Breakfast Pizza

Breakfast pizza with bacon-and-onion jam, bacon, country ham, mozzarella, peas, and runny eggs.

I haven't been blogging much lately: the snow gods are smiling on Colorado for the first time in three seasons, and this is the busiest time of year at school. I've made some awesome dinners lately (most notably, I drastically improved my pad thai recipe) but was too caught up to grab the camera. As much as I love powder weekends and long, productive teaching days, life has been a little fast-paced for my tastes lately. 

So to remedy that, Adam and I today practiced one of our relationship traditions--the Lazy Day. 

When we were first dating, we spent several Saturdays drinking Bloody Mary's, eating really stellar breakfast burritos, watching The Wire, and taking naps. And that was it, all day. I was delighted to have found a man as lazy and hedonistic as me--someone who would spend a whole day on the couch and genuinely enjoy himself, not wring his hands or chastise himself about it ("waah, I didn't go to the gym!") 

It was love.

So today, we slept in till nine and spent the day watching House of Cards season 2. Adam made his excellent bloodies and I made Breakfast Pizza, entirely out of ingredients already in the house, so as not to exhaust myself by walking to the store for burrito stuff. 

This recipe would be easy to recreate, except for the bacon-and-onion jam. I made this awhile ago to go with some pate--it was sitting in the fridge. Other than that, should be pretty easy. 

Bacon-and-onion jam. From when I made it a couple weeks ago. 

Ingredients
1 batch of pizza dough
(note--I made mine from scratch in the morning. It really tastes better if you allow it to rise overnight, as suggested in the recipe above. Or you can buy (Wholefoods always has fresh pizza dough) or even use a mix. Who cares? It's a lazy day)
1.5 cups of bacon-and-onion jam
(note--you probably don't have this. You could make it, OR you could a. Use any kind of jam you have--a chutney or savory jam would work well b. Use canned pizza sauce c. Use nothing--brush the dough with olive oil and garlic d. Use slices of tomatoes)
1 package pre-shredded mozzarella
6 slices of bacon, crisped
3-5 slices of ham, cut into ribbons
1/2 cup of frozen peas (corn would also be delish)
3-4 eggs
oil, salt, pepper

What to do 
Make the dough. Or buy it.
Pre-heat the oven to 550 degrees.
Spread the dough as thin as possible by stretching it out. You want it as thin as you can possibly get it without tearing.
Spread the jam over the dough.
Sprinkle on the cheese.
Sprinkle on the bacon and ham.
Sprinkle on the peas and press gently into the dough.
Bake at 550 for about six minutes, or until just turning brown and cheese is melted.
Take the pizza out and turn the oven to broil. Break the eggs onto the pizza. Place under the broiler for about two minutes--whites should be opaque and cooked, yolks should be runny.
Sprinkle kosher salt onto the eggs.
Slice and serve!

Here is a version I made without eggs--we ended up having it for dinner. 

Raw pizza before baking. 

Adam enjoying breakfast pizza--got a little black on the edges...

This was BOMB. And so it season 2 of House of Cards. And so is spending a whole day on the couch with two tiny dogs and my love. 

Enjoy! 

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls

I used my beer-yeast starter for these cinnamon rolls--the bread has a more savory, tangy taste than a traditional cinnamon roll. I like the contrast between the sourdough and the cinnamon caramel filling. 

This exact recipe is hard to recreate if you don't have a bucket of starter fermenting in your kitchen (and I can't think of anyone else who does). It's also fine to use a packet of regular powdered yeast. (Here is a great regular cinnamon roll recipe). 

Ingredients 

bread 

1 cup sourdough starter 

1 cup buttermilk 

2 TB white sugar 

1 cup warm water 

5-8 cups flour, depending on dough moisture (which seems to turn out differently every time) 

cinnamon filling 

1.5 sticks of salted butter

2 cups of brown sugar 

3 TB cinnamon 

1 tsp vanilla extract

A greased 8 x 12 baking pan with sides. 

What to do:

Combine the buttermilk, water, white sugar, and sourdough starter in the bowl of a standing mixer. Allow to sit for 20 minutes (this will "wake up" the starter, get it hungry and active). 

Using the dough hook attachment, gradually add in flour while mixing. Probably you will end up using six-ish cups, but what you are looking for is a cohesive ball, pliant and not too sticky, and moist enough not to have extra flour hanging out in the bowl. Mess with the moisture and flour until you have the right consistency. 

Cover the dough and allow it to rise. If using starter, this will take awhile. Leave for five hours or overnight (I actually left mine for like 12 hours and it was fine). 

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a long, flat rectangle. 

Combine the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a saucepan.Turn the flame on and whisk together until bubbling (about 8 min). Turn the heat off. Whisk in the vanilla. 

Ladle the warm cinnamon caramel over the rolled-out bread. Spread out so every surface is covered. If you have some left over that's fine. 

Roll the bread hot-dog style into a long roll. 

Cut the roll into little circles at 1.5 inch intervals. Place these into the greased baking pan. Nestle them together. 

Pour any leftover cinnamon caramel over the top. 

Allow to rise for 2 more hours. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes, or until golden brown, puffy, and cooked through. 

Cinnamon rolls before baking. 

Yum. 

These were fabulous, and they made the house smell like fatty heaven. I feel like this lager-starter is my bread-baking breakthrough of the year, and I can't wait to make all kinds of other carby awesomeness with it. 

Enjoy! 

Biscuits and Gravy

The pictures in this post are kind of blurry--I didn't realize my lens had butter on it. 

I love making breakfast on Saturdays. Waking up late, drinking coffee or bloody marys (maries?) on the couch, watching Inglorious Bastards yet again, and of course making something for breakfast from whatever happens to be in the fridge.
So what did I have today? Buttermilk, which I always seem to have lately. One leftover smoked chorizo...idea! Biscuits and gravy!
First, I made buttermilk biscuits.

Buttermilk Biscuits 

• 1 cup melted butter 
• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup buttermilk 
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 tsp white sugar 
• 1 TB baking powder 
• 1 tsp black powder

Pre-heat oven to 400. Grease a cookie sheet. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Round into balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 25-30 min, or until golden brown. 

Before 

After! 

While the biscuits are baking, make the gravy. I made a bacon-and-chorizo gravy, but you can use any meat you'd like. 

Bacon and Chorizo Gravy 

• 4 strips bacon, chopped
• 1 chorizo sausage (or any kind of sausage), chopped 
• 1 yellow onion, chopped 
• 1/3 cup flour 
• 2 cups milk (add more if needed to thin)
• pinch salt 
• pinch black pepper 
• dash of hot sauce 

What to do 

Crisp the bacon and sausage in a skillet. Cook until a lot of the fat has rendered out. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently. until golden-colored (about 10 minutes). Then, add the flour. Cook in the fat for about five minutes. It should develop a sweet, nutty smell. Turn the burner off and pour in the milk. Stir around to get the bits off the bottom. Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. 

Pour gravy over biscuits! I like to dribble some hot sauce over mine. 

Have this for breakfast, and you've eaten heartily enough to, say fight the Protestants. Walk from Galway to Kilkenney. Chase down a  wayward cow. Something like that. 

We, however, just sat around the house thinking of names for our new tadpoles. All four are now known as Wiggles. 

Enjoy! 

Buttermilk Corn Waffles

Today was the perfect lazy Saturday. We slept till 10:30, watched Blood Diamond and drank coffee. We didn't have much in the way of breakfast food in the house. But we DID have cornmeal, flour, and a carton of buttermilk left over from when I made biscuits. Buttermilk corn waffles! I had made these before for a chicken-and-waffles party: they're great, way better than regular no-corn waffles.

All this stuff was already in the house!

Adam has only once in his life requested an item of cooking equipment: an industrial waffle iron. It's huge and heavy. You usually only see these in the dining hall at college or camp. But we have one in our house. 

Buttermilk Corn Waffles 

Ingredients: 

1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 TB sugar
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups buttermilk

3 TB water 
2 TB vegetable oil (light olive or canola) 
2 large eggs

What to do: 

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.  

2. Pour into a greased waffle iron and cook. 

3. Top with whatever you want and enjoy! 

Don't overfill the waffle iron or it will poop out the sides like this.

Yum. 

Buttermilk Biscuits

I really don't have a sweet tooth, so I don't do all that much baking. I like making bread, pretzels, bagels, biscuits--savory baking. I made these on a Saturday morning for breakfast. My best tip for biscuits is to eat them hot--they decline in deliciousness as they cool. 

Ingredients: 
2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons to 1 1/2 tablespoons  sugar
1 tablespoon  baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
9 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup uttermilk.

What to do: 
Preheat oven to 400 °F and grease a cookie sheet. Mix all the ingredients! You may need to use your hands. The dough will be craggy and stiff. Wad it up into little balls (this recipe makes 6) and place on the greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 min, or until golden brown. 
Eat with jam, or make into bacon and egg  sandwiches, or just eat alone. 
Wonderful. 

Buttermilk being added to flour.

Melted butter. This is why they taste good.

The dough

Before

After! With a pug photo bomb.

Look at that lovely crumb.

 A great breakfast, and these can be incorporated into meals a million ways. Biscuits and gravy, breakfast sandwiches, chicken and biscuits, etc. 

Enjoy!

Chorizo Hash

Good morning, degenerates

Last night was the first Friday after spring break, so of course all of us teachers were fiending for a happy hour with No School Talk groundrules. Beers multiplied,  then we met Adam's coworkers for their happy hour: elebratory Not Guilty shots, more beers, a drag show, a cab where I managed NOT to give the cabbie unsolicited advice about charter schools (this annoys cab mates, I've been told a billion times).
So we woke up hungover. All we wanted to was sit on the couch and play with the dogs' ears and watch TV.
Obviously we ALSO wanted a greasy breakfast. So I made chorizo hash because I had the stuff for it in the fridge.

Sausage!

I had some leftover chorizos from Olivers--the best meat market in Denver.
I chopped everything into little bits:

Then fried it all until crispy:

Then made two runny eggs to go on top:

Then we shared this spicy, smoky, salty, greasy plate of evil goodness while watching Happy Endings in our pjs.

Laziness is my favorite.