You Want Some Fries With That Breakfast?

Just a little suggestion -  When you don't have home fries or hash browns on hand to complete your greasy diner-style breakfast at home, use french fries.

This little plate is graced with fried eggs and sausage patties with leftover fries from the wonderful 5 Seasons Brewery.  I think I dig it even more then the typical breakfast potatoes. 

Bon appétit!

Exploded Macaroni Omelet

I told you there would be more Mac n' Cheese recipes.  If you haven't noticed, I tend to sneak veggies like broccoli into my Mac n' Cheeses.  I usually keep frozen spinach, broccoli and a bag of mixed  veggies in the freezer as backup/emergency recipe additives.  Broccoli tastes yummy with cheese and pasta, so it's a natural to throw in with any mac n' cheese.  My favorite is Annie's White Cheddar & Elbows.  The white cheddar is sharp and actually tastes like real cheese.  Plus it actually is real cheese.  If you don't have boxy white cheddar mac lying around, I recommend adding some shredded/pulverized parmesan to any other boxy cheesy mac you have to give it an extra strong cheesy flavor.

Oh, and the egg.  What you see pictured above is actually my breakfast from yesterday morning. I wanted an omelet, but didn't have any cheese.  

White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese with Fried Egg + Broccoli

Ingredients

1 box of Annie's White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese

1 egg

1 tsp minced garlic

2 1/2  tbsp butter

1/4 cup milk or milk alternative

1/2 cup broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)

salt and pepper

Directions

Cover pasta in a a pot or saucepan with water (about 6 cups).  Bring to a boil and cook at Medium heat.

After about 4 minutes add in broccoli (fresh or frozen).

Cook for another 5 minutes or until done.

Drain pasta.  

Heat 2 tbsp of butter in the pasta pot on low heat.

Place 1/2 tbsp of butter and garlic in a small skillet or frying pan set to Medium-High heat. Crack an egg in the frying pan when the butter melts.  Bust the yolk open if you want to.  I do.

Add 1/4 cup milk and powdered cheese to pasta pot.

Mix cheese, butter and milk together until smooth and creamy.

Add pasta and broccoli back in and mix well.

After about 2 minutes, pile as much pasta as you want in a a bowl.

Salt egg in the frying pan.  Remove egg from frying pan with spatula and place on top of Mac n' Cheese.

Pepper to taste.  Eat with fork and knife. Or just fork.  That's what I did, but it was hard.

Leftovers on Huevos, Part I

My good friend Bryan once told me leftover Mexican food is best served over eggs the next morning.  'It may look and sound disgusting', he said, 'but it tastes amazing.  And it's great hangover food'.  He didn't have to convince me.  I was already imagining  what the flavor of this combo might be like.

When I'm hungover, I always treat the symptoms with a healthy dose of bowl hits to make the pains go away.  I also crave food of substance and am usually subject to what I've got in the fridge.  Eggs are a staple for me, and on this one particular day I didn't have any leftover Mexican food, but I did happen to have some leftover soup.  It was this heavy, chunky Tomato Artichoke soup w/ black olives and lot's of seasoning veggies and herbs mixed in.  The soup had the aroma of a Pizza Hut pizza.  I know that sounds weird, but it was delicious (and didn't really taste like pizza).

Cheesy Egg Toast and Leftover Creamy Tomato Artichoke Soup  

Ingredients

1 piece bread, toasted (I used some Hemp Seed Bread from French Meadow Bakery)

1-2 slices of cheese (any will do)

1 egg, fried, scrambled, poached-whatever your fancy

~ 1 cup leftover, heady, creamy tomato based soup

1 tsp garlic, minced

1 banana pepper, chopped (optional)

1/4 cup onions (if not present in soup)

Olive Oil/Butter/Cooking Oil

Directions

In a frying pan, heat no more then a tbsp of butter or oil to Medium+  heat.  When pan is heated, add garlic, onions and banana peppers.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Crack egg into pan and cook until desired readiness.  While the egg is cooking, place slice of cheese on toast and put in toaster oven and toast (or toast bread in toaster and then add cheese)  AND place soup in microwave (if you choose to heat it on the stove-top, begin this process before anything else.) Try to time it so that the toast will be done around the time the egg and soup are done, then place egg on top of cheese toast and scrape the pan of all the delicious onion, garlic and banana pepper bits on top of the egg.  Next, pour that creamy, chunky tomato-veggie soup over the whole thing.  The way my kitchen plates are shaped, they were able to hold in the soup w/out its spilling everywhere.  You may want to consider making this dish in a small-medium sized bowl if your plates aren't equipped to handle the load.