French Toast with Strawberry Jam and Maple Syrup

Looking to have something different for breakfast other than the standard eggs, potatoes and ham/sausage, today we had French Toast. This is a fairly simple breakfast that can be made from start to finish in about 10 minutes. What you need:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• McCormick Cinnamon Sugar (or 2 tsp Cinnamon blended with 1/3 cup confectioners sugar)
• 4 slices bread (we used whole wheat)
• Strawberry Jam or Strawberry Jelly (as a garnish)

Beat the eggs in a bowl that is wide enough for the bread to fit across, but not to wide as you want the bread to soak up the liquid. Add the milk, and pure vanilla extract. Beat together well. Heat a large frying pan or griddle over medium heat and melt a small tab of butter in the pan or griddle.

Dip one piece of bread in the egg/milk mixture, quickly turn over and dip the other side. If you have a cookie rack handy, place the rank over a dinner plate, a place the dipped bread on top of the rack to allow any excess egg/milk mixture to dip off. Repeat for the other 3 slices of bread.

Brown the bread in the pan or griddle, and flip to brown the other side. You want to make sure to toast the bread will so that the egg is completely cooked (i.e. the finished French Toast should be firm and not damp). Place a tablespoon of Strawberry jam or jelly on the plate as a garnish and to dip the toast in when eating. I like to cut my French Toast up into about 3/4″ square pieces as I eat it.

Sprinkle the Cinnamon Sugar over top of the Toasted French Toast finally pour over a little warm Maple Syrup. Serve alone or with bacon, ham, or sausage as you desire.

Makes 2 servings, 2 slices each.

Alternatives:
Use 1/4 tsp Imitation Rum Extract in place of Pure Vanilla Extract.
Cut 1″ thick slices of bread from a whole loaf, cook thoroughly, and use 1 slice per serving.

McCormick Cinnamon Sugar

Tags: Classic, French, Toast, Recipe

Dill omelets are a favorite in Southeast Asia. While this omelet might look a little bit different to the Westerner, we assure you it tastes simply delicious.

3 eggs
1 tsp fish sauce* (from Asian Grocer)
Pinch of Lawry’s Seasoned Pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill (or 1 tsp dried dill weed)
1 spring onion (aka scallion), diced

Whisk the eggs well with a hand whisk until light and frothy. Add the fish sauce, Lawry’s Seasoned Pepper, and dill. Mix together well.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Stir fry the spring onion for 1/2 minute. Add eggs, and using the bottom of a fork swirl the eggs around until they start to set. Then let cook until firm and push to one side of pan to form omelet.

Note that this is a French style omelet and light and fluffy unlike the typical American style omelet that is cook firm and then stuffed with a filling. The trick to getting this omelet cooked just right is to have the pan medium hot and the mix the eggs around with the fork until just about set, and then simply pushing the eggs to the side of the pan. It’s not hard to do but might take one or two times for you to get the knack of the French omelet cooking method.

*If you don’t happen to have fish sauce in your pantry you can omit it completely or substitute 1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese from to umami flavor it imparts. If you’ve never cooked with fish sauce and are interested in trying this recipe as directed, don’t be concerned about the smell of the fish sauce. It completely disappears in the food and gives the omelet a delicious flavor.

Hash Brown Potatoes with Jalepeno Dices

This is a great twist from the standard hash brown potatoes which are either plain potatoes or are mixed with some onions. Our Peppery Hash Brown Potatoes add some diced Jalepeno Peppers and are quite simple to make.

1/2 package simply potaoes
1/2 medium onion diced
1 jalepeno pepper, diced (no seeds — only the green part, this is breakfast!)
1 tbsp McCormick Santa Fe Seasoning

In a medium greased skillet, add shredded potatoes, onion, and pepper. Cover and cook over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes. Toss. Cook covered for another 3 to 4 minutes. Serve with eggs and your favorite meat such as sausage as shown below:

We’re on a breakfast theme for a few days. Today we’re making Buttermilk Pancakes with Vanilla Extract served with pure Maple Syrup. These are absolutely delicious, light and fluffy pancakes.

1 cup flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup 2% buttermilk
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Oil your griddle and start heating it over medium heat. In a small cereal bowl, beat the egg. In a medium size bowl, mix the beaten egg with buttermilk, then add the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add the Pure Vanilla Extract, mix in. Beat in the melted butter. Don’t worry about mixing the batter so muxh to mix in all of the flour. The lumps will work themselves out in the cooking.

Test your griddle for readiness by dropping a drop of water on top. It should sizzle and dance around if the griddle is hot enough.

Once ready, pour or ladle the batter onto the griddle. Be careful to take your time and not pour out too much batter — if you do you’ll have giant pancakes. Your looking for a nice 4 -6″ pancake.

Cook the pancakes until they bubble on top. If this is your first pancake experience, then left up a side and peak underneath the pancake. If brown, then flip the pancake over and cook the other side. Otherwise wait 20 seconds or so and peak again.

Serve with Pure Maple Syrup. I like to add an over-easy egg between the layers of pancakes and soak up the yolk with the pancake.

that is fairly lean, but most store bought sausage is very fatty. It seems the manufacturers often can resist the tendency to want to use up the fat and make something off it. Often you hear that the fat is required for the taste. We haven’t found that to be the case at all, and make our own sausage using store bought ground pork.

Sometimes we find a nice looking pork butt roast, remove as much fat as possible and then grind it up ourselves in our meat grinder. This is a great way of really making sure the butcher isn’t trying to make something off their fat just like the sausage manufacturers do! If you don’t have a meat grind though, you can ask your butcher to trim off the fat before grinding the pork butt, and tell them you’ll pay for the fat on the side. Personally, I like being in control of the grinding and making absolutely sure I can get rid of as much fat as I can. An honest butcher will do as you ask and make you a nice lean ground pork.

We happen to have a sausage stuffer too and sometimes make stuffed breakfast sausage. It’s a lot of work to stuff your own sausage and yet it’s rewarding since you know what’s in the sausage isn’t loaded with fat. This article is about make homemade sausage patties so we’ll reserve the discussion on making sausage links for a future article.

We started our homemade breakfast patty sausage using store bought ground pork. According to the nutrition facts on the pork, the amount of fat per 1/4 pound of ground pork is 22g which is 34% of the daily value. Readers might think that value is high, but that amount is for a 4 ounce serving. The typical fat content of packaged breakfast sausage is 22g per 2 oz serving, so the fat in our homemade pork sausage is about half of the fat in prepared sausage. The proof of this is in the picture above of our sausage cooking in the skillet. Take a look closely and you’ll see that there is no excess fat around the sausage. Keep in mind too, that we’re using store bought ground pork and the butcher just can’t resist the opportunity to get $4.00 a pound for fat. If we ground our own pork, and removed all of the visible fat then we could easily have cut the fat in half again.

What you need to make homemade sausage patties
1 to 1 1/4 pounds lean ground pork
1 tbsp very finely diced onion
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
2 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp chervil
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp savory
1 tbsp water

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with your hands. Form into 5 to 10 patties depending on your preference. Cook over medium low heat in an ungreased non-stick skillet until browned, turn and brown the other side.

Make sure to notice how little fat is left in the pan when you’re done cooking these patties.

Tags: recipe, pork breakfast sausage

This is really an easy breakfast to make and it starts by heating a pot of water to boiling. Leave room in the pot to allow for the number of eggs you’re going to add. Allow 2 eggs per serving, and 2 slices of bread per serving. When the water reaches a roaring boil, add the eggs to the pan one at a time by placing the eggs on a tablespoon and lowering the egg into the water. When all of the eggs are in the pan, set a timer for 4 and 1/2 minutes. It won’t matter if any of the shells crack because the eggs will be peeled and chopped up.

While the eggs are cooking, make the toast, lightly butter and cut the toasted bread into about 1 inch cubes. You can cut two slices of bread at a time if you’re using a serrated bread knife. If you’re making more then 2 servings, you should start making the toast while you’re waiting for the water to boil. Place the cubed toast into a cereal sized boil.

When the timer rings, carry the pot of water to the sink, and add cold water from the faucet until the water is cool, then drain the water from the pan, leaving the eggs in the pan. Carefully remove the shells from the eggs, trying not to break the egg white or else the yolk will leak out. If the eggs are too hot to handle, cool them a little by placing the egg on a tablespoon and running cool tap water over the egg for 5 or 10 seconds. The way I peel the eggs is to use a small teaspoon to lightly tap on end of the egg until the shell cracks, and then carefully remove the cracked pieces of shell. If you’re lucky, when you have half of the shell peeled off the egg, the egg will pop out of the other half. If not, hold the half peeled egg over the bowl of toast cubes, and use a small teaspoon (one smaller then the egg shell) to scoop the egg out of the shell onto the toast. Repeat for the other egg, and then chop the eggs into about 3/8″ pieces and mix up the toast so that the yolk is distributed evenly. Sprinkle lightly with salt and serve immediately.

To make baked eggs, place a 12″ x 9″ x 2″ pan on the middle rack of your oven, and fill the pan half way with water. Preheat the oven to 350° F. While the oven is warming, lightly grease a ramekin or other oven safe small dish. You may add a round piece of ham or Canadian bacon to the bottom of the dish if you like. Then break 2 eggs into the ramekin, and place the ramekin into the pan of water. Bake about 20 to 25 minutes, until the eggs are set on top. Don’t try to rush the baking. Let them cook slowly in the water until the whites and yolk are firm. Then carefully remove the ramekin from the pan, leaving the pan of hot water on the rack in the oven (DON’T TRY TO CARRY THE PAN OF HOT WATER – LET IT COOL BEFORE REMOVING THE PAN). Immediately sprinkle the top of the eggs with grated white or yellow Cheddar cheese, and serve. Make one ramekin per serving, and you can fit 2 ramekins into the pan of water.

The current use of scrapple here in the United States is as a breakfast meat. But in early days of settlement in the US it was also served as the main entry for Sunday and special dinners.

My favorite brand of scrapple is Rapa Brand Scrapple, and is made in the small town of Bridgeville, DE on the Delmarva Peninsula. The Delmarva is a rural agricultural and farming region for the most part and is bordered on the western side by the Chesapeake Bay and on the eastern side by the Atlantic Ocean. Bridgeville is located about dead center of the Delmarva and is in a strategic location for serving the farmers of the region. Rapa has a long history as a brand of scrapple. Ralph and Paul Adams incorporated RAPA Scrapple in 1926. In 1981 the RAPA Scrapple Company was purchased by Jones Dairy Farm, however RAPA Scrapple continues it’s operation in Bridgeville, DE. If you cannot find Rapa Scrapple in your area, the Rapa Scrapple company processes mail orders for scrapple in the winter months. The current price in 2007 is $38.00 for 12 one pound blocks (which works out to $3.17 a pound) plus UPS shipping costs. Scrapple freezes well so don’t worry about what you’d do with so much scrapple at one time. My favorite flavor of Rapa Scrapple is their original. Other flavors produced by Rapa are Beef Scrapple, Scrapple with Bacon, Hot & Spicy Scrapple, and Greensboro Brand. For mail orders from Rapa, you may mix and match any of these varieties to meet the 12 package requirement. Orders must be placed by mail as the company only accepts checks or money orders. Call Rapa 800-338-4727 to get the shipping costs before sending payment to them.

Another brand of scrapple that can be found in my local Maryland grocers is produced by the Kirby and Holloway Provision Company, which is also located in Delaware, in the small town of Harrington, DE just a couple towns and a few miles north of Rapa’s Bridgeville Locations, and is also on US Route 13. I have never had the Kirby and Holloway brand of scrapple so I cannot comment on it’s flavor. I can say I extremely enjoy all of the Kirby and Holloway brand sausages, which are flavorful and unlike many sausages are not loaded with fatty meat. So since they produce such quality breakfast and dinner sausages, I would have to say that the scrapple would be of high quality as well.

Some folks are turned off by thinking about what goes into scrapple, and consider it nasty food. But nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a tasty meat dish that makes for change of taste in your breakfast meals. The official ingredient list on the package of Rapa Scrapple lists: Pork Stock, Pork Livers, Pork Fat, Pork Snouts, Corn Meal, Pork Hearts, Wheat Flour, Salt and Spices. It is not a low fat food though and like sausages needs to be eaten in moderation. According to the Nutrition Facts, each serving of scrapple contains 8g or 12% daily value of fat. That’s not lean, but is only a fraction of the fat found in fat dogs (hot dogs) which many labels state the daily value of fat at 38% [and don't even look at the label on a package of bacon if you're concerned about the fat in scrapple].That said, I try to eat right, and so I may eat scrapple only once every 2 to 3 months.

To Cook Scrapple
Scrapple is a little tricky to cook. I’m not sure cook is the right term since it’s already cooked. It’s really being reheated and browned for serving. The basic cooking instructions are:

Slice the scrapple through the wrapper into 3/8″ slices. Fry in a non-stick skillet over medium heat for about 8 to 10 minutes then turn over and brown the other side. That sounds simple, right? Well it really is that simple except for one thing — knowing when to turn the scrapple over.

Scrapple can’t be rushed, nor cooked in the microwave. It needs to be pan fried until the bottom has browned, and turned only once, and cooked until the bottom on the other side has browned too. If you turn the scrapple too early, then the slice with fall apart (it is made with corn meal so will be a rather mushy mess in this case). If you cook scrapple too long, then the outside will be hard, and the inside will be mushy which makes it difficult to eat. Our picture here of the cooked scrapple shows the right level of browning. The outside is brown, and yet still soft enough to cut with a fork.

Serve cooked scrapple as a breakfast meat dish along with eggs and potatoes. Scrapple can also be used as a meat on a scrambled egg sandwich on toasted wheat bread with cheese. Give scrapple a try with your breakfast. There are lots and lots of scrapple made so someone must be eating it. And it’s those of us adventurous enough to get past the ingredient list know how good it tastes.

By adding the ham or pepper into the eggs when the eggs are first added to the frying pan, you’ll end up with an omelet with the filler ingredients imbedded into the eggs.  If you like, you can think of this method of making an omelet as an inverted omelet. It’s basically taking the same ingredients that you’d add to the omelet after the eggs were firm and mixing them into the eggs.  The only exception is cheese which we sprinkle on top of the omelet just before removing the omelet from the pan.

To make this type of omelet, first chop up what ever you want to add to the omelet.  We like ham, green pepper, red pepper, tomatoes, asparagus, and carrots. Start with a 10″ non-stick skillet that has been lightly greased with olive or canola oil.  Heat the pan to medium heat. Scramble 3 eggs, and pour the eggs into the pan. Immediately add the ham or other items you like to the eggs, distributing them evenly.

 Lower heat to medium low, and cover the pan.  The eggs will cook through faster with the cover.  Take a peek into the pan after 2 minutes to see how the omelet is progressing.  You may need to lower or raise the amount of heat.  When the eggs are done, they’ll be rising from the bottom of the pan.

When the eggs are cooked through, then it’s time to add cheese.  We use shredded Cheddar Cheese often, either white or orange. Other cheeses we’ve used include Mozzerella and Blue Cheese.  Whatever cheese you choose, it should be grated and spread evenly over top of the omelet. For the 10″ skillet we use, 1/2 cup of shredded cheese is plenty.  Once the cheese is on top of the eggs, replace the cover and without the heat of the stove let the cheese melt, about 1 minute.

The picture to the right here is of the finished omelet before adding the cheese as  discussed above. If you look closely, you’ll see how the ham is in the cooked egg mixture which is different from the standard omelet.  This is a great way to serve the same omelet, and yet have it be different.

Here’s a list of foods we use to fill omelets:

• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Ham
• Sausage
• Cheese
• Green Bell Pepper
• Red Bell Pepper
• Cubanelle Pepper
• Asparagus
• Carrot Slices
• Onion
• Salsa
• Potatoes