The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Banana Pumpkin Pancakes with Pear Caramel Sauce

This is the sort of breakfast that happens when I run out of maple syrup….

Still Oatmeal with Scratchy

He refused to budge.

I’d just finished taking pictures for another upcoming food post.  I brought that food back into the kitchen and traded it for the three jars you see in the picture above.

When I returned to the living room, Scratchy had claimed the table.

He’s a big cat.

And when you try to force him to move…he suddenly weighs two hundred times his ordinary (over)weight.

I wasn’t in the mood to wrestle him, so I let him stay.

Breakfast

Lizards.  And a blob of extra batter.

Alex had a friend sleep over, and I promised I’d make pancakes for breakfast.

Just to amuse myself (and score “best Mom who makes pancakes” points), I put some batter in a piping bag and had fun drawing. 

All Four Food Groups! Including the All-Important Bacon Fat Group!

I almost feel like I should post this under an assumed name, what with all my perky, healthy, Look!  We Grow Vegetables!  posts lately. 

It’s…I don’t even know what to call it, other than one of the yummiest breakfasts I’ve ever had.

It’s a fried egg on top of warmed goat milk mozzarella on top of arugula on top of a piece of leftover pizza dough that was fried in bacon fat.

Yes.  Bacon fat. 

And yes.  It was that good.

Here’s how it happened…

Thai-ish Scrambled Egg Breakfast Pizza

I’m not even finished eating this.  But it’s so yummy I had to share.

It’s basically a breakfast of leftovers, which is one of my favorite ways to do breakfast.

I don’t really have a recipe, per se.  Just what I did with what I had.

Interested?  Hungry?  Follow me….

Oatmeal Corn Muffins

Next time I make these I need to make a double batch.  Or a triple.

My kids (especially Alex) plowed through most of them the first day and I barely managed to pack a couple away for school lunches.

Salad Omelet

I had a little bit of salad left from last night.  Some chopped asparagus, some greens, a couple of slices of radish.

I almost tossed them in the compost last night, but then I thought they’d make a nice omelet in the morning.

So here’s what I did.

Ricotta Coffee Cake with a Chocolate, Lemon, and Double Ginger Filling

I made this yesterday for Easter brunch at my cousin’s house. 

I’d been asked to make this coffee cake, but I didn’t have pears or pecans, and I felt rebellious, so I decided to make something different.  But still a coffee cake.

I sort of made it up as I went along.  I started with a recipe for an apple cake using ricotta cheese that I found online, and then I changed a bunch of things and ended up with this.

Fortunately I took notes.

Cooking With My Kids: Pancakes With Stairs and Almonds

Not really stairs.

It's pancakes with apples and pears.  And sliced almonds.  And apple syrup.

Cooking With My Kids: Cranberry Orange Walnut Pancakes with Cranberry Orange Syrup

 
A few nights ago, after dinner, we were all downstairs, flopped out on the couch and the big chair, watching tv.  We were probably either watching the Olympics or some nature show. 

Because bedtime was approaching, both my kids were suddenly hungry.  It's funny how they are starving to death ten minutes before they are due to go to sleep, despite big meals and maybe a dessert, too.  What amazing metabolisms they have.

Blueberry Multigrain Pancakes

You know, nothing says "I love you" like a big fat glob of butter. 

Pear & Pecan Coffee Cake

 
We got together for brunch at my cousin and his wife's house this past Sunday.  Normally they are with us for Christmas, but this year my cousin, Steve, went home to his native England for a visit, so things worked out a bit differently.

Anyway, brunch at their house is ALWAYS something you want to get to, because Colleen (Steve's wife) is an awesome cook and she makes enough for the whole town to eat.  And she makes this egg dish, with chourizo and tater tots and cheese (and onions?  don't remember), all baked in the oven - it's VERY good.

Crullers with Cinnamon-Vanilla Glaze

They look pretty good, don't they?

The thing is, I think they could be better than they are.

So keep reading and I'll tell you why.

Blueberry Boy-Bait

 

Seriously - that's the name of the recipe.  I didn't make it up myself.

And if you were looking for blueberry recipes and you came across that one, wouldn't you HAVE to make it?  Come on now, be honest.  You would.

And you'd also be very glad you tried the recipe out, because this little cake is very good.

I found it in Christopher Kimball's The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, which I seem to be turning to a lot lately.  I've used a couple jam recipes now, and I figured there would be a tempting blueberry (non-jam) recipe somewhere in the pages as well.

Blueberry Boy-Bait does not disappoint.  Not only is the cake good, but so is the little story behind the name.  Mr. Kimball writes:

"This is my all-time favorite recipe name.  It comes from Renny Powell, a teenager from Chicago, who submitted this recipe in 1954 to the Pillsbury $100,000 Recipe & Baking Contest (now known as the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest) and won second prize in the junior division.  This is a very light one-layer cake with blueberries and a simple crumble topping.  Ms. Powell evidently found it useful in attracting members of the opposite sex and, based on my testing, I would have to agree that it's pretty good bait.  I made a few changes from the original, including reducing the sugar level (recipes from the 1950s are usually too sweet), cutting back on the amount of topping, and increasing the volume of blueberries.  We now use this recipe at the farmhouse, so that when neighbors stop by for a cup of coffee we have something to serve with it."

Isn't that delightful?  You really have to make it now, don't you?

Okay, here's the recipe:

2 cups flour

1 _1/4 cups sugar

10 tablespoons (1 _1/4 sticks) cold butter

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, separated

1 cup milk

1 _1/2 cups fresh blueberries, washed, drained, and blotted with paper towels (or frozen blueberries that have been thoroughly thawed and drained)

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 13 x 9-inch pan with butter and then flour it lightly.  Sift together the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl.  Cut the butter into pieces, then work into the flour mixture using your fingertips or a pastry blender.  (If you have a food processor, place the flour and sugar in bowl and pulse to mix.  Add the butter, which should be cold and cut into pieces, and pulse 7 or 8 times until the flour takes on the texture of coarse meal.) Reserve 1/2 cup of this mixture to use as a topping.

(I made one little addition to the recipe here - I added 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon to the 1/2 cup reserved flour mixture/crumb topping.  Just wanted to give it a little extra spark of flavor.  Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.)

2.  Add the baking powder, the salt, the egg yolks (reserve the whites), and the milk to the flour mixture still in the bowl.  (If you used a food processor, put the processed flour mixture in a different bowl now, not the processor one.)  Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for about 3 minutes.  (This can also be done by hand with a wooden spoon.)

3.  In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until they hold 2-inch peaks. 

Fold gently into the batter. 

Spread batter in the prepared pan. 

Sprinkle blueberries (make sure they are dry) on top,

then sprinkle with the reserved 1/2 cup crumb mixture.

   

4.  Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until the center of the cake bounces back when pressed with the flat side of a fork.  Let cool for 30 minutes before serving either as a coffee cake or a dessert, the latter with whipped cream.

~~~

Once the cake cooled, I cut it up into squares (okay, squares and rectangles)

and stacked them on a cake plate (so I could take a picture of them ON the cake plate, mostly)

 

and then I stepped back and let the family devour them. 

I did manage to snag a couple for myself, and I sent some across the street to my friend, K, who just found out she's pregnant and therefore NEEDS to eat for two.

I'm thinking of making them again and maybe increasing the crumb topping, just because I love the crumb topping part, but the cake doesn't require it.  It's incredibly tasty as-is.

Blueberry Boy-Bait.

Guess I should plan to teach Julia to make this, so later on she can catch herself a man. 

HAHAHAHA - just kidding.  She won't resort to bait.  She'll just whack one on the head and drag him back to her cave.

  

Over Easy Egg Roll

 

or...

Over Easy Egg on an Eggroll

Egg Roll Over Easy

Egg Over Easy on an Open Eggroll

...

or something like that.

We had Chinese food Sunday night and one morning earlier this week (before I decided to be healthy instead) I reheated the eggroll, split it open, squirted a package of the yellow mustard they give you on it, and topped it with a fried egg, over easy.

It was divine.

Deep Dish Lox and Cream Cheese Breakfast Pizza

 

Since there's not really a lot to say about making this yummy breakfast item, let me tell you (in case you're interested) how it came about.

My husband received a gift card to Pizzeria Uno - or whatever they call themselves now...Uno...something like that.  Anyway, we went there Thursday night with the kids for dinner.

Of course, the only time a trip out to eat with one or both children was ever easy was when Alex was in the womb and Julia was just a little unborn sprite spirit pestering the Powers That Be for a Family of her very own to torture.

Okay, I exaggerate.  They're little kids.  They behave pretty well the majority of the time.  And the times they aren't behaving, they're just being silly and having a hard time putting the brakes on. 

Fortunately for our family, we have Bill, the Brake-Master.  At one point Thursday night, before the appetizer and the kids' make-your-own pizza setups arrived, Julia was...well...she was burping.  Loud and proud.  Not a LOT.  Twice.  And she said "excuse me" (eventually) after the first one, but, you know, she couldn't help but beam with pride at the volume.  She's four.  Bill told her not to do it again.  This from a man who could recite the alphabet and several dirty limericks in burps in front of his buddies, probably.  And plus, a person - especially a small one of few years - is sometimes caught by surprise (sometimes) and unable to keep a lid on the belch.  It's an oops situation.  Not a "bad child" thing.  Usually.

Well anyway, she burped, was cautioned by Mr. Brake-Master, and less than a minute later, she did it again.  And then Alex did something - either he caught the burp bug too or did something else not entirely appropriate, and Bill took both kids out of the building for a little chat.  When they came back, Bill said they'd reached an understanding.

After that point, Julia and Alex both made it a point - several times - to either demonstrate how they'd keep their mouths shut if they felt a burp coming on - or to announce "see how we're not burping?"

As you can see, we have very little to actually talk about as a family.

Anyway.  That didn't story didn't inspire the breakfast - I just wanted to share.

For dinner, the kids each had a make-your-own pizza, and Bill and I shared a salad (spinach, grilled chicken and gorgonzola - YUM) and the traditional Chicago deep dish pizza - which was basically crust, a two-inch-thick layer of enormous clumps of sausage, dotted with plum tomatoes.

I could only eat one slice of the pizza.  Too much sausage for me.

I could, however, if no one was watching, devour the entire deep-dish pizza crust.  I love those crusts.  They've got a more biscuit-like texture then regular pizza, and they're thick and filling and loaded with starch.  Which is one of my favorite food groups, in case you didn't know that.

We brought home 3 slices of that pizza, Bill took two to work for lunch on Friday, and on Saturday morning, I warmed the remaining slice in the oven, and then topped it with a fried egg.  He said it was really good.

Okay.  So there's that.

Now, last night, I made fried chicken and roasted sweet potatoes for dinner, and we had stuff for salads as well.  I was also going to make corn muffins (the upcoming TWD recipe) - except I was missing an ingredient.  So I decided to make biscuits.  (Can you sense a theme?)

I used a recipe in The Best Recipe, which was put out by the fabulous Cooks Illustrated people a number of years ago.  The biscuit section includes two basic recipes - one for Fluffy Biscuits, and one for Flaky Biscuits.  I checked both ingredient lists and went with the Fluffy recipe because I had everything on that list and didn't have the shortening required to follow the Flaky recipe.

I also added cheddar cheese to the dough and grated some parmesan on top of the biscuits before they went in the oven.

They.  Were.  Yummy. 

Alex, in particular, raved about them.  He didn't want to eat any of his sweet potato, but when I made it clear he wasn't getting a second biscuit without eating some sweet potato first, he dug in without further protest.  (He still acted like we'd poisoned him - or forced him to eat okra - but at least he wasn't protesting.)

I'd offered to make breakfast pizzas for Sunday morning, and had fully intended to make my usual pizza dough for them.  But then....Alex had a slice of pear tart for his breakfast (another new favorite for him), and so it would be down to three of us...so Bill suggested I just make one and we could also cook up some bacon and eggs if necessary.

And I had liked the biscuits so much, I decided to use a biscuit crust (sort of like the Uno pizza crust) instead of a yeasted dough crust.  And Bill and I both agreed that the single pizza should be the cream cheese and lox one.

So that's the story.

And it was really terribly easy.

I got out my block of cream cheese to let it soften.

I minced two little red onions - the size of shallots - or you could probably use chives.  Or a ring of a red onion.  Whatever you like.

Then I made the biscuit dough.

As I said, the recipe is from The Best Recipe, by the editors of Cooks Illustrated, and is on page 381 (at least of my hardcover edition).

Fluffy Biscuits

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes, plus 2 tablespoons melted for brushing tops (or, in the case of a pizza, for brushing the outer edge of the crust)

3/4 cup cold buttermilk or 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons low-fat or whole-milk plain yogurt

2-3 tablespoons additional buttermilk (or milk), if needed

1.  Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees.

2.  Mix or pulse flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl or the workbowl of a food processor fitted with steel blade.  With your fingertips, a pastry blender, 2 knives, or steel blade of the food processor, mix, cut, or process butter into the dry ingreditnes until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps.

3.  If making by hand, stir in buttermilk with a rubber spatula or fork until mixture forms into soft, slightly sticky ball.  If dough feels firm and dry bits are not gathering into a ball, sprinkle dough clumps with additional tablespoon of buttermilk (or milk for the yogurt dough).  Be careful not to overmix.  If using food processor, pulse until dough gathers into moist clumps.  Remove from food processor bowl and form into rough ball.

4.  With lightly floured hands, divide dough into 12 equal portions.  Liglty pat a portion of dough back and forth a few times between floured hands until it begins to form a ball, then pat lightly with cupped hands to form a rough ball.  Repeat with remaining dough, placing formed dough rounds 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Brush dough tops with melted butter.  (May be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 hours.)  Bake until biscuit tops are light brown, 10 to 12 minutes.  Serve immediately.

*  I didn't make 12 balls with the dough - I just patted the dough into a circle about 8-9 inches in diameter and cut it half, then into quarters, then each quarter into thirds, kind of like when you make scones.  The shape didn't seem to have an adverse effect on the flavor.

~~~

Now, to make the pizza, instead of making 12 balls or wedges with the dough, you pat the dough into whatever pan you're using.  I used a 9" tart pan.  You could use a cake pan, a pizza pan if you have one, or even a small baking dish or a pie plate. 

After you pat the dough into the pan,  lightly brush the outer edge with the melted butter.

Gently break up the 8 oz block of cream cheese and press to cover the center portion of the dough.  Sprinkle half the minced red onion over the cream cheese.

 

Place tart pan (if using) on a baking sheet, and place in the oven.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges of crust are golden and puffed and cream cheese has softened.

 

Top with slices of smoked salmon and sprinkle with remaining minced onion.

 

Return to oven for a minute or two, just to warm the salmon a bit.

 

Carefully - using caution and intelligence - remove the ring of the tart pan. 

Now, there's a smart way to do this, and my way.

The smart way would be to set the tart on something like a 28 oz can of tomatoes and letting the outer ring fall off naturally. 

MY way, aka The Stupid Way, was, this morning, to hold the (fresh out of the 450 degree oven) pan (using an oven mitt - I'm only MOSTLY stupid) with one hand and gently push off the ring with the other (oven mitted) hand.  Of course, since my hands are attached to my arms, which are still (amazingly) attached to my body, when the outer (metal, hot from the 450 degree oven) ring drops off, guess where it will land.  Yes.  On my innocent and unsuspecting forearm.  I yelped.  And quickly put the tart down on the fresh-from-the-450-degree-oven sheet pan.

You know, it's not always easy to slide a spatula UNDER the thin metal flat part of the tart pan.  In fact, it's pretty darned hard when it's all really, really hot.

I stared at it all for a moment, not wanting to do anything that might destroy the pizza/tart.

Aha!  I have a pizza peel, don't I?  I sure do!

So I slipped that between the tart crust and the tart pan disk, and was able to transport our breakfast safely to a cutting board.  (See photo above.)

Slice and serve immediately.

 

Yummy.

Sourdough Hotcakes - Plain or Blueberry

 

Hungry?

And those are turkey sausages on the plate with the hotcakes.  I handed this plate to Alex after I shot a bunch of "action shots" as I poured the syrup.  6 blueberry hotcakes (the blueberries are more visible on the undersides of the cakes) swimming in syrup.  For the record, he ate 8 blueberry hotcakes and one sausage.  Boy loves his flapjacks.

I used Ruth Allman's book, Alaska Sourdough, as a starting point and tweaked it a bit as I went along. 

First of all, I set the starter yesterday - I added equal parts flour and water to the sourdough and gave it a good stir.  This morning, it looked nice and bubbly and ready to go.

 

Here's my ingredient list:

3 cups of starter

3 T sugar

6 T vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 (scant) tsp Kosher salt

1 ^_1/2 tsp baking soda

1 _^1/2 T very warm water

1 ^_1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

 

In a large bowl, combine the starter, oil, sugar, salt, and eggs until you've got a nice, smooth batter.

Keep the baking soda and warm water handy.

Get your griddle going - you want it nice and hot before you pour any batter onto it, so the cakes don't stick.  I use a reversable griddle/grill pan that fits over two burners.  To make sure it's hot enough, I'll paint the griddle surface with some vegetable oil, give that a minute to warm up, and then flick some water onto the pan.  If it sizzles right away, it's ready to go.  You'll probably need to adjust the flame levels of your burners (if this is the method you're using, too) as you go; the pan might start to become too hot and darken your hotcakes more than you'd like.

Once the griddle is ready, combine the warm water and the baking soda and stir to combine.  You won't completely dissolve the baking soda; that's fine.  Pour the water/soda mixture into your bowl of batter and - with a rubber spatula - FOLD the water/soda mix into your batter.  Right away you'll see the texture change from a regular ol' batter to something light and kind of frothy in appearance.  It's pretty cool to watch, actually. 

Ruth Allman has this to say about the addition of baking soda to the batter:

    There are some modern cooks who say "Fold stiffly beaten egg whites into the Sourdough batter to make it light and fluffy."

    Pioneer Alaskans did not have the luxury of fresh eggs....

    Instead, the pioneer would just add a teaspoonful of good old "Arm and Hammer" baking soda to the batch of Sourdough Starter.  As it is folded in, instantly a chemical action takes place.  Remember the sour dough has acid qualities, and soda is a spontaneous neutralizer and sweetener.

     As you fold the soda in, the batter starts to raise, filling the bowl with fluffy Sourdough.  You can feel the change as you are spooning the batter over and over.  There is a hollow tone developing; deeper and deeper as the Sourdough becomes filled with millions of tiny air bubbles.

    Make certain everything is ready - the iron or griddle hot, so the Sourdough can be cooked while the air is still working in the batter.  Results:  You have "50% baked hot air" and light Sourdoughs that melt in your mouth.

    Delay in hitting the iron until after the Sourdough stops raising and you will have a flat batter.  Bake while air is in the Sourdough for buoyant delicious mouth-watering Sourdoughs!

I tried to capture this change taking place, but I don't know how well you can see what I'm talking about here.  But think of how frothy egg whites become, and how the texture is when you've got soft peaks, and that's kind of what happens here.  It goes from batter texture to soft peak texture - right before your very eyes!

But you don't have the luxury of time here, so don't just stand there gazing at the batter in fascination, even though it's tempting to do so.  Start spooning or ladling  the batter onto the griddle.  Don't go anywhere, either - it cooks up pretty quickly.

 

Because of the different preferences of my offspring, I made both plain and blueberry hotcakes.  I just sprinkle blueberries onto the raw side of the hotcakes and then flip them over when the cooked side is nicely browned. 

If you've got options, the tiny wild blueberries would probably work best, as the sourdough hotcakes in this recipe are relatively thin.  I used the larger berries because we have a huge bag of them in the freezer.  They taste great, no matter which size berries you use, but the thinner ones line up better with the surface of the hotcakes. 

You could also fold the blueberries into the batter - it's up to you.

I kept the hotcakes on a plate in the warming drawer of my oven until they were all cooked, and then I served them with turkey sausage links, and, of course, butter and maple syrup.

This recipe made about 36 or so 4" hotcakes. 

The flavor of a sourdough hotcake (or pancake) is unique - kind of tangy and sweet and addictive, at least in my case.  If you've never had them before, go on and make some.  What are you waiting for? 

And hey, even if you don't like them (which I can't imagine, but I suppose it happens), you will have performed a fun little science project with your addition of baking soda to the sour dough, and you can give yourself a little high-five for that.

Egg in a Nest

Had your breakfast yet?  You should - most important meal of the day, they say. 

Weekday mornings it's usually a quick affair for the kids and Bill - oatmeal or cereal, or sometimes scrambled eggs or even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

But it doesn't really take that long to do something a bit more fun with the eggs, and my kids love them this way.

Egg in a nest - goes by other names as well.  The fun part about this is if you've got cookie cutters (and we all know I do) you can vary the theme from time to time.  Trust me - it's a little thing, but it's a big deal to the almost-4 to almost-6 year old set. 

This morning I decided to cut out bunny shapes.

All you do, is get a piece of bread and a cookie cutter that will cut out a shape and still leave a sturdy outline of bread all the way around.

Cut out your shapes, being careful to get all the little corners and crevices if you can, so the cut-out looks like what it's supposed to.

Heat up a griddle or frying pan and melt some butter in it (butter adds flavor)...then lay all your bread pieces down (if they all fit - you can also work in batches.  If you are, do the inner shapes first.)

Once they start to brown a bit on the underside, pour in your eggs.

Once the bread starts to brown...

Flip them all over - use care when you're flipping the egg-filled bread so nothing falls out and breaks.

Cook just enough to set the white on the other side (we're an over-easy family here) and then serve.  When you plate them, you want to flip them back over so the "prettier" side is face-up.

(You'll note the darker bunny on the left, the lighter bunny on the right - I sometimes forget to lower the setting on the power burner in the front part of my stove - things above it cook faster.)

Anyway - success this morning - happy, breakfast-eating children!

Breakfast can be fun!  (Okay, yeah, I sound like a nut.)

Corned Beef Project: Day 11 - Corned Beef Hash

There's a small restaurant in Chepachet, RI called, simply, The Harmony Restaurant.  My husband discovered it years ago when he was teaching part-time in the area, and I remember he was very impressed with their breakfasts (though not so much with the coffee, or the heavy smoking that was allowed in the restaurant back then.)  I've been there with him a number of times over the years, and I have to agree - they really do breadfast up right.  Generous portions, fluffy pancakes, eggs done perfectly, and amazing corned beef hash.  Corned beef hash that someone there actually made.  Someone spent a bit of time and care on this dish, and it shows.  Their corned beef hash has a creamy texture, as opposed to the stuff you get in a can (and at some other restaurants). 

I wanted to make corned beef hash like this.  Or better.  And I don't know - I'm not all that good at self-promotion - but I think I make a mean corned beef hash.  You could ask my husband, but he had some (too much) for breakfast this morning and he's still in a blissful coma.

Anyway, here's what I do.

First - I make corned beef a day or two before.  It's kind of essential.  And potatoes - cooked with the corned beef if possible.  Or baked.  But cooked before the morning you plan to make the hash.

Also, a green bell pepper.  And an onion.  Some butter.  Salt (not a lot) and pepper.  That's about it.

Here's how I make it:

Preheat the oven to 375.

Cut up the green pepper.

Chop up an onion.

Heat a large pan on medium high and melt some butter in it, and then toss in the pepper and onion and saute

until the onion starts to brown a little bit.

While that's happening, get out your leftover potatoes from the Corned Beef and Boiled Vegetable dinner you made a couple of nights ago and dice up the potatoes.

When the onions and peppers are looking good, add in the potatoes and sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.

Let that cook while you slice and shred the corned beef.  Then add the shredded beef to the vegetable mixture.

When everything has been heated through, shut off the heat and remove about half of the corned beef and vegetable mixture and - in batches - run it through a food processor until it's approaching the consistency of mashed potatoes.  Add that all back to the pan.

If you look at the picture below, you can see the pureed portion on the top/left...and the rough cut portion on the right/bottom.

Now work the two sections together with a wooden spoon or fork or spatula until well blended.  You should see smooth areas and chunky areas.

Press all that down evenly in the pan and top with about a tablespoon of butter, broken into bits.  Put the lid on the pan and place the whole thing in the oven for about 15 minutes.  When the timer goes off, remove the lid and let it cook a bit more while you cook the eggs (if you're having eggs with your corned beef hash, and really, I can't imagine why you wouldn't, as they are meant to be together). 

We usually have the eggs either over easy or poached.  Today I went the over easy route.  I also warmed up some leftover bread from the Corned Beef dinner extravaganza and served that, too.

Like so:

 

This is not a breakfast to have on a day you need to bustle about and accomplish a lot. 

This is a breakfast for a day of leisure. 

A day of reading the paper and making some more coffee or tea.

 

And maybe a nap, if you can get away with it.

Breakfast in the Barefoot Kitchen

On weekends, I'll make something pancakes or french toast or an omelet - it's a much more relaxed time, so I don't mind cooking something special to order.

But on weekdays, there's not really enough time for that, so it's usually something quicker like oatmeal or cereal or eggs or Alex's personal favorite - a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich.  Or - "SAHMwich" as he sometimes snootily refers to it.  I don't know why. 

So that's what he had this morning.  And while I was spreading peanutbutter (Teddy, Old-Fashioned, Smooth) I thought I'd like some toast and peanutbutter with my coffee, too.  So I put a slice of bread in the toaster, brought Alex his SAHMwich, and sat down on the loveseat in the living room with my coffee.  Bill and Alex were sitting together in the slightly over-sized chair we have, watching the lizards and discussing what the native peoples of Alaska and parts north dine on.  Seals, fish, whales, etc.  Whatever they can get to eat.  And that led to a discussion of whether or not it's bad to eat other animals (* and please - this is just a little snippet of my morning, not an invitation to debate whether or not it's right to eat other living creatures.  This is not the place.)...and that led to a discussion about whether animals that eat OTHER animals are bad or not.  (General consensus - not.)

And while we were sitting around having this conversation, I got my camera, because Alex is really very cute when he's eating.  He just enjoys his food.  And I have taken a lot of pictures of Julia "Palsy-Face" Rose lately, so I figured I should balance things out with some shots of Alex.

Here's one.

When Alex eats a SAHMwich, he is very organized about it.  He goes straight across the cut edge of the bread, then back to the beginning, and across, and so on.  Occasionally he will pause to inspect his work, and then he'll get back to the task at hand.

While this was going on, and Bill was holding up his coffee mug because he doesn't like having his picture taken (I told him I wasn't interested in him, but in Alex, and that persuaded him to lower the mug.), we kept hearing two things - one was Julia speaking in a few different voices upstairs, obviously playing with a few of her million babies before joining the rest of the family.  The other sound was a brief hum coming from the kitchen - like something was turning on briefly and then off again.  Maybe the icemaker...maybe there were ice cubes stuck and they were jamming up the works.  That happens occasionally.  Whatever.  We've got dragons to talk about.  Are they bad?  No.  They are just doing what dragons do.  But they're not real anyway, so it's kind of a moot point.

And then something clicked in my slushy brain, and I went into the kitchen and realized, ah, my toast is ready.

Now, most people have a preference as to how dark or light they want their toast.  I vary, depending on the kind of bread, and whether or not I'm going to put butter or peanutbutter or butter and jam or what on the toast. 

But this morning was different.  I let the psychotic toaster decide.  And the toaster chose this:

 

Yes.  It's called "Blackened Bread" and if you like the cleansing effects of carbon on your teeth and innards, this is the toast for you.  If you like your toast extra crispy, look no further. 

Not everyone can achieve this level of cinder-like perfection.  I mean look at the even blackness over the entire surface of the bread, with that sad hint of brown reaching out from deep within the tiny nooks and crannies.

 

It helps to have a toaster that doesn't work properly any more.  The timing mechanism is broken, so when you're toasting something, the little knob just stays wherever you've set it, and the heat just comes on and stays on.  Forever.  Or until smoke is pouring out and someone finally realizes that OH, S***! - she was going to make toast this morning!   (Normally I set the oven timer when I am going to toast something, but this morning I was distracted by the food conversation in the other room.  Yes, I'm an idiot.)

I left the little toaster oven door closed and opened the back door so I could fan as much smoke out of the house as possible.  Bill disconnected the two smoke detectors near the kitchen and opened a window.  My eyes should stop stinging by mid-morning, I think.  I lit a candle to battle the smell.  It's not working yet.  Bill gratefully escaped to work, and the kids retreated to the basement to watch Curious George a bit before school.  And I, of course, took pictures.

Blackened Bread.  An exciting start to any morning.