the minimum, but having several cream-cheese flavors to choose from makes it more fun. Choose whipped cream cheese for ease of spreading. You can buy the flavored cream cheeses at the supermarket, but making your own from plain yields better flavor and is as simple as blending in some snipped chives or chopped herbs such as Italian parsley, or some prepared horseradish, or chopped dried cherries or cranberries. As a courtesy to your guests, write labels to denote the flavors.

_Smoked salmon or lox is the natural centerpiece for a bagel meal, but you could also offer thinly sliced smoked turkey or ham or other types of smoked fish, or a combination of these. If you're flush, caviar would be a lovely addition.

_As accompaniment, finely chop a red onion the day before and refrigerate it, tightly sealed. Add a dish of capers; for impact, you could tuck in some caper berries.

_To offer something sweet, break out that fancy fig jam or marmalade you got for Christmas. For a light finish, add a bowl of mixed precut fruit, sprinkled with a little sugar and spritzed with lime.

You can make the serving ware as casual or fancy as you like _ we'll bet your guests won't even mind dining from those holiday paper plates left over from Christmas. And don't forget the sparkling wine. It doesn't have to be expensive _ the Spanish Cristalino (brut or brut rose) and Segura Viudas can usually be had for $8 or less. Keep it very cold, pour it into festive flutes, and offer a pitcher of orange juice and perhaps one of cranberry juice to mix with it for cocktails.

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BRUNCH IN ADVANCE

There's a whole genre of breakfast casserole-type dishes _ many of them known as strata _ that are assembled the night before serving, so all they need is some time in the oven when you're ready to serve. In the case of our King Ranchero breakfast casserole, it's actually baked the day before and reheated the day of.

KING RANCHERO BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

Serves 6

"Eggs baked right atop the casserole add a sunny twist to this breakfast dish inspired by the classic King Ranch casserole. If you grew tomatoes in your yard this year, chances are you have a stash of green tomatoes you picked when the first freeze threatened, but they aren't essential to the dish. You could substitute chopped or sliced ham for the poultry _ and, should you be entertaining vegetarians, you could simply leave the poultry out entirely, or substitute a couple of layers of thinly sliced potatoes. The dish will still be plenty filling."

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

2 small green tomatoes, diced, optional

3 medium garlic cloves, minced

1˝ teaspoons good-quality chili powder (I used Pendery's "Fort Worth Light" blend)

1˝ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon paprika

˝ cup chopped cilantro

2 cups tomatillo-based salsa verde (a 16-ounce jar), plus more to pass at table

6 (6-inch) corn tortillas

1˝ cups sour cream (about ľ of a 16-ounce container)

12 thin slices smoked turkey (about ľ pound), or 1˝ cups shredded cooked turkey or chicken

1Ľ cups each grated Cheddar cheese and grated Monterey Jack cheese, tossed together, or 2 (8-ounce) packages shredded Cheddar-jack blend

1˝ cups chopped, drained mild green chiles, about 3 (4-ounce) cans or a 13-ounce container of frozen chiles

6 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat the inside of a rectangular baking pan (either 7 ˝ by 11 ľ inches or 9 by 13 inches), with cooking spray.

2. In a large skillet or saute pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and green tomatoes, if using, and saute, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes, until onion and tomatoes begin to soften. Add garlic, chili powder, black pepper, salt and paprika and stir to blend well. Remove skillet from heat and stir in the cilantro.

3. In prepared pan, spread a thin layer of the salsa verde. Arrange 2 tortillas over the sauce and use scissors to cut a third tortilla into pieces to fit the open spaces so that the salsa is completely covered. Spread half the sour cream over the tortillas. Top with another thin layer of salsa verde, and cover that with 6 slices smoked turkey (or half the shredded turkey or chicken). Cover that with half the onion mixture; then scatter on about a third of the cheese mixture and top the cheese with half the green chiles. Arrange the remaining tortillas over the green chiles as before. Spread the remaining sour cream over them, then another thin layer of salsa verde, the remaining onion mixture and the remaining turkey slices (or shredded turkey or chicken). Scatter another third of the cheese mixture over the turkey, then cover with the remaining green chiles. Scatter the remaining cheese on top.

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4. Turn a 6-cup muffin tin upside-down and coat the bottom of the cups thoroughly with cooking spray. Turn muffin tin back over, center it over the casserole and press the tin firmly into the casserole to make depressions for the eggs. Fill the muffin cups with beans to weigh them down. Bake the casserole 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool, leaving the muffin tin in place. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

5. In the morning, remove pan from refrigerator and allow to sit 15 or 20 minutes to come to room temperature. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove plastic wrap and carefully lift out muffin tin. If the depressions need to be deeper to hold the eggs, use the bottom of a small ladle, coated with cooking spray, to deepen them. Break an egg into each depression and bake casserole for about 30 minutes. If egg whites are still liquid in the center, raise oven temperature to 400 degrees and cook until eggs are barely set. (The eggs will continue to cook after the casserole is removed from the oven.) Cut the casserole into six pieces and serve immediately. Pass a bowl of warmed salsa verde with the casserole.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 539 calories, 33 grams fat, 34 grams carbohydrates, 28 grams protein, 288 milligrams cholesterol, 1,477 milligrams sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber, 54 percent of calories from fat.

--Amy Culbertson

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BAKED COCONUT FRENCH TOAST WITH TROPICAL FRUIT COMPOTE

This cooks up as more of a pudding than as classic French toast, but it is delicious no matter what you call it. You really don't need to include all the fruit listed for the compote; I used about 2 cups of chopped pineapple and 2 cups of chopped papaya. Fruit precut at the supermarket will save you time, and chopped fresh mint makes an attractive addition.

A note about the bread: It must be really sturdy, ideally a chewy, crisp-crusted French baguette.

Serves 8

Compote:

1˝ cups chopped pineapple

1 cup chopped mango

1 cup chopped papaya

1 cup chopped kiwifruit

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Overnight French toast:

16 (1-inch-thick) slices from a thin French baguette, cut on the diagonal, or about 9 (1-inch-thick) slices from a French "demi," or 8-ounce loaf

1Ľ cups light coconut milk

6 large eggs, lightly beaten

˝ cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

˝ cup sweetened flaked coconut

Compote:

1. Combine the fruit, sugar and lime juice in a serving bowl. Cover and chill for 8 hours or overnight.

Overnight French toast:

1. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange the bread in a single layer in the bottom. Combine the coconut milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla, stirring with a whisk. Pour evenly over the bread and turn the bread over to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

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2. Remove the bread mixture from the refrigerator and uncover. Turn the bread slices over and sprinkle evenly with the flaked coconut. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until the coconut is golden. Serve warm with the fruit compote.

Nutritional analysis per serving: 370 calories, 9 grams fat, 64 grams carbohydrates, 10 grams protein, 162 milligrams cholesterol, 376 milligrams sodium, 4 grams dietary fiber.

"The Best Casserole Book Ever" by Beatrice Ojakangas (Chronicle Books, $24.95)

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© 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.