This might not be what’s for dinner; with Christmas and New Year’s coming up you might be looking for a special-occasion breakfast/brunch dish and here are a couple of my favorites. You’ll have to plan ahead but it will be worth it.
The last breakfast WFD (from Ninkasi23 a couple years ago), gives you a couple more great choices in this category, with Roasted Vegetable Quiche and Biscuits with Country Style Gravy. And there are even more good ideas here (thx TMC at Docudharma) — how about Sausage and Egg Ciabatta Breakfast Pizza!
Cheese Blintzes
Many, many years ago I spent summer session at college and did much of my cooking with my friend David. IIRC mostly I didn’t cook, I ate a lot of cheese and sprouts sandwiches, and ramen. But I do remember two specific things David taught me: how to roast a turkey, and these cheese blintzes.
(for 4)
8 crêpes (see below)
1 cup cottage cheese
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 to 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Mix together cottage cheese, egg yolk, sugar and lemon peel. Put about 2 tablespoons of filling in each crêpe and roll, tucking in sides.
- Place seam down in a buttered baking dish. Brush with melted butter and brown in oven. Serve with sour cream and preserves.
Crêpes
From Joy of Cooking, 1975 edition - 12+ 6-inch crêpes
For desserts, use the recipe without changes. For main dishes, leave out the sugar and vanilla.
This is IMO an essential basic recipe; it’s NOT that hard, and there are few less expensive ways to impress someone than by making Crêpes Suzettes for dessert.
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons powdered sugar (optional)
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk + 1/3 cup water (or 1 cup nonfat milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind (optional)
Sift flour. Add salt, baking powder and (if used) sugar and resift.
Beat the eggs; add remaining ingredients and beat. Make a well in the dry mixture and pour in the liquid. Combine with a few swift strokes; don't worry much about lumps. The batter may be stored, refrigerated, for several hours.
If you let the batter stand (I did) it may thicken, if so beat in 2 or 3 tablespoons of water.
Heat an 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Grease it with a few drops of oil. Add a small quantity of batter (2 to 3 tablespoons). Tip the skillet and let the batter spread over the bottom, or
spread it with the bottom of a ladle or large spoon. When the crêpe is browned underneath, turn it and brown the other side. Stack the finished crepes on a plate. They can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for a day or two.
The very first WFD I wrote was for St Patrick’s Day and included this recipe with its great story. Imagine, if you can, the connection between politics and leftover corned beef.
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In my recipe file is a 20-year-old clipping from the newspaper review of Henry Haller's "White House Family Cookbook". Chef Haller pleased a bipartisan audience, cooking for LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan. On one of the most notable days in his 20-year tenure he served the President -- corned beef hash. Here is his story of "Nixon's Farewell Breakfast".
...perhaps the most memorable informal meal to come out of that second-floor kitchen occurred on the morning of August 9, 1974. When Haller arrived for work at 6 a.m., he found President Nixon, clad in pajamas, standing near the kitchen door. Nixon extended his hand and said "Chef, I have dined all over the world, but your food is the best."
... Haller relates ... "After I thanked him, President Nixon followed me into the kitchen. He ordered a special breakfast for himself, more substantial than his usual morning meal of wheat germ and coffee. The president asked a butler to serve what was to be his final White House meal in his favorite room, the Lincoln Sitting Room.
When the president finished eating his poached egg and hash, Alexander Haig entered the room, bearing a sheet of paper with a single typed sentence: 'I hereby resign the Office of the President of the United States.' President Nixon signed his resignation, to be delivered at 11:35 a.m. to the American public and the rest of the world."
[I can’t resist including the song]
Corned Beef Hash with egg
(for 1)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup diced cooked potatoes
1/2 cup diced cooked corned beef
1/4 cup chopped stewed tomatoes
4 twists freshly ground black pepper
4 drops Tabasco sauce
1 poached egg
- Melt butter in a cast-iron skillet, add onion and garlic and saute until golden brown. Add potatoes and corned beef, mix well, and saute over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, pepper and Tabasco sauce, mix well, and cook another 10 minutes, stirring gently, until brown on all sides.
- With a spatula, mold the hash into an omelet shape and brown evenly on both sides. Avoid cooking hash too rapidly; it should dry out as it crisps up. Turn out onto a breakfast plate.
- While cooking the hash you have also poached an egg. With a slotted spoon, transfer the poached egg to center of hash; press the bottom of the spoon into the center of the hash to form a nest for the egg, and turn egg over onto hash with the smooth side facing up. Serve at once.
What’s for dinner at your place? Why don’t you write it up for a future WFD? Message ninkasi23 if you can.