Morning After Munchies - Egzactly!

So it's now officially 2012!  You've tripped the light fantastic, painted the town red and rung it in 'til there's no self respecting bell what ain't been rung!

Now here it is, the morning after...or maybe it's noontime by now, but it's still morning to you.
Your mouth feels like an army just trudged through it and your belly is rumbling for something...QUICK!
And to make matters worse, there's a whole house full of overnight guests - intentionally or not - and they feel the same way, too.  Muggy mouths and empty tummies!   Thank goodness for eggs!

French Toast Waffles

Depending on the degree of your hangover, these little ovals can be simple as Over Easy or complex as an Omelet or Fritata, or anything in between.

What I like to do at times like this is something I call French Toast Waffles.  It's French Toast - you know, bread dipped in egg then fried, but rather than using a frying pan I use my ancient waffle iron.  It's quick, easy and is something you can even make ahead then just heat up in the toaster!  Now there's a nifty idea! 
No muss, no fuss....done ahead of time would certainly make that morning after a little less crusty!

On that note, have a Happy New Year and a great breakfast!
And as always, feel free to submit your ideas, memories, recipes and so on.  And don't forget, Enjoy!

Confidence Building and the Six Egg "Julia"

Trying to make an exceptional omelet is difficult enough.  Trying to make a true French Chef-type omelet is a fairly daunting task....trying to make it a la Julia Child is, well, humbling and exhilarating at the same time.

It all seems easy enough; whisk some eggs, throw 'em in the pan, let it rip.  Sure.  Ever had to dance with a skillet on a hot burner? That's kind of how it goes when  working with this dish. 

Beat eggs well

Once you've committed yourself to the deed, go at it full steam ahead....stick to it 'til the bitter end.  You'll be amazed with what can be accomplished with a little patience and a lot of elbow grease. 

First make sure your eggs are beaten well.  For this particular omelet, we don't want to capture a lot of air.  That would be essential for the "puffy" omelet, but for this one we just want to beat the eggs into a liquid state.

Surf's up!  See the curl forming?

After that, it's all in the pan action.  Get it hot, get the beaten eggs into it....wait a few moments, then start shaking the pan vigorously across the flame.  As the eggs solidify, you'll notice a "curl" developing along the far end of the pan. Kinda looks like you'd expect a surfer riding on the thing. That's good! Keep it up!

You'll notice the egg acting more like a crepe, moving as a unit around the rest of the pan. This is when I start adding ingredients...cheese first, then tomatoes and this time some pepperoni that had been heated earlier in a pan to cut down on the greasiness.  In fact I used a dab of the pepperoni grease to lubricate the omelet pan.

Omelet fold close-up

Once your omelet "innards" are added give the pan another shake, this time when you shove forward, lift the far side of the pan slightly toward you.  This will help develop the fold.  Sometimes you'll need to coax this folding with a spatula, sometimes you don't.

In some circles, using a spatula to help with the fold is considered a no-no, but I'll not go there.  It's breakfast, fer cryin' out loud!  I need more than one cup of coffee and a dry piece of toast before venturing that perfection!

Anyway, after the fold is completed I sometimes top the omelet with a little cheese before serving. The cheese's  tanginess especially nice with all that pepperoni!

Some people say you can't make anything less than a six egg omelet...that anything less will not turn out.  I disagree.  I've made "Julia" omelets with as many as 12 and as few as 2 eggs and they all turned out fine. They require the same steps and the same amount of attention to detail.

This dish is appropriate for not only breakfast but lunch and dinner too.  Once mastered, the omelet will become one of your "go to" dishes for quick, tasty, even a little impressive fare for family and company.
Enjoy!  And as always, you're invited to share ideas, recipes and thoughts anytime!

Been A While....good things take time

If Blogs truly reflect a person's life, mine is either too busy to write daily or too scattered to keep up the discipline.  As writing "Fifty Five Is The New..." would indicate, I am capable of the discipline of almost daily writing....so what gives? 

I don't know. What I do know is that cooking is a daily occurrence, at least for me.
Many mornings begin with eggs in our household.
Over easy with a dab of melted cheese over top of the slightly liquid yolk.
Sometimes I do something extra.....like so:

OVER EASY EGGS ON A RAFT OF TOAST

For each egg you need a piece of bread.
Take the bread and with a cookie cutter, glass or lid from non-stick spray can, cut a hole in the center of the bread.  Toast bread slightly on both sides, including the cut-out pieces. They will be the "caps" on top of the eggs.

Eggs cooking inside bread

Spray hot pan with release spray (Pan or so on), add toasted bread slice.  Crack egg into center of toasted bread slice hole.  Egg should begin cooking.  When it seems firm (white looses transparency, yolk still soft)
take spatula and lift toast piece.  Egg should come up with it at this point.  Turn or "flip" so that bottom side is up.  Cook for a few moments more, depending on how firm you want your egg yolk.  Turn off heat. Remove pan from hot burner.  Flip egg again so that original side is back on top.  Place cheese slice on top of yolk. Cover with lid and let sit for 2 minutes, until cheese melts.
Serve alone or with sausage, fruit or other sides.

That's a pretty good starter for the day.

So 'til next time!
Life is a feast- DIG IN!