Decadent Breakfast

Project: Cranberry Scones with a Skosh of Cloves (Café Nervosa: The Connoisseur’s Cookbook)

Breakfast is always a challenge for me. I’m not good at waking up on time. As a result, breakfast must be no more than a two-step process. And I get sick of cereal & milk pretty quickly. This cookbook is filled with coffee shop-appropriate treats. As a result, breakfast this week was neither filling, nor healthy.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/4 cup butter or margarine 1 cup whipping cream 3/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped whipped cream (optional)

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; cu in butter with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly.

Believe it or not, I ground those cloves myself. Time consuming. Calorie-burning?

Reserve 1 tbsp whipping cream’ add remaining whipping cream and cranberries to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead 5 or 6 times. Shape into an 8-inch circle. Cut into 8 wedges, and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Prick wedges with a fork 3 or 4 times, and brush with reserved 1 tbsp whipping cream.

Bake at 425F for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm with shipped cream, if desired. Yield: 8 scones.

If I’m truthful, I did DESIRE whipped cream on top. But since this was breakfast, I begrudgingly abstained. Curses.

…a Honey?

Project: Company Potatoes, serves 8 (Kate Aitken’s Canadian Cook Book)

I have this cookbook that’s really more of a look into Canadian just-passed-history than an actual functional cookbook. Kate Aitken’s Canadian Cook Book includes some of the most laugh-worthy meat dishes (I’ve attempted to make a few that include 4 different kinds of meat), notes to new brides, and an entire chapter on slimming down in which people mainly subsist on liver, black coffee and a tablespoon of baking soda per day. It’s a head-scratcher, for sure.

8 cups raw potatoes, thinly sliced 2 tbsp dried bread crumbs, rolled 1/2 cup soft butter 3 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1/2 cup onion, thinly sliced

Pare and thinly slice the potatoes; let them stand in cold water for 20 minutes. Drain and dry well (use a clean bath towel).

BATH TOWEL?!?!?

Oil a 2-quart casserole; sprinkle the inside with the crumbs. Arrange the first layer of potatoes on the bottom of the dish with the edges overlapping; dot with butter, sprinkle with pepper and salt; cover with a thin layer of onion. Continue in this way till the entire dish is filled; there should be about 5 layers in all. Cover tightly; bake until the potatoes are tender. Place a large hot plate over the casserole and invert; the whole golden brown round will come out like a cake.

…if your cakes always look like someone dumped a pan of scalloped potatoes on a plate, then I’ve done it right here. Kate likes to end her recipes with helpful tips for garnishes. Don’t these sound appetizing?

Garnish with slices of jellied meat loaf and pickled peaches.

Then, as though she can barely contain her excitement at sharing this recipe:

This is a honey!

Indeed. If you like buttery, thinly sliced potatoes. Which I do.

This isn’t like chocolate!

Project: Swiss Steak (Five Roses: A Guide to Good Cooking)

When I think of the Swiss, I think of fondue and chocolate. And watches and money. I don’t think of steak. And to be honest, whenever someone said they were making Swiss steak for me I’d get nervous. That sounds like you do something “interesting” with perfectly good steak. Turns out, I was right.

2 lbs round steak 1 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper 2 tbsp Five Roses All-Purpose Flour 2-3 tbsp fat 1 small onion, sliced 2 cups tomato juice 1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce 1 tbsp chopped celery 1 tbsp chopped green pepper 1/4 cup sliced mushrooms

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t go out specially and buy Five Roses All-Purpose Flour. Because I already had a bunch of other flour. You can do what you like.

Leave steak in one piece or cut into serving pieces. Season with salt and pepper; sprinkle with Five Roses Flour. Heat a heavy frying pan and melt the fat. Brown meat on both sides; brown onions. Add remaining ingredients; stir well.

Ok. Here’s where things get a little bit stupid. Do you see how much celery, mushroom and green pepper they call for? Who wants to chop just 1 tbsp of celery? 1/4 cup of mushrooms is like…one mushroom. On the green pepper front, though. I was lucky. My failed container garden from the summer came through for me.

Cover and cook slowly on top of stove or bake in a moderate oven (325F). 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until tender. Add more liquid of necessary, to keep meat from sticking. Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Now, unfortunately, 1 1/2 hours later I was so hungry that I ate the Swiss steak without actually taking a picture of the finished product. Needless to say, it looked kind of like that tomato-mushroom-green pepper mess that you see above, only with less liquid.

Truthfully, this post was just an excuse to show off my baby green pepper. Caught me.