Breakfast for Breakfast and Lunch and Dinner?

I love breakfast food. It's probably one of the most comforting things besides rice smothered in a savory sauce with meat and vegetables, pasta or any other carbohydrate you can think of when you think of a rainy day, a bit of a sad atmosphere and the need for filling food that's easy and fast.

As it's block weekend, the day before blocks in fact, breakfast for dinner is a must. But a lack of ingredients is a bit of a set back. Luckily, there are good friends who will help you buy a rasher of bacon when you're craving it and brown sugar is just as good as white if you're out.

So, turn on the stove and start making breakfast wherever and whenever it is.

Brown Sugar Pancakes

3/4 cup AP flour
3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
2 tbls brown sugar (you can use white if you want but I ran out. It's preblocks - no one has groceries)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbls oil (or melted butter if you wish)
1 egg
dash of vanilla

Mix everything together in a bowl, some lumps are okay. Heat a pan over medium heat and brush with a bit of oil or butter. When the pan is hot, pour the batter. I made 3 large pancakes about 7 inch wide. I suggest smaller pancakes for those who don't want them as big. Bubbles will begin to appear on the surface of the batter, when the bottom is brown, flip and cook the other side for another 1-2 minutes. You can keep them warm in a 200 degree oven if you're making a lot. Smother in maple syrup and butter and consume.

I made a few slices of bacon to go with the pancakes. :)

Whim and Whimsy

I've always been attracted to do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, minus the ones including sewing (I seem to have issues with sewing machines and needle/thread). Knitting and crocheting shrugs, shawls and sweaters. But the accessories that always compels me are articles of jewelry, whether rings, earrings or pendants.

Etsy is always an amazing source of inspiration, and recently Pinterest has been a good venue for seeing what has captured other people's interest. Beading and wirework have always been popular but recently the newest crave in handmade jewelry includes a combination of the two as well as traditional Peruvian thread art and scientific/artistic/historical influences.

The first of the batch are bird's nest wire wrapped beads which can be used for pendants or earrings. I used 3 beads of different colors as my eggs and made "matching" pieces for earrings.
The Bird Nest Necklace tutorial can be found here.

Next up are DNA helix earrings made of seed beads and bugle beads interspersed on headpins and then twisted.
I saw these on etsy but couldn't justify spending $20+ not including shipping for something I could easily make myself.

At the same time, I had a plethora of seed beads and decided to make a few baubles which could be used when I felt the need to wear something different and boost my mood.

Along the same lines of the bird's nest pendant, I created a wire nest and strung beads onto the wire and wrapped it around the "nest."You could add this onto a plain ring or string it on a chain.
Since we're on an island, I love incorporating sea glass and shells into my jewelry to remember things by.
Wandering around the interwebs, I found some Peruvian thread art earrings and googled a tutorial.
The basic concept is the same, involving wire coils and thread of multiple colors.
They can be tear-shaped and made into earrings or pendants.
Or even circular.

Wire-wrapping can be easy with the right tools, or just a good way to express yourself without worrying about how clean a wrap turns out as long as the overall piece is something you like. From the thread art earrings, a link showed me a blog with multiple pieces of wire-wrapped bead work creating animals and zodiac signs. Since Sagittarius seemed the most feasible, I concocted a more basic version of the bow and arrow the hunter uses.

Chocolate Heaven

This is most likely the first and last time I will EVER bake this cake. Why? you ask. Because when you see the ingredient list, your heart will begin to palpate quickly the same way mine did when I put together this small cake. This recipe is not for the faint of heart. No, it is for those who give their heart to others completely, for those who care deeply.

This is a flourless chocolate cake of proportions I will only make for those truly needful of such decadent pleasure.

And on this day, not even Valentine's Day was so deserving of such a recipe, Happy Birthday to my dear Candice. :) Early it may be to write this up but needful.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
*the recipe came from the Gluten Free Goddess but I've made some changes for those without food processors/blenders or don't want to clean up such machines

16 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (or any chocolate you wish)
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup very hot strong coffee or espresso
2 tbl cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup (16 tbl) of unsalted butter
8 eggs, room temp
1 tbl homemade vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9 inch cake pan, if the sides are only about an inch high, line with parchment or foil with overhanging edges for the cake to rise. If using a 10'' cake pan, ignore the following, I also prepped two silicone baking cups of a large muffin size for excess batter.

In a double boiler (for those without a double boiler, place a glass bowl above a small pot with an inch of simmering water), melt together the chocolate and cubed butter. When it's all melted, add both sugars and hot espresso in batches, mixing thoroughly. Take the chocolate mixture off the double boiler and sift in 2 tbl of cocoa powder. When this is incorporated, begin to add your eggs one by one, whisking briskly to prevent the egg from cooking (you don't want scrambled eggs in your cake). The batter will get thicker with each egg. Right before the last egg, add the vanilla and whisk to incorporate everything.
Pour the batter into your pans and bake for 55-60 minutes at 350. Your skewer should go in cleanly and come out with a few moist crumbs.It's perfect with a drizzle of homemade ganache and sifted powdered sugar and a large glass of milk or mug of hot coffee - after all, you're bound to have made extra coffee when brewing for the cake.

If making this for a birthday as I did, make a batch of chocolate ganache.

Chocolate Ganache
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
4 oz of semi-sweet chocolate
1 tbl butter
1 tbl irish whiskey (or any other flavoring you wish)

Heat together cream and butter until the butter is melted and the mixture hot. Pour in the chocolate and let sit for 5 min. Stir together and add in the whiskey. Drizzle over the cake, using a spatula to help spread the chocolate.

I flipped the cake upside down to have a flatter surface for writing and frosting. But feel free to just cut a slice, drizzle ganache over the top and ignore making a pretty cake in favor of eating it. :)

When a chicken comes back to roost

When a chicken comes home to roost, you get chicken strips. Alright, so the saying has more of a negative connotation, what with curses coming back to bite you, an eye for an eye sort of deal, but this is more good than evil. Well... if you like spicy food that is.

I've been using Pinterest lately to look at recipes, DIY crafts and ideas. I mean, I'm stuck on an island with limited resources. I need to branch out somehow. I found this recipe through a pin that someone else had put on their board. Anyway, if there's a recipe I've tried, but I haven't had the time to post about it yet, I'll try to pin it. So . Granted, there'll be plenty I haven't tried. But here's one I just made for dinner. :)
Sriracha Chicken Strips

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup Sriracha (or another hot sauce you have on hand)
1 tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp Maggi sauce (or soy sauce)
3 cloves of minced garlic
1 inch minced ginger
1/2 cup flour
1 large egg
1-1.5 cups panko bread crumbs
salt/pepper to taste
garlic salt
dried parsley

Slice the chicken breasts into 1/2 inch pieces, I got about 10 pieces from a large chicken breast. The original recipe had about 12 pieces of chicken from 2 breasts. In a large gallon ziploc bag, combine the Sriracha, vinegar, Maggi sauce, garlic and ginger. Put the chicken strips in the bag and marinate in the fridge between 1-4 hours. I let them sit for about 2 hours.

When you're ready to bake, prepare the worktable. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Take the chicken out of the fridge. On a small plate, pour out the flour. In a small bowl, whisk the egg. Place the bread crumbs in another small dish with the salt/pepper/garlic salt/dried parsley. This is a bit of an assembly line. I also lined a pan with foil and oiled it lightly.

Using chopsticks, I dredge the chicken in the flour, shaking off the excess. Transferring to the egg, I coated it before rolling in the breadcrumbs and laying it onto the sheet pan. If you use your hands instead of chopsticks, have one wet and one dry hand so that it doesn't get so messy.

When all the chicken is coated, place in the oven for 20 minutes. I flipped the chicken halfway through and then broiled the bottom side for 2 minutes before taking them out.They're crispy, not too spicy with a hint of Sriracha.