Week 11 CC: Breakfast - Buttermilk Waffles

I wish I had time to make amazing breakfasts all the time. Breakfast is my favorite meal category. After a long wonderful night on Saturday and perhaps a bit too much Jameson, I needed a waffle. Bad. After making Irish Soda Bread the day before, I had left over buttermilk so the solution was clear. 

Joy of Cooking has a simple and easy butter milk waffle recipe (reproduced here) which basically is one bowl of dry ingredients and one bowl of the wet stuff.

I made a well in the dry and poured in the wet.

I love love love my waffle iron. It was actually a gift to my sister several years ago, but she is partial to the thin waffles and generously re-gifted this Belgin waffle maker right back to me. Andrew and I went through a crazy waffle phase after receiving it but have since slowed down. 

A little turkey bacon for the salty protien.

The waffle was fluffy on the inside with a nice crunch on the outside. It was warm and filling and it held up to my blackberry freezer jam quite well.  I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture with the jam on it. You'll just have to trust me. It was awesome - perfect Sunday breakfast.

Week 5: Breakfast - Boozy Baked French Toast

The baking challenge this week was breakfast! Being one of my favorite meals, I was not at a loss for things to make, but I am usually at a loss for time to make anything extravagant in the mornings before work.  I am lucky if I manage to scarf down a bowl of cereal on most days. So, my elegant solution? B for D (breakfast for dinner!). Enter, boozy baked french toast.

The recipe called for Challah bread, but there wasn't any when I went to the store and any kind will do really . I bought a loaf of cranberry walnut bread and dried it out in the oven at a low temp - the best french toast is made with stale bread rather than fresh stuff. Friday morning, I woke up early (shocking, I know) and whipped up the egg custard. I was generous with the Bailey's and the Cointreau and suggest you do the same. :)

I poured the egg mixture over a double layer of bread, sealed it up tight, and put it in the fridge to soak all day. One my way home I grabbed the fixin's for a tasty dinner - bacon, sausage, OJ and the all important....Champagne for mimosas!

While the french toast baked, I threw the sausage and bacon in a skillet. If you have access to Hempler's Bacon, do yourself a favor and buy it.  I love this stuff - and I don't really like bacon (an unpopular opinion, I know). 

Once it was the french toast was all baked it looked like this:

All that was left to do was the cut squares of the deliciousness and plate it all up with some oranges.

A little syrup and we were in heaven.  Actually, the syrup was barely necessary.  The booze flavors made the bread nice and sweet, and if I do say so myself, the cranberry walnut bread was perfect - especially with the Cointreau. 

Ham & Egg Sammy

Nothing tastier in the morning than an egg sammy on an english muffin!  The challenge of eggs for this week is quite an easy one for us.  We eat plenty of eggs already so this week there will be a few posts. This morning I heated up some left over ham, scrambled an egg into a pseudo-circle, and added the pièce de résistance Secret Aardvark Habanero Sauce.  

Secret Aardvark Habanero Sauce is from the gods and Andrew and I have been nomming through bottle after bottle ever since our dear friends M & B introduced us to the stuff.  Made in Portland, OR, it is hard to find up here but thanks to some very generous Xmas gifts, our cupboards have enough stocked to keep us in heaven for at least a few weeks. Pizza, eggs, sandwiches, steamed veggies, ice cream, donuts, you name it - I want Aardvark on it. 

I burned the english muffin a bit but was excited to eat it anyway.  Then, I went and left it on the kitchen counter as I ran out the door to work. Sooooo sad. Well, Andrew woke up to a tasty surprise...

We are planning spaghetti alla carbonara for dinner tomorrow night, so stay tuned!