breakfast blogger

We arrived in Wells B.C. at about 5:30pm and were shocked when we realized that our tank tops, shorts and flips flops were not appropriate apparel for the several inches of snow that was still on the ground. Good thing we both brought one pair of pants, just in case. After ignoring the chuckles from the locals, we inquired about places to eat. Oddly enough, in a town of a couple hundred people, there isn’t a lot of options. Someone mentioned the only places to eat near by were closed, but we might have a sporting chance if we made a dash for Barkerville. We made it with 20min to spare and had the most amazing Chinese food we have ever had. On our mad dash back to the car that was at the far end of the town, through hail and sleet so thick you could hardly see, we noted a place called the Wake Up Jake. We both admitted that it sounded like the perfect place to enjoy our breakfast in the morning.

So we headed back to our hotel, slept and got an early start to the day. Now Barkerville being the tourist attraction that it is, we had to pay a fee to go inside to eat, but it was well worth it. We were planning on touring the town afterwards anyway. Thankfully the weather cleared and everything was beautiful, if still wet and muddy.

A quick walk through town brought us to our destination; The Wake Up Jake.

Everything inside was reasonably accurate to an 1830’s gold mining town. Even our service people were in appropriate garb. Even the old cast iron wood stove was up and running adn giving off a delicious heat to teh whole place. We got there just in time too. It was all but empty when we came in, but within 20min of us sitting down, the flood gates opened and there was not as much as standing room left.

After a coffee and a quick glance at the breakfast menu, I saw the sausage and fritters breakfast. Can’t say that I have ever had fritters for breakfast, so I couldn’t resist. My partner had a more standard fare of bacon, eggs toast and hash browns.

After a quick swap of 2 sausage links for 2 strips of bacon, I was ready to dig in. The fritters were a goo filled mass of potato batter with a hint of cinnamon and deep fried till golden. Nothing like starting off your morning with a cup of coffee and something deep fried. They went especially well with a chunk of sausage and a little maple syrup.

I envied the mass of home style hash browns on his plate and he was not overly surprised when a few went missing when he wasn’t paying attention.

The breakfast was good and filling but it was the atmosphere that really made it for us. We took a tour of the town and walked off some of our full bellies. We hit some of the shops through the town, the bakery and God help us, the candy shops. We even went so far as to pan for gold. I got a little bit, but it was such a small amount, it wouldn’t even show up in the pictures. We had a blast playing tourist though and would highly recommend the Wake Up Jake to anyone heading out that way.

Burp.

Oh my, this recipe looks awesome. Pictured below is step 6 of this hangover cure.

Check it out here. I might even try it if I’m not hungover ;-)

D’you think one flavour of peanut butter is enough? The folks at P.B.Loco don’t. Their motto: One flavour is 10 too few. PB with Asian curry spice sounds a little wild for my tastes, but the PB with European cafe mocha has me intrigued.

Link.

Do you love natural peanut butter but hate the mess you make the first time you mix it? Here’s the tool for you:

Neat-o. Link.

Nothing screams BREAKFAST TOUR like a long weekend without the kiddo in tow. After a quick brainstorm and some spin and point to carefully plot our course, my partner in crime and myself got the heck out of dodge on a northernly heading. We weren’t really sure where we would end up, just that we were going north. We didn’t get a move on till Friday evening and made it as far as Kamloops before calling it a night. We got our drink on with some of my family and woke with the need for greasy breakfast to cure what ailed us. We grabbed the usual Starbucks and a couple of bananas then decided to hit the dusty and get a few miles behind us. The Bucks and ‘nanas would tide us over for a little while. Not long mind you… we made it as far as the grand city of Little Fort. Noe me with my beer head still hanging on, forgot to take a picture of the little cafe we stopped at (which was also the ONLY cafe in town) Mc Dodds was its name, but I did take a picture of the place next to it with the sweet turret addition going on. I guess in rural BC, you never know when you might be under siege.

You could almost hear the crickets singing when we walked in. There was not a soul to be seen. The place was a small, quaint little diner that had been lightly renovated since the early 50’s I’m guessing. The perfect little greasy spoon to fill our northern bound bellies.

The part that really excited me was the full humming bird feeders right outside the windows. Being the closet bird watching person I am, I was excited to no end and actually found myself giggling at the little birds flashy antics.

It didn’t take long to paruse the menu and get our orders going. I ordered a pretty standard fair, not that there was much choice in a sleepy little town diner, and my partner got some glorious schmoo covered dish with tomatoes, green peppers, hash browns and cheese with 2 eggs on top and toast on the side.

While we waited in sweet anticipation, we attempted to plot our course and vaguely decided to take the HWY 24 west then continue our adventure north. The 24 is a beautiful highway also called the fisherman’s highway for the 100+ lakes within 10km of it.

We also came to the conclusion that our trip was going to take us to Barkerville, the largest gold-rush town in Canada. I consulted our accommodation guide in all it’s hotel listed goodness and chose a place called the Well’s Hotel in Wells BC, just a dash from Barkerville. Once that was decided, our breakfast was presented to us.

Mine isn’t all that exciting. Poached eggs, bacon, home style hash browns and toast. It may not be too interesting, but it was just the perfect breakfast. Everything was cooked to perfection.

My partner’s on the other hand was nothing short of glorious to behold. I sat across the table in envy and watched the cheese string from his fork as he shoveled.

It was beautiful. We devoured or brekkies, wandered over to the old antiques shop across the road and continued on our merry way.

2 more breakfasts to follow. Stay tuned!

The makers of the world’s absolute best bagels turns 50 today!! If you live in Montreal, I encourage you to drop by for visit today as all proceeds will be donated to the Foundation for research into children’s diseases.

Félicitations St-Viateur Bagel!

ahem…*sings*

“When your pancakes are dry, give something greasy a try.. Sausage Pancakes! (OOOooooo sausage pancakes)

When your griddle is hot and your batter is not.. Sausage Pancakes! (Oooo sausage pancakes)

With a flip, and a little dip, it’ll be a hit, you’ll never wanna quit….Sausage Pancakes!”

If I could think of how to end that darn tune I would, but Mommy brain has struck again in all it’s maternal glory. Of course this is a blatant rip off of Peaboy’s Bacon Pancakes, the man is a breakfast genius, how can one as humble as me compete.

I simply cut up some cooked turkey sausage, poured my batter on the hot pan, arranged the sausage bit in a nice even manner, flip and voila! *sings* Sausage Pancakes!

burp

Last week was my birthday. My Very Special Ladyfriend cooked me breakfast, and it was delicious!

I had heard about Allan Benton’s bacon from Tennessee, and then both Gourmet and Saveur magazine ran pieces on his operation, so I decided to order some before it was too late.

I was glad I had ordered my bacon a few weeks ago, because they are so backed up with orders that they have posted a warning about delays on their website. I am worried that Allan Benton may soon expand his business to keep up with demand, which of course may ultimately decrease the quality of his products.Just look at that bacon!

Hopefully Allan’s ethics will persist and decided to limit his orders to a capacity that he can keep up with. Alternatively, he should get together with other artisanal pork producers and refer customers to bacon suppliers closer to where they live. I am pretty certain that there must exist some phenomenal bacon producers closer to Montreal. I will start my search and let you know how it progresses, along with updates on my waistline and cholesterol levels.

I almost forgot to mention that they do not ship to Canada, so I actually had my bacon delivered to me while I was on vacation in the USA.
Back to breakfast. We had scrambled eggs with dill, cherry tomatoes that were grown in Quebec greenhouses, and a whole-wheat baguette from Capucine & Tournesol, a great bakery right on our corner that makes a lot of no-yeast breads and other healthy fare like date squares (using no added sugar) and kamut bread and even some savoury pies that I have yet to try.

We also had that great bacon, which was good, but very strong. We found it too salty to eat alone, but made the best BLT’s we’ve ever had later in the afternoon. I think I will only use the bacon in sandwiches and also to cook with.
The Ladyfriend was so quick with the dishes I missed the proper the money shot, but suffice it to say - we licked our plates clean!

ps: For my birthday dinner we went to Pied de cochon. Yum!

Lately, my husband and I have been in a bit of a breakfast rut. I’ve come close to the breaking point with french toast, if only it weren’t so versatile. And while french toast is quite tasty, it’s rather boring to photograph week after week.

So this week, I decided to try something different. Only problem, the weather has gone from temperate and almost enjoyable, to “I’ve just set foot on the sun” hot. Cooking in my house isn’t the most fun thing to do during those days, so I’ve got to make everything at night for the next day, because its much cooler at night.

This is exactly the case when it came to breakfast yesterday. Expecting another hot day, I decided I would make breakfast the night before, store it in the fridge, and just assemble it, heat it up and serve it. I knew this would also be a great time to break our cycle of french toast for breakfast, but since my husband still enjoys nice hearty breakfasts- We ended up with buttermilk biscuit breakfast sandwiches.

They’re simple, they’re easy, and they’re so much better for you than the kind you pick up at the neighbourhood fast food joint.

The night before, I made the biscuits and the bacon, and since I’m not a fan of reheated eggs, I made those just before serving, threw a little slice of cheese on top of it all, and voila- Breakfast on a biscuit!

My recipe for buttermilk biscuits-

2 cups flour
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/4 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 Cup butter
1 cup buttermilk

Introducing the Corona-Matic:

This is just too damn cool. Keyboard shaped waffles bring out the geek in this breakfast blogger ;)

Link via boingboing.