Breakfast Project: Day Four

Breakfast with Sammy

Day Four: "Mauna Kea"

Mastering the Waffle

After my frustrating waffle experience yesterday morning, I decided I needed non-stick cooking spray and a better recipe. Unfortunately, I also believe we need a new waffle iron.

I pulled together the ingredients for a recipe I found on the internet and subsequently pinned to a recipe board on Pinterest: Cornstarch Waffles. The recipe doesn't sound all that appetizing, but it worked okay.

Above: the cast of characters

I decided to make a raspberry syrup for our waffles. I started with fresh raspberries, a little sugar, a little maple syrup and water. What started out looking like this

ended up looking like this

I used the left over bacon from yesterday.

 I whipped up some cream.

and here is the finished product

The reason for the name: "Mauna Kea" is not that we were so full that when we finished we thought we would explode like the volcano on the big island of Hawaii (although I did think about that), but in fact, because this is my favorite breakfast to order when we stay at the Mauna Kea Hotel on the Kohala Coast. We order room service delivered to the balcony.

When I got up this morning to this

what I really wanted to see was this

Enter the "Mauna Kea" breakfast

and I always order a pot of hot chocolate at The Mauna Kea, so...

I made some.

Sammy is still sick, but he had a science presentation today so he headed off to school, early.

Although it may sound like bad parenting, I am glad he was able to make it to school today.

Breakfast Project: Day Three

Breakfast with Sammy

Day Three: "Grandma Elsie's Scrambled Eggs"

(plus Belgian Waffle FAIL)

Today's breakfast was supposed to include Belgian waffles, "fresh" berries, and bacon. I realize now why I do not like making waffles. I am horrible at it. A complete failure. I know we have made waffles before, a long time ago, but I am not sure if they were Belgian waffles. Anyway, I started the morning attempting this:

but instead, I got this:

And now I remember another reason I don't like making waffles: I very much dislike cleaning waffle irons (even when they don't look like this!) I used an Emeril recipe and I have never had a failed Emeril recipe. Hmm. Perhaps it is actually our old waffle iron ;). Perhaps not. I should have read the recipe the night before. I did not have any non-stick spray. I wiped the thing down with oil first. Ugh! I will get the non-stick spray and then I will master the waffle. I will, because I am stubborn that way.

The local nitrate and hormone free bacon was already baking in the oven at 425 degrees, so all was not lost. I threw a 10-grain English muffin in the toaster and started on some of Grandma Elsie's scrambled eggs. I'm not sure if others are as picky as we are around here with our scrambled eggs. I am picky and Michael is picky. Michael likes his eggs scrambled so well, that to me, they do not even resemble scrambled eggs anymore, scrambled with salami, even better. Me, I really only like my scrambled eggs like my Grandma Elsie (my Mom's Mom) used to make them. It is so easy, but you have to cook them slow and keep an eye on them. I start with butter in a small frying pan on low heat. I then crack the eggs directly into the pan and let them cook until the whites are just starting to set then I break the yolks. I do not mix the eggs around, I let them cook a little this way, the yolks are clearly separated from the whites. I add a little salt and pepper and I cook them slow, mixing them a little, not a lot, just until the eggs are not liquid. I immediately get them off the heat. They taste so rich cooked this way.

Our final breakfast meal included Grandma Elsie's scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and an english muffin topped with homemade strawberry jam (from our berries).

The reason I was so enamored with our sunrise view the past couple days is because this is the kitchen view we normally get on a winter morning (well, and all day in the winter for that matter):

and then, a little reminder of the view we had the past few days:

Even though we did not have those intense rays of sunshine beating down on us, this pretty china teacup that Grandma Elsie gave me before she passed away, was a lovely addition to the breakfast table.

After Sammy left (on time), I savored a cup of English Breakfast tea, without a thought to the waffle fiasco mess I still had to clean up.

and it was a mighty wonderful cup of tea.

Heading upstairs to start work, I was greeted by Miss Chloe. She's a very pretty girl.

Everything is starting to look pretty. Perhaps this early morning routine is growing on me?

Even though Sammy got off to school on time, he was sent home by his first period (Japanese) teacher for being too sick to remain at school. Maybe I should have fed him chicken noodle soup for breakfast.

Breakfast Project: Day Two

Breakfast with Sammy

Day Two: "Andy McMuffin Redux"

(a.k.a. Homemade Burgerville English Muffin Sandwich with Sausage)

To begin, here is an explanation of the crazy name I have chosen for today's breakfast speciality (pronounced spe-shee-ality). Last weekend I was visiting my youngest Brother, Andy, and his lovely wife, Lindsay, in Salt Lake City. Michael calls him Andrew, but I have no idea who he is talking about. It is similar to when someone calls our house and asks for "Mike." I do not know who they are talking about and I say "no one here by that name." I have NEVER called Michael "Mike" and I have never called Andy "Andrew." As Ellen Degeneres would say, anyway....  moving right along. Andy served us the most delicious home made Egg McMuffin with Ham, Egg and Cheddar. It was great. The eggs were perfectly cooked (runny), the cheese perfectly melted, the muffin perfectly toasted, etc. What a treat. I decided I would make a sausage version of that sandwich for my second breakfast with Sammy.

The reason my breakfast name has an "also known as", is because my favorite fast food place, ever, and I mean ever, is Burgerville. Burgerville is unique to the Pacific Northwest and they are known for delicious fresh, local and sustainable food. When Michael reads this he is going to say, isn't IN-N-OUT really your favorite? The answer is NO. Burgerville is awesome and they have tons of menu items including their english muffin breakfast sandwiches. I very rarely eat a fast food breakfast, but if I had my choice, this is it. I never order it with egg, because even though I believe in Burgerville's food quality, I am afraid of any egg served at a fast food restaurant.

We enjoyed peaches canned in honey, not included in the title but very delicious.

The breakfast sandwich was served on 10 grain english muffins (7g of fiber)

topped with local, organic ground pork sausage patties + Tillamook Cheddar

and a sunny side up egg with plenty of runniness.

It was mighty delicious.

We also had another lovely sunrise experience

which lit up more prettiness

In the above picture is a pretty spoon that came with our house. Our house included a lot of interesting stuff like the dining room table that Chloe is sitting on, grrr--cats!?! I used the above spoon to grab out the peaches without taking all the sweet, peach honey sauce with them. I like to pull out pretty stuff when I have to get up at 6:30am to make breakfast. Pretty stuff makes me happy. Speaking of sweet peach honey sauce, it works great for making your own soda. I put in a little peach honey sauce, a little grenadine, and a lot of soda water. Yummy!

Even though Sammy finished his breakfast 10 minutes early, he ended up leaving the house 10 minutes late. I just do not know what to do with that kid.