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Category Archives: Breakfast & Brunch

Daring to Make Eggs Benedict

Daring to Make Eggs Benedict

After competing in the Project Food Blog competition, I realized that challenges were good for me. Not because I want to win something, but because they allow me to come out of my comfort zone. Without them, I would only be posting about soups and macarons. Nobody would like that, right?

So I decided to become a member of The Daring Kitchen, a site that brings together cooks from around the world who wish to challenge themselves to learn something new. There’s a group for bakers and another for savory experiments. Since I’m quite comfortable with baking (although I for sure have a lot to learn) I decided to become a member of the Daring Cooks, hoping to add new techniques to my savory répertoire.

My first Daring Cooks challenge in December was entitled “Poach to Perfection!” which challenged us to perfectly poach eggs to make Eggs Benedict.

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Posted on December 14, 2010 • Category: Breakfast & Brunch, How-Tos, Recipes • 37 Comments
The Perfect Banana Bread

The Perfect Banana Bread

My search for the perfect banana bread has lasted years. Over time, dozens of recipes have disappointed me: the too heavy, the over-the-top rich, the cardboard dry, the overly dense, the excessively banana-tasting (yes, there is such a thing), the so-packed-with-grains-it’s-not-even-enjoyable-anymore, the flat-as-a-shoe, the tasteless, and the ho-hum. I have struggled to find the right additions: nuts or chocolate or nothing at all? And then there has been the everlasting issue of timing: some banana breads burned after 45 minutes, while others were not even cooked through after an hour and a half.

But now, my search is over. I have found the one. The one with a tender and moist texture that makes you want to eat it as is, without any toppings or spreads, but that toasts well, too; the one that rises to an airy texture and is cooked to perfection after 60 minutes; the one that includes just a short list of basic ingredients and works even when a third of the all-purpose flour is substituted with whole wheat flour; the one that has just a slight caramelized sweetness to it, making it versatile enough to be eaten on any occasion, from breakfast to dessert.

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Posted on November 26, 2010 • Category: Breakfast & Brunch, Desserts, Recipes • 23 Comments
Apple and Cheddar Whole Wheat Pancakes with Baked Applesauce

Apple and Cheddar Whole Wheat Pancakes with Baked Applesauce

While many moods are affected by November’s gray skies, I enjoy the opportunity to stay in, light a fire in the chimney and cook anything comforting. Yep, comfort food isn’t out of trend in my book, it’s what I want to make every year come fall. And fresh apple season isn’t over yet, I still have plenty in my fridge so I cook with them a lot.

One obvious way to use up a large quantity of apple is making applesauce, but I am not particularly fond of this concoction. Somehow, boiled apples aren’t appealing to me. And I don’t like the grainy stuff I can buy at the store.

While browsing my books to find new ways to cook with apples, I was surprisingly attracted by an applesauce recipe in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Ina Garten is probably the icon of comfort food so I should have guessed that she would manage to change my mind about applesauce.

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Posted on November 16, 2010 • Category: Breakfast & Brunch, Recipes • 7 Comments
Book Week: Croque-Monsieur Bake, Nigella Express Review

Book Week: Croque-Monsieur Bake, Nigella Express Review

Nigella Lawson really knows how to get you excited about food. In her TV show, it’s her warm way of inviting you into her kitchen and her down-to-earth manners that make you believe she lives just like you do (even though she’s married to multi-millionaire Charles Saatchi and is herself now worth millions of pounds). In her books, it’s her voice: her funny and sometimes witty comments before each recipe, the no-fuss instructions and mouth-watering pictures (in which she’s often featured). Somehow, she manages to make you believe she’s one of your friends telling you about a fabulous recipe she just found out about.

And so Nigella Express is an enticing book. I found myself wanting to try many more recipes than I had time to. I sometimes doubted the flavor level of some recipes based on the ingredients list but, except for one crab salad recipe in which I more than doubled the dressing quantities to make it flavorful, I found the results very satisfying.

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Posted on June 29, 2010 • Category: Books, Breakfast & Brunch, Recipes, Sandwiches/Tartines • 4 Comments
Sunday Breakfast, Food Revolution Style

Sunday Breakfast, Food Revolution Style

In case you’ve been living in a cave in the last couple of months, British chef Jamie Oliver has taken on the major challenge of changing America’s way of eating. He has documented his efforts in the TV series Food Revolution that was aired in April/May on ABC.

I have been supporting this Food Revolution thing, though I thought the way the American show was edited felt a bit gimmicky (not at all how Oliver’s British TV series feel), simply because healthy eating shouldn’t be an option but rather a way of living, everyday. I won’t write an essay about it but cooking from scratch isn’t hard, if you plan your meals and make all your grocery shopping for the week in advance. Oliver has all kinds of easy recipes to try for those who feel a bit scared of tackling their stoves and since the start of his series, he has been challenging his Food Revolution followers to try one new recipe he posts in his Twitter feed every week.

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Posted on May 16, 2010 • Category: Breakfast & Brunch, Recipes • 1 Comment