breakfast blogger

I woke up before my young one this morning for a change. I enjoyed a nice leisurely stretch and a thorough butt scratching as I wandered my quiet house. I thought to myself, “self, it seems rather bright in here this morning, we should open the windows and see why..” Good idea self.

I rather awkwardly headed across the living room to the pull chain thingy on the blinds, tripping over a few toys and banging my shin on the table along the way. Off to a good start this morning aren’t we Az. Your grace never ceases to amaze me.

I pulled the chain and was blinded by retina burning white light. Crap. It snowed. I hate snow. With every fibre of my being, I hate snow. It’s wet, and slippery, and cold, and gets in my shoes and makes my hair frizzy. Evil stuff it is.

After a few unrepeatable words and some more scratching, I came to the conclusion that I was in need of more than my usual eggs for breakfast this morning. I needed the kind of consoling that can only come from a comfort food from my youth. Time to pull out the big guns. Its time for Cream of Wheat.

Cream of Wheat was one of my all time favorite breakfast foods from my youth. So warm and filling and delicious. So many ways to top it, so many flavours to add. Nothing could make me happier this morning than a nice hot bowl of it in my tummy.

I got my ingredients together in my pot and set it to boil on the stove while I went for the box of Cream of Wheat in the cupboard. *Shake Shake* uh oh….. the box was nearly empty. The panic set in. Thankfully there was exactly enough left to make myself a pot of the yummy breakfast mush. For a moment I thought I was going to be having some Cream of Wheat/oatmeal for breakfast, which, now that I think of it, just might be an interesting idea.

Now I’m quite particular about how my C.o.W is prepared. It has to be thick. None of this runny sloppy, viscous nonsense. I want to be able to cut the stuff if I wanted to. It’s the kind of meal that sticks with you all day.

As a child I used to like it with a bit of butter and sprinkled with sugar, but as I grew up, my tastes changed. I have grown to prefer butter and some fruit preserves or jam of sorts. But considering the way the weather personally insulted me this morning by snowing, I decided I needed something else to combat my disgust. That something else was a handful of chocolate chips.

Two parts insanity, one part genius and one part breakfast blogger decided that chocolate chips were the perfect accompaniment with the usual strawberry jam and butter. There is no wrong way to combine strawberries and chocolate, and this was no exception.

The chips got all nice and gooey on the warm, solidified C.o.W and mixed beautifully with the warmed strawberry jam. I was in heaven. Chocolate should be incorporated with every meal: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I decided it was a good idea to balance out my sweet breakfast with some apple juice and an orange. I could use some extra vitamin C to get me through cold and flu season. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but after taking a big bite of an orange wedge and almost having my mouth sucked into the back of my head in an unexpected burst of sour, I realized I should have thought it out a little more.

The intense sweetness of my C.o.W concoction made the slightly sour, acidic orange seem unbearably sour and caused my face to contort in ways only appropriate for a circus side show.

I ended up leaving the oranges for last to spare my son the horror of seeing me in such a state. But despite the shock to my taste buds, it was just what I needed to fight off the winter blahs.
Bon appetite

Are you a fan of soft boiled eggs? A crafty electronics engineer from the UK has come up with an interesting little device that cuts perferations into your bread before you toast it. After five prototypes, Mike Minton invented the perfect toast soldier cutter for dunking into your soft boiled egg. I’m a huge fan of dipping my toast into yolk.. mmMMmm.. The whole story can be found here.

Link originally found on B3ta.com.

Here’s an old entry from my regular blog from back in April:

i was up ’till 5 this morning drinking BOOZIES. they’re kinda like SMOOTHIES except with vodka. those suckers go down real nice so needless to say i was more than a little sore this morning. i managed to crawl out of bed and into my computer chair and typed “hangover breakfast ottawa” into google and after a few clicks i found a small review for this place:

i had the eggs benny. mmMmmmMMmmm yummy.

gen had the breakfast club.. mMMmmmM yummy.

exploding girl had the french toast.. mmMMMmmmMM yummy.

i’m feeling much better now.

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I then blogged about their new second location on October 10th:

i blogged about having breakfast at a restaurant called stoneface dollys a while back but since then they’ve opened a second restaurant on preston street in ottawa and i finally got a chance to check it out this morning. i had a regular breakfast with farmer’s sausage and pea meal bacon..

mmmmmm yummy..

gen had the eggs natasha.. it’s like eggs benedict but with smoked salmon.. she said it was a “fucking good breakfast”

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And here’s an entry from Miss Vicky’s blog about Stoneface Dollys, two places I will definatly visit again.

My buddy Chris took me to the Moondog on Laurier East for breakfast last sunday. He has an eggs benedict fetish:

I had the eggs with peameal bacon (with sausage in the background):

It was just what the doctor ordered for a late sunday morning.

Here’s a nice place on Wellington street:

I had the big breakfast with three different kinds of pig ;)

Grace had the banana pancakes:

Very yummy indeed.

I am in Amsterdam working my ass off, and haven’t had anything you could call breakfast since the weird box-breakfast (which I will post once I find an internet place that allows USB/PC sex) that KLM gave me on the way here.
I cannot wait until next week -Turkey - I will have some long, leisurely, memorable breakfast over there.

Until then. . .

I was out doing some groceries this evening and while going down the cereal aisle I noticed all these characters on the boxes. I had my camera on me and took some pics. So here I thought I’d do a little round up of some of the breakfast cereal mascots out there..

Here we have Sugar Bear.. I swear, does this guy look totally baked or what?? Smoke another one Sugar Bear..

Ah Tony the Tiger.. Probably the most recognizable breakfast cereal mascot in the world. He’s grrrrrrrrrrrrreat.

The Nesquick Rabbit.. not sure if he has a name or not, but he’s pretty crazy. He’s got direct competition with the Trix rabbit. Unfortunatly they didn’t have Trix at the store I was at.

Does anyone remember that Eddie Murphy stand-up piece about his family members being named after breakfast cereals? I remember something about his gay brother named Special K and his prostitute sister named Trix.

Yarrr, he should have been a pirate.

And here we have Toucan Sam.. follow your nose. It always knows. I like how they spell the name of this cereal.. Froot Loops. Not a hint of fruit in here kids.

Snap, Crackle and Pop are probably as well known as Tony the Tiger. And who doesn’t love Rice Krispie squares? There’s a variation of Rice Krispie squares I’ve tried with a different cereal with trail mix in it. Super yummy, but not breakfast related, so let’s move on..

Here we have Lucky.. “They’re always after ‘me Lucky Charms.” Hearts, moons, stars, clovers, horseshoes, pots of gold, rainbows and red baloons. Along with those marshmellow shapes, we have a cereal fortified with 12 vitamins and minerals. “It’s magically delicious!”

And of course we can’t forget the Cheerios Honey Bee. Notice the text.. don’t forget I live in Quebec ;)

Here’s an old breakfast cereal character guide here if you’re interested. And here is The Empty Bowl, a webzine devoted to serving the cereal eating community.

Myself, I love Special K and good old Corn Flakes. I’ve never been a fan of sweet cereals.. but they are the ones who seem to get all the mascots. I’d like to see mascots for the more adult cereals someday. How about Captain Colon for Bran Flakes?

May I present to you, The Hangover Breakfast:

Eggs, beans, sausage, poutine and toast. Oh my. This one is not for the weak..

This place is a breakfast lover’s dream come true. 24 hour breakfast.. and they are oh so yummy.

One of the staples in our home has always been the egg sandwich. It has taken many forms and reflected personal preferences, but the basic concept is always the same: Bread of choice, egg, cheese, and bacon if the mood strikes. This is how I like to prepare mine:

Toast 1 (or 2) english muffins, butter if you feel the need.

Add one slice of Kraft singles processed cheese food. Normally I don’t enjoy these weak excuses for cheese products, but on a McAzwich, it just seems to work. Don’t question it, just go with it.

Fold up corners of processed cheese food slice to keep things neat. Too many times have I had those corners melt off and end up down my shirt. I’m just sparing you the humility of picking cheese outta your cleavage.. well those of you with cleavage anyway.

Add one over easy or over medium egg on top of processed cheese food slice. Salt and Pepper to taste. I recommend a little hot sauce for interest.

If you feel your arteries are a little too free flowing, add a few strips of bacon. Mmmmm bacon.

Then cap with other half of english muffin and be sure to smoosh it. Smooshing makes every sandwich better. Enjoy!

            BURP..

Yes… Along with my toast, golden crisp McCain hashbrown patty, Omega 3 eggs over medium with some Franks Red Hot Sauce and my fresh from concentrate orange juice, I had a piece of apple pie.

I thought the rich flaky pastry and semi sweet apple filling was a nice compliment to the heat from the hot sauce on my eggs. I also felt the cold pie lead a nice contrast to the standard warm breakfast. Over all it was a successful and delicious morning treat.

It was no chocolate cake cereal, (to which I am repulsed yet strangely curious about), but it was fantastic none the less.

MMmmmmmMMMmmmmm Pie!

*burp*