Good Morning Food

I am often tickled by strings of words, when they can be interpreted in different ways.  For example, the title of this post:  Good Morning Food.  As in:

Mmmm...this is some goooood morning food!

Or:

Good Morning, Food!  Meet my mouth!

Or, perhaps:

Oh, Good!  Morning Food!  (Now I'm just getting ridiculous.)

A while back, I posted a recipe for Petite Crustless Quiches, from French Revolution.  Last weekend, I revisited that recipe, with a little twist.  The twist being in the form of kale, and bacon.  Yum.

We always have "special" breakfasts on the weekend, so called by the Kiddos.  Weekday breakfasts consist of either yogurt with frozen (and defrosted) berries, and homemade granola, or cereal.  So, come the weekend, we all look forward to a more leisurely meal, generally involving eggs, waffles, or homemade bagels.  And a good amount of coffee.  Of course.

The thing with preparing a special breakfast is, in my world, that while it appears to be time-consuming, it never really is.  If the natives (ie, Kiddos) are growing restless, I appease their hunger with a bit of fruit, or a small bowl of cereal, until the real meal is ready.  When guests stay over, there's nothing to it to whip up a batch of something that looks impressive, but is truly simple.  Like these mini quiches.

You could add absolutely anything to these wee bites:  some steamed, chopped asparagus, any variety of herbs, cheeses, proscuitto, pancetta...you name it.  Get creative.  These are delicious served hot, or at room temperature, for breakfast, brunch, or any meal, really.

Here's how I made them:

Mini Bacon, Kale, and Feta Quiches - adapted from French Revolution
-makes 12 mini quiches, serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
8 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup crumbled feta
3 or 4 slices of bacon
a few stalks of kale, ribs removed
a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
sprig or two of fresh dill, fronds only, chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
butter or vegetable oil, to grease muffin tin

First, cook your bacon.  I prefer to cook mine on a baking sheet in the oven, 400 deg F.  It takes around 15 minutes, turning once mid-way through. When crisp, drain on paper towels, then chop. 

While your bacon is cooking, prepare the rest of your ingredients, beginning with your kale.  Bring a small saucepan of water to boil, and add your kale, with the ribs removed.  Cook on a medium-high heat until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Drain in a colander, and once cool, squeeze out the excess water.  You will have a small, handful-sized ball.  Chop this up.

Beat eggs, then stir in milk, salt and pepper to taste, herbs, and kale.

Once your bacon is finished cooking, turn the oven down to 375 deg F.  Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

Add equal amounts of chopped bacon to the bottom of each muffin cup, then pour over the egg mixture.  Add the crumbled feta to the top of each mini quiche.  Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the quiches just begin pulling away from the sides of the tin.  Leave to cool in the muffin tin for about 5 minutes, then remove gently, using a knife to loosen the sides, if necessary.

Easy peasy.  And serious Good Morning Food.

Our family is off for the weekend to the Island, to scout for a place to call home.  I'm whipping up two batches of these babies, to bring along for breakfast:

These bagels are another super simple, yet very impressive meal.  If you have a bread machine, seriously, break it out, and get a batch rolling.  It's a foolproof recipe, and who doesn't love fresh bagels and veggie cream cheese in the morning?

I know I do.  Happy Weekending, everyone!

Pancake Tuesday

As usual, my timing is...well, less than impeccable.  Yesterday afternoon, I had word that it was Shrove Tuesday...which we celebrate, UK-style, as Pancake Tuesday.  Good planning, as ever, on my part, of course.  You know the saying "A day late, and a dollar short?"  My mom loved that one, when we were kids.  I wasn't quite a day late for the pancake delivery, but this post?  Definitely late, alas.  Oh well, so it goes.

The history behind Pancake Tuesday is that you get to gorge on what's left of the food stores that get restricted during Lent...eggs, flour, sugar, butter, and milk, being the applicable foods in this case.  Most of the folks we know who dig in and fill their bellies on the pancake feast don't actually do it for religious reasons, but it's such an ingrained tradition, and a pretty sweet deal to stuff yourself full of pancakes and delicious fillings...even if you're not going to be fasting for the foreseeable future.

Pancakes are to us Americans, crepes.  Those tasty delicate little treats, that are perfect stuffed with any number of fillings, savory or sweet.  I generally favor a savory crepe, over a sweet one, especially for dinner.  Last year, I made a mushroom and asparagus filling.  And while I actually had mushrooms and asparagus in my fridge last night, I quite simply couldn't be asked with it.  Not when we arrived home at close to six, and had to whip up the crepe batter, let it rest, and then get started on filling prep.  Nope.  I phoned it in a bit, and went for sweet.

I have to confess to buying out of season strawberries for these.  I don't know what possessed me, and truth be told, they weren't very tasty.  Even after being sprinkled with some sugar in a thwarted attempt to coax some sweetness from them.  If you're making these outside of strawberry season, I'd recommend doing it with a preserve, or perhaps a compote, instead.

Along with the strawberries, I scrounged a bit of this and that from the fridge and spice shelf, and came up with a cream cheese-based spread, with a dash of cinnamon, and a squeeze of Meyer lemon, and it was darn tasty.  Lovely, actually.  Reminiscent of a blintz filling, but without the egg, because I wasn't bothering to cook it.

The Mister generally does the crepe batter, and makes it sans recipe, throwing it all together in the blender.  I used an Alton Brown recipe I found on foodnetwork.com.  Which I tweaked, of course.  Not that it needed tweaking necessarily, but it called for 3/4 cup of milk, and 1/2 a cup of water, and since we usually just do milk, I went with 1 1/4 cups of milk.  And it was delicious.  

Here you go:

Crepes with Strawberries and Sweetened Cream Cheese

Ingredients

for the Crepe Batter
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup flour
3 Tbs melted butter
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp sugar
pinch salt

Give all the ingredients a whir in the blender until smooth, then leave it to rest in the fridge for at least an hour.  It will keep up to 2 days.  The recipe is easily doubled to make more crepes, should you feel particularly inclined to gorge.

To cook:  Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat, and brush a small amount of butter around the pan, just enough to barely coat the surface.  You will need to keep an eye on the heat as you go, and possibly adjust.  To be sure the pan is ready for the first crepe, flick a bit of water in the pan, and if it dances immediately, you're good to go.

Pour out about 1/4 cup (ish) into the pan, and immediately swirl the batter around to get your pancake as thin as possible.  Cook for 30 to 45 seconds, then loosen with a spatula, and flip.  Cook the second side for another 30 seconds.

You can cook these ahead of time, if you all want to sit and eat together, and keep them in a very low-heated oven, around 200 deg F.  If you're the civilized, organized type.  If you're like my family, the Mister will be at the stove, the Kiddos at the table, and I will run back and forth, filling and refilling, and taking bites in between.  What can I say?  It was getting late, and it works.

for the cream cheese filling
2 oz, 1/4 package, cream cheese (the kind in a brick) - at room temp
2 or 3 Tbs plain Greek-style yogurt
1 tsp Meyer lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp sugar

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together until smooth.

To serve:
Spread a bit of the cream cheese mixture on one quarter of the crepe, and top with strawberries, or preserves.

Fold the crepe in half...

Then in half again, to make a triangular packet.  Dust with powdered sugar, and serve immediately.

Happy Belated Pancake Tuesday.

I just thought of another good saying, like my mom's classic above.  When the Mister arrives at the beach, board tucked under arm, and sees the expected swell is flat...someone will invariably say:  "Shoulda been here yesterday, mate."  (Or dude, depending on your continent.)

You should have been here yesterday.  It was some good pancake eating, my friends.

Take It Where I Can Get It

I'm feeling rather pulled in too many directions these days.  All the normal day to day work, school, household stuff, piled on to that the decision to put the cabin on the market (eek), piled on to that my insane notion to join in on this season's KCWC...

Which sucks, because it's such a cool, and meaningful thing, sewing your kids' clothes, one teeny hour a day, for one measly, little week.  And I am having a major struggle with finding the time.  Also with finding the patience with these damn pants. 

I found the coolest tutorial on how to design your own pattern (which would be more useful to me if I could follow directions, and possessed the slightest inkling of precision), and the cutest pocketed pants, on Made.  And the coolest flannel-ish, houndstooth-ish fabric, for the Boy.  Alas, just when I thought I'd gotten things sorted, I realized I should have sewn those pockets on before I sewed the front and back together.  Damn.  How did I miss that?  I've kind of hit the wall here.  But I am at least (cross fingers) going to get a skirt for the Girl made before this week is out.  Sigh.  

Enough trials and tribulations, I do have a wee triumph for you.  Nothing monumentally earth-shattering, mind you.  Pretty sure I'm not up for any awards for this one.  But.  Considering how the week's going, I'll take it where I can get it.

Remember those delicious, homemade bagels we were eating recently?  Well, I've got a little veggie cream cheese for you.  Not rocket science, I know.  But it's good.

Here you go.

Veggie Cream Cheese - makes a bit over 8 oz

Ingredients

8 oz package of cream cheese, or neufchatel (the foil-wrapped kind, in the box), at room temperature

2 Tbs carrots, finely chopped

1 1/2 Tbs green pepper, finely chopped

1 1/2 Tbs celery, finely chopped

1 Tbs green onion, green parts only, finely chopped

pinch celery salt & freshly ground pepper

Toss everything into the food processor, and give it a whiz, until it's the consistency you like.  Mine is fairly smooth, with small chunks of veggies.  Taste for seasoning, then chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

How simple was that?  Thank goodness, I needed an easy one.

Have a good day.