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Breakfast

Easy Breakfast Hash While Stuck at Home

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With grocery stores being cleaned out due to coronavirus, it can be tough to come up with meals for the family. Here is a great breakfast/brunch recipe that uses whatever you have in the fridge.

We call it breakfast hash. The only ingredient you absolutely have to have is potatoes. Use one potato per person you are cooking for, plus a couple extras, in case someone whats seconds. Start by dicing the potatoes into ¼-inch cubes. 

You can use any type of pan, but I would highly recommend a good ole’ cast iron skillet. Heat the skillet for a minute or two over medium heat with just a little oil (I use olive oil). Then add the potato cubes, and make sure they are spread out evenly over the bottom of the pan. Cover, and stir the potatoes around every few couple so they cook evenly. Cook them until they are golden brown. 

It’s up to the genius chef within you to decide what else to add. If you are low on food due to coronavirus, just mix in whatever you can find in the fridge. Mr. Handsome likes to add bacon, eggs, and cheese. I like mine with just a little salt and pepper. The sky is the limit. If you are adding meat, eggs, or veggies, cook them ahead of time or in another pan before you add them to the hash. Here are a few options:

Cheese

Mushrooms

Spinach

Chopped peppers

Onions

Herbs (garlic, oregano, etc)

Spices (pepper, salt, cayenne, paprika)

Bacon

Eggs

Sausage

Ground beef

Chicken (cubed pieces)

Hot dogs (if you are desperate)

Give it a try and let me know what ingredients you add!

Grandma’s Birdie Buns

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For most of my childhood, we lived 1,500 miles away from my maternal grandparents and were only able to see them every few years. For that reason, I have very few memories of them. What I do remember were their thick accents and the treats they greeted us with when we visited them–European chocolate bars and fresh birdie buns with butter and strawberry jelly. If you aren’t familiar with birdie buns, they are delicious sweet buns that are shaped to look like a bird asleep with its head tucked under its wing.

My grandmother, about whom I am slowly writing a book, was of German descent but lived in Communist Ukraine during WWII. Her family had very few modern conveniences, and her childhood with one of loss, lack, and uncertainty. My grandfather was Austrian and also had a very difficult upbringing–his home was bombed, and he lost both his parents at a young age.

At that time in the United States and Canada, you could easily visit buy a loaf of bread from the local grocery store, but my grandmother’s family had to make all their bread from scratch. My grandmother passed away 10 years ago, but in her honor, I recently made a batch of birdie buns using her recipe (birdie bun recipe below). They tasted exactly as I remember!…

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Blueberry Pancake Recipe

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Last Saturday, both Mr. Handsome and I woke up craving blueberry pancakes. I still had a large bag of frozen blueberries that I had picked in early July, so we decided to go for it. I pulled out a basic pancake recipe that I have had since childhood and tweaked it. Both of us loved the result!

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Blueberry Pancakes

Servings 4

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup Flour I use a mixture of white and wheat
  • 2 Tbsp Brown sugar
  • Pinch Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Baking powder
  • 1 Egg
  • 1/2 cup Milk
  • 1 tsp Olive oil
  • Oil or butter to grease griddle/pan I use coconut oil
  • 1 cup Blueberries Frozen or fresh

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, salt, and baking powder. Stir to blend.

  2. In a bowl with a spout, combine egg, milk, and olive oil. Whisk mixture until blended.

  3. Add dry ingredients to wet, and stir to combine, being careful not to overwork.

  4. Fold in blueberries.

  5. Grease pan or griddle with oil or butter, and heat 2 minutes over medium heat before adding pancake batter. Pour 3-4 inch pancakes onto cooking surface.

  6. Flip pancakes when air bubbles form and a few have burst (approximately 3 minutes per side, depending on heat level).

  7. Remove from heat, and add desired toppings.

Breakfast [Non]Casserole

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breakfast casserole recipeLast night, Mr. Handsome prepared a breakfast dish that he came up with during college. I do most of the cooking in our house, so he was extremely proud to be able to whip something up that I had never made.

As the oldest of seven children, Mr. Handsome has eaten a lot of casseroles in his lifetime, and he has really come to detest them. So when I called this dish a breakfast casserole, he immediately corrected me.

“No, no,” he explained. “It’s not a casserole. A casserole is a disgusting mess of mushy ingredients all mixed together. This is totally different.”

“Then what should we call it?” I asked him.

“The ultimate breakfast sandwich,” he announced.

It’s incredibly easy to make. Here’s the recipe:

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Breakfast Sandwich Casserole

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 6-8 pieces Whole wheat bread toasted and buttered
  • 1 lb Ground sausage browned
  • 8 eggs scrambled with a bit of milk
  • Fresh or canned mushrooms sauteed (optional)
  • Shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

  1. Line a 9×13-inch pan with bread slices

  2. Evenly distribute eggs, sausage, and mushrooms over bread slices

  3. Cover with shredded cheese

  4. Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheights

Recipe Notes

You can assemble this dish the night before, store it in the fridge (covered with plastic wrap), and bake it the following morning.

Mr. Handsome would love to know what you think of his dish! Oh, and I looked up the definition of casserole (“food baked together and served in a deep dish”) and I still think this qualifies.