“Maria La Frenais got more than she bargained for when she broke an egg for breakfast.” There was an shelled egg inside her egg. Very weird indeed. Story here. Via boingboing.
I pick up the keys to my new house tomorrow! Woooo! Sorry for the lack of posts from me these days!
And delicious ones, at that.
I made these donuts- FOR BREAKFAST- this morning. They were easy to make, and quick to fry, though I wouldn’t suggest making these if you can’t be trusted with a pot of hot oil first thing in the morning. You could make them the night before, keep them in the fridge and then frost them right before serving, or you could omit the frosting entirely and roll them in powdered sugar, or a mixture of cinnamon and granulated sugar. They’re tasty however you make ‘em.
Here’s the recipe-
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Set aside
In a larger bowl, whisk the egg until its solid yellow, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the sugar, making a light buttery yellow emulsion. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the melted butter, then more flour, then half the milk, then more flour, followed by the second half of the milk and vanilla extract, and finished with the last of the flour. You should have a fairly firm dough ball. Turn it out onto a lightly floured board and roll it out to about 1/2 an inch thick, or slightly thicker. Use a donut cutter or a large round biscuit cutter and a small biscuit cutter, to cut out donut rounds.
Heat a quart of oil to about 375 degrees in a large high sided dutch oven or deep fryer. Drop the donuts in the hot oil one at a time, being careful not to crowd the fryer. I try to stick with two or three donuts at a time, so I can keep track of them and they won’t get burnt. Fry the donuts for about a minute on each side. Remove from the hot oil with a slotted spoon and drain on several layers of paper towels, or on a wire cooling grid. Allow to cool before frosting. If you’re going to roll them in sugar or cinnamon sugar, do it while they’re hot.
I made my icing with a mixture of about 1 cup powdered sugar and a tablespoon of milk plus a few drops of strawberry extract. Mix until you’ve got a thick paste, and pipe it on top of the cooled donuts. Smooth out the tops with a small icing spatula dipped in milk or water, and sprinkle with your choice of sprinkles!
I couldn’t resist eating one! I made mine pretty small, just a step above bite size. They’re fun, and like I said before, you can make them ahead of time if you know you’ve got a morning sweet tooth, or if you want a quick pick me up with your morning coffee.
..We can’t always be so healthy.. *smile*
-A.
Picture by Shannon Calvert found here. I hope he doesn’t mind me showing off his work!
Hey folks, sorry for the lack of updates as of late. I’ve been a busy boy buying my first house!
The lovely Azureus sent me this awesome egg pillow last week! What’s next? Bacon pillows?
You rock Az ^_^
In other breakfast related news: Square Bagels and Bacon T-Shirts!
Alright, so it has been cooling down a tad around here, but its still summer. The weather in the northwest is anything but predictable, so its always a good idea to start the day off producing as little heat as possible, just incase the temperature starts sky rocketing before the house gets a chance to cool down.
So these waffles, they take a little bit more work, and a few more dishes, but they’re a great addition to a sweet breakfast or brunch, and well worth any extra effort they entail.
Cinnamon caramel pecan waffles-
Covered in a rich maple cinnamon caramel glaze.
Each bite is full of delicious bits of pecans and caramel, and the smell these things put off while they’re baking makes your whole kitchen smell like you’ve been hard at work for hours, thanks to the heavy dose of cinnamon.
I recommend eating these things with a nice big glass of milk. They’re tasty, and you might not be able to stop with just a few. I ate a whole stack myself!
For both recipes, stop over at Never Bashful with Butter.
And don’t you worry, I’ll be back with more waffler recipes soon!
-A.
Living in the Pacific Northwestern section of the United States has been pretty tough lately. 100 degree temperatures are just not something we’re used to, considering 10 months of the year we’re wishing that the rain would stop just long enough to run and check the mail.
This last week, we’ve been stuck with the heat. Dawn to dusk and back again, the mercury hasn’t gone below 60 Degrees Fahrenheit, at best.
For those of us who live without air conditioning, and rely on the few fans we have to most efficiently cool our living spaces, limiting our heat producing activities basically every hour that the sun is up… This means the oven and stove top are just off limits during the waking hours.
After a week of cold cereal for breakfast, I finally had enough. I needed something warm in the morning. Something fresh. Something that didn’t come from a can, or require the usage of my microwave or toaster, because even they put off a lot of heat, which I normally wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t living on the surface of the sun already this summer.
So I dug through everything in my kitchen. Every cabinet, every drawer. I shuffled through gadgets and gizmos and Pannini Makers and George Forman grills, and then I found it. The perfect, all in one, lowest radiant heat producing, most heat efficient multi tasking cooking device ever created. It was as if the heavens opened and down it came with guilded wings…
The Waffler.
And that is exactly what I used to make today’s breakfast. No other heat producing surfaces needed.
The MacGyver Waffle Sandwich-
I know, I know, they make specialty machines that you can use to do the same thing, but… do you really want to buy a special machine for that? Its just as easy to use your regular waffle iron. I mean, doesn’t everyone have one? I personally have two. I chose to use the belgian style waffler for this project, simply because I wanted more doughy waffle crust. Any waffler will do. For those of us here in the Northwest you can buy a cheap one just about anywhere for under $10 USD.
So first, I set about making the outside of the sandwich. The waffles. I made some cheddar cheese waffles, an idea I got from the brilliant Brillynn of Jumbo Empanadas (she loves waffles too, you should check out her waffle sandwich) I could have eaten these by themselves, but why stop there-
When you’re done with the waffles, just crack an egg (or scramble them in a bowl) directly into the waffle iron pockets, close, and in a matter of no more than a minute, you’ve got a nice waffled egg, perfect for the waffle sandwich.
Last, but not least, you can actually waffle your bacon. This is why I call this the MacGyver waffle sandwich, because where MacGyver can make a bomb with a toothpick, some tin foil and a coconut- I can make an entire breakfast sandwich with one single machine. All from scratch, all fresh, all delicious.
Making breakfast today used minimal energy, required minimal dishes and minimal cleanup, since everything was made using one single device.
Oh yeah, did I mention its delicious?
So here’s a great recipe for cheddar waffles-
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded cheddar (any cheese will work, depending on your taste)
Whisk together the liquid ingredients. Add the salt and baking powder to the flour, and then stir the flour mixture into the liquid mixture. Lastly, add the cheese a quarter cup at a time, stirring lightly between each addition, so it doesn’t form a big cheesy glob in the center of the batter.
All depending, this should make about 5 bread slice shaped waffles (my iron makes 5 inch square waffles, and it made 5 of them)
You can add whatever you like to the inside of your waffle sandwich, and enjoy it without heating up the whole house, or being at the mercy of whatever “extra” ingredients you’d find in a store bought breakfast sandwich.
Until next time, when I’ll bring you more adventures in waffleing (Can anyone say WaffleOmlettes?)-
ENJOY!
-A.
Being as obsessed with breakfast as I am, I’m always on the lookout for new breakfast ideas. This morning’s inspiration was sitting on the counter in the form of a loaf of banana bread. French toast is a personal favorite and I’ve tried the cinnamon-bun french toast so “why not make a banana bread french toast?” I asked myself.
I quickly whipped up a typical french toast batter of a couple eggs, a snoosh of milk and a little cinnamon and soaked a couple pieces of my homemade banana bread. I then went about cooking it like the usual french toast.
While my toast and a couple slices of turkey bacon where working their magic in the frying pan, I thought about what to top it with. Somehow the usual butter and maple syrup didn’t seem right so I whipped up a little something different.
I happened to have some beautiful local picked Okananga cherries…
…and some plain goat-milk cheese in the fridge still and decided to make something light and fluffy to top it with. I threw the cherries, cheese, a tablespoon of powdered sugar and a little cinnamon in the food processor and sent it for a whirl.
The mixture tasted alright, but because of the dryish crumbly nature of the goat cheese, it wasn’t the consistency I was looking for. I happened to have some cherry yogurt onhand and after a good dolup of that, it was beautiful and smooth.
By the time my topping was done, so was my banana bread french toast so I went to the plate. Topped with a couple of the most perfect cherries I could find and a fresh sprig of mint from my own chocolate mint plant outside, it was done!
I’ll admit that the banana bread was pretty dense and heavy for a summer brekkie, but the light and bright tasting cherry shmoo on top helped to balance the whole thing out. I think it just might become a favorite breakfast in my house.
And for those with a hankering for some divine banana bread:
Method:
Note: Recipe freezes quite well but is so delicious that it probably won’t last long enough to freeze.
Enjoy!
About a month ago, I ventured off to Ottawa for a computer call and was lucky to manage a breakfast to discuss the work to be done. It was in the Byward Market here in Ottawa.. an area where I’ve had only a handful of breakfast adventures. Any tips to places I haven’t tried yet are greatly appreciated!
The Dubliner is located at the end of William Street where it meets George Street, on the southern-west corner. I had the Irish breakfast: two eggs, sausage, roasted tomato, sautéed mushrooms and onions, baked beans, homefries and toast. Oh my.
Yummmmy… $9.50 with coffee.
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