English Muffins (and Crab Benedict)

My favorite brunch place in the city is a little place called Town's End Restaurant, which we've nicknamed "the muffin place" because of their complementary muffins and scones. It's my favorite restaurant for three reasons: 1) delicious complementary baked goodies 2) it's a nice walking distance from my place and 3) their crab benedict. Trust me, whenever there is a crab benedict on a brunch menu, I've ordered it, and from all the places I've been, this restaurant has the best. I think a main reason for this is that they bake their own english muffins (they bake all their baked goods there). So I decided to make a little challenge for myself and make a crab benedict with everything from scratch.

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches; it's one of my all time favorite breakfast/snack foods. I remember when I first read about it in 3rd grade and we had to read this vampire bunny novel. The main character was making a banana peanut butter sandwich, and at first I was like, "Man, that sounds gross!" Of course I had to try it, right? And it turned out to be awesome. A few years ago I decided to add some honey on top, and it was marvelous. More recently I saw a photo from my friend where he sprinkled a bunch of cinnamon on top of it, and of course I had to try that too, and it was even more awesome! Anyways, I've decided to turn this awesomeness into cupcake form!

Caramelized Onions, Mushroom, and Spinach Quiche

So you might think this is a break from the burger experiments, but I kid you not, I've been eating hamburgers non-stop. Last night I had a mushroom and caramelized onion burger. Yup. This morning I decided it would be a great idea to make a quiche with mushrooms and caramelized onions. This is my first quiche, and I didn't follow any recipes. Dave predicts that it will be disgusting. We'll show him!

Strawberry Bread Puding

I cleaned out my fridge last week, and found that I'd been hoarding bread. I had 3 of these bowls. That's a LOT of bread pudding. I made bread pudding over the holiday season, partially out of curiosity. That one was a different recipe (there are a bazillion) but the basic one is super simple.

Tomato Egg Cups

Nur sent me this recipe from La Casita Inspirada out of the blue. It's super easy and pretty so I made it.


Two beautiful and ripe tomatoes? Check.


Hollow out tomatoes' innards? Check.


Fill each tomato with an egg, some ground pepper, and salt? Check, check, and check!



Pop in preheated 425 degrees F oven for 20 minutes, then top with crispy bacon bits? Check! The recipe actually says to top it off with cheese but I think bacon is greater than cheese, so I went with bacon.

That's it. I actually switched to the broiler option for an additional 5 minutes because I do not like my eggs so runny. So easy and pretty even a LeTran can do it!

Homefries

This morning I made myself a delicious omelette with a side of home fries and three strips of extra thick bacon. I always need a side of homefries with my Sunday morning brunch, but lots of brunch places have bland and boring homefries, and then I'm left disappointed. One of the very few good things about moving to Pittsburgh is Pamela's. Besides having good (and very different) hotcakes, they also have tasty potatoes (menu item lyonnaise potatoes). Definitely a must-try if you are in the area. So my creation this morning was a mix between Pamela's lyonnaise potatoes and a bacon baked potato. Nothing can go wrong with such a beautiful combination!

Pumpkin Scone with Ginger Honey Glaze

We were having a pumpkin streak where we made pumpkin everything. Watch out for another pumpkin post in a little bit. So since I am poor, I subscribe to Poor Girl Gourmet and found this pumpkin scone recipe that sounded delicious! But let me tell you, it's not cheap.... unless you have everything. But who keeps candied ginger in their cupboard? Anyways, these were really good, especially the ginger honey glaze. It seriously taste like sweeten condensed milk. So awesome!

Cinnamon Toasts

Who loves a cinnamon toast? I do! When I was little, my grandpa had pieces of the Cassia bark sitting in his tobacco basket. He allowed me to break tiny pieces off the bark and chew on it. I loved the smell and the taste so much that I kept going back to the basket and snuck a piece or two. True cinnamon addict at the age of 7. Imagine how excited I was to know that so many recipes call for cinnamon when I moved to the US. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's move on to make of of these delicious cinnamon treats.