Breakfast Pizza

     Last weekend was my youngest's 5th birthday. So with family & friends in town I decided to do a morning meal this time to change it up. Making pizza's for breakfast. Nothing really much needed in a way of recipe for this one.
     I must made a pancake for the pizza crust & topped it with eggs (open omelet style) in place of pizza sauce. I used bacon, sausage & green bell peppers for the toppings (all pre-cooked). To top it off I used colby jack cheese (it is what we had in the fridge). This was one delicious dish and have given me another great inventive way to eat your average breakfast food (we'll save that for another post).
     What I love about this dish is the almost unlimited choices of cheese & toppings you can do for this dish. Just as with pizza an omelet is a great canvas for almost any other kind of meat, veggie combination. Have fun with it. I just used what we had in the fridge at the time for this one, but man have we thought of some cool ideas for next time.
     Wanna know a secret? This also gave me another idea for a new way to eat breakfast. I think I will save it for another post though. Here is the hint, to get really really fluffy pancakes (if you use a pre-made mix) use 1/3 milk & 2/3 water for the wet portion of the directions. The more milk you add the thicker the pancakes will be. Speaking of pancakes, just one last thing. The guy Jim who inspired me to do fun pancakes is coming out with a book. He does some really cool things with pancakes, check him out at www.jimspancakes.com 

Not Your Average Grilled Cheese

     Who doesn't love a grilled cheese? Such an favorite of kids all over this great land. Even the adults like them. I decided to mix it up by giving it an Italian twist. Using garlic butter instead of regular butter & two different Italian cheeses then pairing it with meatballs n marinara sauce. This was one yummy dish. It can be described as garlic cheesy bread with meatballs, but oh is it just divino!
     For the butter I just added some garlic powder & Italian herb mix (dry) to a stick of room temp. butter & stirred to combine. For the cheese I used Mozzarella & Fontinella. Now this was a match made in heaven, let me tell you. I tried doing this style before, but used just Mozzarella cheese. This did not work, there needed to be a counterpoint to the Mozzarella. I thought of using Parmesan cheese, but it being a hard cheese I did not think it would be work out for the dish. So after some careful research I chose Fontinella. The next time you make any kind of cheesy bread or pizza, add this to the mix, it will not be disappoint.
     I cheated with the meatballs due to time this time and used pre-cooked from the store. I, however, did not skimp out on the sauce. I have never made it from scratch but I do like to "doctor" up the cheap stuff. I use the cheapest canned sauce & add spices/herbs to the mix to get it tasting right. All of it is to taste so it is tough to convert into measurements. There is one ingredient that no one seems to think about that I just love to use. Add some cumin the next time you make spaghetti sauce. It doesn't take much just about a teaspoon or so & adds a nice finishing touch to it.
     I originally intended this dish to be a lunch & was worried about it being filling enough for dinner, but man it was more than filling. I almost added noodles, but that would have been a mistake. In the picture I added sliced meatballs to half of the sandwich & the other half not. I personally prefer it without the meatballs in it, but hey had to try. Don't forget to dip the grilled cheese into the sauce, yummy. Enjoy!

Raspberry Cheesecake w/White Chocolate

     My wife really likes the raspberry swirl cheesecake from Olive Garden. Thus challenging me to create it. I did not quite get the "swirl" part right, but the flavor was there. Or everyone enjoyed this dish. I don't like cheesecake so I had to search for a recipe on the internet. I did however make two sauces from scratch for the dish, Chocolate & Raspberry Syrup. Very simple to make, but does involve a lot of whisking. 

     The cheesecake I did adapt by adding some chunks of white chocolate to the mix. After pouring the cheesecake into the pan I swirled in some of the raspberry syrup. All though in hind sight I believe I should have done this in stages, pour some cheesecake batter then swirl in some syrup and repeat. Only the top layer got the swirl with the way I did it.

     The syrup recipe was actually taken from Alton Brown's "Good Eats" cooking show. He did this for chocolate syrup, but I found out you can substitute anything for the cocoa powder and mix it up. Now there is another small change depending on the fruit you are using. The water amount in the recipe will need to be decreased for some fruits due to their high level of juice. But man is it great. What are some of your cheesecake recipes? Enjoy! 

Oreo Delight!

     To mix things up I decided to do a dessert this time. I've been seeing a lot of banana pudding lately. So I figured why not give it shot, but instead of bananas (which I do not like) why not use something I and pretty much everyone else likes Oreo's. So I decided to do a Oreo Pudding that I am just simply calling Oreo Delight.  

     So after a simple summer dinner of skillet potatoes, corn on the cob & steak,

I made up some whip cream to finish off the dessert and served. Man was this good. The different textures and each flavor just coming at you one at a time. I loved it. I did not do it in one big container but did it in individual cups. It was so rich that most of us couldn't finish it in one sitting.

     Nothing of this one is hard, or very time consuming. My 4 year old helped me with making this dessert the entire time. I think I would like to try this with some chocolate & vanilla pudding next time. What do you think? Enjoy!

Summer Burger Tour: Stowaway's

    Well on the way back to the station I noticed a stowaway, left over sirloin bacon burgers, so I decided to use the extra for breakfast. Thus the breakfast burger is born. I made the patties thinner so as not to overpower everything else. Using cheddar cheese again, & swapped out the buns for toast. No need for a sausage patty or extra bacon (all though the extra bacon would make it that much better). If you have a runny yoke then all the better because you can dip the burger into it, making it that much more enjoyable.
     This is one stow away that ended up paying for the trip.

Summer Burger Tour (stop 3): Sirloin Bacon Burger

     Thanks for taking the Summer Burger Tour with us this year. Our final stop the sirloin bacon burger. Now I am not talking about a sirloin burger topped with bacon, no no. I am talking about a freshly ground sirloin mixed with ground bacon. Topped with some mild cheddar cheese and you have the true all american burger right here!
     One of my brother in-laws was here for it along with some friends of ours. While grinding and mixing up the meat,my brother in-law, Beau walked into the kitchen and smelt the meat and said "I think I will have 2 or 3 of those, that smells good." I replied that he most likely will only eat one because these burgers are not small, plus I do portion these meals so there isn't always seconds. With the amount of people we had over for this one (only 5 more than normal) I way more meat than I should have. Guess how many he ate? It was not 2 or 3, in fact it was so filling he could not even finish the last 2 (small) bites he had left of the first one.
     I also had a compliment of having the "best burger I have ever eaten!" Now that was cool. Not sure if it is the best but I am sure if people try this they will let me know. Once again I used Red Robin seasoning for consistency purposes. Because it is 4th of July weekend I used the traditional sesame seed bun though. For the recipe though I will not be able to post specific amounts due to the fact that the seasoning was to taste. Please make any adjustments & let me know how it turns out if you try this one. Thanks for taking the tour with us this summer. Enjoy!

Summer Burger Tour (stop 2): Turkey Burger

     Choo Choo! welcome to Turkey Station! This is the second stop in our line. After the veggie burger I must say this was way better on the texture front. It still wasn't a good ol' American beef burger but man was this one good.
     This was the first time I have ever had a turkey burger, so I was pleasantly surprised of how it turned out. I would give this meal an overall B+ to an A. Only 2 of the 5 of us where effected by the texture, but not enough to make the grade lower. I wasn't expecting a flavor/texture of a real burger so I wasn't as tough in the grading. All of us where surprised though at how good it tasted. I will definitely make this one again with ease. My local store didn't have ciabatta bread this time, so I used some potato buns. I used a different cheese combo on this stop also, going with muenster & cheddar cheese. This combo I have done with just plain old grilled cheese and have always liked it. I figured it would compliment the turkey meat and I was right, I highly suggest it.  
     I will post the recipe on the recipe page because I don't feel the need to tinker with it. Please feel free to change it up if you choose to try this yourself. If you do please leave a comment saying what you changed and how it all turned out.  If you want to email pictures. I might just post those also. Thanks you and enjoy!
     Next stop S.B. Station (sirloin & bacon).