The Bitten Word

Avocado Toast with Chile Flakes and Crushed Pistachios

A Bitten Word Recipe

Here's a breakfast item we've been making for ourselves a lot this spring. Inspired by a delicious appetizer we ordered last year at Cork Wine Bar here in D.C., we decided that avocado on toast sounded pretty yummy for breakfast, too.

To find our perfect avocado toast, we played around with different variations of this dish. Cork actually drizzles theirs with avocado oil, which is delicious if you happen to have some (but pricey and probably not worth buying if you don't). We even tried a drizzling hot bacon grease over these, but it was just too much (yeah, we said it).

Fluffy Diner-Style Omelets

Cook's Country (January/February 2012)

If we serve eggs at our house, chances are they're going to be scrambled.

If we're feeling fancy, we might do over-easy, maybe served on top of a vegetable or beef hash if we're being industrious. 

Poached? Forget about it. Over-hard? Blasphemy. 

Omelets are another matter altogether. We love omelets and often order them when we go out for breakfast, but we hardly ever make them at home. Why is that? Well, in truth, we're not very good at making omelets.

We build big, beautiful omelets, cooking the eggs and then filling them with delicious vegetables and meats. And then it comes time to seal the deal (literally), and the whole thing falls apart, making for a really ugly omelet that we then hack up and serve as a scramble, as if to make ourselves feel better. 

And we're not talking about Julia Child-style omelets. (If you've never seen the Omelet Dinner Party episode of "The French Chef," you should.) We want to make omelets that are stuffed with deliciousness and then folded over, an omelet that sits tall on the plate, oozing with cheese and fillings.  

When we saw this recipe for Fluffy Diner-Style Omelets in Cook's Country, we knew the wizards at America's Test Kitchen would show us the errors of our omelet ways. 

Poached Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese Sauce

Food & Wine (January 2012)

We like to think we're pretty good at scrambled eggs. We have a particular way of doing it that makes eggs just the way we like 'em: creamy and soft and delicious. Essentially, it involves cooking them over very low heat and stirring almost constantly. (Also, we picked up a tip a very long time ago from an otherwise ridiculously over-the-top omelet recipe: Stirring eggs with a chopstick or the thin end of a wooden spoon yields perfect fluffy eggs every time.)

We love the way we make scrambled eggs. The only problem is that it can take 15 or 20 minutes of near-constant stirring.

So we were more than a little intrigued by this recipe, which promises perfectly scrambled eggs in only 40 seconds. FORTY. SECONDS.

Incan Super-Power Bars

Food & Wine (September 2011)

Don't you feel like this recipe name is just begging to be followed by an exclamation point? "Incan Super-Power Bars! Power-blasted with ancient Incan energy secrets to give you the boost you need!!! INCAN SUPER-POWER BARS!!!"

No? Just us?

Well, here's a sentence that definitely needs to end in an exclamation point: Zach is running a marathon! (Actually, maybe that calls for an interrobang: Zach is running a marathon‽)

Anyway, yes, Zach's running the Marine Corps Marathon on October 30 here in D.C. It's his first marathon, and he's been training since May. Prior to this, the most either one of us had ever run was the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, which we've run the past two years.

Sidenote: The team that Zach is training with is called Team to End AIDS. It's a very, very good cause, and all the fundraising proceeds go to AIDS United and the Washington AIDS Partnership. If you'd like to donate to Zach's fundraising page -- even a buck, or five bucks or 10 bucks -- you'd be helping out an excellent organization. And we would love you forever.

As a result of all the running he's been doing over the past several months, Zach has blissfully been eating everything in sight. (Seriously, we should have purchased stock in a peanut butter company this summer....) He's constantly been on the hunt for foods that are nutritious, delicious and full of energy.

Which is why we were thrilled to find these Incan Super-Power Bars (Incan Super-Power Bars!!!).

Skillet Eggs With Squash

 Food Network Magazine (July/August 2011)

We went to Cape Cod this weekend. Friends presented the opportunity for a free house in Provincetown for several days, and we jumped at the chance to go. And it was lovely! We read, we napped, we read some more. We took walks to the beach and made dinner at the house most nights.

Before we left for the trip, we diligently cleaned out our fridge, working through all the produce that we had on hand. And that, friends, is a challenge these days, because our CSA share is getting hefty each week.

One of the main culprits? Zucchini. We have it in spades right now. A few weeks ago, our weekly share had 12 (twelve!) pounds of zucchini. This week, we got another four pounds.

So needless to say, when it's summer, we're on the lookout for new zucchini ideas. 

And one of those ideas -- Skillet Eggs with Squash -- is already a new favorite. 

Morning Glory Muffins

Cook's Country (May/June 2011) 

 

We've been to our fair share of coffee shops. So we were already familiar with the glories of the Morning Glory Muffin before seeing them featured in the most recent Cook's Country.

If you're not familiar with them (several friends we've discussed them with over the last week haven't been), they're those beautiful, carrot-studded concoctions of fruit and nuts, typically filled with raisins, cinnamon, walnuts and pieces of carrot. They're like the breakfast equivalent of a Compost Cookie -- a little bit of everything thrown in.  

Now, we're not usually muffin people. Breakfast around our house typically consists of protein shakes or oatmeal. On weekends we'll usually make some kind of eggs or the occasional pancake or waffle. 

But the arrival of guests is a great time to break out of your breakfast tradition. So when Zach's mom visited recently, we seized on the opportunity to make muffins. 

Best Easter Brunch Ideas

With Easter coming up this Sunday, food magazines are full of lunch and brunch ideas to fit the occasion. We're actually having some friends over for brunch on Sunday, and we're excited because Zach's mom is sending us an Easter ham from the Loveless Cafe in Nashville!

Here are some of our favorite recipes for an Easter brunch. Whether you're planning more of a breakfast-y brunch or a lunch-y brunch (or some combination of both), we think you'll love these dishes!

Have any of your own faves?  Let us know in the comments!

If you want a breakfast-y brunch...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Best Blueberry Muffins
• Bacon with Citrus Glaze
• Crusty Buttermilk Biscuits
• Granny Ragland's Chocolate Gravy
• Eggs with Ramps and Asparagus
• Strawberry Scones
• Breakfast Buttercups
• Classic Eggs Benedict
• Kentucky Mimosas

If you want a lunch-y brunch...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Shaved Raw Asparagus with Parmesan Dressing
• Bourbon Mint Tea
• Sugar Snap Pea and Radish Salad
• Pineapple-Mustard Glazed Ham
• Spring Shells and Cheese
• Butterflied, Rolled and Roasted Leg of Lamb with Fresh Mint Sauce
• Popovers
• Perfect Carrot Cake
• Tres Cocoas Leches Cake

 

 

 

 

Sweet Potato Doughnuts

Food & Wine (March 2011)

Many times over the past few years, we’ve considered making doughnuts.  But the timing was never right. Either we didn’t have enough time or the right occasion to go to the trouble. 

This past weekend, though, it was finally time to make the doughnuts.

We were having a lazy weekend at home, with few plans.  And these Sweet Potato Doughnuts from Food & Wine were calling out to us.  

First things first, though: If you want to make these doughnuts, you need to set your expectations. 

Breakfast Buttercups

Cook's Country (March 2011)

"Breakfast Buttercups." Have you ever heard a more adorable name? Honestly, it's 99 percent of the reason we chose to make these. Seriously, how could we not? 

Plus, with toast, ham, eggs, and cheese, all in a tiny package, how could they possibly bad?

Well, it’s true. These Breakfast Buttercups don’t disappoint.

Swedish Pancakes

Cook's Country (October 2010)

You know how, whenever you go to IKEA, there's always one thing that you get home with and think, "Hunh. Wait, why did we buy this, again?" And then it sits at your house for two years until you either throw it away or find some use for it.

Maybe it's a 100-pack of votive candles. Or an amorphous orange ceramic serving dish. Or, hey, maybe even a bookcase.

In our case, it was lingonberry jam.

We bought it earlier this year with the good intentions of throwing an Austrian-themed dinner inspired by a January 2010 Bon Appétit feature. Honestly, we just never got around to doing it. (In some alternate universe, we held that dinner party and become huge fans of Liptauer. And we're probably wearing lederhosen.)

Anyway, there was the lingonberry jam, staring us in the face every time we opened the pantry, taunting us.

Finally, we decided to do something about it. So we made these Swedish Pancakes.