I talk about food, you read it.
Breakfast
Steak and Poached egg
2Sometimes I just randomly sit and think about food. It can be any time of the day and for no reason at all my brain will get distracted and immediately turn to food. I can’t remember why or when but I was taking a mental inventory of the food in the fridge and decided that the leftover steak from The Keg would be best suited with the eggs for breakfast. When I mentioned this to J he seemed excited, especially since I was sharing my leftover steak with him.
I didn’t have a recipe but after the mental fridge inventory I remembered the grape tomatoes I bought a few days ago and wanted to use those up and the combination of tomato and egg goes perfectly together. All I did was thinly slice the steak and arrange on a toasted piece of bread. I didn’t reheat the steak because it was cooked so perfectly that I didn’t want to compromise that. To warm it up I topped it with my warm tomato mixture.
Prior to assembling the steak on the bread, I chopped up all the tomatoes, threw into a pan with olive oil, a splash of chicken stock, fresh chopped flat leaf parsley, salt and pepper and I cooked it down a bit so the stock would make a nice warm flavorful sauce. That quick tomato sauce was poured over the steak and then topped with a poached egg. PERFECTION!! Sometimes the simplest of meals are the most impressive.
I should have taken the photo with all the yolk deliciousness.
Crepes
0The other day I was feeling a little like the the entire world was against me, and trying to make me late for work. Every single red light, getting stuck behind every single slow driver, trapped in a construction zone, you name it, it happened to me. Having a severe case of road rage I aggressively parked my car and walked to the front door. As I walked past an A&W the wafting aroma of deep fried bacon made me forget all about work, the yahoo’s on the road, and got my mind focused on Saturday morning breakfast! I have yet to blog about my waffle iron (which we love), but this unusual bit of sun in April was making me crave something a little more fresh and light and springish. Something I haven’t had in a long time is crepes and Ive never made them for J so in my head it was finalized. Crepes aren’t really a spring time breakfast food but they’re yummy and I could fill them with fresh fruit so it worked.
Its been so long since I’ve made crepes that I had to turn to my most trusted cookbook for a tried and true recipe. The Joy of Cooking was giving to me as my first ever cookbook by my mom and its been well used. I don’t think I’ve tried a recipe that didn’t work out perfectly in there.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup lukewarm water
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
- pinch of salt
Blend all ingredients in a blender until fully incorporated and smooth.
Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days. This will allow flour to absorb the liquid and gives the gluten in the flour a chance to relax.
Place a non-stick pan or crepe pan over medium heat and coat with a small amount of unsalted butter. Stir the batter and pour about 2 tablespoons (eyeball it) into the pan and lifting it off the heat and tilting and rotating so the batter forms an even, very thin layer. Cook until the top is set and the underside is brown. Turn over with a spatula or your fingers and cook the second side until its slightly browned. Remove creme and let cook on wax paper or parment paper laying flat to cool. continue until all your crepes are done. Use immediately or let cool, wrap airtight and freeze up to one month.
I filled mine with fresh cut strawberries, blackberries and bananas. I also mixed together some cream cheese and cottage cheese to spread inside the crepe since J loves blintzes. So Yummy! J was so impressed he actually suggested that he might make me waffles tomorrow! YAY!
Blueberry Pankcakes
0Growing up as a kid my parents never served us breakfast for dinner. On occasion an egg sandwich but never pancakes, waffles or any of the sickingly sweet breakfast dishes that make you want to curl up and die after eating. We usually always had a balanced meal with all the food groups. I remember as a kid sort of being jealous when our neighbourhood friends got to have pancakes for dinner. To this day I have never really found myself wanting to take the leap and make a morning meal in the evening but there has been a lack of big breakfasts in my life so I decided that it was about time that I mix up my meals and have some fun.
I haven’t made pancakes in a while but in the past I’ve used the basic recipe from Joy of Cooking and I don’t know if I would try anything else.They always come out fluffy and amazing. J was a little surprised that I was going to make them from scratch and I was a little surprised that people even bother with pancake mix. It never tastes as good and you still have to mix it up so you’re not really saving any steps other then measure a few more ingredients. I am also not much of a baker at all, and even I can make this recipe without screwing up.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 salt
- 1 1/2 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
In a large bowl mix together dry ingredients. In another bowl mix together wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently wisk together, mixing just until combined. If you wish fold in fruit, nuts, cheese, bacon, chocolate or leave plain.
Spoon 1/3 cup batter on a pre-heated grill or pan. This should be around med-med high heat. Cook until the top of the pancake is speckled with bubbles and some bubbles have popped open, then turn and cook until the underside is lightly browned. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200 degree over while you finish cooking the rest. Serve with toppings of your choice.
I had some frozen blueberries so I added them to my pancakes while they were cooking. The recipe states to add fruit to the batter if you like but I like dropping it on top of the pancake for even berry distribution.
Since you can’t really have pancakes all by themselves I also made some bacon. This time I decided not to fry up the bacon as I was going to need to stand and flip pancakes for the next 20 minuites. My friend showed me in whister during a stagette how yummy bacon can be when cooked in the oven on parchment paper. It is so much better this way then frying it on the stove. The bacon doesn’t curl up into wavy peices and gets nice and crisp while cooking evenly. Definitely the best way to make bacon. Not sure the real way but I cook on 400 degrees until I see that they’re just the way I like them, approx 20 min.
