'The breakfast club' archive

Egg and cheese toast

Eggs, cheese and bread are common breakfast items. But how they are served can be both a gastronomic and visual feast. Inspired by a reader’s comment which, if I remember correctly, mentioned cheese-topped fried eggs on toasted waffles, I made my version using plain toasted loaf bread (sometime soon I intend to make the waffle version too!). But whether using plain bread or waffle, the great thing about this toast is how the egg yolk oozes out. Best eaten on the plate with a knife and fork. Well, unless you don’t mind the dripping egg yolk which really makes the experience more fun.

Strawberry pancake syrup

Due to a strange twist of fate, I’m on cooking vacation from now until the New Year. My husband, Speedy, will be doing ALL of the cooking although I am not sure if that includes the dishes for the New Year’s Eve family reunion. Of course, it’s going to be a man-in-the-kitchen kind of menu, pork chops and rib-eye steaks are on the list, but the fact that he’s serving them with side dishes means he will definitely have to do more than simply grill the meat. But that’s for later today. Let’s start with what we had for breakfast. Speedy’s version of Christmas Eve breakfast? Pancakes with strawberry syrup. Not store bought pancake syrup but home made using fresh strawberries.

Anchovies and eggs mish-mash

Needless to say, it’s been a stressful day and I’ve been snarky and irritable. I was planning on posting a more exotic dish today but let’s keep it light for now, shall we? Some kind of comfort food seems to be more appropriate because comfort was something I needed badly while waiting for Google to review the site and re-crawl the pages and remove the red alerts.

This anchovies and egg dish was breakfast two days ago.

Because breakfast is the most important meal of the day

One of the things my family plans on changing is our eating habits. Of course, the change began a while back when we cut down drastically on our red meat consumption. That was followed by the low-fat and low-sugar diet that my doctor required. In addition to all that, we plan on breaking away from our habit of being too lazy to eat breakfast. We will be breakfast eaters from now on. A daily habit is not easy to acquire but, at least, we’ve taken the first steps.

Since the breakfast habit is a phase in our lives that I think is worth sharing, I will be documenting our daily breakfasts…

Poached egg in dashi — with ground sichuan peppercorns!

Poached eggs are cooked in simmering (not boiling) water. The shells are cracked and the eggs are allowed to cook in the water until the whites are firm but the yolk still runny. I never poached eggs in water. I used to cook them in simmering meat broth. But because I am on a low-fat diet now, I am discovering other ways to poach an egg.

Try poaching your egg in dashi. Then, sprinkle it with salt and freshly ground sichuan peppercorns.

Corn bread

I baked a pan of corn bread based on a recipe in Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. I said “based on” because I made one substitution. The original recipe uses frozen corn; I used fresh sweet yellow corn. I cut off the kernels from the cobs myself just like I did when I baked a batch of corn muffins a la Kenny Rogers. The second page in the corn muffins entry has a very illustrative photo on how to cut corn kernels off the cob.

What’s for breakfast?

In our house, the meal that we fuss over is dinner. It’s the time when everyone’s home and, after a grueling day at work and in school, the husband and the kids deserve some pampering. But breakfast is quite another story. Since neither the kids nor their father eat breakfast, the house helper and I often eat what’s left from the kids’ packed school lunches or whatever leftovers there are from the previous night’s dinner.

Udon for breakfast

I rarely eat breakfast. I usually take two cups of coffee in the morning then eat somewhere between 9 and 10 which qualifies my first meal as brunch. One day last week when the kids’ packed school lunch consisted of stir-fried pork and vegetables, I decided that my brunch would be udon. I boiled some udon, tossed them with what was left of the stir fried dish and the result is what you see in the photo.

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House On A Hill

The Latest

• Egg and cheese toast
• Comfort food and home cooked meals
• Cooking with leftover turkey
• Smoked salmon and cream cheese canapés
• Banana walnut cake
• Bowls and platters
• Strawberry pancake syrup
• Fresh strawberries
• Roast pork with baked potatoes
• Roast pork belly with black pepper