pancetta cups and hollandaise

Last week I took a class on making stocks and sauces. Since I needed an excuse to try my hand at Hollandaise, and Jack was inspired by not martha's bacon cups, we decided to make a decadent Sunday brunch incorporating both.

Jack made the pancetta cups by placing two slices of pancetta around the bottom of the cups on a muffin pan, then placing another muffin pan on top to hold them in place. He flipped the contraption over so it sat like a normal muffin pan, then cooked them in a 350ºF oven for about 10 minutes. He then took them out of the oven, carefully removed the top pan, and put the one pan with the cups on it back in the oven, bottoms up, to crisp up...about 5 more minutes. Then, he took the cups off their molds, placed them into muffin pan cups, added one egg to each, and baked them for about 10 minutes, until the egg whites were opaque, but the yolk was still slightly runny.


Meanwhile I was making my hollandaise using the following recipe and procedure:

6 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. water
12 oz. Butter-melted
2-3 tsp. Lemon Juice-fresh squeezed
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper

Fill a saucepan with 2" of water and bring to a boil. In a mixing bowl (stainless steel is best), stir together egg yolks and water and place over simmering water. Whisk continually until the become pale and ribbon-thick (The consistency of pancake batter). Remove from heat and slowly whisk in the melted butter. Add lemon juice and seasoning.

The Hollandaise turned out well. It was easier than I thought. I get intimidated by sauces, especially these classic ones. But it turned out smooth, silky and delicious. That recipe, though, makes way too much for just 2 people. I knew i should have halfed it, but it was my first hollandaise, and I was afraid that I might be messing with some sort of classical sauce science mojo, so I just followed it as written.

Making the hollandaise gave me such a warm fuzzy feeling, because I've just finished reading Julia Child's book My Life in France for the Kitchn's bookclub. The book is very inspiring, and I am looking forward to following Julia's lead and learn some more classic techniques.

biscuits and gravy and eggs oh my

I'm not a huge breakfast eater. I mean I eat breakfast every morning, but big breakfasts are reserved for lazy days, because they make me sleepy. Jack makes AWESOME breakfasts. So this was our Saturday morning...


Biscuits and Gravy, Poached eggs and blueberry-maple chicken sausage.

ain't no need to go outside

Sunday morning, after sleeping in, Jack made banana pancakes. It was a rainy, lazy, late weekend morning and they were perfect. He simply added 3 mashed up bananas and some cinnamon to the plain Bisquick pancake recipe. The best part was the sauce. One part peanut butter to two parts honey and a pinch of salt, all heated up in the microwave and mixed together. Peanut butter, honey and banana is one of my all-time favorite flavor combos, so eating these was heaven.



One of my favorite food-songs is "Banana Pancakes" by Jack Johnson.

Pretend like there’s no world outside
And we could pretend it all the time
Can’t you see that it’s just raining
There ain’t no need to go outside

You can listen to a sample on Amazon. It just captures that certain mood.... Mellow, warm and yummy. Yup, that was our Sunday morning.

scone head

I made scones this morning. As I said in the last post, I recently discovered the glory of scones. Of course I'd seen them and knew what they were, but they just never appealed to me. Well, I tried one and my eyes were opened! Delicious!

When I looked up recipes, they seemed easy enough to make, so here on this lazy 3-day weekend, I tried it. I know I said I was gonna try lighter recipes, but for my first time I thought it would be better to make a regular scone recipe. Alton Brown is a trustworthy source, so I chose this recipe.

It was very simple and the results are very pleasing. Crumbly but moist, buttery and slightly sweet. I could go with more cranberries...Anyway, here's the results: