Showing posts with label Eggs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eggs. Show all posts

Birthday Celebrations 

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 -
Birthday flowers from SIL, BIL & godson!

If you know me, you know that I am a birthday brat.  Plain and simple - I can't help it.  I love celebrating my birthday (I mean, most people do right?)  The countdown to the birthday month begins St. Paddy's Day - exactly one month before the day of birth.  Then, April 1 comes and the birthday celebrations begin.

You may ask, "Angie, why do you feel the need to celebrate all month long?"

Let me explain.  David and Chris, my brothers, both celebrate their birthday's in April (1st and 16th respectively) so legit, it always seemed like a month of birthdays.  Plus, I had (and still have) many friends who celebrate their birth in April.  Prime example - 9 out of about 30 people have an April birthday at my work.  Nine.

I guess I never stopped celebrating the whole month - and my hope is that I will continue to do so for a very long time.  I'm uber fortunate to have a husband who indulges this celebration and allows me to be the birthday brat I am for the month.  And of course, my besties are also very good about it.  I like to think of it as being endearing.  Just sayin'.

So here we are in birthday week.  My actual birthday was Sunday and it began with a delicious breakfast of eggs benedict - my favorite.  I love the creamy hollandaise and how the egg yolk pours perfectly over the crisp hash browns and English muffins.  My favorite kind of eggs benedict is crab benedict.  I order it ever single time I see it on the menu.  But something is a little bit more loving when your wonderful hubs makes it for you.  No questions of "what would you like?" because he already knows.  I gobbled up my breakfast and then we were lazy before heading to Brew Bracket (which I'll be posting a recap very soon) for the afternoon. 

Next up, birthday sushi from Naked Tchopstix - for a review, head over to my other blog, City Nom Noms.  And to wrap it up, drinks with some great friends.

It was a good birthday, low key but still busy.  A good way to end the weekend (which really, wasn't the end since I took Monday off.  I'm a firm believer everyone should have their birthday off.  And if it falls on the weekend - take off the Monday) and begin the 2nd birthday week. 

Yes, I said 2nd.  Since birthDAY was on a weekend, I decided to grant myself two weeks. 

Birthday. Brat.  I know this.

Little celebrations here and there aren't bad. Things like me being able to pick out the movie on Tuesday night or decide where to go out to lunch on Monday.  They are all little things - and nothing is wrong with entertaining life daily.

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Weekend Brunch at Home = Happiness 

Friday, February 11, 2011 -
Sunday's are Tim's favorite days.  He gets to wake up late and relax over coffee and the newspaper.  During football season, we watch the Packers in the afternoon..  It is also the day for grocery shopping.  But mostly, we are lazy and we like it that way.

I adore breakfast, so I usually start making it right away while he gets the coffee brewing.  Our default breakfast is a poached egg over potatoes.  It is so simple and I can still be lazy while making it.  A simple dicing of a few potatoes, parboiled in salted hot water, are simply pan fried with whatever seasoning I feel like that morning.  If we have some leftover lunch meat or smokey sausages, I'll add that to the mix too. Sometimes veggies go in there - tomatoes, peppers, etc. - whatever I have on hand.  All of this is topped with a runny poached egg.  Small serving and delicious for a Sunday morning.

Many times I'll opt for tea versus coffee.  Something about tea makes me want to relax a bit more - and I always grab the glass pot for my flower jasmine tea on the weekend.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Lazy Sunday's - I bet you didn't know that I love them being the over programmed person I am.  Well, now you know. It is a bit of happiness that I get with my best friend and I look forward to it every weekend.

What are you looking forward to cooking this weekend?

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Baked Blueberry & Pecan French Toast 

Monday, January 3, 2011 -
As mentioned, one of my New Year's resolutions is to focus this blog more on 'in the kitchen' fun, as well as events and daily happenings.  What better way then to kick it off with our New Year's brunch item - baked blueberry french toast!

I had half of a loaf of french bread leftover from the week, some frozen blueberries and eggs.  So I thought, why not make blueberry french toast for our NYE brunch?  But I knew that I wouldn't want to get up and have to prep it that morning.  So instead, it turned into one of those lovely overnight breakfast prep items.

I cubed the french bread and prepped the egg mixture, which contained eggs, milk, cinnamon and nutmeg.  I then reached for the brown sugar...

...and kept reaching...

...insert a huge sigh here...

...because I didn't have any brown sugar.

What to do?  Improvise.  I knew I had some molasses and regular sugar, so I made my own brown sugar and added about half a cup to the mix.  A tip for you all - a cup of sugar and about a teaspoon of molasses will make you a cup of, you guessed it, brown sugar.  So next time you find yourself in a situation like mine, I hope this tid bit helps you out!

Then, I poured the egg mixture over the bread, covered it and let it sit in the fridge while I enjoyed the evening (you see that beer in the background, yup, I moved on for the night...)

The next morning, I gathered up some items for my topping.  I sprinkled some blueberries over top and added some pecans I found in the freezer after thinking "why not?"  I sprinkled on some more of the homemade brown sugar and then dabbed it with a tablespoon or two of butter before popping it in the oven for about 45 minutes.

I then reached into the drawer for aluminum foil...

...and kept reaching...

...insert another sigh with a tad bit of frustration - I mean, how did I let this happen?!  In this case, I covered the dish with a cookie sheet for the first 45 minutes.  And for the remaining 15 minutes, I removed the cookie sheet so the bake could get that crisp topping and color I was looking for.

And then, heaven on a fork.  It was crisp on top, and tender in the middle - just like french toast should be.  I love the crispy edges mixed with the soft blueberries and crunch of pecans.  The cinnamon was great in the mix as well, and the homemade brown sugar gave it the perfect sweetness.  I served it with syrup, but I bet a blueberry syrup would make this dish even more divine.  I'm sure it would work with other berries as well!

So friends, what is a great substitution that you've done recently when you discovered you have overlooked an item in your pantry?

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