They're Magically Delicious(?)

Oh, my boys are so funny. They came downstairs this morning, proudly wearing their green, and were SO EXCITED to see a box of Lucky Charms on the table. Cereal! With sugar! And marshmallows! What could be more fun for breakfast?!?! They dove in with a great deal of enthusiasm that lasted all of about 5 bites. After that I think they started to feel a little nauseated, but they kept up a valiant front. Finally, the oldest said to his younger brother, "I think our tummies are full, don't you?" Too cute.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Been There, Eaten That

We continue to eat our way through Charleston, visiting old favorites and not yet being dazzled by all the pretty new places to eat. Thankfully, this is Charleston, and things don't change too quickly around here.

It has been so long since we were here just for true vacation, and not a wedding, holiday, fund raiser, or other food-is-already-built-in-event, that in some cases it has been over five years since we have called on these old friends. Let me tell you, just between you and me, some of them are showing their age. It's always been my practice not to say anything negative about a restaurant on this blog. I try to keep the attention on the ones that are doing it right, and ignore the rest in the hopes they will just go away. So I'm not naming names...but really...haven't we learned that bread should be warm, and butter at least should not be ice cold? And that coffee ordered with dessert should be served with dessert, not 15 minutes later?
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Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and I have a special treat for my boys. When you are a Mean Mom like I am and force your children to have hot cooked breakfast every morning, like oatmeal, French toast, and peanut butter pancakes, it's pretty easy to make their day special with a little sugar. They'll be surprised tomorrow.

Delay, Delay, Delay

Today is D-Day for the freezers. With the exception of a few special occasion items (a loaf of pound cake, homemade chicken stock, a small beef tenderloin) and high-turnover basics (frozen pizza dough and sauce, small containers of the spinach pesto I made just a few days ago, frozen fruit for smoothies, frozen biscuits) anything we have not managed to eat in the past 2 weeks is getting pitched tonight (I'm looking at you, green beans, lima beans, and unidentifiable-something-red-in-a-large-ziplock-bag). On one hand, it really is painful to throw away perfectly good food (though query if it's really 'perfectly good' if we don't eat it even when we're trying to clean out the freezer). On the other hand, forcing myself to go through this exercise twice each year does help me be more mindful of what goes in the freezer in the first place.
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Frozen biscuits are definitely a freezer staple. Like all good Southerners, we love ham biscuits for breakfast. I find it tough to make these during the week, however, because between the time it takes to preheat the oven and then to bake the biscuits, I start to run late. Most mornings I have 15-20 glorious minutes to myself in the kitchen before hungry little boys arrive Demanding Breakfast Now, and in that time I need to have coffee, empty the dishwasher, make breakfast, and pack a lunch. For three mornings in a row I tried to remember to come out and preheat the oven before getting dressed, so it would be ready and waiting for me to pop the biscuits in, but really - who can manage even a small change in routine at 6:00am? Finally it occurred to me. If I use the "delay start" function to get the oven preheated, I can set it the night before. Voila. I now have time to do ham biscuits in the morning, much to every one's delight. That's what we had for breakfast this morning. I served the boys and asked them to wait just a second so I could run and get my camera to take a picture for the blog. When I returned less than 90 seconds later, this was all that was left:

Fat Day

I reminded the boys last week that Fat Tuesday was coming up and that we would be having pancakes for dinner. My oldest promptly reported to his kindergarten class, "On Fat Day, Mommy makes pancakes."

Awesome. It's like the game of Operator, 6 year old style.

I did indeed make pancakes for dinner tonight, and wondered why I don't do it more often. I suppose part of it is because we eat pancakes often enough for breakfast, and part of it is because I've yet to find a wine that goes well with them (hmmm...mimosas with dinner, anyone??).

You just cannot beat this recipe for buttermilk pancakes from the Joy of Cooking. I've posted it before, but here it is again.

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients, until just combined. Cook on griddle until bubble form and a couple of them pop. Flip, cook a minute or two more, and enjoy!

Say It With A Smile

The Tar Heels won a really big game last night, with a finish so close and nerve-wracking I had to cover my eyes in an effort to trick the team into thinking I wasn't watching, so no pressure, but please oh please pull this one out. Thankfully, they did. Whew.

My six year old had to go to bed at halftime, and I knew the first thing he would ask this morning was Who Won? So I had his breakfast ready and waiting for him, to let him know:

Peanut butter on toast with a chocolate chip smile and grapefruit. Happy boy, happy mommy, happy Tar Heels.

And to Dook for this upcoming Saturday: Bring. It. On.

This is How to Make Oatmeal...Right

The New York Times food writer Mark Bittman had an article yesterday on everything McDonald's is doing wrong with its new oatmeal menu item. Now, I love oatmeal. Love it. I eat it almost every single morning. But I never, ever order it for breakfast in a restaurant, no matter where I am. I've yet to see a restaurant oatmeal offering that was anything more than sticky, gummy, flavorless gruel with a side of brown sugar and fruit to disguise the flavor. Gah.

Since I am not a sweets person, I make my oatmeal savory - cooked with a bit of salt and topped with an egg over-easy. I like the oats to still be chewy and retain their shape, not cooked down so much they vaguely resemble the paper mache we used to make the creatures on high school homecoming floats.

THIS is how to make a good bowl of oatmeal (serves 1, increase proportions as needed):

Bring 3/4 cups water to a boil, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt (or slightly less, depending on your preference. You need enough salt to bring out the nutty, oaty flavor of the oats. Too little and the oats just taste like cardboard. Too much and all you'll taste is salt.). As soon as the water is boiling, add 3/4 cups of old-fashioned oats (not quick-cooking oats). Turn the heat down to low, and simmer oats until all the water is absorbed, which will only be about 5-7 minutes. Stir once or twice to be sure the oats are cooking evenly and not sticking. While the oats are cooking, gently fry an egg over-easy. Once all the water is absorbed by the oats, top with the egg and enjoy. So delicious!

I Think I Love You

Hello readers! (If any of you are left...it's been so long since I blogged that I actually forgot my password to sign on here. 2 cups of coffee later it came to me...perhaps I should write these things down.)

I thought it would be fun, since I do love food so much, to restart the blog on a day of love. I will admit a slight obsession with making sure my boys have a hot, healthy breakfast on school mornings. We do a lot of oatmeal, french toast, bagel sandwiches, but their current favorite breakfast is pancake sandwiches. I make a huge batch of silver dollar sized pancakes and freeze them. In the morning, they take just 45 seconds in the microwave, get a big smear of peanut butter, and voila, a hot breakfast in less than a minute.

This morning, in honor of Valentine's Day, I made heart-shaped pancakes with peanut butter. HUGE hit.

Here's the recipe I use to make a big batch of pancakes for freezing:

1) Whisk together:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

6 Tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2) In a separate bowl, whisk together:

3 cups milk (I use 2%)

6 Tablespoons melted butter

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour wet ingredients into dry and whisk together until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, or your pancakes will be dense little discs. Heat griddle, melt butter, and cook your pancakes. Enjoy!

Breakfast Bonanza

I know, I said the rest of the posts this month would be about getting dinner on the table 30 minutes after you walked through to door. But someone once said "write about what you know." And what I know is our breakfasts for this upcoming week.

With school starting this week and our morning timeline getting tighter, I've been thinking about breakfasts that are quick to make but still nutritious. I like my boys to have enough time to sit at the counter and eat a proper meal to make their transition from sleep to a busy day, something simple for just-waking-up little bodies, but hearty enough to get them through their active mornings.

I've blogged about waffles, smoothies, french toast, and cheese grits, but here are other breakfast ideas that are in our usual rotation:

Peanut butter on whole wheat toast
Fried egg sandwich (fried egg and a slice of cheddar cheese on whole wheat toast)
Breakfast burrito (scrambled egg and cheddar cheese wrapped in 1/2 of a flour tortilla)
Bagel with cream cheese
Raisin bread and cream cheese sandwiches
Oatmeal topped with an egg over easy

What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Rise and Shine

Ah, mornings. Is there ever a crazier time in a household of school-aged children? We've had a delightfully lazy summer and enjoyed not having to rush out the door at any particular time, but all of that is about to come crashing to a halt next Tuesday. And so my thoughts have turned today to easy, make-ahead breakfasts. This is one of my boys' favorites:

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast

The night before: Whisk 6 eggs vigorously together with a generous pinch of salt and a splash of milk. Place 6 slices of cinnamon raisin bread in a shallow baking dish (I use a lasagna pan), and pour the eggs over them. Place in refrigerator overnight.

In the morning: Turn on coffee maker. Set griddle on stove top, preheat to medium-low heat. Engage in daily morning race with the coffee maker to see if you can unload the dishwasher before the coffee is ready (I don't know why, but it makes me feel SO SMUG if I win. Clearly I have competitive issues.). As you sip that glorious manna from heaven known as hot coffee and feel the cobwebs clearing from your mind, put a little butter and the french toast slices on the griddle. (True story: my 4 year old once heard my coffee maker beeping and said, "Mommy, it's your happy sound!"). Warm up the syrup, flip the french toast, yell at your kids to GET DRESSED ALREADY, and voila, breakfast is ready. Couldn't be easier!

Ok, cereal could be easier. But you get the picture.