Easter Brunch

Happy Easter!  I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful sunshine and celebrating the holiday with family, friends and of course, food!  Howie and I's day got off to a bit of a rocky start when the mass time at St. John Cantius Church in Tremont randomly changed for Easter Sunday, but at least we got a chance to catch a glimpse of the (empty) interior!  The architecture of the nave was incredible, and brought back many memories of the massive cathedrals that I visited throughout Europe while I studied abroad in Italy.  Though we were a little bummed, especially after our half hour attempt of driving to every church in the Tremont/Ohio city area looking for a Catholic mass turned into an epic failure, we at least had a delicious brunch that made up for it!  Howie was in charge of the peach-orange-mango mimosas, and I made a savory breakfast skillet with sausage, homemade home fries, peppers, onions, egg and cheese!

Before we started the cooking, Howie made us refreshing mimosas filled half with champagne, half with peach-mango-orange juice, and garnished with a fresh orange slice.  I'm thinking I might make cooking with mimosas a new tradition because it was fantastic!

I started by preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and then cut up the potato, green pepper and white onion into similar-sized pieces.  I filled a fairly large skillet with a solid base of olive oil, maybe 3-4 tbsp., and warmed it over medium heat.  I added the veggie mixture into the skillet, seasoned generously with salt and pepper, added a dash of garlic powder and red pepper flakes for a kick, and let it cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Meanwhile, in a smaller skillet, I cooked about 1 cup of crumbled Bob Evans sausage over medium heat until it was cooked through, about 10 minutes.  You can start the sausage a little later than the potato mixture since it cooks faster; if the sausage gets done first, just set it aside; it all gets mixed together in the end anyway.  Feel free to experiment with different meats or veggies, just be sure that you adjust the cooking times accordingly!

Once the veggies and sausage were finished cooking, I mixed them together in the same skillet and let them sit for about a minute so the potatoes could absorb some of the delicious juices from the sausage, and the sausage could get flavored by the green peppers and onions.  While this is happening, I cracked 3 eggs in a bowl, added a tbsp. of milk, some salt and pepper, and whisked it all together.  A breakfast skillet wouldn't be complete without eggs!

I transfer the veggie-sausage mixture from the skillet into 2 small ramekins and covered the mixture with a bit of shredded sharp cheddar cheese.  Put these ramekins in the oven for about 3 minutes while the scrambled eggs cook.  I actually set the ramekins on baking tray so I wouldn't have to deal with the awkward size ratio of large oven mitt to small ramekin.  It was a good decision, I would highly recommend it!

While these were in the oven, I made basic scrambled eggs.  To give the eggs a little bit of extra flavor, I cooked them in the same skillet that I cooked the potatoes, green peppers and onions in (not to mention it saves you from cleaning an extra pan later!).

Once the eggs were done, I added them to the ramekins and topped with some more cheddar cheese and fresh cracked black pepper.  Let them cook about 2 minutes, or until the cheese is fully melted.  Then, enjoy...preferably with a mimosa!