Tag: breakfast

Scrambled Eggs Supreme

Here is a hearty breakfast or brunch dish that is often found on restaurant menus in northern Wisconsin. It’s called a skillet breakfast when the scrambled eggs are accompanied with fried or hash brown potatoes. When a side order of bacon, ham or sausage is added, the price goes up and the name changes to a “Farmers” or “Lumberjack” skillet.

Whatever the name, scrambled eggs supreme is a hearty breakfast dish that also makes a tasty light Sunday supper.

INGREDIENTS:

2 T yellow onion chopped medium
2 T sliced mushrooms (fresh or canned)
2 T green bell pepper chopped medium
2 or 3 T fresh tomato chopped medium
4 T chopped or shredded medium cheddar cheese
2 T butter
4 large eggs
1 tsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. tarragon
1/4 cup half and half or milk
Dash (2 or 3 drops) Tabasco or other hot sauce

PROCEDURE:

Clean and chop the first five ingredients. Keep the cheese and tomatoes separate from each other and from the other vegetables.

Beat the eggs until lemon colored. Beat in the flour, salt, black pepper, tarragon and hot sauce. Beat the eggs and flour until well mixed and lemon yellow. Beat in the milk or half and half, tarragon, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (I grind in about 1/8 tsp.).

Melt the butter over moderate heat in a seven or eight inch skillet. Add the onions and mushrooms and sauté lightly for one minute. Add the green pepper and sauté for another minute.

Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables. Turn heat down to low and stir until the eggs are about half cooked. Sprinkle the tomatoes over the eggs, top with the cheese, cover and cook until the eggs are firm but not dry, two or three minutes.

Serve with toast and, if you wish, sausage, ham or bacon on the side.

NOTES: This recipe serves two. You can double the recipe, use a larger skillet, increase the cooking time and have enough for four.

Don’t forget to pass the ketchup!

Over the years I have had had to “make do” by substituting different cheeses and peppers or adding leftover meat. The eggs have still been supreme.

This basic recipe offers opportunities for the courageous cook. Check your refrigerator. Have a leftover bratwurst from the grill? A hot dog? A baked or boiled potato? Chop some and add it at what seems a suitable time. You may find a combination that you really like. And if you don’t, at least the leftover is out of the fridge.

Rye Buttermilk Pancakes

For the first time last summer, Jerri and I spent a week in San Francisco, California, toured some wineries in the Napa and Sonoma valleys and visited our friends Bob and Jody at their home in Ashland, Oregon. Bob and I had shared an apartment in Madison when we were students at the University of Wisconsin and were still on speaking terms after that experience.

Jody rolls her eyes when Bob and I brag about our dinners at the apartment in Madison, but she got downright nasty when I told her that I had already posted Bob’s Mom’s Hot Dish to “Courage in the Kitchen.” She sneered, “You mean glop, right?” Not wanting to get thrown out of the house, I did not rise to the challenge but felt sorry for someone who could not appreciate real Wisconsin comfort food.

While she does not appreciate our gourmet meals of years past, she does make a wonderful pesto that we enjoyed on perfectly cooked pasta, and she shared the recipe she uses for some delicious pancakes made with rye flour and buttermilk. She got the recipe from a cookbook by Marion Cunningham that she bought when they lived in Oakland while Bob taught at Berkeley.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup buttermilk
1 egg (room temperature)
3 Tbs. butter, melted
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup rye flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
 
PROCEDURE:

This recipe works best if all the ingredients are at room temperature. Warm the egg in a dish of hot water for a few minutes, warm the buttermilk and melt the butter in the microwave. Put the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter in a mixing bowl. Stir briskly until the mixture is smooth and blended.
 
Stir the flours, salt, and baking soda together in a small bowl so they are well blended. Stir the dry ingredients into the buttermilk mixture. Mix them well, but don’t worry if there are a few small lumps.
 
Heat a skillet or griddle to medium hot. Grease the pan lightly and spoon out about three tablespoons of batter for each pancake. If necessary, spread the batter with the back of the spoon so it is thinned out a little. Cook until a few bubbles break on top.

Turn the pancakes over and brown them on the other side. Serve with plenty of butter and warm maple syrup.
 
NOTES: If the batter seems too stiff, add a little more buttermilk. Unless I am using unsalted butter, I use a scant half teaspoon of salt. This recipe makes about a dozen four inch pancakes. Double the recipe if you need more.

We first had these at home with chokecherry syrup. Wonderful way to enjoy some failed chokecherry jelly.