weekend update, May 13, 2013

When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said. 

― A.A. Milne

That charming question from Pooh's charming friend piglet reminded me that last Tuesday, as sang the praises of breakfast for dinner, I left unsung two of my all time great breakfast superheroes. 

Eggs, those versatile, inexpensive amazing little protein pods showed up in at least half of the recipes that I cracked open last week, but I neglected the other members of breakfast's dynamic trio: 

All hail the undisputed king of breakfast meats, the source of all things baconey and sausagey,

pork. 

(Parenthetical apologies to those who just came to the disturbing yet accurate realization that this guy

reminded me of these guys.)

And then of course there's the beverage that is in itself a breakfast of champions. At least, it's the breakfast of many of the champions with whom I am acquainted.... you guessed it....

I am able to think without a cup of coffee nearby, just not  much of anything worth thinking.

I had wondered if perhaps a week of breakfast for dinner would get boring. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong with cheese and hollandaise on top. The week was brektastic, starting with these delicious black bean and chicken chilaquiles. That's them, over to the right, with pan roasted grape tomatoes on the side and a poached egg on the top. This was the first keeper recipe of the week- a great and versatile way to use up leftover tortillas, tortilla chips, chicken or salsa.  

And, since I was far more curious about whether or not I could spin authentic  Chiles rellanos into breakfast-for-dinner than I was about  Chiles rellanos casserole, it was the old-style recipe that I tried. This is one of those "little minute" recipes- the sort that seem daunting when you read through them for the first time, but become quite do-able in small pieces.

 As in "oh, I have a little minute here, I think I'll.....

char the skins off these cheap and lovely Aldi poblano peppers and pop
them in the fridge.

Or, here's a little minute, I think I'll fry up some bacon, and scramble the eggs for tomorrow. And, oh look! I have a little minute! I think I'll stir those scrambled eggs and bits of bacon together with some cheese- that way by dinnertime, the rellanos filling will be

All ready to go.

And so it was. By early evening, as if by magic, the peppers and filling were prepped and all I had to do was dip them in egg whites and fry them up; the result was one of the most delicious things to fall out of this kitchen and onto a plate in a long, long time:

I made 5, and thought we two could not possibly eat them all.
Wrong again.

In the interest kitchen science, and to be fair, and because I was curious, I also tried the rellanos casserole. It turns out that with this recipe cooks up into a sort of crustless cheese and chile quiche:

And I do not mean cheese and chili quiche in a bad way.

The casserole was fine. Good even. And yet, the memory of those bacon and cheese stuffed rellanos elicits a sort of wistful sigh from me and a "man, those were really good" from the home audience. We'll be having them again, and soon.

And, since the chili rellanos casserole was an experiment anyway, I decided to poke a little at Pioneer Woman's assertion that skim milk would lead to casserole catastrophe. I know that's true of quiches; I've tried them with skim milk- they look fine until the first slice is out, and the bottom of the pie plate becomes a puddle of watery stuff. But, I wondered, does the fat content of the liquid used affect ALL recipes that use eggs? So I tried a simple, single scrambled egg with the three different dairy liquids I had in the fridge.
Here's what I learned:

Really, I was surprised. And I really want to learn more about this: they all scrambled up the same- no icky watery stuff puddled out of either of the low-fat version. I was not surprised, however, that the eggs with half and half tasted a lot nicer. Because, well, you know, cream....I mean...

Yeah, it's pretty much like that.

And I was not surprised that all week, eating breakfast for dinner was as fun and comforting as I'd hoped it would be. (except for the salmon. That was not so great.My fault, not the fish's)
Fun and comfort.
Words that received a lot attention this week, as most of us gave at least a passing thought to the people whom we cherish, and those who in turn treasure us.
Whatever memories this Mother's Day has brought to mind or brought into being, I hope that you know.
I hope that you know yourself to be treasured beyond telling.
I hope that you know that there is someone for whom you are the most exciting part of the day.
I hope that you know that when you love the people around you
and feed them all the best things you can, you're nurturing this weary little world

one little soul at a time.