Date Nut Recipe and Brunch with Jacques

You may call him Jack. I do. We used to love to go out for brunch but rarely do anymore. There is usually too much food and so often it is not wonderful or not what we should be eating.

I have been quite enthralled with idea of baked eggs - perhaps with spinach. So Google was consulted and there was a recipe for Baked Eggs with Spinach and Tomato from the Daily Meal. It was not loaded with butter or cream (sadly) but actually quite healthy for our Sunday Brunch at home.

You can find the recipe here. We used less spinach and will use two shallots next time. Otherwise, the recipe was pretty closely followed. It was delicious.

The tomatoes and shallots and garlic cook slowly until tomato skins can be peeled off. We cooked the spinach ahead and divided between two au gratin pans.

And off they went to be baked for about 10 minutes.

Jacques, I mean Jack, sprinkled them with shaved parmesan and pepper. Fruit cup and an English muffin completed the meal.

A nice way to start a beautiful day.

The recipe for Gram's Date and Nut Bread is here and below.

Gram’s Date and Nut Bread

1 ½ cups boiling water

8 ounce dates chopped

1 ½ cups sugar

2 T butter, melted

1 egg, slightly beaten

2 t baking soda

3 cups flour

¼ t salt

1 t vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts

Pour water over dates and let the mixture cool. Cream sugar and butter. Add egg and mix. Dissolve baking soda in dates and water mixture.  Add  this mixture, flour, salt and vanilla. Stir in chopped nuts. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 60 minutes. Makes 2 loaves.

I make 4 smaller loaves and bake for about 45-50 minutes. Test center with cake tester for doneness.