Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes

When I saw a fellow Bubbler's post about having pancakes and coffee for breakfast two days ago, I immediately knew what I wanted for breakfast. So, I went right downstairs and, after feeding the ever hungry cats their breakfast, I made a batch of quicky Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal pancakes The flavoring aspect was inspired by a recipe I saw on the San Luis Obispo blogs found on TheTribuneNews.com. Dang, they looked good!!

Anyway, I didn't have any apples on hand and I HATE making pancakes using a recipe, so I used my "complete" just-add-water pancake mix and added a package of instant apple and cinnamon oatmeal. Then I added water and pulsed it all together in my mini-processor before heating the pan to cook them. 

While the pan was heating, I got the coffee pot ready and lit a low fire under it so it wouldn't boil over. I enjoyed those pancakes, believe me!! By the time I got done eating them, the coffee was ready. Perfect timing!

I love simple and easy ways to accomplish a tasty treat, although I admit that finely diced apples would probably have put the pancakes over the top. Still, they were very good and a nice change from plain old pancakes.


Photo credit - the San Luis Obispo blog at sloblogs.thetribunenews.com/andallthetrimmings/apple-cinnamon-oatmeal-pancakes/comment-page-1/#comment-37395. Feel free to check out their page if you want to make yours from scratch. They look fantastic!!

Sausage Gravy Wanted!

I've been craving breakfast sausage lately. Not the kind in links and not the patties, but the loose sausage that you can turn into sausage gravy. I had bought some of the brand Gwaltney, but was so disgusted by what it was that I didn't want to chance buying anything like it again. 

Sausage is a pork product, right? (Usually.) So, since pork is pink, sausage is also pink (maybe darker because of spices). The Gwaltney was pasty and....GRAY! And, it smelled like death. Seriously - it was plain nasty. And, it was FRESH!!! (Meaning - it wasn't even close to its "use by" date.) I know that Jimmy Dean and other national brands have good reputations, but I just didn't want to find out the hard way that I shouldn't have tried them. So, I went looking for some decent "loose" sausage I could use for breakfast.

I thought I'd found some. A pack of ground seasoned pork calling itself "sweet" sausage. It didn't say it was Italian sweet sausage. I know what that is. But, I got it out to make some sausage gravy tonight that I could keep in the fridge to enjoy for a couple of days. I checked the label for what spices were in the sausage, but all it said was "spice blend". Lovely. Time to flip a coin.

So, I opened it and discovered by fragrance and the accompanying recipe UNDER the label that this sausage was Italian seasoned. I'm sure the external labeling was not intentional. Someone just forgot to add "Italian" to the print line.

::disappointment::

Now this was why I made pasta meat sauce. But, I would love to be able to find some breakfast sausage that wasn't in link form that I could brown up as easily as I would ground beef. I know I can get it at the Amish market, but that's way out of my way. Why can't I get it in a regular grocery?? Apparently, in some groceries in this country, you can buy it. I wish I could here.

UPDATE - I did find an easy make at home breakfast sausage recipe that I think I'm going to try. I have all the spices it calls for here, so I just need to buy some ground pork. We shall see!!

photo credit (sausage) - Some rights reserved by Brood_wich (www.flickr.com/photos/brood_wich/)

Sausage gravy over biscuits

photo credit (gravy) - Some rights reserved by @joefoodie (www.flickr.com/photos/montage_man/)

Cinnamon Buns or Sticky Buns?

When I was growing up, cinnamon buns were what you see in this photo. They were the only kind of cinnamon buns you could find anywhere. The other kind, the ones that are like what Cinnabon sells, were called cinnamon ROLLS. Now, it seems that these are called "sticky" buns. Yet, these are far more cinnamon-y than the ones sold by Cinnabon or anyone else.

My favorite ones are the ones that only have raisins. My dad was the same way. We didn't like the ones with nuts. I still don't. We never ate the kind they sell now with icing until Cinnabon came along. We still went back to these.

They get stale pretty quickly, but Mom would then take them, slice them, butter both sides of them and pan fry them until they were soft and gooey and just plain wonderful!!! Better than they were fresh as far as I was concerned.

So, what do you call these? Have you always called them that or has that changed over time?


photo credit - Some rights reserved by arthritic_old_man (www.flickr.com/photos/51379696@N00/)

Homemade Breakfast Bowl

I made my first ever breakfast bowl yesterday morning. I've never had one anywhere, but I know you can buy them in the grocery stores in the frozen food section (usually Jimmy Dean brand). I wasn't actually planning on having a "breakfast bowl" for breakfast, but that's how it turned out. And, I enjoyed it!

First, I took a handful of fresh ground beef that I had bought at our small grocer in town (with a real butcher!) and browned that while adding salt and pepper. There was very little grease, so when I took the meat out, I added some olive oil to the pan and put in some diced potato hash browns to cook up. When they were done, I added the meat back to the pan intending to make sure it was still hot. Meanwhile, I had scrambled a couple eggs in preparation of cooking them separately.

While the meat and potatoes were reheating in the pan, I decided that I would just pour the eggs over them and cook everything together. That's what I did. I then put everything into a bowl I had waiting and sprinkled the top with a handful of shredded cheddar while, at the same time, heated up a couple of tortillas over the open flame on the stove. I set the tortillas on top of the bowl and got the salsa out. When I took off the tortillas, the cheese had melted from the heat of the tortillas and the potato/meat/egg mixture. I then put some salsa on top of all of it and enjoyed my breakfast!


Photo credit - Some rights reserved by theimpulsivebuy (www.flickr.com/photos/theimpulsivebuy/) An amazingly raunchy and negative review of the Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowl linked on this photo. But, I didn't think to write about my bowl until after I'd eaten it. So, this particular photo does closely resemble my breakfast except I had ground beef instead of bacon and my potatoes were more finely diced.

Breakfast is Better When Someone Else Makes It!

Scrapple with Eggs and Toast

TG asked me this morning what it is about breakfast that makes me enjoy it so much to want to go out to eat it. Frankly, I enjoy eating breakfast any time of the day, but when I'm in the mood for a full breakfast in the morning and I'm out, I would much rather stop to eat than make it at home. I'm just not ready to be standing at the stove cooking first thing in the morning. Even when I was growing up, when we had a full breakfast, it was later in the morning that we had it. Early morning was more toast and coffee. When I made big breakfasts for my kids when they were little, it was on weekends when I could make more at a later time. During school days, they had cereal and juice or grilled cheese or PBJ sandwiches before heading off to school. So, when I took TG to the airport this morning, I was looking forward to stopping and getting something to eat.

I've eaten breakfast at the Metro Diner two days in a row now. Yesterday, TG and I stopped for breakfast before doing some errands for him before he left today for Arizona to see a friend. I had scrambled eggs with scrapple and wheat toast and a side of grits

Buttered Grits

instead of potatoes. TG had Eggs Benedict with a side of scrapple. We shared a side of bacon.

Today, after dropping TG off at the airport, I stopped again at the Metro mainly because I wasn't able to find my glasses and thought I'd left them there yesterday morning. I didn't, but I still stayed for breakfast. Today I had a bowl of dried beef gravy with grits instead of potatoes and wheat toast. Of course, coffee is a given on both

Crispy Bacon

days. I had originally planned to stop at Wawa and get a bowl of eggs or a sausage egg and cheese croissant with coffee. 

I'll eat the gravy over toast, but I prefer it over potatoes. But, in recent years, potatoes haven't been kind to me, so I've been avoiding them when the option is available. So, when I have the option of grits instead, I take it. I eat grits like I eat other hot cereals. I put butter on it and I add a little sugar. Not a huge amount since I'm diabetic, but enough to keep the grits from being too bland. I've tried it with artificial sweetener, but it's not the same.

Chipped Beef on Toast

What's your favorite breakfast? Do you like any of these things?

Dave Milsom, Flickr - scrapple
Paul McRae, Flickr - grits
Wikimedia Commons - chipped beef
Wikimedia Commons - bacon

Peppers, Onions and Eggs for Dinner

Veggies atop the chicken at the restaurant.

Over this past weekend, my friend Tom and I went to a local Mexican restaurant we hadn't been to in a while. I decided to try something I'd never tried before and went with the Pollo Salvadoreno - Grilled Chicken El Salvador style. I had imagined that the veggies would be cooked down more than they were, but they were still mostly crispy. If you've ever had fajitas, you know what they looked like, but they were cooked LESS than that. I was disappointed, but still ate the chicken, which was delicious. The veggies smelled fantastic, so I brought them home along with the leftover rice, beans, chips and salsa. 

I decided on Thursday that I was going to use those peppers and onions. Perfectly good food that deserved being eaten, even if it was in a different way than originally served. But, I didn't want to thaw out any meat. I wanted something fast and easy. 

Peppers and eggs are very popular in our area, especially where there are a lot of Italians. I'm sorry to say that I refused to ever try them until after my mother passed away five years ago. She would have been thrilled to see me eat them. I discovered I liked them quite a bit. Yes, these peppers came with onions, too, but they were sweet onions, which I'll eat cooked. I don't like onions that have a sharp bite to them and I'll never ever eat an onion raw. So, I tossed the

Shortly after pouring the eggs in the pan.

Salvadoreno vegetables in the pan with some olive oil and began to pan grill them to where I like eating them. While that was happening, I got out seven eggs and put them in a bowl with some milk and scrambled them. 

Once the veggies were cooked (some might call these burnt - I prefer "blackened"), I poured the scrambled eggs over them and began cooking everything together. I took two pictures of the eggs - one while they were setting up and one after I'd stirred them and they were done. There is also a photo from the restaurant showing the veggies as they were before I decided to cook them again. 

After stirring with a wooden spoon until they were just set.

Add two slices of some fantastic artisan whole grain bread from Trader Joe's, toasted and buttered, and I can't deny that I had a pleasurable meal. 

Have you ever brought leftovers home and turned them into something else?

Originally published to my Bubblews account.

Ham and Eggs (and Pintos, too)

Top to bottom: pan fried ham, scrambled eggs, pinto beans.

Holy cow, I've enjoyed my meals since cooking that ham and those beans. But, I think my favorite of all was when I used the ham for breakfast and fried it nice and brown along with eggs nicely scrambled and some of those wonderful pinto beans.

I know this photo isn't the prettiest. Our plates aren't made to display our meals and there was more juice in the beans than I'd meant there to be, so what you see surrounding the eggs is that juice that ran across the plate. (My daughter bought all of our plates at Dollar Tree because she liked the colors and how sturdy they are. My set of white plates is unused in storage.)

Well, I enjoyed this breakfast so much that I just had it again for supper (or dinner, depending on where you live). The slices of ham were nicely crisped, the eggs had picked up the ham drippings (this time I cooked them AFTER the ham) and the beans were as good as they were the first time. I didn't even have bread or a tortilla with this. It was satisfying just as it was.

I wish my daughter would eat ham (not counting deli ham which she will eat). I could have it more often. But, by the same token, I can have more of it since she doesn't like it. 

Now, I'm wondering, and maybe someone reading this could advise me, about making ham gravy. I'm not talking about redeye gravy or the milk gravy you make from the ham drippings (love it!!), but ham gravy in the sense of sausage gravy or dried beef gravy. These slices are too thick to really do it justice like dried beef could, but there's so much flavor in this ham, I was wondering if I could grind some of the ham up (one time through the grinder) and then sizzle the ground ham until it begins to get color before adding my fat, flour and milk. Do you think that would work? I'm really craving a milk gravy with that kind of salty kick that sausage or dried beef would give it. I'll take any suggestions!

Oh, and even after eating beans for four meals, I still had enough left to freeze two pints of them. Well, they're not frozen yet, but they will be once the containers cool off. Good for making chili or burritos.

E is for Eggs

My daughter and I went to Golden Corral on Saturday for their breakfast buffet. I've been wanting to go for a while and we were right behind them at America's Best Eyewear for Deb's appointment. 

Scrambled Eggs

The only way I will eat eggs is scrambled (I count quiche as a type of scrambled), but I especially love how eggs taste when they're made in mass quantities like they are at Golden Corral and other breakfast buffets. I don't know what it is about them - maybe because they cook them moist to allow them to sit on the buffet longer. I don't like dried out eggs or even ones that are overly browned. But, when they're shiny and wet (not raw), I'm totally all about them. 

SOS - I can eat it like this, too.

They also had cream dried beef (SOS) on the buffet table. I just love that stuff! They also had hash browns, so that's what I put my gravy on. I'll eat it on toast, but I'd rather have it on potatoes. And, Golden Corral has Texas toast, which isn't my favorite. But, their biscuits were surprisingly good - tender and flaky. Oh, and a tray stacked full of super crispy bacon. Wow, we'd been craving bacon all week. Deb wants to participate in a bacon eating contest if she can find one. We both enjoyed bacon. And, they had grits! Happy days!!

Fried eggs - a lot like home.

My kids like fried eggs. They got that from their dad because I won't touch the things. I know how to cook them, but I will never eat them. Deb likes hers over medium, which in our area means the whites are set, but the yolks are mostly runny. When she's in Utah, she orders over easy, which means she'll get them the same way. Funny how cooking terms mean different things regionally.


But, I do like scrambled eggs - I just wish I could make them at home like those in the steam pan at Golden Corral. Then I could make myself some egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches on toast. (Oops - I think I'm getting hungry. I'd better go to sleep before I decide to cook.)

D is for Diner!

Angelo's Diner in Glassboro, NJ

Diners are among the most popular eating destinations in New Jersey (as well as around Philadelphia). From breakfast to dinner to homemade desserts and handmade shakes, diners offer a variety of choices unmatched by any specialty restaurant. They even offer night owls sustenance during cram sessions, after late nights out on the town, when the shift is done or after the bar closes. Diners are a commercialized "Mom's kitchen".

The 24-hr Club Diner in Bellmawr, NJ

Admittedly, there aren't quite as many round the clock diners as there used to be, but nostalgia is causing new ones to pop up where they weren't before. And, they are being styled in a glitzier version of the original. Shiny steel exteriors and neon lights harken back to their origins, but many have added bars and dance floors to steer the former bar crowds their way.

Phily Diner in Runnemede, NJ

Those of us who grew up with diners have learned over time which foods are best not ordered in a diner. Hoagies are popular in our area of New Jersey because of our proximity to Philadelphia, but diners just can't pull them off the way a hoagie shop can. However, because of increasing Greek ownership, the quality and variety of dinner options is amazing. And, breakfast all day long can't be beat! As my daughter says, it's hard to ruin bacon and eggs.

My favorite local diner

An example of portions. Eggplant Parm.

The Black Horse Diner, Mt. Ephraim, NJ

The Fabulous Elgin Diner - A Bit of the Past in Present Day South Jersey

We parked where the white truck is.

Today I had the pleasure of stepping back into the past when we ate breakfast in the wonderfully maintained Elgin Diner in Camden, New Jersey. It can be found on Mt. Ephraim Avenue just a few blocks from the border of Mt. Ephraim. There was a time when this was the perfect stop on the way to the shore for many people since Mt. Ephraim Avenue becomes the Black Horse Pike which is the original route for most people to Atlantic City. Times changed and things became bleak for Camden in general, but this part of Camden lived on with its proximity to Rt. 130, Lady of Lourdes Hospital, and several state and federal offices across the street. Yet without warning, the diner closed in 2007, despite having been featured on Al Roker's Diner Destinations on the Food Network.

Isn't this great? All original!!

But, new owners decided there was still life left in this 1958 Kullman diner and reopened in early 2010. We immediately went back for breakfast because they were one of the few places that served grits for breakfast. I had come to love grits during one of our brief road trips to Savannah a few years back. Unfortunately, the new owners didn't have grits on the menu - but the breakfast was still good and we were happy to see this wonderful historical gem open for business.

The buffet sits where the free-standing tables are in this photo.

Today, we went back again for their newly instituted breakfast buffet (weekends only). All You Can Eat for $6.99, this breakfast also includes coffee and juice. Up for grabs on the buffet table were scrambled eggs (perfectly done, still moist, not overcooked), potato wedges, hash browns, hash browns with peppers and onions, sausages, scrapple, fried whiting, pancakes, French toast, sausage gravy & biscuits, dried beef gravy and a big bowl of fresh fruit. You could also order (one time) omelets and fried eggs if you wanted plus toast. But, the most pleasant surprise was seeing the big bain marie full of grits!! Hot diggity!! Needless to say, I had that along with my eggs, both gravies and potatoes, cranberry juice and coffee.


The buffet runs from 8AM - 2PM and I plan to return, you can count on that.


I want to thank RetroRoadMap.com for the wonderful photos I've borrowed. They show the diner as it sits today. If they ask me to removed them, I will, but you will find a link in this paragraph to their site so that you can find other retro eateries all across this great country.

Foodie Weekend is over and all is well

Well, I managed to make it to both foodie events over the weekend and am happy I went. I saw people I haven't seen in a while and the food was good. All in all, it was a good weekend.


On Saturday, we went to Richwood for Richwood Methodist's Old Fashioned Chicken Pot Pie supper. I had already contacted a cousin in Delaware about it and she was planning to attend. She had already arrived when we got there, so we sat with Betty and her friend. 

This is Pennsylvania Dutch Pot Pie

The pot pie was good, but they should have used different side vegetables. They used frozen vegetables that still tasted like frozen vegetables. Now I use frozen vegetables myself, but I don't like the frozen taste; so I usually use them in soups or stews to alter that frozen flavor. I rarely serve them alone; but if I do, I let them cook as I would vegetables out of the garden with time and seasoning. These were not done in that manner.

photo by David Shankbone

They also Chicken Pot Pie that people know today; that is a crusted pie full of chicken and vegetables and thickened broth. That wasn't what I was there for, so I didn't take any. There was an array of salad items including cranberry orange relish and applesauce. Green salad was available, too, but there was only one dressing, Creamy Italian, and I don't eat that. I skipped the salad, but did enjoy the applesauce and cranberry relish. Of course, there was homemade dessert to be had as well as tea (hot and cold), coffee and water. Tom opted out, but I had the bread pudding.


While we were there, a woman my mother used to go to church with came in. I hadn't seen her since Mom's funeral three years back, so it was good to see her.


After leaving the supper, we went to Confession at Lady of Lourdes in Glassboro (for him) and then to Pitman to Bob's Hobbies to see if I could get stones for the bottoms of the containers for my container garden (they didn't even have any for aquariums! I opted for 12 mm plastic beads) after which we went to Queen of Peace Parish in Pitman for Mass. (It was a very nice mass. I recommend it.) From there we drove to the Deptford Mall where he ran into Boscov's to buy yet more clothing for his overstuffed closet.


Finally, we stopped at the Deptford Pathmark that lost its battle to the two Walmarts that were built on opposite sides of town with it sitting halfway between both. Picked up a couple of things, but I could tell they'd raised some of their prices to accomodate their "closeout" discounts. I have never in my life paid $1.59 for a can of refried beans at full retail. Even after a 30% discount, the price was above $1/can, which is still more than I'll pay. So, their refrieds will remain canned. I can cook my own dried beans for less (also marked up considerably from what I could see) and mash them myself. I did pick up a couple of things I thought prices were decent on, but I just don't trust "our store is closing" sales. When our local KMart closed last year, they actually put new price stickers over the old ones marked up exactly the amount that they were giving for a "closing" discount. The new prices were 30% higher than the old ones and the store-wide sale was 30% off!!! I ALWAYS compare prices and won't buy if they're not honest (or if items are not priced). I walked out of KMart without anything and told as many people as I could what their game was on my way out. I'll never understand consumer gullibility, especially in the face of such blatant dishonesty.


Then came Sunday, my son's 30th birthday. He wasn't a happy camper. He'd had to work all day Saturday when he'd wanted to go out Friday night and now he was having to get up early on Sunday after not going out again for his birthday on Saturday night. But, because Mom was doing the inviting and the paying, and because Mom wasn't going to see him again for a while once he returned to Utah, he allowed me to treat him to a rather affordable breakfast at the VFW in Mantua Twp. Mom's neighbors were there, Mike and Sandra. Mike is the current Post Commander. We got there later than planned, but they were still waiting for us. It wasn't a huge breakfast, but it was good and it was AYCE if you so chose. They had toast, French Toast, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, sausage links, sausage gravy (yum!), tropical fruit, orange juice, apple juice, coffee and hot tea. All for $6. You can't beat that, I say. As it turned out, a high school classmate of mine was also there with her family. They come to the breakfast every month courtesy of her father who is a veteran. It was good seeing Joan again. It turned out her father had known my father because of his having been the township dispatcher during the time my father was a firefighter. Small world, really. I'd never met the man before, so it was a really nice day. On top of that, they were celebrating Joan's grandson's 9th birthday the same day, so we had two birthday boys in attendance. All in all, it was a really nice time and really good to see everyone. I hadn't seen Joan since my son was three and I hadn't seen Mike and Sandra since I moved the last of Mom's stuff out of her house following her death.

photo by kilbourne123

So, Foodie Weekend turned out to be a success and filled with friends and family as well as food. Can't beat that with a stick!