I know I’ve said it before, on this blog, but I’ll say it again, “My wife rocks!!!!” I woke up this morning to the smell of cinnamon rolls baking, and there is no better smell in the world! I love the fact that my wife can cook so well, which, in this day and age, is saying something. I am constantly amazed by the number of people I meet that “can’t cook.” I know I’ve said it here before, but it never ceases to amaze me. Luckily, I think we are starting to see that trend change. Just look at all the good food blogs out there today. It seems that people have finally awakened and have come to realize that cooking doesn’t have to be a chore, but something that we do out of love and passion. It is sad that so many of my generation have to learn this lesson later in life, but I am glad that they are learning it.

So this morning, my wife woke up really early and couldn’t get back to sleep so she decided to make cinnamon rolls (I’ve already established how much I think this rocks!). Being overwhelmed by my ever expanding cookbook collection she headed to the internet in search of a good recipe. Like me, she just can’t leave well enough alone. She found Paula Deen’s Cinnamon Roll, like the dough recipe, found the icing recipe from Todd Wilbur’s “More Top Secret Recipes,” and kind of just winged it with the filling. Whatever she did, they came out great. Try them out and surprise someone you love with a little cinnamon love in the morning!!!

Cinnamon Rolls
makes 12

1/4 oz package yeast
1/2 cup water, warm
1/2 cup milk, warm
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 1/2 – 4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon, ground
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup raisins

8 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese, room temp.
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt

In a bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let sit 5 minutes to activate. Add the milk, sugar, butter, salt and egg. Mix well and add 2 cups of flour. Mix and add another 1 1/2 cups flour. Mix and add the remaining flour only if needed. Knead for 7-10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise until double, about 1-1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough and roll out, on a lightly floured surface, to a rectangle approximately 9″x15″. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins, mixing well. Gently spread the softened butter over the dough then sprinkle with the cinnamon mixture, using it all. Starting on the long side, roll the dough up, pinwheel style, pinching the seam together. Cut into 12 slices. Coat the bottom and sides of a 9×13 baking pan generously with butter then add the cinnamon rolls. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise until double, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. While the rolls are baking prepare the icing by combining the butter and cream cheese. Add the sugar, vanilla and salt and beat until light and fluffy. When cinnamon rolls are done, remove from oven, allow to rest for 10 minutes then generously ice the tops. Serve warm!

Okay, I have to admit, I’m a sucker for Monkey Bread!!! Yes, I know, it probably can’t be considered the height of the culinary arts, but damn it’s good. What’s not to like; rich caramel, buttery goodness, a crisp crust and gooey interior. It’s got everything you need to start the day off right!! Add a cup or 2 of coffee and you can start your day in high gear.

There are a number of recipes out there for Monkey Bread. Some use store bought biscuit dough, others use store bought bread dough, and yet others have you make everything from scratch. While “made from scratch” is often my favorite way to go, I have to admit that, in this case, I am partial to the recipes using store bought biscuits. Not only do I like the soft texture of the Monkey Bread made this way, but it cuts down on a lot of prep work, which makes it a great breakfast for when you have overnight guests. Get a couple of the kids involved, they love to help shake the dough in the sugar, and you can have this on the breakfast table in no time.

Money Bread

3 cans (12oz each) biscuit dough
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 cup, packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Grease a large bundt or tube pan. Meanwhile mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon and either leave in a large bowl or place in a large ziplock bag. Cut the biscuits into quarters and toss them in the sugar-cinnamon mix until well coated. Arrange the pieces in your prepared pan sprinkling with the optional pecans and/or raisins as you build up the layers. In a saucepan mix the butter and brown sugar over medium high heat. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Pour over the biscuit pieces and immediately put into the oven to bake. Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 8-10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Don’t allow to cool longer or the Monkey Bread might stick to your pan as the sugars cool.

My family isn’t super big on breakfast, at least on the weekdays. It’s usually a grab and go affair as both me and my wife would rather spend the extra few minutes in bed than get up and make something substantial, although we always see to that our daughter gets a good breakfast. Things change on the weekends. If we don’t go out for breakfast then we will usually cook a substantial meal. My wife usually does the cooking in the morning as I am not much of a morning person, though I do a fair share of the breakfasts as is evidenced by the number of breakfast food posts I have done.

It was Valentine’s Day today so I decided that for one of my gifts to my wife, I would do breakfast. I love to make hashes of all kinds and thought hash and poached eggs would be a great choice for the day. Hashes, traditionally, have been a way to use up the previous night’s leftovers, and I find them a great way to clean out a fridge and turn those leftovers into something tasty and useful. Hashes are a great way to stretch out meat since hashes oftentimes rely heavily on potatoes and vegetables.

The has I created for our Valentine’s Brunch did not incorporate any leftovers but was still rather economical and full of great flavor!

Smoked Turkey Hash with Sweet Potatoes
serves 4

2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into a 1/4″ dice
2 cups Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into a 1/4″ dice
2 cups smoked turkey breast, from the deli counter, cut into 1/4 -1/2″ dice
1 small onion, minced
1/4 cup green or red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup 1/2 & 1/2
Tabasco to taste
salt
pepper

Bring 2 pots, with a quart of water in each, to a boil. Cook the potatoes, separately, for 4 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. In a large, heavy bottomed skillet, heat 2 Tbsp. of vegetable oil and 1 Tbsp. of bacon fat (you can use all vegetable oil if necessary). Add the onions and cook 1 minute. Add the potatoes, turkey, and bell pepper.

Stir to combine and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1/2 & 1/2 and tabasco. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium high and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Gently press down on the hash and allow to cook for about 3 minutes. Gently flip the hash and press down again so that as much of the hash can come into contact the with bottom of the skillet as possible. Cook 4-5 minutes then flip again. Continue this process until the vegetables are tender and you get the hash as crusty as you like.

Divide among 4 plates and serve topped with 2 poached eggs.

I don’t often eat breakfast. On days that I work I leave the house too early to even think about eating. It’s not that I dislike breakfast fare, it’s just that I’d much rather spend the extra few minutes in bed than take the time to eat breakfast, besides, if I eat too early I just feel sick to my stomach. That’s not the case on weekends though, when I can get up at a decent hour and slowly adjust to being awake. Then I’m ready for breakfast….well brunch, considering the time, but let’s not split hairs here!

To me, peaches and bourbon are a great combination. They just seem to go together. Besides, what better way to start the day than with a little bourbon to get you going.

French Toast with Bourbon Peach Sauce
serves 2

3 medium Peaches*, peeled, pitted and sliced
1 Tbsp. Butter
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 cup Bourbon
2 Tbsp. Butter

4 slices Texas Toast or Brioche, cut thickly
2 each Eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups 1/2 & 1/2
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
2 Tbsp. Granulated Sugar

3 Tbsp. Pecans, chopped and lightly toasted

To make the sauce, melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a saute pan, over medium high heat. Add the peaches and cook for 2 minutes. Add the sugars then carefully add the bourbon, away from the stove. Return to the stove and cook until the peaches are tender but not falling about. Remove from heat.

To make the french toast combine the eggs, 1/2 & 1/2, cinnamon and sugar. Mix well. Dunk each slice of bread in the mixture, soaking both sides. You should have just enough of the custard for the 4 slices of bread. Place the soaked slices of bread on a tray and allow to sit for 5 minutes to allow the custard to penetrate all the way through. Meanwhile heat a griddle to medium heat. Add the french toast and cook until golden brown and set all the way through. When just about finished return peaches to the heat. When they come to a simmer add the last 2 Tbsp. butter, stirring constantly to make the butter doesn’t separate out. Cut 2 pieces of french toast in half, diagonally, place on a plate, and top with 1/2 the bourbon peach sauce. Garnish with 1/2 the pecans. Do same with the second plate.

I had forgotten how much I like properly shirred (baked) eggs, until this past Sunday, when I was searching for a simple, yet elegant dish for my wife and I to enjoy for Sunday brunch. I wasn’t in the mood for an omelet and we always tend to do a variation on Benedicts when looking for something a little special so I went digging around in my cookbooks and was reminded of shirred eggs. I hadn’t done something like that in years, so it would be a novel dish for my wife, and better yet, Shirred Eggs is one of those dishes that is just ripe for variations.

At it’s most simple, Shirred Eggs, are eggs that have been placed into a shallow custard cup, seasoned with salt and pepper, and topped with a little butter to help keep the top from drying out, then baked just until the whites are set, but the yolk is still runny. Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Not really. Like a good poached egg, shirred eggs are fine on their own, if not a little bland, but it is when they are part of a dish that they rise above their humble stature and become something almost sublime.

Virtually anything can be used as a base on which to make Shirred Eggs. Some of the more common bases are creamed spinach, various types of hashes, seafood, cooked grains, ham, bacon, other cooked meats and various other vegetables. Just like with omelets, the choice is really limited only by your imagination. Because I was looking for simply elegant this time I reigned the imagination in and created the recipe below, which serves 2. I accompanied the Shirred Eggs with toast and Maple Glazed Bacon, the recipe for which is below also.

Shirred Eggs with Ham & Manchego Cheese
4 each Eggs
1 tsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Yellow onion, finely minced
1/2 cup Ham, finely diced
1/2 cup Tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 tsp. Fresh Tarragon, finely minced
4 Tbsp. Heavy Cream
1/3 cup Manchego cheese, shredded

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.Heat the butter, in a small saute pan, over medium high heat. As the butter finishes melting add the onions and cook without browning. Add the ham and cook for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tarragon. Heat just to warm the tomatoes then remove from heat. Divide the tomato-ham mixture between 4 small creme brulee cups or ramekins and spread evenly. Crack an egg into each cup or ramekin and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle each egg with 1 Tbsp. of cream. Sprinkle the cheese over top, dividing the cheese evenly among the 4 cups. Bake for 12-14 minutes, checking them after 10. Eggs are done when the whites are just set but the yolks are still runny. Serve immediately as the eggs will continue to cook a little longer.

Maple Glazed Bacon

Take 4 slices of thick cut, smoky bacon and cut them in half. Cook over medium high heat until 3/4 of the way done. Drain on paper towel. Meanwhile remove rendered fat from pan and wipe pan clean. Lower heat to medium low and add the bacon back to the pan. Brush with real maple syrup, flip over and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. After about 1 minute brush other side with maple syrup. Flip over, when time and cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove to a cooking rack, set over a sheet tray, to crisp up. Make sure that bacon is not touching each other as it cools as it has a tendency to want to stick until it cools slightly.

There are many ways I know my wife really loves me.  Not the least of which is she occasionally makes me Eggs Benedict for breakfast.  I love breakfast foods, but hate getting up early enough to make them, something I need to overcome as one of my life long goals is to own a Bed & Breakfast.  Luckily I have a wife who is a morning person.  I remember the first time she made them for me.  The thing that scared her the most was making the hollandaise.  There seems to be a mystique about hollandaise.  Most people think that it is this extremely difficult operation that should only be attempted by a “trained professional.”  While it isn’t one of the easiest sauces to make, it sure doesn’t deserve its reputation as being too difficult for a regular home cook.

I am going to walk you through making hollandaise, showing you the few areas where things can go wrong and, hopefully, at the same time dispelling its mystique.  These instructions are going to look long, but don’t worry, it really is quite simple.  The instructions are long because I want to make sure I have explained everything there you need to know.  So here we go.

Hollandaise Sauce

2 each Egg Yolks
1 oz. White Wine (water can be used if you don’t have or use wine)
6 oz. Butter, clarified (more on that in a minute), warm but not hot
1/2 each Lemon
1 pinch Salt
1 dash Cayenne

First a note on the butter. Most chefs prefer to use clarified butter over plain melted butter for various reasons. One of the main reasons though is that non-clarified butter contains a lot moisture. When making larger batches of hollandaise this can thin the sauce more than a chef wants it to be. Taking the moisture out of the butter allows the chef to thin the hollandaise as he/she sees fit, and they can do it with liquids more flavorful than water. If you find yourself pressed for time, melted butter usually works quite well though so don’t freak if you don’t have time to clarify it. And now, back to the recipe. (continue reading…)

Today was Father’s Day so I should have left the breakfast cooking to my wife, Wanda, and just sat back and enjoyed. She was more than ready and willing to cook this morning, but I had something very specific in mind and I figured it was best to do it myself rather than explain it to her and then watch over her shoulder the entire time. Don’t get me wrong, she is an excellent cook, but when I know exactly what I want its often best just to let me do it. Wanda was happy to oblige. I don’t offer to cook breakfast often so when I do get the urge Wanda is more than happy to let it run its course. Today I was hungry for rhubarb, once again, so the thought of pancakes topped with a Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup sounded like just the thing to satiate my appetite. The topping is vibrant and refreshing, just the thing for a warm summer’s morning, especially when served atop thin, light pancakes, though it works well on any type of pancake or waffle. It also makes a great topping for ice cream.

Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup
2 cups Rhubarb, sliced
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Water
1 pound Strawberries
2 Tbsp. Lemon Balm or mint, finely julienned (optional)

Combine the rhubarb, sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring often to prevent the rhubarb from sticking and burning. As I have stated in previous posts regarding rhubarb, if all you have is the green rhubarb as opposed to the red variety, you can add a splash or 2 of grenadine or a drop or 2 of red food coloring if you want a prettier looking syrup. Strain the rhubarb syrup and chill for 5-8 minutes in the fridge. Meanwhile, hull and slice the strawberries and toss with the lemon balm or mint, if using. Pour rhubarb syrup over the strawberries (the syrup should still be warm but not boiling hot) and toss to coat. Mound the strawberries in the middle of a stack of pancakes and drizzle the syrup over top. This makes enough for 6-8 servings.