Breakfast B-egg-le Sandwich

This is a work morning staple around our home because it is ready so quickly, and is great to take on the go for a busy work morning. However, this quick, delicious breakfast was an accidental invention from a relaxing morning off...


Peter and I had just returned home from a ski trip to June Mountain. A good friend, Rose, came home with us to visit for a few days, so we thought it would be fun to make breakfast burritos together on our first morning back. However, on the road trip home we (of course) payed a visit to the world famous 'Erick Schat's Bakery' in Bishop, California, where Peter grabbed up all of their asiago cheese bagels until he had cleared the shelf. 'Oh my goodness!' I thought, 'Why would we ever need so many?!' Naturally, when it came time to make breakfast burritos with Rose, Peter wanted a burrito AND a bagel! Thus came the creation of our breakfast b-egg-le!


'What happened to the rest of the bagels?' you wonder... Well, they freeze very well, so now it is so easy to pull them out one by one to recreate this scrumptious and fast dish whenever we need a good breakfast in a hurry. Now Peter looks like a genius :)


If you don't happen to be passing by Schat's Bakery anytime soon, I have found that Von's (or Pavillion's or Safeway... they're all the same company) has a fabulous asiago cheese bagel at their bakery counter.


Ingredients (for each serving):
1 asiago cheese bagel
2 eggs
a couple pinches of shredded cheese
a few slices of avocado
Tapatio

(Look at how fun these fresh eggs are! Some of our friends have a chicken coupe and get to collect fresh eggs daily! ...yes it is possible to raise your own chickens in Orange County, haha! Thanks for sharing with us guys!)


1. Cut your bagel in half and put them in the toaster. By the time they are done toasting, everything else will be ready to assemble:

2. Crack your eggs in a medium hot pan:

3. Pan scramble your eggs (when they are somewhat firm underneath but still wet on top, scramble them up with your rubber spatula)

4. Before the scrambled eggs are completely firm, pull them together with your spatula so that they are in a unit that will fit nicely on the bagel. Then turn off the heat.

 5. Grab your bagel out of the toaster; Slice avocado on one side and sprinkle some cheese on the other. The cheese not only adds a little flavor, but it will melt onto the hot bagel and act like a glue to hold the eggs in place like.

6. Then transfer your eggs to the cheesy bagel and sprinkle with Tapatio to your liking.

7. Enjoy!

** Nutrition Noteworthy: 

-If you are watching your cholesterol levels, you can skip the cheese, and omit one or both egg yolks to make this a healthier egg white and avocado breakfast! 

-Avocado is high in Omega-3, which is a GOOD fat that helps fight bad cholesterol.

If you choose to remove the yolks, frying or pan scrambling are really the best methods I've found for cooking egg whites. Otherwise, when the whites alone are mixed with a fork or whisk before going into the frying pan, they get too foamy and don't cook to the same egg texture that you're used to.

These are easy to wrap in foil or package in a little to-go box for a healthy, hurried breakfast on the go. Peter says, "These keep me away from fast food restaurants in the morning."   ..Oy vey!

Cranberry-Orange Scones

I LOVE Saturday mornings. But previous to this weekend, Peter and I have been out of town or unavailable for the last 6 Saturdays in a row! So this weekend was our first Saturday morning at home in a long time. We woke up early and went for a long walk along the seashore. On our way back, we walked along Pacific Coast Highway where we passed a luring smell that pulled us nose-first into a little bakery. It smelled amazing! So amazing in fact, that Peter didn't want to leave and my stomach started grumbling. "That's it," I said, "I'm going home and making scones for us!" When we got home, Peter waited (with a debatable amount of patience, haha) while I quickly researched a bunch of scone recipes.  I borrowed bits and pieces from each to come up with this great Saturday morning scone.

INGREDIENTS: 

Scones:

2 cups Flour, and extra for flouring the work surface

3 Tbsp Sugar, and extra for sprinkling on top

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Orange Zest

12 Tbsp Butter (or 1 1/2 sticks), in small cubes

2 eggs

1/2 cup Milk

1/2 cup dried Cranberries ('Craisins')

(one additional egg and 1 Tbsp milk whisked together for egg wash)

Glaze: 

1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

2 Tbsp fresh squeezed OJ, from the orange you zested

**Technique Tip: First thing of importance is to keep all your scone ingredients cold; So after I took the picture of all the ingredients, I quickly put the butter, milk, and eggs back into the fridge until I was ready for them. When the oven's heat meets the cold ingredients, they will melt and then leave pockets and flakey layers that are so desirable in baked goods, like scones!

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F, and start makin' your dough! Mix all your dry ingredients together, then stir the orange zest into the dry mixture.

Now for the cold ingredients. Add the cold butter cubes and mix (or use a pastry cutter or two forks). 'They' say to mix the butter until it becomes the size of peas in the dry ingredients.... but I never really see the 'pea size' that 'they' are talking about. So I just mix until it is like a crumbly but very dry apple crisp topping (if that helps you), so that it looks like this: 

Then, whip the cold eggs and milk together, and mix that into your bowl. 

You can't see it in the picture, but in your dough you will see a ton of beautiful bright orange specks of zest throughout your dough. Oh, it is so pretty!

Next, fold the craisins into the dough....

...and turn it out onto a floured work surface.

Gently incorporate the flour into the dough until it just loses its stickiness. But beware not to overwork your dough because the more you handle it, the warmer it will become. Keeping that in mind, quickly shape it into a 1 inch thick circle: 

Now I transfer the whole circle to my silpat-lined baking sheet. Then with a floured cutting edge, divide the circle into 8 scones (kind of like cutting a pizza).

Paint it with the egg wash and sprinkle with granulated sugar. When the scones come out of the oven, the egg wash and sugar leave them with a very appealing glossy appearance and a sweet little crunch.

I like to keep mine in the circle like this because it eliminates the process of transferring each cut scone one by one. But more importantly, I like this technique because I think it keeps the scones a little more moist. However, if you like your scones a little more dry and crumbly (like Peter does) you may want to separate each scone to increase the surface area that will be exposed to the heat while they bake.

Pop your scones into the oven at 400 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes. 

Let your scones cool just a little bit, about 2 minutes, so that it's still very warm but the glaze won't melt right off when you drizzle it on top. During that two minutes, mix together your glaze. With a fork, mix together the fresh OJ and the powdered sugar. It makes a pretty peach colored glaze (you could even add a little orange zest to the glaze for some extra flavor and color). 

Take your glaze and go to town on your scones:

OH...

...MY...

 ...GOODNESS!

And it gets even better, literally.... like a bottle of wine, these get better in time- so save a few for leftovers. Peter and I both thought that these scones were even better the second day with a light toasting to warm them up.

They also make perfect treats to package up and send to the office with hubby 

...or for a good friend's birthday morning... :)

Happy Birthday Adam!

Cauliflower Mashed 'Potatoes'

Creamy, cheesy, garlic mashed.... cauliflower!? Yep. This is a great, lower carb (and low potassium for those with kidney conditions) alternative to mashed potatoes.  It is so healthy, simple and flavorful! Cauliflower is super inexpensive at the market right now, so not only is this recipe healthy but it is budget friendly too! I had never made it before, so I was skeptical as to how flavorful mashed cauliflower could be, but I experimented with adding lots of other rich flavors and it was DELICIOUS. 

Ingredients: 
1 head cauliflower, chopped
1 or 2 potatoes, peeled (optional)
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced or chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

This was so quick and easy to make. It goes very fast, so get ready, set, go...


Boil a potato in pot of water; Above that pot, fit it with a steamer basket to steam the cauliflower at the same time. While those boil/steam, caramelize your onions in extra virgin olive oil in a separate pan.

  
The secret to caramelizing onions is LOW and SLOW. Keep your heat on medium-low and stir your onions frequently so that they get a deep brown color without burning. Once your onions are smelling sweet and get a nice caramel brown appearance, toss in the minced garlic for about 30 seconds, and then add the chicken stock, a light sprinkle of salt and some ground black pepper to taste (I used about an 1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon or black pepper). Let that simmer together over low heat for about a minute. 

After all that flavor has simmered together for a little bit, add the drained, steamed cauliflower. Stir the cauliflower into all those flavors in the pan. Put a lid on it and let all that flavor steam into the cauliflower for a couple minutes.

Adding the potato is totally optional. This recipe does not need it at all, but I chose to add the potato just to keep a little more of a potato texture and flavor.

** SIDE NOTE: you might choose not to add potato, either because you want to minimize the carbs, or because you are cooking for a health condition which limits the amount of potassium you should consume (potatoes are high in potassium, which should be limited with certain conditions such as renal/kidney disease)

If you do choose to add potato, now is the time to do that. Turn off the heat, add the potato, then mash it all together to your desired consistency. (I like to leave a little texture, as opposed to being completely smooth.)

Then I added the parmesan cheese and folded it all in until it was well incorporated: 

Then I plated it up like mashed potatoes with our porterhouse steak and green beans. Looks just like garlic mashed potatoes doesn't it!

It had the same texture as mashed potatoes that I like, plus it had lots of other rich flavors from the caramelized onions, the chicken stock, and the garlic! However, if you prefer the simpler creamy taste of traditional garlic-mashed potatoes, I suppose you can easily skip some of the other ingredients here and just use milk, roasted garlic, and some butter like a traditional mashed potato recipe. I LOVED this version with adding lots of flavors together, but play around and see what you like best.