So, let’s say hypothetically that you went to a party on Friday night and had a smidge too much champagne.  Maybe you woke up Saturday morning with a tiny headache and a slightly delicate stomach. Not a hangover, goodness no, nothing like that, you know better than that.  You just woke up feeling a little off. What would you eat for breakfast?

Not that I really know what that’s like. But if theoretically I drank a little too much of the bubbly and needed to feel better fast, I would first drink a lot of water or something with electrolytes. Then I would want something comforting like pizza, pancakes, or maybe mac n cheese. But first thing in the morning? I’d probably reach for what we call around here a holey egg sandwich. You might know it as a birdie in the nest, egg in the basket, one-eyed Jack, or one of several other names.

Not that I ever need a hangover remedy, but here is one of my favorites:

Holey Egg Sandwich

First, choose your weapon. I use a biscuit cutter but if you don’t have one, a shot glass will work nicely.

You’ll need a slice of bread. Whatever you have around.

A little butter will cure what ails you (don’t worry we’re not using the whole stick).  Make sure it’s room temperature and spreadable.

One egg.

Butter both sides of the bread and using your biscuit cutter or shot glass, cut a whole in the middle of the slice.  My least favorite part of this whole process is that the bread will stick to whatever surface you put it on once both sides are buttered.  I know, it’s not really that bad but I still don’t like it.

Put your bread and the little hole you cut out into a hot pan (heat it on medium).

Crack the egg into the center of the hole.

Salt and pepper to taste.

When the bottom side is brown, flip it (about 2 minutes).

I am not so great at the flipping especially first thing in the morning. Cook until the egg is done to your liking (about 2 minutes if you like the yolk runny, more if you don’t).

Dig in.

My favorite part is dipping the little crispy bit into the egg yolk

Yum.

P.S. This is also a hit with kids (not the hangover part, just the holey egg sandwich).

Hi. How are you? Good I hope… By now I’m sure you’ve noticed I’ve been taking a bit of break. It wasn’t entirely planned but between birthdays and Valentine’s, and snow trips and Wicked, I’ve been eating out a lot the last couple of weeks and not cooking. But I’m back now and I made you pancakes.

I grew up eating pancakes from mixes. You know: Bisquick, Aunt Jemima, Hungry Jack. And in my adult life I moved on to the fancier mixes like Bob’s Mill and such. All of these make fine pancakes but I wanted to have more control over the outcome so I started playing with pancake recipes about a year ago. And after eating a lot of pancakes, I think I’ve found the best one. I stumbled upon Bette’s Buttermilk pancakes about six months ago and have tested it many times, adjusting a few things here and there along the way. And by-gum, these are darn good pancakes.

The baking powder, baking soda, and buttermilk come together in a chemical reaction that give these pancakes major lift. So much lift, in fact, that the batter gets fluffy after sitting for a few minutes (I’m talking big air bubbles here).

Buttermilk Pancakes

(adapted from Bette’s Buttermilk Pancakes)

The trouble I have with most recipes is that they make too many pancakes for 1-2 people which is the number of people I feed most often. So I put my math skills to use and cut everything in half, so if you want more pancakes just double it all.

Makes about 12 pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk, whole or 2 percent
(optional) choice of berries, chocolate chips, bananas, or other nuts.

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
2. In a small bowl, beat together the milks and egg.
3. Just before you’re ready to make the pancakes, add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once. Stir just until the dry ingredients are mixed in, the batter will be slightly lumpy.
4. If you are using berries or nuts (or chocolate chips), mix them in now or sprinkle on top of each pancake in the skillet (I usually use the sprinkle method because I don’t like my batter to turn blue from the blueberries even though I know it doesn’t affect the flavor, I’m just a little particular. Plus this means I can make sure each pancake has the right number of berries… er, nevermind).
5. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or heavy skillet to medium-high (I cook them on medium but my stove runs a little hot so you may want to experiment to find the right temperature for your stove).
6. Spoon 1/8 to 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot skillet. When bubbles appeear on the surface and the underside is lightly browned, flip it and cook another 2 minutes.
7. Serve immediately or keep warm in a 200 degree oven (or on “warm” if your oven has it).

Notes

• If you have leftovers, lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet and put it into the freezer. When frozen, transfer to a zip top bag and keep frozen. Then when you’re having a pancake emergency, take one out and toast it. Crisis averted.
• I use a regular spoon to scoop the batter (you know in a silverware set, there is the smaller teaspoon and larger (soup?) spoon. I use the latter). The batter is fluffy so the scoop probably is about double the volume of the spoon but it still makes smaller pancakes which I find easier to flip and let’s face it, pancakes are better in stacks and the smaller the pancake the bigger the stack.

As much as chicken soup is lauded as a cure for what ails you, and is perhaps the quintessential comfort food (it even has its own series of books for goodness sake), I’d like to disagree. You see, to me soup is fine when you have the flu and are eating mostly liquids, but when your soul needs soothing, soup is a little too light duty.

I had a severe case of the blahs last week. I felt uninspired, bloated, and a couple of shades of blargh. Holly Golightly would have called it the Mean Reds. Whatever you call it, you know it is not fun. So there I was, prostrate on my couch watching Pride and Prejudice for the 4th time in 3 days when I realized I needed to eat. I had a kitchen full of vegetables and fruits and healthy options but at that moment I wanted none of it. Ten in ‘10 be damned, I wanted biscuits.

The great thing about biscuits is they are dead simple. A few ingredients plus a few minutes of work, and poof. Soul-soothers like no other. I’ve eaten my share of biscuits over the years, everything from Grands to Bisquick to my Aunt Sudie Faye’s homemade biscuits smothered in gravy. Aunt Sudie Faye’s were the pinnacle of biscuit perfection in my book. That is, until last week.

I have made many biscuits myself, using a few different recipes but in recent years settled in with Alton Brown’s (of course). I love that episode where he makes biscuits alongside his grandmother. She’s so cute and reminds me of home (she is so completely and totally a Southern grandma).

I’ve made many batches of his biscuits and thought I was satisfied. They are good. I always did as he said and worked the dough as little as possible so the biscuits were flaky (almost to the point of falling apart), but I never could get mine as tall as Aunt Sudie Faye’s.

For whatever reason, I didn’t want those biscuits anyway. I wanted something better. Now, normally in the middle of the blahs is not the time to go trying something new. Usually it’s best to go with old reliable because horror of horrors, what if the new ones aren’t good?

Well, I was in a difficult mood. And picky. I thought, “so what if they don’t turn out, I kind of expect they won’t anyway. I suck at baking.” Not a reflection of the recipe, just my general outlook that day. After a little research, and a lot of effort (getting off of the sofa is hard. Especially when Mr. Darcy is around), I turned to Homesick Texan for a new biscuit experience.

See, biscuit recipes vary but not by that much in the way of ingredients. However, her method is vastly different than AB’s. Where he says don’t work the dough, she says beat it with your rolling pin. I probably enjoyed beating the dough a little too much.

These biscuits came out tall and layered and beautiful and delicious. With butter. With pear preserves. With gravy. Heck yeah, I made gravy. Look out, there’s a new biscuit in town. And it is in every way perfect.

While I wouldn’t recommend eating half a dozen (or more) biscuits all by yourself on a regular basis, I do believe they can wrap your achy soul in buttery goodness and lift your mood. I felt better by the end of the day and even pushed myself out the door to spin class where the instructor tried to kill me. But in a good way.

Want to do my dishes? I’ll pay you in biscuits.

Buttermilk Biscuits

(from Homesick Texan)

The best biscuit I’ve made. Perhaps the best biscuit I’ve eaten. And just so you know, I’ve eaten a lot of biscuits. Tall, flaky, layered. These biscuits are tender but substantial enough to stand up to a thick cream gravy. Perfection.

Makes 10-12 biscuits.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons) butter, cold
3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix together all of the dry ingredients.
3. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles pea-sized crumbs.
4. Make a well in the center of the butter-flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Stir until the flour is just incorporated but the dough is sticky and loose.
5. Pour dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 1 minute. The dough should be smooth and no longer wet. (Sprinkle the surface with more flour if the dough is sticking).
6. Shape the dough into a ball, and hit it with a rolling pin, turning it and folding it in half every few whacks. Do this for a couple of minutes. [Better than a therapy session]
7. Roll dough until it is 1/4 inch thick and then fold it in half. Cut out your biscuits from the folded dough using a round biscuit cutter or a glass (pick whatever size you like best. I’ve used anything from a shot glass to a tumbler depending on my mood).
8. Place on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat or parchment paper (or grease the baking sheet if not using either of those). Make sure the biscuits are slightly touching so that they will help each other rise up instead of out.
9. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.
10. Eat them with butter, jam, preserves, gravy or friends. Just eat them.

While I don’t think men are the only ones who like gratin, I file this one under Man Food. With it’s hearty potato, cheese and cream trifecta, it is something a man will inhale in heaps while a woman looks on jealously as she picks at her own dainty portion. At least, that’s the way it works around here.

I’ve found if you even whisper “gratin”, the men in the room perk up. Mumbles of “I love gratin” fill the air. Meanwhile, the ladies nod in agreement that gratin is good though they reserve their expressions of love for things covered in chocolate. (I don’t want anyone to be upset with me for playing into stereotypes, I’m just going from my own unscientific data).

And so, I give you my first official Man Food: potato and leek gratin.

Potatoes with their little eyes peering back at me as I washed and prepared them for their fate… I’m not sure what it is about potatoes and leeks that works so very well, but it is a match made in heaven or some other really nice place. I used to think leeks were icky, but then I realized that the way I had them originally was icky, not the leeks themselves. Leeks are lovely.

Potato and Leek Gratin

(adapted from Onion Potato Gratin on Simply Recipes)

about 1 pound potatoes (I used red, though yukon gold is really nice too… use what you have)
about 1 pound leeks
2 tablespoons olive oil (or butter if you prefer)
1/2 cup whole milk (or cream for added richness)
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded (you can use Gruyere also, I used baby Swiss)
1/4 cup parmesan, grated (I used asiago instead because that’s what I had. But either will work).
salt and pepper, to taste.
(optional) 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Set aside an 11×7-inch baking dish.
2. Peel and clean the potatoes. Slice thinly, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick using a mandolin or sharp knife. Put potato slices into a medium pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are “al dente”… fork tender but not falling apart. Drain and set aside.
3. Quarter the leeks lengthwise (leaving the root intact). Clean the leeks. Chop roughly into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces (this doesn’t have to be precise as long as the pieces are bite sized). Saute the leeks in olive oil (or butter… or bacon fat for that matter) until slightly translucent and just starting to brown, about 5 minutes.
4. Put about half of the potatoes in a layer on the bottom of the 11×7-inch baking dish. Layer about half of the leeks on top of the potatoes, followed by 1/3 of each of the cheeses. Lightly salt and pepper this layer (a pinch or 2 of salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper). Create another layer with the remaining potatoes, leeks, and cheeses. Lightly salt and pepper the top.
5. If using the panko breadcrumbs, sprinkle on top of your layered potatoes and cheese. This will give the top an extra bit of crunch (which I like).
6. Pour 1/2 cup of milk (or cream) into the dish. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the milk has thickened and the top is golden brown (the potatoes should be completely cooked).
7. Serve it hot to a man or serve it to a hot man… either way you can’t lose.

Notes:

• After you peel potatoes, you can set them in a bowl and cover them with water to avoid dirty potato syndrome (where the potatoes start getting dingy from oxidation).
• Leeks need to be washed thoroughly because they are usually filled with dirt and sand. The best way I have found to do this is this: cut off the dark green parts and leave the root end intact. Slice the leeks lengthwise up to but not through the root and then rotate the leek 90 degrees and slice it lengthwise again (not through the root). Swish your little leek-broom in a bowl of water or massage it under running water until it is clean. (I believe I learned this by watching Ina Garten on one of her shows though I don’t really remember where I picked it up).
• Bacon fat would add a richness and smokey flavor if you use it in place of olive oil to saute the leeks.
• I’ve made this a couple of times using whatever potatoes and cheeses I had on hand and my conclusion is that it’s hard to go wrong with potato and cheese…

I’ve been thinking about Christmas morning lately. Like for the last couple of weeks. I haven’t been thinking about presents. No, I’ve been thinking about breakfast. Remember, it’s the most important meal of the day. And you’re going to need your strength on Christmas day. Even so, Christmas morning is about presents and witnessing the joy of others opening the gifts you so carefully chose (or made) for them, right? It’s not about fussing over a lot of stuff in the kitchen. But this doesn’t mean you have to eat cereal. There are a number of things you can prepare ahead of time so that breakfast is nearly as memorable as that shiny new toy. Things like biscuits and scones can be made ahead of time and frozen before they are baked. But sometimes you want a little more substance. Maybe something that is eggy, cheesy, and all around delicious. Maybe something like this breakfast casserole?

Breakfast casserole? Yes. I know, the name could use some work. But I think casseroles get a bad rap. Besides, it sounds better if you say it with a little Southern accent. Okay, maybe not. But if you want to be fancy, you could call it a savory bread pudding.

I got the recipe years ago from Christy, a friend in Georgia. We all stayed out late and spent the night at her place. In the morning, I woke up to the smell of something wonderful. When did she have time to make breakfast? Turns out she planned ahead. Smart girl.

This breakfast casserole comes out of the oven as something in between a crustless quiche and a bread pudding. Silky eggs mingling with the savory bacon (or sausage — your choice)… all topped off with cheese. And all you had to do when you stumbled out of bed was take it out of the fridge and turn the oven on. What’s not to love?

Breakfast Casserole

(adapted from Christy)

Make this up the night before and enjoy a hearty breakfast without the fuss. In the morning all you have to do is turn on the oven, set the timer, and eat. To balance things out, serve it with a side of fruit.

Serves 6-8.

1/2 pound bacon or sausage
bread, about 6 slices (depending on size)
about 2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup cheese, shredded
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

1. Cook the bacon or sausage. Drain the fat and set aside. (If using bacon, tear it into bite sized pieces).
2. Butter enough slices of bread to cover the bottom of a 11×17 baking dish (see notes for other options), buttered side down. (I used part of a 2-day-old pugliese loaf sliced into about 1/4-1/2 inch thick slices).
3. Sprinkle the sausage or bacon over the bread. Top that with the shredded cheese (I used a mix of cheddar and swiss).
4. Beat together eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour this over the cheese, bacon, and bread.
5. Cover baking dish with foil or plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
6. In the morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees and remove the baking dish from the refrigerator to sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.
7. Bake 30-40 minutes, until the eggs and cheese puff up and get brown around the edges.
8. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, serve warm.

Notes:

• If you would rather make this in a 9×13 inch baking dish, increase the eggs to 8 and the milk to 2 cups. Adjust other ingredients as desired. Baking time would also increase to 45-50 minutes.

Related

• Make these ahead and freeze before baking: blueberry scones. Bake straight from frozen.
• Smitten Kitchen has a number of ideas for make-ahead breakfast or brunch dishes
• A few more breakfast ideas from Two Peas and Their Pod