Dutch Baby (for Brian’s 35th Birthday Breakfast)

The Dutch Baby: easier than crepes, plus you don’t have to slave over the stove for 20 minutes cursing yourself for inconsistent crepe thickness. It’s the ultimate mix, pour, walk away breakfast recipe that isn’t from a box.

• 1/4 cup butter*
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• powdered sugar & lemon juice 

*you can either use salted butter, or add a pinch of salt

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut up butter (if straight from fridge) and melt in the oven in a 9×9 inch casserole pan or oven-safe skillet.*
3. Beat the eggs with a whisk for 30 seconds.
4. Mix in milk, vanilla, and flour, one at a time, continually whisking the mixture. Add flour slowly to avoid clumps.
5. Pour mixture into the warm casserole dish full of melted butter.
6. Bake for ~12-15 minutes.

To serve, dust with powdered sugar and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

 

*you can use any similarly sized oven-safe dish, it will still taste awesome.

Also, if you only have 2 eggs, just reduce milk and flour to 1/2 cup each.

Crepes with Lemon and Sugar

I love crepes, especially when they are thick (1/4 inch) and eggy.  They key is a well heated pan.  You can read about some crepe tips here.  You can use 2 eggs if this is too eggy for you.

• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1 cup flour, sifted
• 1 tsp sugar

Lemon wedges and sugar for garnish

Whisk the eggs, milk, and butter.  Add in the flour and sugar.  Make sure there are no flour clumps.  I do this by adding the flour gradually though a sifter.  The batter will keep in the fridge for 24 hours if you don’t use it all.

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into a well heated and buttered skillet.  Flip.  I like my crepes light and fluffy, so I pour the batter a little bit thicker and flip them as soon as I can.

Roll them up, squeeze with lemon, and sprinkle with sugar.

French Toast {food notes}

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 – 2/3 cup milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• cinnamon and nutmeg
• french bread

beat, dip, cast iron skillet in butter over low-med heat.  maple syrup, butter, blueberries,  side of chicken apple sausage.

Easy “Froot” Salad

• fresh lime juice or orange juice
• shredded coconut (toasted if you like)
• strawberries
• fresh pineapple
• banana

I keep a bowl of chopped pineapple in the fridge –it makes this salad prep super fast, which is great for the morning.

“froot” = Futurama reference.  it’s funny, watch it.

Thyme Potato & Leek Hash Browns

I added sautéed leeks on the fly to hash browns.  AWESOME!!! I made them in the oven (400 for 40 minutes) because I was making them for a brunch party, but I don’t recommend it–they don’t really come out crunchy on both sides.  Pan-frying will most likely be better for a crunchy exterior.

• 5-6 potatoes, peeled and grated
• 2 leeks, chopped and washed
• fresh thyme leaves from 2-3 sprigs
• butter, for saute-ing
• canola oil, for frying
• salt & pepper

Grate your potatoes and soak them for 30 minutes in the fridge in a bowl of cold water plus 1 tbsp sugar. Drain and dry them off well.

Saute the leeks in butter until soft.  Remove from the heat and toss with thyme, salt/pepper, and potatoes. I ran out of black pepper so I used white pepper instead.

Pan fry in oil or oven bake in a greased pan at ~400 for 30-45 minutes, depending on how much you’ve made.  I greased a casserole dish, threw in the mix, and covered it with a little bit of salt, white pepper, and melted butter.  I baked it for 40 minutes, it was crunchy on the bottom but not the top–I suppose I could have flipped it, but….meh, it was still delicious!! Next time I will definitely pan fry them or make them into potato pancakes to facilitate flipping.

 

Why is Tommy’s SO good??

Last night we went to Tommy’s.  I had a Chili Colorado Burrito, which was delicious.  This morning, I made Chili Colorado breakfast burritos, which should be the envy of everyone paying for brunch this morning.

beans, green pepper rice, cheese, scrambled eggs, chili colorado pork, and green taco sauce.

Bread Adventures! – master bread dough

I’ve decided to start making bread at home and now it seems all I eat is ______with bread.  I can’t recommend it highly enough!

Here’s a recipe for white bread that I’ve found to be the best (although, it’s really only the better of two recipes, I’ll have to keep trying new ones):

Master Bread Dough–yields two loaves

• ~ 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp  sugar
• 4 1/2 tsp or 2 packages of Active Dry Yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1/2  cup milk
• 2 tbsp butter

Method:

1. Mix 2.5 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Heat water, milk, and butter on low heat until warm (120-130 F).  White bubbles will form around the edges of the pan.
3. Gradually add the liquid to the dry ingredients.  Beat for two minutes.
4. Add 1/2 cup of flour and beat for another two minutes.
5. With a wooden spoon, stir in enough flour to make a moist, but not sticky dough.
6. Knead for 10 minutes on a floured surface.

If using dough immediately: place in greased bowl, turning to grease the top of the dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap or a dish towel. Allow to rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size (around 60 minutes). You can put the dough into the fridge for 12 hours to 2 days to retard the rising. When you remove it from the fridge, leave it out until it comes to about room temperature before shaping it.

Dough may be frozen after kneading. Divide dough in half with a serrated knife. Shape each into flattened 6-inch disk. Dough will keep for 1 month in an airtight, 1-gallon freezer bag. Defrost in refrigerator for 8 to 16 hours or on the countertop for 4 to 9 hours.

7. Shape the dough :

For a loaf: On lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 12 x 7-inch rectangle. Beginning at short end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll cake. Pinch seam and ends to seal. Place, seam side down, in buttered 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 inch loaf pan. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Bake at 400 degrees F. for about 30 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack. Brush with melted butter.

For cloverleaf rolls: Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and mold into balls.  Let rise for 10 minutes.  Roll eat ball into 3 smaller balls and place into a standard oiled muffin tin.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour until almost doubled in volume. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

Brian Dessert

plain yogurt, homemade granola, sliced fresh strawberries, white chocolate chips. classic

Who’s Lucky?

How to poach an egg>>>but I added a tbsp of white vinegar to coagulate the white, and only cooked it for 3 minutes.

Dancer’s Breakfast

When I was dancing everyday, I ate this between classes.  It tastes good and isn’t heavy, you could run a marathon after eating this.

Ingredients:

• low-fat cottage cheese (yuck, I know)
• canned pineapple chunks
• fresh blueberries

Method:

1. Top cottage cheese with pineapple and blueberries.

Remember the Nooks and Crannies?

remember these from Grandma’s house?

remember them with cinnamon and sugar?

MMMMMMMMMMMMM.  It’s time to feel 8 years old again!

Swedish Breakfast Sandwiches

This is what a good Swedish friend would eat (usually) in the morning.  Don’t be deceived by it’s simple nature, the sweetness of the bell pepper goes so well with the cheese and meat.  I know that I shouldn’t be using Trans-Fatty margarine, but I’m so used to the margarine flavor in this sandwich I can’t go to butter.  I know that there’s healthy, non trans-fat margarine out there, but I’m sticking to the bad stuff here–to reminisce days of aulde lang syne.

Ingredients:

• Margarine, or softened butter
• Turkey breast deli meat
• Monterey Jack cheese
• Dark bread, Pumpernickel or dark wheat bread
• Red bell pepper, thinly sliced

Method:

For breakfast, set out each ingredient so you can graze.  Usually eaten open faced, I’ve also made these sandwiches ahead of time (as closed sandwiches) and taken them on a fishing trip, they were cheap, easy, and a great success.  Don’t skip the margarine, it’s essential!

This is the conventional, open-faced sandwich:

1. Spread the margarine on a piece of bread.
2. Top with turkey, cheese, and bell pepper slices.

You can mix-n-match what goes on your bread slice: turkey, cheese, bell pepper.  If you want to make a larger breakfast, boil a few eggs, put out jam, slice up an apple, and put on the coffee.

What else?

These are very versatile– they’re sandwiches after all!  You can make them yourself at breakfast, make mini versions for party apps, and make closed versions for picnics and treks.

Heavenly Strawberry Muffins

This is a blueberry muffin recipe I got from the recipe blog simplyrecipes.com.  It’s very good, but when I made it with blueberries it tasted a bit like blueberry biscuits instead of muffins.  This time I used strawberries, thawed from frozen and drained–they are light and fluffy and heavenly 🙂  I don’t know if it’s because of the berries or because I made it differently this time, but the recipe is really good.  I used cream-top plain yogurt.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 10 tbsp softened (unsalted) butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 cups yogurt
• 1.5 cups strawberries, cut in half (if using frozen, thaw and drain)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
3. In a separate, larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in one egg at a time. Beat in the lemon zest.
4. Add 1/3 of the flour mix to the butter bowl. Mix just until incorporated.  (use a wooden spoon)
5. Stir in 1/3 of the yogurt (1/2 cup). Mix just until incorporated.
6. Add the second 1/3 of the flour and mix just until incorporated (from now on do this).
7. Add the second 1/3 of the yogurt (1/2 cup).  Alternate adding the rest of the flour with the last 1/2 cup of yogurt.
8. Fold in the berries.
9. Fill greased muffin tins 1/2- 2/3 of the way full.
10. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

* note on muffin tins: I used a traditional muffin tin (aluminum) and a silicon muffin tin, and the silicon let me down.  The muffins didn’t cook as evenly in the silicon, so if you can, go traditional with these muffins.

Breakfast for Lazy Sundays

This is a breakfast I eat at my mother’s house.  It is quite lavish and can be VERY expensive when done right, but it’s worth it.  It takes about 4 hours to thoroughly enjoy this meal, which is usually accompanied with reading the paper, comics, a novel du jour, or coffee 😉

I’ll add a photo when I make it again–I’m saving up!

Chose at least 4 of the following list and serve with Coffee AND herbal tea AND love:

• Toasted Walnuts and semisweet chocolate chips
• Thick cut apple-wood smoked bacon
• Marinated olives
• Fresh blueberries or Nassy Dressed Fruit
• Grapes
• Cheese: triple-cream brie, blue, brillat-savarin, or even feta (drizzle olive oil and crush oregano over it)
• Scrambled Eggs (with butter)
• Madeline and/or croissant
• Fresh French Baguette
• (Good quality) butter and jam
• Proscuitto di Parma and Pastrami
• Nassy Pesto (recipe coming soon)
• Nassy Caprese Salad with Herbs (recipe coming soon)

Make each of these on their own little plates and let the grazing begin!

Green Relish makes the Omlette

I just made an amazingly good omelette with left over mashed potatoes, spicy green relish, and cheddar cheese (and eggs of course).  Eggs are one of the greatest and cheapest forms of protein in my fridge ( tofu doesn’t last and beans take too long).   I heated up some mashed potatoes in a skillet, added some green relish, cracked 4 eggs over the whole thing and added salt and pepper. After the egg looked 90% cooked, I added grated cheddar cheese and mixed it all up into a mash, then let it sit so that it crisped up on the bottom.  I had wanted to add some left-over chicken too, but I forgot it was in the fridge 😦 Voila! Dinner.

Here’s the green relish recipe, a la Nassy:

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 jalapeno
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 3-4 tbsp mayo or plain yogurt
• juice of one lemon
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Put it all in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

What can I do with this Relish?

Since this is essentially an Indian food recipe it will go well with Indian Food.  I used it in grilled cheese Panini (mozzarella, sourdough, and relish) and I’m sure it’ll be great as a spread in other types of sandwiches.  It was a great flavor for the mashed potatoes in the above omelette.  I’d really like to try it as a sauce for grilled shrimp or seared scallops.  If you add it to sour cream it’ll be a great dip for crudite and chips.

Menemen

This dish taught me the joys of garlic and eggs! I learned about Menemen in Turkey. It’s a breakfast dish, but I could eat it all the time! It’s really good to make when you’re camping because you can eat it right out of the pan with bread.

These are the “traditional” ingredients, but you can use whatever you can find in the grocery store, after all, it’s breakfast!

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp Safflower Oil (olive oil doesn’t really work, use a light colored oil)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 Lombardo peppers chopped, or any chili pepper you like best (it’s best to use milder chilis)
• 4 Tomatoes, peeled and chopped (do not use canned tomatoes! I know peeling is a pain, but it just doesn’t taste as good with skin)
• 3 Eggs
• Salt

Method:

It’s a good idea to do all the chopping before the cooking. If you aren’t good at peeling tomatoes, you can always X the bottom skin and drop them into some boiling water for a minute. The skins just fall right off after that.

1. Oil up a saute pan over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Use enough oil to coat the whole bottom of the pan, this doesn’t taste as good without enough oil, so if you’re going low-cal beware!

2. When the pan gets hot add the peppers. When the skin gets wrinkly and singed with brown add the tomatoes, garlic, and salt. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cover for about 4 minutes. The object is to get the tomatoes to make a kind of soup and soften the garlic.

3. When the garlic, peppers, and tomatoes look nice and soft, turn the heat back up to medium, break the eggs over the pan and scramble a little. Add salt. It’s wise to turn the heat off before the eggs are really done cooking, so they don’t over cook. The tomato juice will evaporate while it cooks the eggs. Don’t worry if it’s a bit watery, it’s supposed to be that way for dipping bread.

4. EAT AT ONCE! Normally you eat this with a loaf of french bread, but you can use any type of bread you like. When Camping I use pita bread heated over the stove.

What else can you eat with this?

To make this a “complete breakfast” get a loaf of your favorite crusty bread, make (what I call) breakfast salad, marinated olives, Kasar Cheese (a white cheese with a mild flavor, I think the closest thing here is Greek Halloumi), and butter & strawberry jam. Usually people drink Turkish tea with this, a dark black tea with sugar, but I prefer Peet’s Lattes 🙂

Breakfast Salad

Breakfast Salad is what I call uncooked veggies at breakfast. I usually make this if I’m making Menemen, or some other spicy dish. Be advised that this is one of those recipes where the quality of ingredients matter, so if you happen to have flavorful tomatoes and cucumbers on hand, this will be fantastic.

Ingredients:

• Fresh Tomatoes (the tastiest you can find) cut into bite-size wedges
• English Cucumber/Persian Cucumbers half peeled and sliced
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Lemon Juice (optional)

Method:

1. Arrange the Tomatoes and Cucumbers on a plate, or in a bowl. Sprinkle with Salt. Drizzle with Olive Oil. Top with a small squeeze of Lemon, if you’re using it.

2. Enjoy.

What else can I eat with this?
This goes great with Menemen, or any other spicy dish.  Feta cheese and olives go well with breakfast salad. But really, what do tomatoes and cucumbers NOT go well with?