Last time I went home to visit my parents, we ate at an incredible brunch place (Tasty and Sons). Anyone who watches Portlandia can tell you; in Portland, we love brunch!
(Yes, I have waited in lines that stretched down the block just to eat breakfast, just like in the show. They were candied bacon doughnuts, and they were marvelous.)
Instead of "put a bird on it", I "put an egg on it."
I noticed that at this brunch place, they put a fried egg on top of everything... seriously, everything. I got Moroccan Couscous with sausage, dates, and an egg on top. There's something about the creamy goodness of a fried egg that makes food taste like breakfast.
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Brace yourself for the best way to use leftover french fries... and possibly my new favorite breakfast!
One of my readers contacted me to say he had leftovers after a dinner of cheddar wurst hot dogs and tater rounds, so he "put an egg on it" and converted them into breakfast. He placed the taters and diced sausages in muffin tins, cracked an egg over each, and baked until the eggs were set.
If you want to get into the Christmas spirit, this recipe will fill your kitchen with all the best Christmas smells.
A reader sent me a cool idea: make Dutch babies (also known as German pancakes) to use up fruit that’s still edible, but not fresh enough to eat plain. When she first mentioned this, I thought she meant to use the overripe fruit as a topping. I make strawberry toppings for waffles and pancakes frequently; just slice the strawberries, stir in sugar, and wait for the sugar to suck out all the juices, making syrup. Peaches are also delicious this way. I also use blueberries as a topping by cooking them in sugar over the stove, with a little cinnamon and lemon juice. Most fruit can make a good topping, even past the peak of freshness, but my reader didn’t mean for me to put the fruit on top of the dutch babies; her suggestion was to put the fruit inside. She sent me this link forCherry Almond Dutch Babies as an example. My mind immediately went to Apple Dutch Babies because my mom used to make them all the time. There were six people in my family, which meant there were a lot of apples to peel and core. My mom had an apple peeler that made the job a synch; she just turned the handle and thin strips of peel like spaghetti easily slid off. We used to love draping the peels around our arms and feeding them into our mouths like tickets at an arcade while we waited for dinner to be done. My mind also went to Apple Dutch Babies because at the time, I happened to have four shriveling Honey Crisp Apples on my window sill. I know what you’re thinking; what kind of a monster allows Honey Crisp Apples, aka nectar from the gods, to shrivel on a window sill. Well, they were on sale and honey crisp is basically my favorite fruit ever, so I stocked up. Shopping sales is not always the best idea when reducing food waste. You can use pretty much any apple for this recipe except Red Delicious, which would more appropriately be called Red Disgusting. Tart apples like granny smith are usually favored for recipes, especially pies, but for this, I prefer sweet apples like fuji or gala. The honey crisps were amazing, if you feel like splurging. I made this recipe the other day, and the smells were intoxicating. Baked apple. Melted butter. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Cloves. I want to make this recipe again for the smell alone. This recipe is best when made in a cast iron skillet, both for texture and for lessening the amount of dirty dishes. If you want to double the recipe, though, you can transfer the ingredients to a casserole dish and increase the cooking time. Apple Dutch Babies 3 Tb butter 3 apples ¼ cup brown sugar ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg 1/8 tsp cloves ½ cup milk 3 eggs ¼ cup flour ¼ tsp baking powder
French toast is the easiest solution to any stale bread problem. You can use any kind of bread: hot dog buns, hamburger buns, brioche, baguettes.
If you’d rather do something a little more exciting with your stale bread, I’d like to share with you a special Christmas tradition in my family. I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and in Portland, Oregon, doing the same thing twice is so passé. Tradition? Not much of a concern. We don’t like to repeat what we did the day before, much less year after year. That’s how you end up with Portland delicacies such as lavender ice cream with candied orange peels and chocolate bars made with bacon grease. (Great, now I feel homesick.) My family didn’t have Christmas traditions as much as it had Christmas trends. If we really liked a holiday food we’d have it again as many or as few times as we wanted. Shepherd’s pie was a pretty common occurrence because Jesus was the Good Shepherd, but it was never a requirement. Shepherd’s pie made out of lamb, by the way. I went on a rant about this on Facebook, and I’m going to go on another rant here: if you use ground beef in your Shepherd’s pie, it isn’t Shepherd’s pie at all. It is Cowboy’s pie. Another family trend was eggnog French toast with sugar plum spice syrup. I still remember the first time my dad made it. There was something magical about how the different Christmas smells danced around the kitchen. It became a central memory in my childhood (even though we only had it a couple of times). Then I married a Southerner, and everything about the way I do Christmas changed. My husband’s family has been eating the same foods for centuries. When I propose a new dish on Christmas, my husband’s first question is, “Do I want to eat that every year for the rest of my life?” It’s not easy to introduce meal ideas when the stakes are so high, but my eggnog French toast with sugar plum spice syrup was, surprisingly, a hit. We will never eat eggnog French toast on Christmas morning. That sacred slot has been awarded to Sourdough Waffles, which is what Andrew has had for breakfast at every special occasion – especially Christmas morning – since time immemorial. Instead, eggnog French toast with sugar plum spice syrup is our tradition for the day we decorate the Christmas tree. It’s a tradition I love, and I could actually do it every year for the rest of my life. NOTE: My dad actually makes this recipe with croissants. When I was a kid I thought this was the height of sophistication, but there were some logistical problems I noticed when I made it as an adult. Croissants are mostly air, and when you turn them into French toast, they deflate into thin slabs. I’ve been experimenting with different kinds of bread to use for this recipe and have yet to settle on anything, so feel free to run your own experiments. And of course, you can use any syrup. I’m sure maple syrup would be fine, though for me, I couldn’t have it with anything other than sugar plum spice tea. Also, you can use this syrup recipe to make syrup out of any kind of tea. Like a chai syrup. Aw, man. I can’t believe I only just now thought of that. Chai syrup would be amazing. Merry Christmas! Eggnog French Toast and Sugar Plum Spice Syrup a pint of eggnog bread 2 Sugar Plum Spice tea bags 1 cup of water 2 cups of sugar
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I will never waste food againI've been tired of throwing out food for years - not to mention tired of our huge grocery bill! I decided to make a change and vowed never to waste food again. In this blog, I'll show you how I do it. RECIPESArchives
January 2020
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