Snowy Breakfasts

(photo by Dan)

We had a blizzard a few weeks ago.  I miss it (which I realize is because I could stay inside, safe and warm and dry).  Our lazy, snowy, post-holiday mornings made for some excellent breakfast opportunities.



Ruby red grapefruit (no sugar needed) and jalapeno-cheddar bagel with cream cheese.  Thanks, Dan, for shoveling and stamping through the snow to the store to get the provisions!





"American Pancakes" from Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess and homemade cranberry curd (loosely based on a recipe in the same book).

Here's a tip: if you make more batter than you need, cook up all the pancakes anyway and freeze or refrigerate them.  Throw the leftovers in the toaster to heat and eat when you feel like it.  Pancake batter doesn't keep well, but cooked pancakes do.

Let it snow, breakfast-lovers!

-------

Optimize Your Fries

Forced by circumstance to purchase sub-par take-away lunch counter French fries?  Here's how to cut back on the sogginess factor:

Upon receiving your to-go bag, immediately reach in and pop the top of the fry container open (or, if it's aluminum foil, rip a sizable chunk away).  By creating a vent, you keep your fresh, hot French fries from steaming, and therefore sogging, further.  Also, two different coworkers tell me, if you know that your local diner tends to shy away from "crispy" to an unfortunate degree, ask for the fries to be "well-done," or even slightly burnt.

Sadly, my favorite neighborhood joint for fries closed to become a healthy, "organic" foods diner.  Boo.

-------

A tip for cookie lovers who like them soft:

Store supposed-to-be-soft or chewy cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread to keep them soft or to perk them up if they've gotten hard. The bread becomes stiff and dry, but the cookies benefit greatly. I also keep a half slice of bread in my brown sugar, where it keeps the sugar from getting too hard and clumpy.

Don't feel it must be "good" or "healthy" bread if you try this. You won't want to eat the hardened, used slices of bread afterward. When doing my cookie party baking every year, I choose the absolute cheapest loaf of plain, white sandwich bread I can find. It always rescues at least one batch.

If you overfill your containers (like I do), you may find that a cookie or two will stick to the bread when you come back to it later. Just pull it off gently and dust off the bread crumbs. If the stuck cookies have become too moist for presentation to guests, you may want to eat them immediately.

Snacking Survival Tip #1

Chilly at an outdoor restaurant? In a pinch, paper toweling makes an effective blanket.

Shortcake again, please.

I took my shortcake biscuit leftovers and swapped out blueberries for the strawberries of earlier this week. Yumwow.

Shortcake top tip: crush a little of your fruit with sugar in a bowl. Use this and whole fruit together to top your shortcake. This makes everything juicier and gives textural interest.