Overnight guests- quiche, frittata or baked eggs?

[lab294]

Hi there- I am having a group of 10 adults for an overnight stay in a few weeks.

I am all set with dinner, but it is breakfast the next morning that I am having trouble with. I don't want to run out for bagels, do eggs on order or be doing a ton of cooking in the morning (possibly before others are awake)

I have cinnamon rolls already frozen - ready to be defrosted overnight then baked at 375 for 30 mins or so, then iced.

I want to do an egg dish (but not something sweet like a french toast bake) with a simple green salad to go along side and maybe have someone bring a fruit salad if we are feeling ambitious.

But my question is- do I make a quiche ahead of time and stick it in the oven with the cinnamon rolls to heat up? and if so can I freeze it ahead of time and defrost in the fridge overnight?

Or do I make ramekins of baked eggs? Or is a frittata a better bet?

I would love any thoughts at all!

[sparky403]

+1 on the strata Idea - Here's one I did for a friends baby shower... Smoke Ham, Artichoke and Goat Cheese strata.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...

There's easy to make - are better if they sit in the fridge over night.

You can be very creative with this - it's actually nothing more than your thankgiving stuffing (though more egg) flavored with whatever you want.

[law_doc89]

Late to this party.

Lots of good suggestions. Would do quiches so guests awake to cooking odors. Prepare your crusts ahead and lightly brown in oven for 10 minutes with rice grains so the crusts dry.

Mix your egg custard in the am and line one quiche with cooked salmon and dill, another with blanched broccoli florets, another with spinach.

Or blow their minds with salmon en croute that you can assemble the night before and refrigerate, then bake in am. Puff pastry dough for fish can be frozen store bought. This is beginner easy and looks advanced.

Lightly sear salmon fillets cut to size you need.
Sauté some mushrooms and onions.
Let cool.

Roll out pastry dough to size you need (LIGHTLY, so you don’t squash the butter pockets)

Place salmon on sheet of pasty, top with some onions and mushrooms, sprinkle with dill.
Fold over dough and seal with butter. Make a chimney hole, put in fridge.

In am bake to cook the pastry, the filling takes care of itself, cool, slice, and serve with chopped boiled eggs on top of each slice.

I get fancy and use trimmed extra pieces of dough to fashion fins, a tail, make eyes and lips and carve some scales, but that is over the top.

[lab294]

Wow, thanks I will have to remember the fish en croute...sounds amazing

[lab294]

Thank you to everyone who posted ideas, they are all really helpful! I am still torn between the quiche and frittata. There are so many good ideas I can't decide.

I am leaning towards quiche filling in muffin tins and baked that morning. That way they are fresh, but fast as well, and can probably cook and be ready with the cinnamon rolls.

I will start with the potatoes in the oven, take them out- keep them warm, and pop the rolls and mini quiches in the oven and I think I'll do some bacon on the grill. Thanks for all the help!

[pine time]

Are any of your guests really close friends (i.e., comfortable being seen sans makeup) and early birds (like me)? S/he could be a big help in getting some of the prep out of the way. That is, if you accept help in your kitchen (I don't.)

[lab294]

They are close friends, I am really just trying to avoid any prep in the morning cause like you I don't love help in the kitchen. I think I can handle putting the quiche ingredients together the day before. Give it a whisk in the morning and dump into muffin tins.

Potatoes in the oven for 20 mins (keep warm on the stove), drop the temp, slide the cinnamon rolls and mini quiches in the oven for 20-30, bacon on the grill, dress the salad and eat!

[pikawicca]

"Sans makeup?" This is not something I think about before cooking or helping to cook.

[c oliver]

Nor I.

[pikawicca]

But we're old bats, so what do we know? Any good food in Alaska?

[pine time]

"Sans makeup" came from a houseguest, whose toilette floored me: she refused to come into the kitchen for coffee, much less breakfast, unless she had spent an hour in the bathroom, doing her hair and 19 pounds of makeup. Sheesh, not my style.

[c oliver]

Oh, I've certainly known people like that. Ick.

[lab294]

These are really old friends, I'll be in sweats and my glasses
Thankyouverymuch!!!!!!

[alkapal]

the betty crocker website has several make-ahead brunch dishes that really look good.

[Gloriaa]

I love making new and different recipes when people come over. I really like to surprise them. I have the perfect idea-pasta carbonara frittata from fine cooking. It really looks delicious!

[lab294]

This does sound delicious!!!!

[lab294]

Thanks for all of these ideas- I am so intrigued by something in the crockpot - could be eggs or steel cut oats!

Although they sound great I might stay away from a strata because I have the "bready" cinnamon rolls to go along side.

Might go the quiche route if I think I will have time the night before to make it and cool, and refrigerate, then just reheat with the rolls

Or the frittata...I just really don't want to be at the stove, but the fresh, hot factor here may win out

[jbsiegel]

We do the slow cooker oatmeal all the time - love it!

Here's a good one for pumpkin pie spice oatmeal (but is that too similar to the cinnamon rolls?): http://www.closetcooking.com/2012/11/...

Otherwise, make it plain and set out a "topping bar"?

[Nanzi]

For me it is Quiche as it can be made the day before and heated as needed. Everyone loves the convenience and my caramelized onion, and my cauliflower quiches.

[LaLa]

Breakfast casseroles are so easy ...you can assemble the night before while tiding up the kitchen and the next morning all you have to do is pop it inthe oven. I send a huge one and cheese grits to the fire dept with the husband quite frequently.

[eperdu]

I love muffin cups .. this is one of my favorites. You can modify as you need, it's listed as paleo but I made it non-paleo with no problems. I used heavy cream instead of coconut milk and I used regular flour instead of coconut flour. Or I may have skipped the flour entirely. Hah!

http://nomnompaleo.com/post/748681947...

The reason these are great is because they don't require a lot of work, you can make them ahead of time and reheat in the oven. They also taste fantastic with the cup made of prosciutto. It's a little fancier than bacon & eggs.

[Berheenia]

The new order of posts is making me nuts so this may have been discussed in previous threads ad nauseum but I am the strata queen. Once I mastered a strata that wasn't dried out and boring I have never looked back. My favorite starter is from CI - here is the link...
http://www.bakerbites.com/breakfast-s...

[alkapal]

i was going to say the same thing -- a breakfast strata!

i like the ones with bulk sausage. the neat thing is that you can put whatever you like in it!

i'd also offer some good oatmeal, with add-ins of your guest's choice. my ideal personal oatmeal combo has raisins, a little butter, some cinnamon, honey, & half and half. i can do without everything else but the basic oatmeal, honey and raisins or some dried fruit.

[cleopatra999]

I too go to stratas all the time, I like sausage, peppers and mushrooms with a tomato compote on the side. All can be made ahead of time. Throw a fruit salad on the side and done!! or some grilled asparagus with hollandaise (takes a little more time in AM though)

[jbsiegel]

Our favorite - Bagel, Lox and Egg Strata. Here's the recipe: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/seafood/bag...

I usually do 9 eggs, instead of 8, double the amount of lox and use the jack cheese instead of the Swiss. LOVE it!

[alkapal]

i like the idea of that strata. have you ever used cream cheese, capers and minced red onion?

[jbsiegel]

I serve it with capers, minced onion and sour cream. People can add those as toppings. We think alike!! :-)

[hankstramm]

My friend does an amazing egg Strata with asparagus in her crockpot. I have no idea on the recipe, but I bet if you google it you'll find it.

[pikawicca]

If you're going the quiche route, make the crust, fit into pan, cover and refrigerate overnight. Make the filling, cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, pour filling into crust and bake. (Personally, I'd make a couple of breakfast casseroles- one meat, one veg, and also have fruit/granola/ yogurt available for folks who want something lighter.)

[lab294]

Quick question- The recipes for quiches (at least in a tarte pan) seem to have pre-baked crusts can I put both an uncooked crust and uncooked filling in at the same time?

[pikawicca]

I'd just pre-bake the night before, being sure that the crust was completely cooled before covering and refrigerating.

[antimony]

I always do that, myself -- put it in unbaked, I mean. The only quiche crust I blind bake is when I do a shredded potato crust (recipe: basically, make a giant latke in a pie tin).

Though I really like quiches and stratas at room temperature, too, so I'd probably just make the whole thing the night before and take it out long enough before breakfast that it takes the fridge chill off.

[lab294]

Wow, thank you all so much for the help! I think I might go the frittata route, but make it in a Lorraine style and since I do think I will need 2 pans worth I can have some fun and make 2 flavors. I think I will use the cooking directions from the asparagus frittata in the Chow email I got today, unless anyone has any fool proof frittata making tips!

Thanks for the Trader Joe's croissant tip as well- if I didn't have the cinnamon rolls I would be all over those- so good to know!

[pine time]

I've pre-prepared quiches a dozen times, then froze, then just defrosted & completed the baking in the a.m. Guests have been happy and full!

[lab294]

Pine- can you elaborate on the directions for this?

[c oliver]

Here's one I've done. And I agree that crustless works better when preparing ahead.

http://challengedairy.com/recipes/bre...

[lab294]

Thanks! Would I undercook it a bit, let it cool, freeze then reheat in the oven - this recipe states 350, do you think I could do it at 375 so it can go in with the rolls?

[c oliver]

I can't remember if I undercooked but that sounds fine. And I'd think 375 would work esp. if the quiche is still a bit on the cool side. Or split the difference. And, of course, the filling can be whatever you want. I've used sausage and kale/arugula also.

[lab294]

Thanks so much!

[pine time]

I've done it 2 ways: unbaked, then froze, then later just popped in the oven, still frozen. Worked fine.

However, I prefer to bake (slightly under, as you wrote), cool, freeze. Then thaw and pop in the oven. Not sure if you can shove it in the oven still frozen--have never tried that.

Good luck!

[Querencia]

I have found that x number of people can't face heavy food in the morning so when I ask them to stay I ask them what they would like in the morning. Yogurt and fruit are popular. Also, if you have a Trader Joe's handy, their frozen croissants are ace because before you got to bed just set them up on a cookie sheet, little frozen lumps of dough, and overnight they thaw and rise big and huge---20 minutes in the oven and you're done. And I agree with the strata aka overnight casserole aka breakfast casserole people.You can put anything in it you want (sausage, ham, green peppers, mushrooms, cheese). Since you set it up the night before it causes zero labor on the day.

[masha]

I concur in the recommendation for a strata. There are a number of recipes for them in this link, http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/579172, which relates to various CH'ers plans for Christmas breakfast (also frittata recipes and other savory, as well as sweet, breakfast ideas).

[betsydiver]

I say another yes to the strata idea...everyone loves them and they are super easy!

[c oliver]

Here's a picture of one:

http://www.examiner.com/article/bacon...

[monavano]

With 10 servings to consider, you'll probably need to use 2 pans for fritattas, which is only a deal breaker if you don't have space to finish in the oven.
Other considerations are a strata, which can be totally assembled the night before, and an egg casserole, which can cook for a while as you do other stuff.
I like the portioned presentation as seen in my pic below:

[c oliver]

If you google overnight breakfast casserole or strata, you'll get loads of things like the following:

http://www.food.com/recipe/overnight-...

I hadn't made one of these in some years til our grown kids and their babies were visiting recently. A hit and could not have been easier.

[HoosierFoodie]

Overnight breakfast casserole is our go-to when we have over-night guests. Pop it in the oven when you wake up and you're done!

[foodieX2]

Baked ham and eggs cups are easy and could be popped in the oven when the cinnamon rolls comes out or cooked along with them.

Line muffin tins with black forest ham, crack an egg into each cup, sprinkle with parmesan and back until the white are barely set and the yolks are still runny. You can also add a layer of sautéed spinach or caramelized onions.

If you do make a quiche and plan to freezer i would suggest a crustless one to avoid the sogginess issue. It can go right into frozen.

I also think bacardis idea of frittatas is excellent.

[Heatherb]

Fritattas are so easy! I love doing them. And quick to prepare.

I made one recently with peppers I roasted myself, chopped and sauteed spinach and mushrooms and goat cheese and bacon bits. It was lovely. Also, you can do them in large muffin tins for individual servings.

[Bacardi1]

I like Fritattas, & you can start it on your stovetop while the rolls are baking, then finish it in your oven while the rolls are cooling.

Just cook any Fritatta ingredents that need cooking ahead of time, & just add them to the beaten eggs the morning of. Couldn't be simpler, & will be so much fresher than an egg dish made the day before & reheated.

[Bacardi1]

Another plus for fritattas is that the vast majority of them are just as tasty at room temp as they are piping hot.

For me, an omelet has to be hot from the pan, not insipid. But fritattas just seem much more agreeable temp-wise.