Breakfast Souffle In A Bowl

Mmm. Breakfast for dinner.

Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?

I almost feel guilty eating breakfast for dinner...like I'm cheating or something. But breakfast foods, at least of the hot variety, are a comfort food to me. If left to my own devices, pancakes and french toast would each be on the menu at least once a week.  Now we have been known (in a tight week) to have cereal for dinner (and then I really feel weird going to bed four hours later...), but I don't get caught up in as big of a guilt trip with a hot breakfast for dinner.

Especially when there's bacon involved at any level.

This dish combines several favorite breakfast staples into one complete little package. How can that not be good?  I have several variations to try with this one, which I'll get to in a second, but this is the "master" recipe they all stemmed from.

This is also one of those variable types of dishes. You can take out or add what you like...anytime...and it still works!

Dice up some bacon.

Crisp it up in a pan and drain off on a paper towel.

Add some butter and oil (or if there's enough bacon grease, use that) and toss those shredded taters in.

Crisp those bad boys up!

Whisk up some eggs...

...add some milk...

...some shredded cheese...

...some chopped spinach...

...and whisk your little fingers off!

Add potatoes to the bottom of your bowls (or baking dish).

Add the nummy bacon.

Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes and bacon.

I added a small pat of butter (that I quartered) to each bowl. Totally unnecessary, but I wanted more butter. Sue me.

Put the breakfasty goodness in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

Add some more cheese to the top and cook another few minutes.

Take 'em out of the oven and let sit for a few minutes to set.

You can remove to a plate, or serve inside the bowl!

Other variations I might try would be cooked in a tortilla shell, a puff pastry shell, or a thick(er) slice of ham that I would shape inside the same souffle dishes or maybe in a jumbo muffin tin.  I might also toss in some items one might find in an omelet, like peppers, onions, mushrooms, or even some shrimp or crab!

Breakfast Souffle

serves 4

6 strips of bacon, diced
4 potatoes, medium to large sized, peeled and shredded
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
12 eggs
1/2 cup milk
10 oz box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
2 cups of your favorite shredded cheese blend (I used Colby Jack)

Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.

Heat frying pan over medium heat. Add diced bacon and cook until crisp. Remove to drain on paper towel.

If there is at least 2 tbsp of bacon grease left in the skillet, add 2 tbsp butter and omit the olive oil. Use 2 tbsp (or less) of olive oil to make a total of 2 tbsp (so there's 2 tbsp butter plus 2 tbsp of bacon grease/olive oil). Add shredded potatoes and salt/pepper. Cook potatoes until just crisp and starting to brown.

Remove potatoes to the bottom of glass baking dish (a 9x13 would work) or four 6 inch individual souffle dishes. Sprinkle bacon pieces on top of potatoes.

In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk, spinach and 1-1/2 cup cheese together. Pour egg mixture over bacon and potatoes.

Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Sprinkle 1/2 cup remaining cheese on top. Bake 3 to 5 minutes more, just until cheese melts.  For a crispier top, switch to broiler and broil for 2 to 3 minutes.

Let stand for 5 minutes. Serve!!

Eat A Dutch Baby (with bonus: Slightly frighten people when you say it out loud!)

Publish Post

Or just do what I like to do - tell people that you're going to 'Make a Dutch Baby with my kids'...if they don't know exactly what a Dutch Baby is, you'll have Child Services from your particular state knocking down your door within hours!! Invite them in to taste your new Dutch Baby...

Ok, no...I've never really done that. But in my twisted mind, that would be freakin' hilarious.

I probably need help, huh?

A Dutch Baby is really just a pancake. A super huge, custard-like and thick bad-boy pancake. The texture is completely different than your run-o-the-mill pancake, and it is extremely tasty and easy to make.

You can make it (as instructed) in a 10 inch cast iron skillet, or you can make it in a 9x13 oven proof baking dish. The difference? Round vs. Square. If you have a well used and well seasoned cast iron skillet, there will be subtle taste differences as well. Sadly, my cast iron skillet that I have had for well over a year has been used maybe four times.  I really, really need to work on that. My cast iron dutch oven has been used way more and is my favorite go-to pot to use for almost everything, so why can't I seem to do that with the darned skillet?

My version of a Dutch Baby is a slightly altered version of Alton Brown's recipe. I like my Dutch Babies sweeter. You could also play around with flavors here...add some orange juice concentrate or whatever flavor you prefer (maybe 1/4 cup?) to the batter. Add pre-cooked meat crumbles, like bacon or sausage. There are endless possibilities! Papa Bear tops his with a smidge of brown sugar (instead of powdered) and a drizzle of syrup with interesting results!

Let the butter melt in the skillet in the oven while it's preheating.

Pour the magic mixture in the skillet.

It's a Dutch Baby! Congratulations! Pass the cigars!

Remove to cutting board and slice that baby up! Pizza cutters were made for stuff like this...

Top with whatever you prefer and dig in! I wonder if my American kids taste this good? Hmmm...

 
Dutch Baby

6 tablespoons butter, melted and divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
7 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1cup milk, room temperature*
4 eggs, room temperature*
Powdered sugar, syrup, fruit for serving

*The 'room temperature' thing is important. Trust me on this - I am not known for my baking ability and have impatiently skipped this all-important step and paid the price. Your patience will be rewarded...

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place 4 tablespoons of the melted butter into a 10-inch cast iron skillet and place in the oven. Set the remaining melted butter aside to cool slightly. Wait 10 minutes before assembling the other ingredients.

Place the flour, vanilla, sugar, salt, milk, eggs and remaining melted butter into the blender and process for 30 seconds. Carefully pour the batter into the preheated skillet. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the edges are puffed and brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, drizzle with your favorite syrup or serve with your favorite fruit.

Norwegian Epic - Food, Fantasy and Frustration - Day Two

Day two finds us at sea. All day. Breakfast in the Manhattan Room, anyone?

My morning Cuppa...

My usual standard breakfast on any cruise...bagel with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers

Mini pancake stack with bacon

Buttermilk waffle with syrup and warm banana compote

We pretty much walked around the ship exploring most of the day.  There are 19 decks in all on the Epic. Decks 1 through 4 are off limits to passengers, so I'm guessing that's where all the crew resides, storage, engines, etc. All the action is on Decks 5, 6, 7, 14, and 15-19. Decks 8-14, 16 and 17 have the staterooms.  If you're rich enough to book a Deluxe Owner's Suite, 2-Bedroom Villa or a Courtyard Penthouse on deck 16 or 17, you get exclusive access to the Villas Courtyard, the private Concierge Lounge and a private restaurant and bar. Ooh La La! Fancy-schmancy sounding, ain't it?? Needless to say, we didn't see any of that stuff!

Deck 5 consists of business meeting rooms (Boring! Who has business meetings on vacation? Really?), the photo gallery (pick up and pay $10 each for all those professionally awkward photos, people!), Internet Cafe, the Epic Theater (for Blue Man Group, Legends, Nickelodeon Slime Time Live), Le Bistro French restaurant, Taste restaurant, the Atrium Bar (coffee bar!), art gallery and Epic Theater bar.

Click Photo Gallery

Entrance to the Epic Theater

Le Bistro entrance

Taste entrance

Looking down on Taste dining room

Internet Cafe

Art Gallery

Atrium Bar

Atrium Bar with view of the two story movie screen

I decided to have a pre-lunch cocktail in the Cascades Bar on deck six. This was a great decision, I think...

Pear Pleasure:  Grey Goose LaPoire, Limoncello, Apple Juice, splash of soda and fresh pear garnish

We decided to have lunch in the Irish pub on deck 6, O'Sheehan's.  This was one of the 'freebie' dining areas.

Chicken Pot Pie

Fried Mozzarella Sticks (loved the presentation on these!)

Fish n' Chips (and in case you were wondering, as I was, the green stuff was Mushy Peas...)

The ever popular standard:  Buffalo Wings! Someone (including me) was bound to order them at one point...

 Corned Beef on Rye with Fries

The fare was fair; it was your standard bar/pub food. Not good enough to write home about.  I ate the wings and corned beef.  My wings were mushy, almost like overcooked, but had a powdery texture to them. Would that be 'beyond overcooked' then?  I only ate two of them after writing the first one off as a fluke, then figuring if the second one tasted exactly the same that there was something a bit...er, wrong.  Papa Bear had the wings, too - and he said his tasted fine. The sandwich was okay with the portion being really half of a normal-sized sandwich.

We ate at the bar table right in front of the bowling alley in O'Sheehan's.  Afterwards, Granma took the girls bowling whilst my main squeeze and I tried out another martini back at the Cascades Bar.

The alley directly in front of us

...and if we looked to the right...

The Coco Cabanatini: Bacardi Coco, Creme de Banana, Goldschlager Cinnamon Schnapps and fresh cream served with a coconut rim and cinnamon sprinkles. This was to die for...

All of this nefarious activity just plum wore out three quarters of our crew, so we all went  back to the stateroom to chill and refresh...

Papa Bear's idea of a reboot...

..and my idea of a reboot. I win!

Which, in retrospect was probably not the best idea I had all day, because those mushy, powdery wings were beginning to do a helluva number on my stomach...

When everyone (but Little Lawyer and myself) had woken from their catnaps, we explored deck 6 some more.  This deck has my beloved Cascades Bar, Fat Cats Jazz and Blues Club, Headliners Comedy Club, O'Sheehan's Pub, Shanghai's Chinese restaurant and Noodle Bar, the Spiegel Tent, the Manhattan Room restaurant and the Epic Casino.

Cascades Bar

Fat Cats entrance

Headliners Comedy Club

O'Sheehan's

Shanghai's

Spiegel Tent entrance (to the left)

Manhattan Room entrance

Casino

Granma playin' the slots

More casino fun

We had reserved a table at Shanghai's that evening for dinner. I wanted to be stoked for this, but those wings had given me the stomach cramps from hell - I could not stay vertical long enough to eat after I ordered.

Waiting for dinner at Shanghai's

Rice crackers with a bevy of dipping sauces: wasabi, chili and hot mustard

Harvest Spring Rolls with Sweet Chili Sauce

Salt and Pepper Calamari with Wasabi Mayo

Drum Roasted Hoisin Barbecue Pork Spare Ribs

Hot-n-Sour Soup

Cantonese Scallops with Snow Peas, Sweet Peppers and Garlic

Beef Broccoli with Oyster Sauce

Shrimp Fried Rice

Malay Lamb Curry

  
Shortly after the main course arrived and I took one or two bites, I had to leave and go back to the stateroom and lay down. We had reservations to see the Blue Man Group after dinner, but there was no way I could have sat through it.  Granma had them bump the reservation to the next night because they didn't want to go without me (even though I said they could) Awww, they really do love me!

I spent the rest of that evening in bed - from about 7pm til I woke up the next morning at 7am. The bathroom and I had a long discussion (maybe even an argument...but I'm not sure exactly which one of us actually won)
and I felt much better the next day. The rest of the crew hung out, went for ice cream or ordered room service and just chilled.