Grits was one of those odd discoveries. I wasn’t sure what this odd-looking, grainy gruel was that people were eating at Waffle House. I didn’t have the nerve to try it at first. I was content with my waffle and hash-browns, thank-you-very-much. But it was served as part of the All Star Special. I hate wasting food so I had to at least make an effort. One bite told me that there was something there… some possibility for a delicious breakfast. I haven’t looked back.

MMMMmmmm.... cheese grits. Thick and tasty and cheesy.

You and I both know that Waffle House isn’t going to be the best example of any kind of cooking. (Though I have no complaints. You know exactly what you are going to get when you go there. And I would love to have one of their waffle irons.) But it did open a window to the possibility that grits had an important role to play.

Every now and then I crave a good bowl of grits, cheese or plain. That slightly salty, slightly gritty, warm breakfast dish is a great cure for a rough night out. It’s easy to eat and helps build up your appetite so you can get back on your feet. Even if you haven’t had a rough night, grits can be a wonderful treat. I certainly didn’t make this batch after a rough night and I still managed to thoroughly enjoye them. If you get the urge for grits, go for it. It’s slightly more complex than a bowl of cereal, but immensely more satisfying.

I'm hungry for grits again. I'm going to go make some more.

Now, before my mom calls me to berate me for saying that she considers American cooking “a horror”, she doesn’t. Well, she mostly doesn’t. She doesn’t eat at most fast food restaurants and generally isn’t the biggest fan of the heavy soul food that I have come to appreciate, but she is open to trying almost anything. I can say with certainty she won’t like these grits–but that has more to do with the fact that she can’t stand milk or cream (but loves cheese). So, Mom, don’t yell at me, s’il te plait.

Cheese grits
Makes about 2 servings.
Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 tsp table salt
1 cup cornmeal (coarse ground is ideal, mine was yellow corn, hence the yellow-orange hue)
black pepper
2 tbsps butter, unsalted
2 oz cheddar, shredded (the sharp cheese also helped make it orangy)

Directions
1. Combine the milk, water, and salt into a medium pot. Place over medium-high heat to bring to a boil. Stir occasionally to help break up any skin that might form on the surface and to make sure the milk doesn’t burn on the bottom.
2. Once boiling, slowly pour in the cornmeal while whisking. Whisking while adding the cornmeal helps prevent lumps forming. Cover, decrease the heat to low, and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove the lid to stir every 2-5 minutes to prevent lumps forming.
3. After the mixture becomes thick and the liquid has all been absorbed and add some freshly cracked black pepper and the butter. Add the cheese, about a third at a time, mixing in each batch before adding the next one. Serve in warm bowls.

Bagels! I just need some cream cheese...

Bagels come with all sorts of toppings available, but the first ones I reach for are usually plain or salt. I dunno why, but those large chunks of salt on the chewy, crusty bread are terrific. Don’t try to make salt bagels yourself unless you have the right kind of salt (look for pretzel salt). I love salt bagels so much that I actually went to a local bagel store to ask if I could buy a cup of their salt. Fortunately, they were friendly enough to give me a small container (and I picked up a couple bagels while I was there). Why spend an entire paragraph talking about salt? Because now you can’t blame me when you use kosher salt and it doesn’t turn out correctly. The difference between bagel salt and other salts is that it doesn’t dissolve as easily. If you tried this with kosher salt, the flakes would stick, but dissolve after a while. And that is no good at all.

See that one in the back? I tried a different shaping method. I like the one in my instructions better.

All breads have flour, water, and yeast (salt and a few other things are sometimes added). What differentiates breads is not only the quantity and type of each of these, but also the method of combining them. I often take a fairly lengthy approach to bread making, but only because it minimizes active working time. When I made these bagels, it took nearly three days from start to finish, but not much of it was active working time. If you like these steps can be combined and made in a day, but a bit of flavor is sacrificed. Allow the dough a long, slow, overnight rise to help develop more flavor. If you have the patience, try to include all the rests and pauses that I recommend.

Bagels
Recipe adapted from Rose Beranbaum’s Bread Bible. Check out her book here or her site here.

Ingredients
I’ve broken the ingredients and instructions down into separate sections showing at which point different items are needed. If you have a scale, measure everything by weight. I have given the primary measurement as grams, then a volume approximation and the equivalent amount in ounces.

Ingredients: Starter
1/2 tsp instant yeast
265.5 g water (1 cup + 1 tbsps, 9.3 oz)
234 g bread flour (1.5 cups, 8.25 oz)

Ingredients: Dough
21 g unsalted butter (1/5 tbsp) (room temp)
182g bread flour (1 cup +3 tbsps)
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp barley malt syrup (or malt powder) (optional)
1/2 tbsp sugar
salt 1/2 tbsp

Ingredients: Boiling
2 tbsp molasses (or 1/4 cup brown sugar)
2 tsps baking soda
at least 8 cups water

Ingredients: Egg wash (optional)
2 large egg whites
1 tsp cold water

Directions
Refer to the above ingredients for each stage of the instructions.

Starter
In a large bowl (if you have a stand mixer, use that bowl), whisk all the starter ingredients until thick and all the flour is incorporated. Cover bowl with plastic wrap

Dough
Sift all the dry ingredients together (without the butter and malt syrup, if using malt powder, add it now) and sprinkle over the starter to create a cover of flour. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

First Rest
Allow to stand 1 to 4 hours. Can be refrigerated overnight after standing at room temp for one hour. If refrigerated, remove from the fridge about one hour before using.

Dough (mixing)
Add the melted butter now (and malt syrup, if using). Mix with dough hook on low speed until combined, increase the speed to medium and knead for 5 to 7 minutes. If the dough doesn’t pull away from the bowl after 5 minutes, add up to 2 tbsps of flour. If you like denser bagels, continue adding about 1 or 2 tbsps more flour. (These bagels are dense anyway, so use a light hand if this is your first batch.)

Second Rest
Place the dough into a lightly oiled, large bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 to 2 hours.
Flatten and stretch the dough out gently, fold into thirds and set it back into the container. Refrigerate at least four hours, or overnight (or even up to 2 or 3 days). Allow dough to come stand at room temp for 30 to 60 minutes before continuing.

Shaping
Cut the dough into 5 equal pieces, cover with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out. Begin by shaping each one into a flat disk, then bring the sides to the top and pinch them together to make a ball with a seam at the top where the dough was brought together. Push that seam through the ball of dough to make a hole. Stretch the hole open to make about a 2.5 inch hole. (Seems big, but it will shrink as the dough rises.) Allow to rise about 15 minutes.

The boil
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500F and bring a large pot of water to a boil with the molasses (or sugar) and baking soda.
Gently boil a few bagels at a time. Boil each bagel for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Cooking longer will create a thicker, denser crust (I prefer mine removed from the boil after about 45 seconds). Remove the bagels to a wire cooking rack. Bagels may look wrinkled, but they will smooth out as they bake.

Extras
Brush the bagel with the egg white glaze. The glaze will help the ingredients stick to it, so if using garlic, salt, seeds (poppy, sesame, etc.) or anything else, brush with the egg wash and then sprinkle the topping on it. (The best method is to set the “top” of the boiled bagels down onto a plate of scattered seeds.

Baking
With the oven now at 500F, bake the bagels on a hot stone or baking sheet. After 5 minutes at 500F, lower the heat to 450F and bake for 20 more minutes. Check the color after 15 minutes, if beginning to darken more than you like, toss a sheet of foil on top. When the 20 minutes have elapsed, turn off the oven and cook for 5 more minutes. Transfer them to a wire rack and allow to cool.

Waffles for breakfast. If you had a dog named Waffle, he could eat the leftover waffles. Waffles eating waffles.

It’s kinda frightening that I spent the entire first paragraph of a food blog talking about dogs instead of food. I do like waffles though. Even when it’s not referring to the name of a dog. These waffles are great to make on short notice. You likely already have all the ingredients and there isn’t much work to do to assemble it. I’ve made these almost as often in the morning for breakfast as I have… well, I guess it’s technically morning if you are still up after a night of drinking…

There isn’t anything unusual about these waffles. They are your standard crispy exterior, light and fluffy interior Belgian-style waffles. This recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. Bittman has a few variations on waffles, but each time I make this I just make the “Quick and Easy” variety. I’ll sometimes add in a handful of nuts or berries to make things a bit more exciting, but I haven’t heard many complaints about regular waffles.

Quick and Easy Waffles
Adapted from Marc Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. It’s a great book.
2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsps sugar
3 tsps baking powder
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
4 tbsps melted butter (cooled)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Optional: 1/2 to 1 cup of nuts, berries, chocolate chips or any other add-in

Directions
1. Begin preheating your waffle iron.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder) in another large mixing bowl, then add the milk mixture to it. Mix until combined.
3. If you have a non-stick cooking spray, spray the waffle iron with it, otherwise brush it lightly with vegetable or canola oil. Add a ladle full of batter to the waffle iron (check the directions for your waffle iron). Bake until the waffle is done, it should be golden brown and free itself from the waffle iron without too much trouble. Some waffle iron have timers or lights, but it should take at least a few minutes (3-5 minutes).

It's just waiting for you to add the syrup and butter.

MMMmmmm... I even made more biscuits the next day to eat with the left over fried chicken.

There are many, many variations on biscuits. I’ll get around to making a few different kinds, but this time I wanted something easy, quick to prepare, and not greasy. I was looking for light and fluffy drop biscuits. No rolling or cutting rounds out of the dough needed here. Just mix the ingredients together and plop the dough in individual piles onto a pan. Done and done.

I like using a combination of shortening and butter to get both a light texture and a good flavor. The other addition for flavor is to use buttermilk as the binding liquid. Actually, there is more to buttermilk than just flavor. The natural acidity in the buttermilk helps act as leavening agent when combined with the baking powder and baking soda. Science works!

These may not be as pretty or uniform as biscuits prepared with a biscuit cutter, but I like the craggy, rustic-looking nature of these.

One thing I have learned living in the South is that White Lily flour is essential to getting the best biscuits. No science backing this one up, just good ol’ southern tradition. Using the self-rising White Lily flour is a great standard and lends some fantastic results if you just follow the instructions on the back of the package. I accidentally picked up the non-self-rising White Lily flour, so I had to add my own leavening. You can use other brands of all-purpose flour, but be careful with the protein content. High protein, which is essential for gluten formation, is all kinds of bad news for southern-style biscuits. Not good, people. Not good. Don’t even try to make these with cake flour. In fact, if you have some cake flour, consider using about 1/2 to 3/4 cups less of the regular all-purpose flour and replacing it with the cake flour.

A word of caution before use these biscuits as a base for your sandwiches: These are kinda crumbly. These light and fluffy biscuits are not like the dense, high-fat kinds that are common for biscuit sandwiches. Don’t let it get in your way though, it didn’t pose too much of a problem. Besides, I think I prefer these to the denser kinds. They are much less greasy and have a wonderful buttermilk tang to it. I’ll make some denser rolled and cut biscuits another day. Until then, the ease of these will likely make them my go-to biscuit for the time being. (Besides, I have a bit more buttermilk to use up!)

Light and fluffy biscuits
Ingredients
2 cups sifted flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tablespoons butter, unsalted, chilled
2 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup buttermilk, chilled

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 475F.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together.
3. Cut in the butter and shortening. If you have a food processor, just whir it together a few times until it looks like cornmeal. I don’t have a food processor, so I just try to work the fats into the flour using my fingertips. Try to work fairly quickly so the fats don’t melt too much.
4. Add the buttermilk and stir to combine. It will be a gloopy mess, that’s fine, these are free-form, messy drop biscuits.
5. Try to make about 6 evenly sized biscuits on a sheet pan and place into the oven. Immediately increase the heat to 500F and bake for about 10 minutes, until the tops of the biscuits have become golden and some of the craggy peaks become browned.

Unfortunately, this bowl is no longer with me. It’s not lost or broken, it’s at my parent’s house. So I can’t drink my hot chocolate from it with any regularity. These days I’m forced to use a mug, but I still hold onto the same technique…

It's a good mug, but it's not my bowl :( ... The hot chocolate is good though, so I'll live.

You see, this bowl had “ears” and a lip on the rim. I could easily lift the bowl to my mouth and take long sips while the steam rose and warmed my face… But that wasn’t my preferred method.

What I would love to do is to get a piece of freshly buttered baguette, preferably still crispy, and dunk that into the bowl. Most mugs would be too narrow to successfully dip a big tartine into. Using a bowl allowed me to enjoy a combination of several of my favorite things: fresh baguette, good butter, and chocolate. But that still wasn’t how I normally started drinking the cocoa.

I would start, quite simply, with a spoon. The still scalding cocoa was much too hot for me to drink by the mouthful. It was even too hot to dunk the bread into (besides, the butter would melt to fast!). But I was impatient, I wanted to drink it now! Waiting for it to cool would have shown too much restraint, and I had scalded myself one time to many already. I devised another way that would allow me to drink it immediately. I would take a large spoon, fill it with the hot cocoa, and sip from that. The logic was that the smaller quantity would cool faster than the large amount of liquid in the bowl. This allowed me to begin my chocolate before anybody else!

Another cup please.

I sometimes drank my entire bowl one spoonful at a time. I relished the idea that my hot cocoa could last so long. Every sip was a chocolaty pleasure that would bring a grin to my face.

In those days I didn’t make my own cocoa though. This version is truly better. It is very easy to make and can keep well stored in an airtight container. A food processor is required for this, but you basically dump everything in and let the blades pulverize everything.

I used to use Alton Brown’s food-processorless version, but since Cooks Illustrated had the idea to pulverize some white chocolate chips into the mixture, I have not looked back. In fact, I now add dark chocolate chips to the mixture as well. The addition of chocolate helps give a thicker, more luxuriant feel to the drink, even when made with water. (The powdered milk also helps.) But to be really enjoyed, it should be made with whole milk.

I have included two variants below. The first is my preferred darker, richer style and the second is closer to the store bought style. The amounts can be changed to make smaller batches. The powdered milk tends to either come in a large box, or individual packets measuring about one cup each. The ingredients below can be easily divided by three to use just one packet of milk for a smaller batch.

Hot Cocoa
Use about a third of a cup of powder per cup of hot milk or water. It makes about 20 servings.

Dark Chocolate Cocoa
3 cups powdered milk
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate or bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Store-bought Style Cocoa
3 cups powdered milk
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 cups dark chocolate or bittersweet chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate)
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
In a food processor, pulse the ingredients until everything is a fine powder. Work in batches if necessary.
Store in an air-tight container.

Scrambled Eggs

Glad to be back after a school related lapse.  I will be continuing my trek through the Good Eats episodes with scrambled eggs from the first Egg Files episode.  After going through life with mediocre scrambled eggs, I jumped at the opportunity to try a recipe different from my parents’ recipe.  As it turns out, the key to great scrambled eggs is to induce steam and fold them instead of stirring them.  This allows for a perfectly light texture that is still moist.  That brings me to the main lesson of scrambled eggs: if the eggs look done in the pan, they will be overdone by the time they make it to the plate.  This means that your eggs should still look moist when you serve them to the plate, because they will continue to cook.

So even if you think you don’t like scrambled eggs, I would urge you to give this recipe a try.  Maybe you were like me and had mediocre scrambled eggs all your life.  This recipe is simple, and once you get the guidelines you can do it without a recipe on hand.  So give this recipe a try, and the next time you have guests for breakfast, you can wow them with the best scrambled eggs they’ve ever had.

Eggs with a Side of Bacon

Important Notes:
1.  Research done by Cooks Illustrated demonstrated that adding salt to the egg mixture before cooking yielded a more tender finished product.  I add a little bit per egg, and people can add more to taste if necessary after cooking.
2.  This recipe can be adapted to any number of eggs, the guideline per egg are listed in parentheses below.
3.  Depending on the amount of eggs you want to use a different sized skillet, so the eggs won’t take forever.  Here are some rough guidelines: 1-3 eggs (8-inch), 4-8 eggs (10-inch), 8-12 eggs (12-inch).  This allows for the eggs to be better distributed throughout the pan, otherwise the curds take forever to form (see below).

Curds

Ingredients:
4 eggs
4 teaspoons to 3 tablespoons of milk (Between 1 teaspoon and 1 tablespoon of milk per egg)
4 pinches of salt (1 pinch per egg)
A small pat of butter

Beginning to Fold the Eggs

Almost Finished

Directions:
1.  Whisk the eggs, milk, and salt in a small bowl.
2.  Heat the butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Add the egg mixture and stir occasionally until you see curds (see picture).
3.  After you begin to see curds, turn the heat up to medium-high and shake the skillet (slide forward and backward on the burner) to make steam.
4. Begin to fold the eggs intermittently between shaking until the eggs begin to coagulate more and most of the liquid is gone from the pan.
5. Serve the eggs immediately onto a plate (remember you already added some salt, so taste them before salting).

Dried Cranberry Scones

Scones, in the US at least, tend to fall into one of two categories. The first can be identified as the overly sweet, cakey desserts sold in overpriced coffee shops. The second type are the wedge shaped triangles that are so hard that they can be used to drive nails into a wall. Either variety may be so chock full of nuts, berries, or other things that they resemble trail mix wrapped in bread. Somewhere along the way the real scone was lost.

Scones should be slightly flaky, have a moist interior, and be made with plenty of butter or even cream. The fattiness and moisture is what helps keep a proper scone tender. The dough itself is folded a few times, but not overworked to get flaky layers of biscuit-like texture.

Though these scones were largely a success, I’ll have to make them again. I presented these to my family and though they were very much enjoyed, my father took issue with the chosen shape. The scones he was familiar with back in England were traditionally round, not triangular. He also claimed that he did not remember his mother using cream in the dough. The only way to settle this is to find a recipe my father has tucked away in the house somewhere and make those. We may have to wait a while for the results as I may not be back home in a while, but you can be sure the result will be documented here.

Dried Cranberry Scones.

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, refrigerated
4 1/4 cups unbleached AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
1 cup dried cranberries or other dried fruit (optional)

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the butter. Press the butter into the flour with your fingertips to make large flakes. Add the cream and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together. Then add the dried fruit and stir to combine. Continue stirring/kneading in the bowl until the dough clumps together as one. You can do this on a counter-top if you find it easier.
3. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured counter to make a long rectangle (approx. 8×12x1 inches). Fold the dough into thirds and repeat two or three more times. Work quickly, the dough will stick as it warms up. I usually put it on a baking sheet in the fridge to buy some time between each time I roll it out. This keeps the dough cold and workable.
4. To make rectangles, roll the dough out to approximately 8×12x1 in. Trim edges if needed to strighten the dough and cut lengthwise down the center to make two 4×12x1 lengths of dough. Cut each portion into triangles about 3×4x5 inches, each length should make about 8 pieces.
5. Bake the scones for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges and top turn golden brown. Rotate the scones after about 10 minutes. Err on the side of under baking if necessary. They can always be reheated in the oven.

The scones keep very well frozen if well wrapped. Simply reheat for 6-10 minutes in a 350F oven.

Dried Cranberry Scones.

The best chocolate glazed doughnuts ever.

Despite putting away over a dozen on my own, I’m not the biggest fan of doughnuts. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing bad about them, but I’m sorta jaded by the Dunkin Donuts and the Krispy Kreme ones now. I’ll skip over those brands and go straight for a chocolate chip cookie every time. But find a good local bakery or a doughnut shop that does authentic yeast doughnuts and I’m hooked.

Freshly fried yeast doughnuts are second to none. Even without the glaze, these were amazing. I literally burned the roof of my mouth trying to eat these right out of the fryer (totally worth it). As the dough fried, the little rings puffed up and became soft, tender and airy. The little holes cut out were tossed in at the end for a few dozen tiny doughnut holes. These were possibly more addicting than the full sized doughnuts.

Keep the holes you punch out and fry them all!

If you do make these, don’t think you can get away without making the chocolate glaze. Trust me. Make the chocolate.

I’m not going to say that these were easy. It is time consuming and does dirty quite a few pots and pans. It’s absolutely worth it though. These are possibly the most addicting doughnuts I have ever eaten. Which is fortunate, because they don’t keep very well. They are best the day of, and quickly lose their quality. You can resuscitate the glazed ones by briefly microwaving them and the unglazed can actually be passed through a toaster with amazing results.

You get bonus points if you make them prettier by tossing sprinkles on the top. I actually bought sprinkles to do this, but started eating the doughnuts before I got around to shaking the sprinkles out of the jar .

Fried, unglazed doughnuts. These are so good. It was hard enough waiting to eat them until they were glazed.

Yeast Doughnuts
Recipe by Alton Brown.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups milk
2 1/2 ounces vegetable shortening, approximately 1/3 cup
1/2 ounce instant yeast (that’s about 4 1/2 teaspoons, or 2 packages instant yeast)
1/3 cup warm water (95 to 105 degrees F)
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (optional)
23 ounces all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surface
Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying (1 to 1/2 gallons, depending on fryer)

Directions

1. Heat the milk until warm (microwave or saucepan) and pour the hot milk over the shortening in a bowl. Set aside to allow the shortening to melt into the milk.
2. In another small bowl, heat water until warm (about 95F, warm enough to keep your hand in). Sprinkle the yeast over it and let it dissolve for about 5 minutes.
3. Once the milk & shortening has cooled (to about the same temp as the water & yeast mixture started), combine the two mixtures from steps 1 and 2 in the bowl of your mixer. To that, add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and about half of the flour. Mix everything on low speed with the paddle attachment, then turn the speed to medium to beat everything together. Add the rest of the flour, low speed first so it doesn’t fly everywhere, then increase the speed to med-high and beat.
4. Switch out the paddle for the dough hook, beat on med-high until the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl and is pretty smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. It’ll still be sticky, but it should seem to want to stick to itself more than it wants to stick to you.
5. Let rise for 1 hour (or until doubled in size) in an oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap.
6. Flour your surface and roll the dough to about 3/8-inch thick. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter or pastry ring and using a 7/8-inch ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
7. Keep the holes with the rings and roll the scraps together, let rest 30-60 minutes and repeat the previous step.
8. Heat the oil to 355 degrees F. Don’t let the oil get too hot or it will burn and give off flavors. Put 3 or 4 doughnuts in at a time, cook 30-60 seconds per side, until they get golden. I do all the rings first, then the holes.
9. Transfer to a cooling rack with some newspaper underneath to catch any drips. Allow to cool at least 15 minutes before eating or glazing. Or just wait about 15 seconds and start eating. Do try not to burn yourself…

Sugar Glaze
Recipe by Alton Brown.
Ingredients
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine milk and vanilla. Heat on low heat until it gets warm.
2. Sift in the confectioners sugar while gently whisking. Slowly add all the sugar so that clumping does not occur.
3. To keep the glaze a liquid, place the saucepan over a bow of hot water. Dip the doughnuts into the glaze and place onto a cooling rack (drippage will occur, so put something underneath).

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe by Alton Brown.
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole milk, warmed
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla. Heat on medium heat until butter melts.
2. Decrease the heat to low, add the chocolate whisking gently until incorporated. Then add the powdered sugar, again whisking gently until smooth. Place the mixture over a bowl of warm water and dip the doughnuts immediately. Allow glaze to set for 30 minutes before serving.

Rolled Spinach and Cheese Omelettes

My original plan was just to scramble some eggs and keep it simple. Then I remembered that I had some ricotta and Parmesan in the fridge. I also had some chopped frozen spinach in the freezer that I tossed into the microwave to thaw. As I went outside to pick some parsely I realized that my plans were quickly snowballing out of control.

Making things worse, I wasn’t going to be satisfied with a regular omelette (or omelet? Wikipedia says omelette, so I’m sticking with it). Folding it in half is so predictable. Maybe rolling it is cliché, but I have never had a rolled omelette, so I felt cool coming up with the idea.

Feel free to add anything you want to your version, bits of bacon, ham, vegetables… Keep in mind that these omelettes are thinner than regular ones, so rolling large or chuncky things would probably just cause it to tear. I’m happy with how this turned out, especially because I wasn’t even trying to do anything original when I started. In the end this was more complicated than scrambled eggs, but still easier than a real omelette.

Spinach and Cheese Omelette

Ingredients
3 eggs – 1 per omelette
milk – a splash per egg, about a tablespoon per egg
salt and pepper
frozen chopped spinach
olive oil or butter
any cheeses on hand: ricotta, Parmesan
parsley (for garnish) (Now that I have a plant of this stuff I tend to toss it everywhere.)
salsa

Directions

1. Break three eggs into a mason jar, add a splash of milk and a pinch of salt, cover and shake–presto scrambled eggs.
2. Put enough spinach for three omelettes (about 2 tablespoons per omelette) into a bowl and microwave until warm.
3. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add a splash of olive oil (~1 tsp) (or butter for more awesome taste) and swirl to coat the skillet.
4. Add about one third of the egg mixture and swirl to coat the skillet. This will be a thin omelette, that’s fine. Let it cook until it sets, this will happen fairly quickly (~1 min). Flip it as soon as you think it has set enough to handle.
5. Spread about a tablespoon of ricotta, a teaspoon of Parmesan, a few cracks of black pepper and a good pinch of the spinach over the open omelette. Transfer to a large plate.
6. Once on the plate roll the omelette into the spiral you see below and repeat steps 4-6 with the other two omelettes.
7. Serve with the salsa and some chopped parsely. Enjoy your breakfast.

Spinach and Cheese Omelette

Bacon

Cooking for Engineers has two articles about the many many ways to cook bacon. Oven-bake, oven-broil, microwave, grill, and pan-fried are all covered. To me, the oven is the best way of making bacon. I have used Alton Brown’s Good Eats method before with success and wanted to see what a longer slower cooking time yielded. (If you look at AB’s recipe, he shows you how to cure the bacon and everything, I just buy my own and skip down to the end where he says to put it in the oven.)

AB calls for putting the bacon on a cooling rack set into a baking pan into a cold oven. Then turning the oven to 400F and cooking for 12 to 15 minutes (from the time you turn the oven on, not from when it is preheated). This is good and quick.

Bacon

Cooking for Engineers takes a different approach to the oven method. Long and slow. You preheat your oven to 200F and use the same bacon-on-a-cooling-rack-in-a-baking sheet as AB. This method takes a lot longer. Three to four hours long. But hey, if you don’t have anything to do for a while or want to make bacon to reheat in sandwiches or something later, this is the way to go. I actually prefer this method for a number of reasons. It seems to render more fat from the bacon. The fat that is rendered is pure bacon fat. Pure white in color. No burnt bits in it. The bacon is great for saving and using later.

So if you have time, I say go with the long and slow oven cooking. If you want bacon faster, go with the higher temperature oven method.

Bacon

Ingredients

Bacon

Recipe (slow method)

1. Set oven to 200F.
2. Place a cooling rack into a rimmed baking sheet. Lay the bacon on top of it. Place in oven.
3. Cook for 3-4 hours. If you like softer bacon, take it out after about 3ish. If you like crispier bacon, take it out after 4ish.

Recipe (faster method)

1. Place a cooling rack into a rimmed baking sheet. Lay the bacon on top of it. Place in oven.
2. Turn the oven on to 400F.
3. Cook for 12-15 minutes. If you like softer bacon, take it out after about 12ish minutes. If you like crispier bacon, take it out after 15ish minutes.