breakfast blogger

My top two wisdom teeth got extracted on Monday so I’ve been confined to a mostly soft/liquid diet for a little while now.

It’s given me a chance to whip up some smoothies using my favourite juice in the world!

Pure pomegranate juice is just too damn expensive. I’ve found this great alternative by President’s Choice that has a blend of apple, pomegranate, blueberry and concord grape.

That be some very very tasty juice indeed.

So I gathered some strawberries, raspberries, an organic banana, ice, fat free yogurt, juice and some pure vanilla extract and threw them into mr. blender.

I discovered that my blender’s reservoir has a tiny crack in the base and leaks all over the place– looks like I’ll be on the market for a new blender soon if I can’t find another reservoir =P

I present to you, a breakfast smoothie in a Guinness glass:

Yum :)

We made some soft-boiled eggs a while back . . . I had almost forgotten how good they can be.

I don’t think I had my first soft-boiled egg until I was well into my twenties, but it was definitely worth the wait. I grew up in a traditonal Jewish Montreal home with some finicky parents, who were not boring, but they were set in their ways. Even though we had no soft-boiled eggs, no poached eggs, or even any real omelets, we had some great scrambles - salami and eggs being my all-time childhood favourite. I am now glad my parents were such finicky eaters, because it has left me such a wide range of foods to discover in my adulthood.

We get our eggs from a farm just outside of Montreal, as I try not to buy industrially produced eggs anymore: Chickens are animals - not machines. When I am out of eggs before farm day, I will go to the Jean-Talon market and buy eggs from an old guy who says he has “organic” eggs which are not certified - I haven’t yet fully investigated his claims, but I plan to. If I am too lazy to go al the way to the market, I often pick up some Burnbrae Farms “Free run” eggs at our neighbourhod grocery store.

Whenever I make soft-boiled eggs, I always use my ‘egg timer’, which I never really trust. It’s a fiberglass dome, shaped like half-an-egg, and you are supposed put it into the water when it is still cold and then start cooking your eggs. When the red color fades to the desired level of doneness, you take the eggs out. I don’t normally use these types of gadgets, but this one was a gift, so I use it, with a certain amount of distrust.

I always take my eggs out of the refrigerator as far in advance as possible, which is usually once we have decided that we want soft-boiled eggs. This is hopefully about 30 minutes before cooking, as I don’t want to shock the eggs and have them crack in the hot water. I fill a pot with water, add the eggs and the egg-timer, and then put it on the stove set to “high”.

Once a boil has been reached, I immediately turn down the heat to medium-high to keep the boil as gentle as possible, and wait about 3 minutes. In my opinion, the size, quality, and age of the eggs are all factors which may affect the cooking time. How can this little plastic dome know anything about my eggs? It can’t!

This said, I usually cook my eggs about 3 minutes. I have a 75% success rate, but I am satisfied with my margin of error because I am usually cooking for my lady and myself, and I will gladly eat any undercooked eggs while my lady will happily eat any overcooked ones. This is one of the reaosn I love her.

The best part about soft-boiled eggs is this little egg circumsizer I got as a Christmas gift a few years back, from the same people who gave me the egg-timer. I found this a funny gift seeing as I am Jewish and I got an egg-moyle to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus.

We enjoyed these with kamut toast points and some hunks of cheese.

Yummy.

There has been a tradition developing over the last few weeks in my home; Saturday morning breaky in bed.

There is nothing more satisfying than waking up late Saturday morning, lovingly nudging the sweet generous man in my life out of bed and sending him on a pastry and coffee run. While he is out, I usually slip into the kitchen, fetch the bed tray and get out the standard pastry accompaniments: cheeses, raspberry jam, apple butter (lovingly sent to me by my bestest best breakfast blogger buddy, Peabody. I LOVE YOU MAN! *sniff*), ham, fresh fruit of some kind (this time a tangelo) and this weeks guilty little pleasure, a locally made chocolate-fruit spread stuff. Its made here in the Okanagan and is frighteningly simple and wicked delish! All it has in it is cocoa, sugar, mango, pineapple and papaya. SINFUL!

After getting our breakfast tray all organized, I thought it would be fun to really put on the dog, so off I skipped to the china cabinet and fetched a couple champagne flutes. We just happened to have a bottle of sparkling wine chilling in the fridge and everyone knows that breaky isn’t breaky without the champagne and O.J.

Before long, my pastry knight had returned to me with a large mess of freshly baked croissants and my other guilty Saturday morning pleasure, my carmal machiatto from the Bucks. We piled our warm flaky goodies high on our tray and joyously headed back to bed for a lazy morning of noshing and watching football. And by football I mean the English version of it, more commonly know as soccer ’round these parts.

CITY TILL I DIE!!!

Well without further adieu, my Saturday morning breakfast in all it’s glory.

It’s beautiful isn’t it? Even the kitty couldn’t stay away from the breakfasty glory. It’s like a black hole, drawing in all who is near into its buttery flaky vortex of doom.

After crawling back between the fluffy fleece sheets comes the hard part. Deciding what to stuff my flaky little friends with first. My personal fave, a flavour instilled upon me one beautiful day picnicking in a park in Ottawa with none other than Peabody: mozzarella and apple butter. Oh the rapture!! Then off to raspberry jam and cheese.

After that, some standard but ever so delicious ham and brie cheese then ending on a sweet note with some croissant smothered in a generous layer of chocolate fruit spread. It didn’t take long for the plate to be decimated.

*shiver* After a feed like that and the bubbly O.J. I was ready for a mid morning nap. Can you really blame me? All I really have to say to all you breakfast fans out there is: Take some time out of your busy weeks and spoil yourself once and a while. Lounge in bed till late, eat the things you aren’t supposed to in surplus and just enjoy everything breakfast has to offer. Life is too short to deny yourself some guilty pleasures once in a while. Indulge indulge indulge!

*burp*

*yawn streeeeetch growl* The unofficial blogger hiatus I’ve been on has to stop. There is too many beautiful breakfasts out there that need to be shared, like this little gem, The Elite in downtown Penticton.

It was the signage out from that caught my eye the first time I went in there. Breakfast all day. That morning, that was all that mattered. We wanted to eat and eat now. The place looks like it’s been there forever and the 75th anniversary sign in the window confirmed it loud and clear. After walking in and drinking the decore for a few moments, I could have sworn I saw Archie Bunker sitting at the horseshoe shaped counter reading his newspaper and having a coffee. In the 75 years since it’s been there, I don’t think they redecorated more than once, back in 50s. There are old 45s decorating the gold walls, a cabinet of old classic coke memorabilia and a warm old stool diner feeling. Its glorious. Peabody would love it.

The menu was just a nice plain classic menu with all the breakfast standards for the early 1950s.

Of course I was having some camera issues and wasn’t able to get a nice shot of the inside of the menu, so you will just have to picture a large page of various combinations of eggs, breakfast porks, toast, hashbrowns, pancakes and waffles. I went for the choice that included most of the above.

The combination of the relaxed and efficient service and a nice hot, uber filling breaky has made this my fave spot in town to go for a breakfast feed.

*burp*

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of eating aebleskiver, you know what I’m talking about when I say how incredibly delicious they are, and how versatile they can be.

First off “aebleskiver” is Danish for “apple slices”. There is a lot of speculation as to whether or not the first aebleskiver actually had pieces of apple in it. Personally, I think the name probably derives from the Danish delicacy’s resemblance to the apple itself… But I’m not Danish, and I definately am no expert on the matter.

I am, however, a big fan of the aebleskiver.

What are they?

A long story short would describe them as Pancake balls. Spherical Pancakes.

The recipe I use to make my aebleskiver I got from one of my childhood friend’s parents. They’re of Danish origin, so I like to pretend this recipe came over with them when they came to America.

I’ve also looked up plenty of recipes to compare it to, and its basically the same recipe all around. There are plenty of deviations, the most popular one being scrapping the entire “from scratch” batter and using plain old Krusteaz pancake mix, only using less water, adding a few tablespoons of sugar, and calling it good.

Personally, I enjoy a good homemade batch of any sort of breakfast food, so this morning I got down to business and created a beautiful batch of aebleskiver using this recipe-

-Ingredients-

2 egg whites
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups buttermilk

You will also need-

-Either liquid canola oil or an aerosol spray canola oil- like Pam
-A monks pan (a specialized aebleskiver pan) THIS IS REQUIRED. See here for more info.
-wooden skewer or knitting needle

Directions

Beat the egg whites stiff. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, melted butter and buttermilk and beat until smooth. Gently fold in the egg whites last.

Spray the bottom of each æbleskiver pan cup with a small amount of oil and heat until it sizzles. Fill each of the pan cups about half full with the batter. As soon as they get bubbly around the edge, turn them quickly by poking the wooden skewer into the edge of the batter and turning it up, allowing the uncooked batter to flow down into the cup. Alternatively, you can turn them halfway first, so that the baked crusts protruding from the pan will look like the Sydney Opera House. And after a while you turn them the remaining 90 degrees. This will give them a perfect ball-shape (this is how I do it) Continue cooking, turning the ball to keep it from burning. Spray each pan cup with oil before refilling with the batter.

It sounds difficult. The first couple tries it WILL be difficult, but sooner than later you will be an aebleskiver pro. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, invite all your friends over, whip up a batch and watch the ooh’s and ahh’s come out as you present them with pancakes straight out of an episode of the Jetsons.

Traditionally, they’re served with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and some preserves-

I like mine with Strawberry jam, but Raspberry is just as good.

Just break the ball in half-

And spread some jam around in there-

Pop it in your mouth, and enjoy!

They can also be eaten the same way as you would pancakes, and they’re just as tasty, only a little sweeter.

The other cool thing about Aebleskiver, besides being a totally awesome way to impress your friends (the novelty of spherical pancakes NEVER wears off, trust me) is that they’re portable, and they keep really well as leftovers. Keep them in the fridge and just put them in the micro to reheat them for a few seconds and enjoy them up to a week later.

So go out and get yourself a monks pan and give it a try.
Seriously. It’s so worth it.

-Muffin

Big news! We have a new breakfast blogger joining us.. her name is Muffin and she’s down with what we’re up to around here. She’s from the pacific northwest and takes some of the most beautiful food pics I’ve ever seen. Here’s a little profile she’s provided:

Hi, I’m Muffin.

I like to take photos of food, but even more so, I like to eat it.

I think everything I eat should look as good as it tastes, and taste as good as it looks. This is probably why I don’t eat at restaurants as often as some. Or, it could be because I’m very picky about what goes in and on my breakfast.

I’m known as the lady who brings her own syrup and I’ll refuse to pay for soggy bacon.

To save myself from the pain of questionable breakfast foods, I usually make my own breakfast at home. It’s more fun anyways, and I can eat my breakfast in my pajamas.

Outside of the food world, I’m a creative soul who passes the time photographing everything and anything that passes in front of my camera, painting the more interesting aspects of life and traveling from place to place learning what I can from everything I come in contact with. I reside in the Pacific Northwest, sandwiched between Seattle Washington and Portland Oregon.

Here’s her Live Journal and her recipe blog. I think we’re in for a treat ^_^.. stay tuned!

Sometimes the life of a breakfast blogger isn’t an easy one. I trucked my butt up to where the new Bramasole Diner is on Saturday only to find out it wasn’t open yet. I tried Rockin Johnny’s Diner and was all ready to order only to find out I was too late for breakfast. :( I left, with my head bowed in shame.

I was ready to give up when The Diner on Wellington corner Western in Westboro caught my eye. It’s a family friendly (I counted at least 8 babies while I was there) modern diner with a great staff. I got myself the Eggs Benedict:

mmmMMmm t’was yummy. Turns out this joint is owned by the same kids as the Elgin Street Diner, another place of great interest to this breakfast blogger. $15.93 with coffee and a side of toast.. it also came with a super friendly server ;)

I took a little drive to Ottawa today and went by a spot that I’ve had my eye on. I can’t wait, they’re opening up a second diner:

1465 Merivale, behind the Shoppers Drug Mart.. Thanks to John for the tip.

The question is, WHEN??

**UPDATE** It is open now– I’ll have to check it out one of these days! ^_^

My Very Special Ladyfriend and I are on DAY 5 of a ten day cleanse where we will not eat any solid food. You can read more about it here. Two days before this questionable experiment began, we attended a lovely housewarming pancake breakfast at our friend Kate’s new pad.

I don’t like parties, especially loud ones where the guests outnumber the chairs. If I’m invited to a party that involves food, I always make my way to the kitchen to help out, thus avoiding long stretches of social contact with other humans. Especially ones who don’t obsess over food.

Kate and I got straight to work making batter - we had two types: buttermilk and buckwheat blueberry. Naturally, we used organic eggs and the best ingredients we could find. I ran three pans on Kate’s antique stove while she and some other friends prepared the toppings table. We had a great array of fresh fruits and other goodies, including maple syrup, honey, jam, ground almonds, yogurt, hazelnut spread, chestnut spread (my favourite), butter, etc . . .

We kept a couple of warming trays in the oven until we had a decent batch going and then we served ‘em up!

Here are some shots of people plates:

After sitting in the living room digesting all those pancakes, I thought I would stroll over to the kitchen and get a great money shot. I envisioned stacks of syrup-laden empty plates piling up near the sink, but was saddened to see that my Very Special Ladyfriend had washed and put away almost all the dishes! Durn it!

The geek in me found this funny:

Found here via Reddit.