Mornings - Bagels

Mornings are not my friend. Only through routine do I manage to make it to work. Sometimes routine fails but normally, it works out fine. Part of my auto-pilot program is the breakfast bagel that I never manage to eat at home. I wrap it in foil, run for the train & let my bagel sit in the office for a few hours until I remember that it's there. The last few days, I've been sleeping in and running late. Today, I finally found the time to make my breakfast bagel.

There is a wonderful tradition in this country of 2nd breakfast. This is the sandwich or other snack eaten at 10am, after one has already eaten breakfast at 7 or earlier. The second breakfast is normally more than a piece of fruit. It's a sandwich, sometimes with just a slice of cheese or a few coldcuts, but when I was in university, most students packed a mid-morning snack. School children also often have their mid-morning snack. This is enough to tide people over until lunch, when they have the main meal of their day.
Germany is apparently the land of over 600 different kinds of bread, none of which is Wonderbread. Most of these are incredibly healthy whole-grain loaves that really make you count your blessings with your daily bread.

There are a few things I haven't grown used to yet. I haven't yet converted 100% to dark breads, but I enjoy 4-grain bagels. I haven't grown used to having my main meal at lunch, so I often eat again with the workaholic in the evening. But I'm all about this mid-morning snack thing.

The breakfast bagel is fairly simple (it must be easy enough for a zombie to prepare)

1 4-grain bagel
1 small tomato, sliced
1 Tbsp goat cream cheese (thicker and tastier than regular cream cheese)
1/2 Tbsp green pesto
1/2 tsp capers
1/2 tsp green peppercorns

Split bagel. Smear pesto on 1 half. Smear cream cheese on the other. Place tomatoes, peppercorns & capers on the side with cream cheese. Place pesto-smeared side on top. Slice into halves, wrap in foil & run out the door because you're late for work again.

This morning, I finally managed to take a photo of the breakfast bagel. And with the list of ingredients, maybe my coworkers will stop begging me to bring more in to feed them.

Chevre Pancakes

In the last few years, dairy farmers in Germany have been complaining about the low price of milk. When milk costs €0.29 / L, it is very hard to make a profit, or even make ends meet (note: discount bottled water costs €0.35). A consumer who is aware of this problem can respond in a variety of ways. You can ignore the problem & continue to hope that your daily staple will not cost you more. You can choose to pay more for milk and milk products but the question remains: how much of that money really goes to the farmer & how much is absorbed by the milk company. You can buy local milk and ensure the farmers in your area see the money that you are willing to pay. I have gone a different route - I have stopped buying milk and milk products. I'm not sure that this is the answer, certainly it isn't for many German households, but I switched to goat milk for a few reasons.

Goat and sheep milk can normally be consumed by people who are lactose intolerant. Goat and sheep milk are not as commercial as cow milk, and I believe are thus less prone to the industrialized farming that results in high hormone and antibiotic use in cows. I could be wrong here, but because goats produce a fraction of the milk that cows do, they can not be used on such a large scale, and therefore, should not be as prone to disease as animals that are living in cramped quarters. For me, the most important reason to switch to goat milk was quite simply, the workaholic likes it better. I found some goat milk in the supermarket, imported from France, and had some goat yogurt in the fridge. Together, they are the perfect consistency for buttermilk - all without the bad conscience.

Goatmilk Pancakes
1 c flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
125 g goat yogurt
goat milk (about a 1/2 c)
1 egg
2 Tbsp oil

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda & baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
Place yogurt in a measuring cup. Add enough milk so you have 3/4 c liquid. Mix the thick mass until it is free of lumps.
In a small bowl, add the egg, oil and goat milk. Stir until smooth.
Slowly add the egg/milk mixture to the flour mixture. Stir a few times, the batter should still be lumpy.
Cook pancakes on a grill at medium heat until bubbles form. Then flip the pancakes. Keep them warm in a cool oven (50°), covered in foil until all pancakes are done. Serve with warm maple syrup.

I'm not sure if I'm really doing my part to help the farmers. Maybe it's time for government support, like in France. All I really know is that the pancakes were really sweet and went well with bacon. But what doesn't go well with bacon?

How to Take a Sandwich Home

Last month, I was in Arlington, Virginia to meet a friend for brunch. Good brunch makes me happy, seeing a friend who I haven't seen in years makes me happier. I was lucky enough to be able to combine the 2.

We went to a nearby restaurant, Harry's Tap Room. My friend has a deep interest in food and she is very concentrated on the aspects of sustainability, local produce, subsidies and the economy of farming. She took me to a restaurant that has not only delicious food, but the food is also local and hormone free, if not organic. These are all ideas that I think are worth supporting, but I still have the notion that these foods are pricey and full of extra-fiber. Not the case at Harry's. The prices are good and neither the food nor interior of the restaurant suggest that anything is green about the place.

Aware of the fact that I am not a professional cook & do not live anywhere near Maryland, I was delighted when I recently saw frozen Chesapeake Bay crabcakes in the supermarket. I got some English Muffins, made a Hollandaise sauce & poached some eggs. All in all, a really good start for breakfast. Had I made some hashbrowns & a fruit salad, it would have been a really good brunch.

More Dosas

I went to the Indian place around the corner this weekend for the masala dosa. Every Saturday, they have dosas, ildy, vada, and sambar. In short, they have a South Indian breakfast.

Dosas are like large crisp crepes, made out of lentils. This one was filled with spicy potatoes & had chopped red chili rubbed on the inside. A vada is a fried lentil mixture. Normally, I like the ones shaped like donuts but these were masal vada. They looked like falafels. Not what I was looking for but they made my brunch buddy happy. Ildy are steamed cakes of rice and lentils, served with a sambar, a lentil like soup/sauce. Both dishes came with coconut chutney.

You might be noticing a large amount of lentils in this meal. I'm still not sure if this vegan thing is working well for me. I see a large piece of beef in my near future.

Banana, Be Gone!

I thought I was going to use my bananas for some smoothies. I guess I was right, but this was more of an emergency situation: I've been noticing fruit flies & I want to eliminate any potential habitat. I have this theory that fruit flies bite. They're so little that no one would really notice. They don't have vampire fangs or anything.

Every now & then, I buy fruit. I don't really know why. It's good for me, it's full of vitamins, but I'm more of a vegetable girl. The fruit I buy sits on the counter & looks very pretty & gives guests the impression that I've grown out of my university years, when the diet consisted of Dr. Pepper & Mr. Noodles. (Why, if I was so well acquainted with them, were we never on a first name basis?) Often the fruit simply waits until it's time has come, in a painful, real-life sort of 17th century painting. A reminder of the passage of time. That sometimes leaks.

It was to be the deforestation of my kitchen counter. The bananas and the mango were about to go. I had some ginger, a whole lot of mint (that lives outside & is allowed to have as many fly friends as it likes) and a little bit of white tea leftover from breakfast.

Banana Mango Smoothie
2 ripe bananas
1 ripe mango
2 thumb sized pieces of ginger, peeled & cut into chunks
7-8 ginormous mint leaves (or more, if your mint is not a mutant like mine)
1/4 cup cool white or green tea
10-15 ice cubes

Mix everything in the blender. Pour into glasses. Garnish with more mint.

As I tried to photograph the drinks, a big bee-like insect came out by & hovered nearby. I think I'm better off without this insect attraction. I'm certainly better off for having actually eaten my fruit, instead of having an artistic reminder of the passage of time on my counter.

Weekend Breakfast - Breaking Diet

Normally, on the weekends, I revel in my fritattas. I wasn't a fan of eggs until I discovered the fritatta (read about it here). Just last week, I bought the cookbook I've been wanting to buy since it came out, the 75th anniversary edition of The Joy of Cooking. For me, there's something nostalgic about North American food, and furthermore, there's something nostalgic about old recipes. My mom has an ancient cookbook with ancient pictures - glazed hams in super saturated colour, garnished with pineapple rings & maraschino cherries. I love that book as a historical artifact but I need revised recipes to get me going. The 75th anniversary edition: perfect mix.

I saw the recipe for Jonnycakes, and though I really don't know how they got their name, I do recall them being rather tasty. Corn pancakes that are crispy on the outside. So here I went, Johnnycakes, bacon and eggs for breakfast. I tried to make up for the bacon (& bacon fat) by adding spinach and tomatoes to the scrambled eggs.

Johnny Cakes, Bacon & Scrambled Eggs
(adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

Make batter.
3/4 cup corn meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 chopped chili
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 c hot water
1/4 c grated cheese

Mix dry ingredients, add water & allow to sit for at least 10 minutes. Add cheese.

In frying pan over med-low heat, start cooking bacon. When bacon is nearly crispy, transfer to a small pan & over low heat, continue cooking. Keep bacon fat in pan. Cook cakes in bacon fat, 1 at a time. Keep finished cakes warm in oven over low heat.

Bacon should continue to provide fat. Use this fat in frying pan to cook eggs.

Beat 4 eggs with 1/4 cup cooked spinach, 1 diced tomato, 1/4 tsp dried oregano. Scramble eggs. When the eggs are done, so is the bacon (it was already cooked, it was just drying a little). Try not to think of the health disaster that this dish is, and moreover, try not to have it every weekend. But it was good!

How I Learnt to Love Eggs

I never used to like eggs. Back in the day when eggs were the bad boys of cholesterol, I celebrated the fact that I would never have to eat eggs again. Then I slowly realized what the mistake was. Eggs do not need to be paired with bacon or anything else to cover up their taste. Eggs simply need to be good. Free-range, grain-fed or organic - all good eggs. These days, they are even viewed as healthy as well. Still, the appeal of the egg slightly evaded me until one December morning in London, Ontario.

After a long night, eggs are always a good way to wake up. So, one December morning, I picked the frittata from the breakfast menu. This frittata made me love the fluffiness of eggs; it made me see beyond "scrambled" and "over easy". It calls for asparagus, and as there was asparagus available in the supermarket yesterday, I recreated the eggs that started it all.

Frittata with Ham, Asparagus and Sundried Tomatoes

Cook 1/4 cup diced ham. Lightly blanch 5 stalks of asparagus.
Dice 4 sundried tomatoes. Add to 5 organic or free-range eggs & mix. Add 2 Tbsp water.
Pour into frying pan.
Cover & cook over low heat until it looks slightly solid.
Using a plate & circus skills, flip frittata.
Sprinkle grated cheese (pecorino or parmesan), cover and allow to cook until cheese melts.


In Italy, frittatas are not a breakfast dish. Indeed, many egg dishes, including quiches and omlettes are not eaten for breakfast in the countries of their origins. Leftover frittatas can be eaten at room temperature - just don't try to reheat them.