breakfast blogger

Here’s a nice spot on Preston that I had been driving by for a while and decided to check out. It was pretty quiet inside and Exploding Girl and I got a nice table in a nook next to the window. She had the regular while I had the eggs benedict. Yummy.

I made sure I had toast in case I had to do some mopping up ;)

A great way to start my Saturday..

I woke up feeling a bit sluggish this morning and decided to try something a little different from my regular breakfast. I bought some berries, granola and no fat yogurt, put them together and voila!

Sir Inland of Shipwreck a.k.a. Will, planted a bug in my mind the other day. He was telling me all about having an omelette for breakfast. I quickly realized that it has been a long time since I have prepared an omelette in my kitchen. I realized even faster that if I did prepare an omelette, I would have some new blog material for breakfast blogger!!! YIPPIE!!
So here I go. My blog on the making on an omelette.

Step 1
Preheat your oven to broil.
Grab a couple eggs, cheese, pan lube of your choice and tools of omelette construction. If you are like me, you need a mixer. I’m kinda lazy. I’m not really into beating egg whites by hand. I could be doing other things, like watching the butter in my pan melt, or chasing my cat around the kitchen with chopsticks.

Step 2.
Separate the white into the mixer and the yolk into another bowl. Be sure to pick the big white chunk of under developed chick embryo umbilical cord off your yolk. Eeeeeww. I hate that bit.

Step 3.
Beat the living *&$% out of your egg whites. Give your yolks a good whoppin’ too. Feel free to add your seasonings to your yolks while you are massacring them. They like that. Then, when your whites are nice and fluffy and stiff, fold in your yolks gently, very gently, they have been through a lot, be nice. You can throw in some over junk too if you like. Things like shredded ham, peppers or herbs are nice, but I was lacking in appropriate fillings today. I had some wieners in the fridge, but somehow, I can’t see that working so well.

Step 4.
Pour your still fluffy puffy eggs onto a preheated frying pan, greased with your lube of choice. Let them cook there for a little while, but just until the sides are starting to look like they are dry and the bottom is browning.

Step 5.
Add cheese. LOTS of cheese. Man do I love cheese!! WOOOO! Then stick it under your broiler till cheese is all gooey. Mmmmmm cheese.

Step 6.
Cut yourself off a slab of your fluffy puffy omelette and enjoy with the usual breakkie sides.
My sides of choice today consist of: Bacon (cause you can never have too much bacon!), a banana muffin with some butter (which went oddly well with the bacon), some strawberry yogurt with banana in it and a glass of apple juice. Yum. Well balanced and nutritious. Oh.. and some Frank’s hot sauce on the omelette. Life is just better with a little Frank’s.

I did learn a few things this morning tho and I’d like to share with you.

First of all, I’m a poor judge of cheese. I used a little too much and my fluffy puffy omelette went PPBBTT. The cheese was a little heavy. It was still pretty awesome, just not as fluffy and puffy as it usually is.

Secondly, I need some new place mats. I’m getting bored with these one.

Thirdly, I should stop bothering to put a knife out. I never use it… I just use the side of my fork. I only really put it out for B.B. pics and that’s just silly.
But then again, I’m a silly gal.

And last but not least, I need to clean my oven. The light burnt out a long time ago and I didn’t realize how dirty it looked until I looked at the pic. The flash really lit up the crusty burnt goodness inside. MMmmmMMm

MONEY SHOT!!

Burp.

Ottawa got hit by a pretty big snowstorm this morning but it didn’t stop me from heading out to Dunn’s Famous Deli on Elgin Street. It was a spectacular storm and I took a few pictures that can be seen here. I had a few close calls on the way there but as you may have well figured out by now, I was dedicated and on a mission to get breakfast despite the weather and whatever else fate might throw at me. Once safely inside Dunn’s, I had the Big Breakfast with homefries, salami and a poppy seed bagel. Their bagels come from Kettleman’s Bakery here in Ottawa and they are very, very good. And even though the menu says the Big Breakfast comes with two eggs, I was delighted to find three on my plate.

Now you see it

Now you don’t ;)

Nothing satisfies a morning of shopping quite like a late breakfast. With myself, my mother and little Nabob in tow, we headed for De Dutch Pannekoek House. Of course I am rather biased of this Netherlandish eatery being of freak deaky Dutch decent myself, and favour eating there. It was also voted “Best Breakfast in Kelowna” for several years running and is legendary for it’s pannekoek.
I love the atmosphere there. It’s so clean and bright and comical. There are tacky little euro toys and gifts and everything has a play on the whole “De Dutch” theme. Most of the menu items begin with “De.” For example: De eggs and De bacon. Even the sugar packets were custom.

Even the cutlery was De Dutched.

For those who don’t know what a pannekoek is, it’s a Dutch pancake of sorts, kind of like a crepe, but thicker. It is generally the size of a dinner plate and is served with a variety of toppings both sweet and savoury. I thought I would jump outside the box and do something a bit different. I went with De Windmill pannekoek.
It sounded pretty good when I read it. Fresh pannekoek topped with BC smoked salmon and imported edam cheese served with hollandaise sauce. MMmmMm yummy.
This is what I got…..

Perhaps my expectations were a little high. I was expecting more of a presentation I think. Maybe something with nice little bits of salmon, sprinkled in shredded cheese and melted all over. Or perhaps with the hollandaise sauce underneath all the fishy and cheesy goodness.
It really hurts me to say it, but I was disappointed. I couldn’t have it all in one bite. It was either salmon, or cheese. All I really wanted was to have both, mingling together in harmony on the end of my fork. Rejoicing as their flavours blended together with perfect balance. *sigh*.
But no.. it was just fish…cheese…fish…cheese. I didn’t feel that the hollandaise worked very well either. It was too rich and hid the flavours of the smoked salmon too much. I opted to leave it off. I did my best to eat what I could, but the disappointment got the better of me and I just couldn’t get to that infamous money shot.

Nabob, on the other hand, totally scored! He got the apple cinnamon kids pannekoek. Hot damn it looked yummers!!
Nice big chunks of apples, cinnamon all over and a big pile of real whipped cream. MMmmMMmm…

Somehow he managed to make it all disappear too! I don’t really know how a 10 month old could eat that much food when I wasn’t looking. It is just a mystery. I guess we will never know.
BURP.
hehehe

You just have to love a layered latte in the morning ;)

Check out the new 730 calorie Burger King breakfast.

Here are some nice looking breakfast nooks.

Check out how employees at Google eat breakfast.

Here’s an interesting wiki on breakfast cereal.

I made latkes on New Year’s Day, which was also the last day of Hannukah - at a Hannukah party hosted by my girlfriend’s mother in Toronto.

I learned to make latkes from my mother, and we both use the recipe from Second Helpings (B’nai Brith Women Montreal, 1977 - edited by Norene Gilletz). Almost all latke recipes are the same, and here is what I used:

6-8 potatoes (Yukon Gold is best)
2 onions
3 eggs
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt and some pepper
1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
oil for frying

Peel the potatoes into a big bowl of cold water, to avoid them turning brown.

Grate the potatoes: This should be done by hand, but can easily be done in a food processor. The important factor is the consistency. If grating by hand, I use both the big and small sides of a box grater until I achieve a smooth consistency - but not too smooth. If using a food processor, grate all the potatoes first with the grater blade, and then use the regular blade to puree a few handfuls and mix it back in until it looks right. Now grate the onion.

Put the grated potatoes into a clean tea-towel (or cheesecloth) and wring it out until most of the water is gone. Then mix in everything else.

Set the stovetop to medium and heat up some oil in a frying pan -I usually use 2 or 3 pans simultaneously, depending on how many latkes I am making - this time I used 2. Shape some of the mixture (about 1 tbsp or a small handful) into a ball and carefully place into the pan and flatten using a spatula. Repeat until the pan is full - usually five or six latkes at a time. Let them fry until the undersides are done and then flip to do the other side.

Put a baking sheet in the oven on the lowest setting (warm). As each latkes is ready, place it onto a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the extra fat and then place the latke in the oven to keep warm.
Keep doing this until all the mixture has been used.

I made about 50 latkes.

Here is what one plate of latkes looked like:

We served them with apple sauce and sour cream.

There was also a beautiful cheese plate:

Clockwise from top: Stilton, old cheddar, a really nice soft French cheese?, Chevre Noir, aged Gouda.

There was also some cakes and a nice array of sweets:

Brownies, Rugelach, chocolate chip toffee squares, etc.

My latkes, and the party, were a success.
I hope your latkes go over just as well.

I finally finished digesting all the holiday food I’ve eaten over the last 2 weeks, and now have this to report:

I was in Toronto for New Year’s eve and had a lovely Hannukah brunch at the home of my new ladyfriend’s sister, along with her husband, very cute son, her father and his wife.
They served us one of the more imaginative Benedicts that I have ever eaten:

Here are two poached eggs with lox served on latkes, topped with a hollandaise.

I almost forgot to mention the raw cranberry slices - nice touch!

Here is a better view of the whole table, which included several cheeses, nuts, a lox platter, more bread, danish, and a fantastic fruit plate sprinkled with pomegranite seeds - a perfect holiday touch!

. . . and of course, the money shot:

My latke recipe (with tutorial) will be posted here very soon…

This morning was slow and lazy and I wasn’t in the mood to try anything new so I went to one of my favourite breakfast joints in Ottawa, The Royal Oak on Wellington. I had the good ‘ol banger and eggs. The potatoes at the Royal Oak are some of the best around.. super yummy.

When I was back in school, I’d always bring my work to the Oak on weekends and study my butt off while waiting for my yummies. The staff there are always great and they’ve got newspapers for those who don’t happen to be studying. When in doubt as to where to take my visiting friends for breakfast.. I take ‘em to the Oak.

I was in a bit of a hurry this morning and needed a quick breakfast to go. A recommendation by Miss Vicky had me head out to the Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli. It wasn’t the first time I heard of this place.. my good friend Exploding Girl had also suggested I check it out and I was pleasantly surprised. It was definitely not what I was expecting. I’m a bit of a bagel snob since I used to live in Mile End in Montreal (home to both St. Viateur Bagel and Fairmount Bagel), and I have to say that these guys make a pretty frikken good bagel. Like the above mentioned places, the Bagelshop has a wood fired oven right in the store in open view. They also have a many items for sale and a full blown deli with a coffee bar. I only had what you see below (picture taken in my car at a red light), so a second visit is in order to really get to know this place.