When I was growing up, breakfast at my grandparents' was raisin bread with peanut butter. Grandmom always had a loaf of Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl bread, which she'd toast and smear with peanut butter that became slightly melty and gooey from the heat of the bread. I'd happily munch along with a cup of tea in "my mug," a clear globe mug she got for free from a National Geographic catalog.
Now that I'm older, and a little more health conscious, I buy the 100% whole wheat cinnamon swirl bread. In researching for this post, I also learned that they make pumpkin and cranberry varieties! I'm so excited to try them!
I'm a big fan of breakfast foods. Any time, day or night, I'm down for a big plate of pretty much any (non-meat) breakfast food you can name. I honestly don't discriminate between pastries or heartier stick-to-your-ribs fair, all kinds are welcome and consumed with equal happiness. However, had you ever asked me if I thought that beans were for breakfast? I would've told you no. Now, I knew somewhere back in the recesses of my mind that a British Fry Up included beans but not living in the UK, I never experienced it for myself and I never really thought that much about actually having beans for breakfast.
Well my friends, after four days at a B&B in Wales, I love beans for breakfast, specifically these beans for breakfast
They are SO GOOD! Not overly sweet and a great way to get protein in your diet first thing in the morning. My local grocery store carries them in the international aisle (sadly not in a fridge pack or the cool little snap pots) so I'll be picking them up for weekend breakfasting or brinners.
Have you ever been to Mimi’s Café? Mimi’s has location in 24
states and is, in my opinion, a fantastic place for breakfast. I mean, their
lunch and dinner options look divine as well, but I love going to Mimi’s for
breakfast. So does my dad, and in fact, we celebrated his birthday there this
past week.
I have two favorite things about Mimi’s. One, they bring
kids a little sampler platter of orange slices, cereal bits, and other snacky
items, along with a kid’s colorable menu and crayons, to keep them occupied (my
daughter did not get this treatment recently, so I’ll have to bug them about
that next time). But two, and this is by
far my favoritest favorite, is their muffins.
They make several different kinds, but the one that makes me weak at the
knees is the honey bran. I know, a bran muffin? Do not be fooled by the name.
This muffin is made with so much honey, they serve it to you upside down so it
can seep down all over. It is delicious.
I almost always pick up some extra to take home for later.
Now, of course, they don’t give out the recipe for my
beloved honey bran muffin, but they do provide the method for another fantastic
offering, the buttermilk spice muffin. I
can’t wait to give this a try at home.
But then again, I might just make a run over to Mimi’s and get some.
Either way, I win.
My preferred method of caffeine delivery (let's be real here) is coffee. Once I have my [20 oz] cup in the morning, I usually switch to water or iced tea. This week, though, I've been battling the Worst Cold of Ever while teaching six hours a day. I have NO voice. As a result, I have been sipping on hot tea all the live long day to try and restore my voice and my health.
Here's where the confession part comes in: I don't taste very much difference in bagged teas. Yes, loose leaf tea is the best for flavor and freshness, but I'm not a daily tea drinker, so I am not going to bother buying loose tea and all its accoutrements.
When it comes to bagged tea, I just don't see what all the fuss is about. I don't mind Lipton or Nestea tea bags. I received Tea Forte and Mighty Leaf teabags from my Birchbox shipment, and they were nice, but I wouldn't pay $12 for 15 tea bags. I can buy Celestial Seasonings on sale for $3.99 a box or a quadrillion (approximately) of Lipton teabags for a couple of dollars.
Am I missing something? Is there a life-changing tea experience I'm missing out on? Are my taste buds now dead to you?
If you are a tea aficionado, what mid-range tea would you recommend I try?
I realized the other day that I havn't writen a post featuring cresent rolls in a over a year. I don't even know who I am anymore. Anyway, this is a throwback twist to my bacon tarts I blogged a million years ago.
Behold:
These are super simple and very little "recipe" is involved. One roll of cresent rolls, pop each cresent into the tin and bake on the recommended heat for about 5 minutes, just enough to "toughen" up the cresent. This is mostly so the bottom of the cresent cooks after you put in the filling.
As for the filling...I scrambled up two eggs and threw in a handful of diced onion, some chopped up sausage, bacon, tomato, and mozerella. You want this mix cooked, then spoon into the partially cooked cresent roll cups.
Finish cooking until the cresent rolls start browing up nicely, and you couls also throw some sharp cheddar on top for an extra cheese fix.
A tube of cresent rolls was WAY too much for two people (What? Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.) The good news is these reheat surprisingly well. These would be great for a breakfast brunch or holiday morning, maybe a tad too rich for a day to day breakfast!
What special breakfast treats have you made lately?
I'll get to my recipe, but I have to touch on something else first: Julia Child. She would have turned 100 yesterday, as you might have heard. I'd be remiss to post on a food website so close to this date without mentioning it.
We didn't get cable until I was 11 or so. When I was very little, I could only get it at my grandparents' (that's what grandparents are for!), and at home while I lamented the lack of Nickelodeon, I did enjoy my fill of Punky Brewster and PBS. We didn't watch an excessive amount of tv growing up, but there are two non-kid shows I remember taking a particular shine to: Bob Ross and Julia Child. Bob Ross painted those happy little trees, and I sat in wonder, amazed that a blank canvas could be turned into something so real with a few strokes of his brush. Those happy little trees, they'll get you every time.
I found Julia equally as mesmerizing. I loved watching her cook, and thought of her as a friend in the way only a little kid can. At the end of every episode I always got a little sad when the food was all ready and she'd be about to serve it or eat it, and then the episode would end. I always wondered why they stopped right there! Isn't the dinner party one of the best parts?! I was also a kid that loved having company for dinner, and always wanted to invite everyone I knew to come to my house, so perhaps that's not a surprise. (And frankly, not much has changed. Hey! Come on over, internet!)
It wasn't until I got a bit older that I really began to appreciate what Julia did for the American culinary landscape, and women in general. I just adore her. If you haven't read My Life in France, and you have any interest in Julia, food, or traveling, I'd highly recommend it. I loved the recent movie Julie and Julia, but could have done without the Julie. My kingdom for two hours of Meryl Streep and her pitch-perfect (literally) impression of the 6'2" matriarch of the American kitchen!
Julia had a lot of gems of wit and wisdom over the years, but one of my favorites has to be: "The best way to execute French cooking is to get good and loaded and whack the hell out of a chicken. Bon appétit." Another favorite hangs on a sign in my kitchen: "If you're afraid of butter, use cream."
And what I think was kind of the embodiment of what she was all about: "This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook--try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!” (Or as my husband is fond of saying when people get freaked out or worried over what they're making: It's okay. It's just cookin'.)
Enjoy PBS' little tribute to Julia for her 100th birthday. To me it's the perfect mix of fun and earnestness in message--just like Julia herself. Bring on the roasted potatoes! Cooking, cooking, keep on cooking, this is the way to live! Bon appétit, friends.
And as for quinoa flour and pumpkin pancakes: I'm in the midst of a bit of a...situation. I've mentioned my sinus issues here before, and long story short, I'm currently on an allergy elimination diet to help my sinuses. This means eliminating an awful lot of foods. No, really, a lot. I'm basically down to oats, quinoa, certain nuts & seeds, beef, pork, seafood, eggs, coconut & coconut products (a lifesaver, as you'll see in a minute), and specific fruits and vegetables. It actually hasn't been as bad as I'd feared. For the most part. What's saving my sanity are recipes like the one I'm about to share.
According to the package of the Bob's Red Mill quinoa flour I bought in a recent fit of carb-craving desperation, it's the second most versatile flour, after wheat. After making these pumpkin pancakes with it, I totally believe it. I've had plenty of gluten free stuff in my day, and this was absolutely a highlight. The pancakes came out moist, super fluffy, and with the perfect hint of fall flavoring. Quinoa flour is also high in protein, so the pancakes were too, and they held me much longer than regular wheat pancakes would. I subbed So Delicious coconut milk (from the refigerated section, meant to be a milk substitute--not the kind in the can) for the butter milk, and it didn't seem to affect it too much. Topped with some real maple syrup, they were an allergy-free dream come true. Especially because I ate them for dinner.
I'll definitely make these again, and am going to try subbing quinoa flour for wheat flour in some of my favorite recipes. I'll let you know how it goes!
Bon appétit!
Have you cooked with quinoa flour before? What's your favorite Julia memory?
Last week my husband started a new position at work, bringing him to the non-vampire side of the work day with me (insert a rousing Hallelujah Chorus here!). Related to that, we're on the search for the perfect morning coffee we can romantically share together in the wee hours of the morning (or, you know, just keep us from killing each other in the wee hours of the morning) There have been a few that were nothing to write home about, but then we came across this Kahlua coffee in the random food section of TJ Maxx (of all places, ha)
This stuff is REALLY something to write home (and a blog post) about! I was excited to see that Amazon carried it ( K cups, too! ) because we know that while TJ Maxx is great, you can't exactly count on a steady stream of the same merchendise.
My husband and I are huge, HUGE coffee drinkers. All day coffee drinkers. I really enjoy flavored coffees while he favors plain black. The Kahlua original is perfect for both of us, there's a hint of the regular Kahlua flavor (without the alcohol burn of course) that makes us both really happy. This coffee also makes fantastic iced coffee better than plain varieties. I should also mention that I enjoy my coffee very strong whole my husband likes it toned down a notch. We can agree that at normal strength we're both satisfied with our morning cup(s). This tastes rich and full, and most importantly it also doesn't taste BURNED, which is my biggest peeve with coffee of any variety. If anything, that alone would bring me coming back for more.
This coffee also makes the house smell great, which is a plus when you're trying desperately to wake up in the morning! We have our coffee pot set to start brewing on a timer so sometimes the coffee is the only thing pulling me out of bed.
So far in our hunt for the perfect coffee I have to say this hits closest to what we are looking for in our daily caffeine fix, possibly the best home-brewed coffee I've ever had. That doesn't mean we will stop looking for something even better, but Kahlua has a peminate place in our kitchen (and bar!)
My nephew is spending the week with us this week so we were trying to come up fun things for the kids to do. We decided one of the things we wanted to do was make donuts. Random I know, but we have a donut maker, so why not? Our donut maker is like a million years old, but it turns out they still make them! Like this one by Sunbeam:
(photo credit: amazon.com)
The donuts weren't the best donuts I've ever had (I mean, they aren't Krispy Kreme, so obviously they can't be the best.) but they were still yummy!
(photo credit: me)
(photo credit: me)
The kids had a great time adding frosting and sprinkles, and who doesn't want a nice fresh donut?
Have you ever made fresh donuts? Am I the only person who owns something as random as a donut maker?
So, this is basically just a glorified fried egg sandwich, but it's my new favorite thing to eat for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner, so I wanted to share my exact method so you could recreate it as soon as possible.
(Photo courtesy of me and oh look there's my laundry pile in the background!)
1) Toast an English muffin while frying an egg so the yolk is set--I like a runny yolk as much as the next girl, but it just makes this sandwich too messy. (If you're like me, go ahead and have your husband fry the egg because he's better at it than you are.)
2) Once toasted, slather one side with guacamole. (I used about half a 100-calorie guacamole packet.)
3) Place a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on top of the guac.
4) Then comes the just-cooked fried egg, so the cheese can get all melty and perfect.
5) Sprinkle your hot sauce of choice on the fried egg.
6) On the other side of the English muffin, use mustard (either yellow or dijon).
7) Optional: You could also add a sliced tomato, but I'd slice it thin. I added a thick slice once and it was just too tomato-y.
As you may have read in his guest post a few weeks ago, my husband has some issues with bacon. However, I love it. The only issue I have is cooking it. The tastiest bacon is fried in a pan in its own fat, but that’s a very unhealthy method (especially if you eat it fairly frequently). I’ve started baking it in the oven lately, but it just takes so dang long. And microwaving is quick, but you lose some of the nice crispiness that you get with other bacon-cooking techniques. So what’s a girl to do?
I found a pretty satisfying solution while at Marshall’s the other day, and it’s helped with my bacon issues.
It’s the Joie Piggy Bacon Tray! You put 4-5 slices on the tray, cover it with the piggy top, and microwave according to directions (usually 4 minutes for 4 slices). I was very happy with the results. I got the crispiness that you get from frying bacon, but less grease and still yummy. One caveat---if you try to cook center cut (thick-sliced) bacon on this tray, the results will not be as good. Use the regular thin sliced stuff and you’re in business. And it’s cute to boot! As long as you don’t mind being reminded that bacon comes from cute little pigs.
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