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Easy peasy brunch: baked eggs with cheese

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Category : Breakfast

Happy New Year everyone! Yes it’s 8 days in but we have all been chilling out and getting back into the swing of normal life after a few weeks of over-eating and drinking.

So this morning (possibly afternoon…) Doug and I wanted a very very easy brunch. Preferably one that would use up items we already have and that may be about to expire. This is so easy that I feel guilty showing it on this blog. It’s not really a recipe and can be adapted left right and centre, but man alive is it good…

Baked Eggs – adapted from Tasty Kitchen and Delia

Take rammekina and grease them with butter. Crack an egg into each rammekin and then add some seasoning. I used a pinch of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Then add a teaspoon or two of cream cheese, I used a really good quality cream cheese that was almost like a mousse (because we had it in the fridge) but you could also use cream, yoghurt, milk, anything of that ilk! Then I topped it with a handful of grated mozzarella (my new favourite ingredient). Place in a baking tray and pour boiling water to halfway up the sides of the rammekins.  Then bake for 15 minutes at 175 C or 350 F. Tuck in with toast or a warmed pitta bread!

 

 

Gift Week: Homemade Irish Cream

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Category : Breakfast, Drinks

I’m sure I generally come off as being quite the lush. We homebrew beer & cider, we’ve been aging our own whiskey, we build a bar in our house, and, yes: I went to grad school in Scotland. I’ll let you do the math on that last one. But really, I think I just find alcohol more fascinating than anything else. The scientific process of creating alcohol, whether through distilling or fermenting, the aging process, the history of it, and of course just the social aspect (we won’t get into the psychological aspect of it).

But that social aspect is what makes it a great gift. Graduations, engagements, celebrations of all kinds. But Irish Cream in particular, I think makes a wonderful retirement present. Because for the rest of a retired person’s life (hopefully), they not only get to drink coffee for the enjoyment of it instead of to get them through the work day, it also doesn’t matter if they spike their morning coffee, because they’re retired.

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Bacon Cheddar Broiled Grits

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Category : Breakfast

My family has a lot of Southern roots, but grits is not a dish I grew up on. Grits are the same as polenta, thick ground corn, generally served as a hot cereal. This last week I had some amazing cheese grits at a local restaurant, and I thought I’d try some from home for breakfast this weekend. But with bacon. Because…why wouldn’t I add bacon?

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Oatmeal Brulee

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Category : Breakfast

Sorry for the lack of postin lately, Lucy’s been moving and I’ve been lazy. So here’s a quickie to tide you over until I finally find a recipe worth posting AND cook it without burning it. Because the point of this is to burn it!

Step One

Make oatmeal. Do it however you like. Personally, I like to boil a small handful of barley in water, then after 20 minutes add normal old-fashioned oats, vanilla, brown sugar, and milk/water and cook it ’til it’s finished. The rest of the recipe works just as well if you have an enormously complicated recipe or if you make instant oatmeal in the microwave. However, make sure that the bowl you ultimately are going to put it in is heat proof, you don’t want it to melt under the torch/broiler. Rammekins are just fine, and add to the “eating crème brûlée for breakfast” factor.

Step Two

If you make thick oatmeal, it’s best to try to flatten it and get as smooth a surface as you can. It’s not going to be glassy-smooth no matter what you do, but an uneven surface, as I discovered, leads to burnt bits of oatmeal. Once it’s (relatively) smooth, sprinkle sugar on top, making sure to coat it evenly.

Step Three

Brûlée. If you happen to have a torch laying around your kitchen, then you probably know how to use it to make crème brûlée. Do that. If you don’t have a torch, turn the broiler to high and pop your oatmeal under that. Keep an eye on it. When it has that caramel color to it, take it out. Let it sit for a little bit to make sure the sugar hardens. Enjoy!