eggs and bacon

baked egg in a cradle of crispy bacon, with red pepper julienne, and a little freshly ground black pepper

to make, simply fry bacon just short of crispy, then place bacon in a lightly greased ramekin or small bowl, wrapping the rashers around the sides and covering the base (i use 2 and a half rashers per ramekin) and crack egg into centre. bake in oven at 350°F/180°C until yolk is just set, about 7-12 minutes depending on your oven. thinly slice some red pepper and sauté. gently remove egg parcels from ramekin and serve with red pepper slices as a tasty garnish.

serving suggestion: serve with roasted cherry tomatoes (cherry tomatoes tossed in a little olive oil and a dash of lemon juice and roasted in the oven at 400°F/205°C for 20 minutes until just bursting. sprinkle with fresh basil leaves and a few drops of balsamic vinegar for a great looking side). it occurred to me when i began throwing this breakfast together that roasted cherry tomatoes would be perfect on the side, but i couldn't be bothered to go down to the store to get some

the soundtrack for this sunday morning breakfast:

radiohead
in rainbows



man it's great to have a functioning kitchen again

the timmy's brekkie

hey, i'm not proud of it, but at least we're honest

what do you do when your kitchen is in a shambles because you're in the middle of renovating it, and you have a day of sanding floors ahead of you? if you live in canada, you get a timmy's breakfast. namely a breakfast biscuit with either sausage or bacon (or no meat if you're mandy) on some kind of reconstituted egg patty with processed cheese.

it ain't pretty, but boy is it delicious in a disgusting, i'm-not-certain-this-counts-as-food kind of way.

on the side? what else but a double-double (a 2 milk, 2 sugar tim horton's coffee), and extra-large thank you very much, because we have a day of action ahead of us.

just a little continental

latte, delicate slices of brie, a big honking splooge of strawberry jam, artichoke and sundried tomato cream cheese and sliced fresh organic strawberries, all served with oven warmed croissants

simple, yet very tactile and involving, taking away the distance a knife and fork creates and gets the hands busy in the food

a great start to canadian thanksgiving

feeling greek

warm and toasty herb pitas with a thick layer of greek cream cheese (think olives and chives)
and smoked salmon scrambled eggs

yum.

i threw some monterey jack in with the eggs, but really should have thought of tossing in some feta instead
otherwise, it gets four out of five stars on the emery breakfast meter

so an italian and a mexican walk in to a breakfast bar...

lightly fried polenta rounds with poached egg, salsa, avocado and a cherry tomato

nice to look at and oh so nice to eat

this one's a no brainer, but if you really need a recipe, drop me a line and i'll be happy to oblige


let's see if i can get back on this horse shall we?

the double breakfast weekend

happy canada day weekend to one and all

and, introducing,

the monday morning statutory public holiday breakfast

eggs lola

There's a fantastic little sidewalk cafe called Lola's on the bohemian road named Long Street in Cape Town, South Africa. It's a great place to spend an hour with the paper, or to relax and watch the unique cosmopolitanism of the city at the southern tip of Africa pass you by. Not only is Lola's a cool place to see and be seen, but also a great place to enjoy a mean breakfast, and Eggs Lola is merely exhibit A on their menu of deliciousness. This is our reinterpretation of a hazy remembrance of a great meal, so don't hold us to it.

light and fluffy poached eggs on multigrain toast, weighed down by a mound of good cheese (we're in the middle of a love affair with jarlsberg), served with sauteed mushroom, onion and red pepper, good quality salsa, and fresh avocado


a note on eggs:

we only buy and eat free range organic eggs, not because we're a pair of crazy über-hippies, but because the insipid pale yellow yolks of battery hens cannot compare in taste to the flavour packed goodness of a quality free range egg. now to be fair we may not be crazy über-hippies, but we do however have access to a nest of crazy über-hippies who provide us with organic free ranges from the fields of their farm, but even the free range eggs to be found in your local supermarket are a trillion times better than that battery hen crap. and seriously, have you seen the inside of a battery hen farm? miserable.

you mean rabbit?

no. i mean rarebit.

welsh rarebit, with grilled tomato and parsley garnish

the inaugural sunday morning breakfast blog recipe:

add 2 cups of grated cheddar and jarlsberg cheeses and a splash of milk (around 3 tablespoons) - or same quantity of beer (preferably a brown ale) if you're a purist and the whole "beer for breakfast" thing works for you - to a small saucepan. simmer over a low heat until sauce is smooth and consistency is thick. add a teaspoon of mustard (i like a sweet mustard in my cheese sauce) and some freshly ground pepper to taste, and pour over buttered wholewheat bread. grill cheesy bread slices in a toaster oven until lightly browned, then turn to "toast" to get the underside nice and crispy.

sprinkle a pinch of dry herbs, a pinch of brown sugar, and salt and pepper to taste on a thickly sliced tomato, one slice per rarebit, and fry quickly over a medium heat, a couple of minutes per side. serve on bubbly, cheesy rarebit, with a pot of coffee and fresh orange juice

for the carnivores among us, i recommend a few rashers of crispy bacon beneath the tomato

quick, easy, and most importantly, delicious

the soundtrack for this sunday morning breakfast:

james morrison
undiscovered