breakfast blogger

This past weekend was the Grand Okanagan Resorts annual Breakfast with Santa. Every year the Grand host a breakfast and such for all the employees with children.
With the Grand being the prestigious facility that it is, I was expecting quite a shindig..I was not dissapointed.
The banquet room was formally set, the lights low and the chandelier sparkled above our heads. In the back of the room was 2 large blow up jungle gym thingies for the kiddies, a craft corner and face painting, which were quickly flooded with all the little nose pickers.
But of course, being the breakfast fanatic that I am, I was drawn to the buffet style breakfast laid out across the middle of the room. It was nothing short of impressive.
Massive stacks of plates and bowls greeted you at the head of the table, beckoning you to start shoveling your plates full.

Just past the stacks of white plates were cereal and yogurts, muffins and jams. (yawn).

My real interest was in the shiny silver food warmers in the middle.
The smell of them permiated the room and gave away thier contents. The guests and thier spawn mobbed the table as the chefs came to unveil the delicious bounty inside.

The first one contain pancakes and belgian waffles. There was huge punch bowls of whipped cream and berry topping to accompany them. I had to forfit my waffle to some pathetic lookin doe eyed brat. Its a good thing she was cute or I would have gnawed her arm off for it.

The next held a mess of hashbrowns. They were simple, onionless (thank god, I have a freakish hatred for them) and really quite good. They went great with syrup.

The thrid was scrambled eggs. More pale than I am accustomed to, but thats only becasue I’m a firm believer that scrambled eggs should have cheese in them. I couldn’t help but think about the poor kitchen helper that got screwed into cracking all the eggs for a batch of eggs like that. Poor poor egg cracker guy…

And last but not least came the pig oriented breakafst meats. Cant have brekky without salty cured pig meats. Yum. Again, something that goes well with syrup.

I loaded up my plate with the free bounty and headed for the beverage table, which was also rather impressive in its organization.

But instead of ruining the lovely display, I opted for a classic childhood fav… a carton of chocolate milk. Seen here beside my free heaping plate of buffet food. I was very dissapointed in the fruit salad. It was remminicent of wet sandpaper and butt. Not very appealing at all.

Over all it was not all THAT remarkable of a breakfast, but for a free one, I really can’t complain.

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

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*