cooking – Exploren with Lauren

Mini Tomato & Cheddar Frittatas for Your Sunday Brunch

January 2, 2022January 2, 2022Posted in Food, RecipesTagged baking, breakfast, brunch, cheddar cheese, cheese, coffee, cooking, egg bake, eggs, exploren with lauren, Featured, Food, foodie, frittatas, homemade, lauren, new year, quiche, recipe, sunday brunch, tomatoes, wisconsin cheese, yumLeave a comment

The first Sunday of 2022 calls for Sunday brunch! I mixed up these mini tomato and cheddar frittatas for an easy, tasty bite after church this morning. I was hoping we’d have leftovers to eat for breakfast throughout the week, but who am I kidding?! They were gone almost before I could finish snapping these photos!

I adapted the recipe from the book Platters and Boards that my sister gifted to me for Christmas. The original recipe called for goat cheese, but I’m personally not a big fan, so I swapped it out for a mild and sharp cheddar four-state mix from Wisconsin, Vermont, New York, and California. I also realized that you could add so many more ingredients like bacon, mushrooms, spinach, or other meats, cheeses, and veggies, depending on your personal preference. This recipe offers a great starting point, but I’ll definitely be trying more variations soon!

Mini Tomato & Cheddar Frittatas

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
4 eggs
2/3 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp Herbes de Provence
1 oz cheddar cheese
4-6 cherry tomatoes, quartered
Any other meat or veggies desired!

Make it!

Preheat the oven to 375°F and line a 12-cup muffin tin with 6-7 liners. (The recipe is designed to make 6 frittatas; however, my batch yielded 7!)
In a small skillet warm the olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds or until fragrant.
In a small to medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and spices, adding back in the garlic.
Pour into muffin tin, filling each liner about 3/4 of the way full. Drop 3-4 tomato pieces (or other meat and veggies) into each fritatta, sprinkling cheese on the top.
Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until the eggs are set and beginning to brown on top.
Let cool for about 5 minutes before serving; then enjoy!

Bacon Mushroom Spinach Quiche

April 5, 2020Posted in Food, RecipesTagged bacon, baking, beet, beet juice, beets, berries, breakfast, brunch, celebrate, cheese, cooking, coronavirus, delicious, easter, easy, egg bake, eggs, family, Food, foodie, fruit, lauren and the foreign, laurenandtheforeign, mushrooms, orange, quarantine, quiche, recipe, simple, social distancing, spinach, wisconsin cheese, yumLeave a comment

Due to the recent Safer at Home order put in place to help stop the spread of COVID-19, many of us will be spending Easter alone or just with immediate family. If you’re in need of a simple recipe for a low key Easter brunch, look no further than this delicious Bacon Mushroom Spinach Quiche!

This recipe was adapted from a variety of quiche recipes on wisconsincheese.com, so if this recipe doesn’t quite appeal to your taste preferences, check out their website for more ideas!

Ingredients:

8 eggs
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded aged white cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped baby spinach leaves
1 cup sliced cremini mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped cooked bacon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk the eggs, cream, milk, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
Stir in the cheese, spinach, mushrooms, and bacon.
Pour into a greased 8×8 casserole dish.
Bake for 50-55 minutes or until center is set and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
Let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Serve with orange slices and Beetology beet & berry juice to compliment the savory eggs, bacon, and cheese.
Enjoy!

Let us know in the comments how you’re planning to celebrate Easter this year!

Brunch at Vintage Brew Co.

January 12, 2020Posted in lauren, LifestyleTagged bloody mary, breakfast, brunch, brunch cocktail, cheese, cheese curds, cocktail, Cocktails, cooking, decorations, delicious, eating, flat bread, Food, foodie, foreign, french toast, friends, fun, lauren, lauren and the foreign, laurenandtheforeign, lounge, new, recipe, restaurant, rum, scrambled eggs, yumLeave a comment

Brunch. One of the best parts of the weekend. We recently visited Vintage Brewing Company at their Capitol East location (previously Tangent) to try out their new brunch menu. Needless to say, we were quite impressed.

We started off with a round of brunch cocktails. We enjoyed a variety of unique signature cocktails such as the Woo Girl 2.0 and Friends of Dorothy. We also tried their award winning Bloody Mary which did not disappoint.

The Woo Girl 2.0 is Hendricks Gin, St. Germaine, Cava, lime juice, and Bitter Truth cucumber bitters. Friends of Dorothy is Plantation Pineapple rum, house-made grenadine, lime juice, ginger beer, mint, and Bittercube Jamaica #2 bitters. These cocktails differed quite a bit from the classic brunch cocktails we’re used to, but we loved the creativity here! We also shared an order of cheese curds.

For our main meal, we couldn’t decide between savory and sweet so we chose both! Our sweet selection was the French toast which came with fresh strawberries and blueberries and was topped with local maple syrup and powdered sugar. To die for! On the savory side of things, we went with the Breakfast Flatbread which was topped with roasted bell peppers, onions, carrots, scrambled eggs, goat cheese, cheddar jack, garlic aioli, and scallions.

After our meal, the general manager gave a quick tour of the new, updated space since the name change. They added a lounge with the classic Vintage fish tank and repainted the space in a lighter color to help it feel more bright and open.

We love the new atmosphere and of course, the new menu! We definitely recommend checking out the new Capitol East location for brunch as soon as you can!