peanut butter eggs, a success of the strausses

There are not enough words to describe the love that the Strausses have for their glue that stuck them ever-so-willingly together, Naomi Strauss. 

 My grandmother & I, circa October 2006.

If you've read any of my posts where I trance back to my days with my beloved grandmother, it's obvious that you know that I possess an undying love for her. This month, it has only been three years that she has passed,  and as the days dwindle by, I always think of her more and more.

My Mammy had a keen eye for crafting the tastiest treats anyone's sweet teeth could ever experience, and I must modestly admit, this is not a biased statement. My family members and I hold these dear recipes as a triumphant trophy and as holidays approach, with appropriate traditional Strauss treats in tune for each, we are sure to gather together to reenact what our dear grandma did best in her comforting kitchen space.

Most recently, my cousins and I, as we like to think we're blessed with the gift that our grandmother possessed so gracefully, gathered to sculpt her chocolate-covered peanut butter eggs — a tradition we've began since her passing.

This year was the first festive occasion for the Strauss family's newest member, Cheyanne Naomi Willman, and as you see below, she too now loves these candies as much as we ever could (and, that is a hell of a lot!).

Here's a photographic step-by-step of our family-sacred, sugary Easter concoctions:

breakfast bites of nudy's cafe

As meals go, breakfast has become a celebrity. Proudly carrying the title of the "most important meal of the day," a decent breakfast can influence you and your body the rest of your awakened hours of your hectic day.

But, with all fussing over and fantasizing of what to shove in your mouth, first thing, most of us sadly settle for the normal boxed cereal, or a simple egg scramble. That's where Ray Nudy comes in — the namesake and owner of the Nudy's Café, a six location breakfast hot spot.

With locations in East Whiteland, West Whiteland, Uwchlan, Wayne, Dowington and, of course, locally at 450 Bridge Street, Nudy has sculpted a satisfying, sit-down brunch eatery that not only offers traditional morning munchies like creamed chipped beef and finely chopped hash browns, but also is borderline quirky with grilled cinnamon bun French toast and year-round pumpkin pancakes.

Continue reading here.

holiday brunch bites at the jukebox

Hands down, my favorite early day eats are from the Jukebox Cafe of Boyertown, Pa. Retro-styled, family owned-and-operated, and low maintenance, the breakfast-and-lunch-only eatery has become a staple in my small town obviously for its simple, yet quirky mid-morning munchies.

While they boost on everything breakfast, from the usual fresh fruit-topped waffles and multi-ingredient omelets, they also encourage every season's best by offering an constantly changing supplement to their already established menu.

For my favorite fall-and-winter time of the year, they embrace all things pumpkin and peppermint, and of course, promote additional turkey-themed meals. The Holiday Benedict, seen above, a rendition of the beloved eggs benedict, is sculpted on two toasty rounds of cornbread, layered with chunks of November's popular bird, and dosed with perfectly-prepared eggs and hollandaise.

The Pumpkin Bread French Toast, seen below, is similar to their wide assortment of fruit-themed stuffed crispy toasts, is crafted around bread loaves they are prepared daily within the establishment, and then smeared with a cream-cheese filling that, with the ideal blending of cream cheese, ricotta, vanilla and cinnamon, it is apparent that a pumpkiny breakfast has never shined as bright as this platter.

Other must-haves of the Jukebox include: Hot Apple French Toast, made with slices of the season's finest apples, coated with cinnamon and baked to perfection and the Crab Benedict, similar to the turkey, but loaded with an addictive serving of amazing soft-shell.

almost devilish, almost meatless

I have always been the oddball in the family.

Well, if you met my two older brothers you would think that I am the most normal, by appearance, but when it comes to what I allow to enter my two skinny lips, I am instantly a weirdo. For example, if they'd order a hamburger coated in cheddar, I'd order a lamb patty plopped with feta. They'd order a Yuengling, I'd order a Hop Hog -- you get the point.

Thus, being the adventurous one, it would be expected of me that if I were to make the classic picnic staple, deviled eggs, I would not follow my mom's highly-acclaimed recipe (sorry, Mom). Swirling a little bit of Miracle Whip with a little bit of yellow mustard, her yolks have always been so loved, and this love also comes from my scarfing-self.

So simple, yet so perfect, dozens of these fine eggs are packaged in Tupperware containers for many, upon many friend-and-family functions. However, some times the best things are born from escaping your comfort zone, so I allowed myself to take the Claudia Strauss Torch and devilishly sneak into my own, slightly gourmet, world of hard-boiled eggs, courtesy of Almost Meatless.

In AM, authors Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond, who are also fellow Philadelphians, satisfying sculpt, as the title assumes, health-conscious recipes that scale back our meaty intakes, without sacrificing the flavors we carnivorously crave. And, coming from a girl who's a post-vegetarian, now embarrassingly-addicted meathead, I have been dying for a book with such a balance!

Here, I cross their starting line with a sampling of their retro-styled devilish eggs, which by the way, received extreme gratification from my experienced mother with a two-thumbs up.

Deviled Eggs

Serves 4 to 8

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

1 dozen eggs, hard-boiled and peeled

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/3 cup mayo

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon grated shallot

1/2 teaspoon sriracha or hot sauce

5 cornichons, diced

salt & fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon paprika, for garnish

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Bake panko crumbs on a rimmed sheet for about 10 minutes. Cool. Slice eggs in half. (Tip: Spray knife with cooking spray for easy slicing!) Scrap yolk into large bowl. Add mustard, mayo, turmeric, shallot, sriracha and cornichons. Whisk until smooth; season to taste with salt and taste. Using a teaspoon, fill each egg with a heaping dose of yolk mixture. (To be fancy, use a piping bag.) Just before serving, add pinch of baked panko and dust evenly with paprika.

Reprinted with permission from Ten Speed Press and the authors.