Threefer Breakfast

Yet another Tik-Tok I recreated before a video caught my eye. I have all of the equipment and all of the materials, and we love all of these foods, so why not, right?

This one I’m calling The Threefer Breakfast. It’s a waffle that’s been pan fried in some pancake batter on one side, and pan fried again in an omelette mixture on the other side. It sounds complicated and a lot of work, but it’s not. It went faster than I thought it would, and I used the waffle batter for the pancakes after I thinned it out a bit with milk.

  1. Make you waffle batter as your iron heats up. Pour it into the machine to start it.
  2. Make your omelette mixture. Set aside. Heat up a frying pan on a moderate heat.
  3. Remove the cooked waffles as they finish and rest them on a wire rack while heating some oil in the pan.
  4. Add 1 tbsp of milk to the waffle batter and whisk together to thin out the batter.
  5. Ladle one large scoop into the frying pan, tilt the pan to spread batter out, and top it with a waffle.
  6. After the pancake side fries up in a few mins, rest it back on the rack and add a bit more oil to the pan to heat up.
  7. Pour half the omelette mix into the frying pan and lay the pancake waffle down on top, waffle pocket side down (pancake side up).

That’s all that is involved. I was working on this creation and didn’t get time to take pics of the process but it’s not unlike a battering station as you bread and fry foods. Pick up, dip, drip off excess, drop over the oil. Bing-bang-boom.

Serve with syrup and whipped cream. If you remember and liked the McD’s full breakfast that came in a white Styrofoam container with baby butters and an OJ, you will like this throwback feeling as you eat your Threefer. Makes two.

If you want to make my waffle batter, you can search for the recipe on this blog, and double it.

Smash Taco Burgers

I watched a few Tik-Tok videos on these little Smash Taco hybrids since it’s all the rage this week, and they looked easy enough. Of course these videos tend to skip a lot of helpful information for the platform format that gets them the most view. Views = impressions, impressions = reach, and reach = virality. And somewhere a long that string is a spot for monetizing the content. But, fear not – I’ve got you covered.

On my journey to make some at home, I quickly discovered the content creators either use extra lean ground meat, resulting in far less grease (but also far less flavour) than my preferred medium ground beef. I don’t understand anyone eating lean and extra lean beef. Why not eat cardboard instead? It would taste about the same IMO.

Anyway, if you made these smash tacos from start to finish without stopping or resting the food, you will end up with a soggy, greasy, unpleasant final product. But, by cooking and then resting the meat on the tortilla, AND wiping out the grease of out your pan, you will notice the meat and tortilla will feel less moist/soggy as you eat it. The other side of the tortilla will them crisp up nicely in the pan better. I burned a few of these tacos in my first test run, but I nailed them in the second test run by keeping the pan clean and at a slightly lower temp in the last stage.

TIP: Season your meat well before you mix it up and divide them into the ~2 oz balls.

TIP: Use a square of parchment over top of the ball when smashing them down with whatever tamping instrument you have on hand all over one side of the tortilla. (I have the tamper that came with my slider pan.) I like to pick up the paper square and move it where I wanted to flatten the meat, and keep doing that until the meat is thin and evenly spread out.

TIP: Put the taco in the bare pan smashed out meat side down. I gave each one about three mins with me pushing them down into the pan for some lovely charred edges.

TIP: Let each taco REST on a wire rack face up for about 3-5 mins while you cook the meat side of any other smash tacos you’re making. REST that damn meat, people!

After you finish cooking the last smash taco on the meat side down, lay the first rested taco one back down into the pan, meat side up. Lay a slice or two of cheese on top at this point, drop the heat a bit, and cover it. Trust me.

It only needs about 1-2 mins to get gooey. Rest the smash tacos back on the wire rack for another 3-5 mins as you top them all with things like pickle slices, special sauce, caramelized onions, lettuce, etc. Whatever you like.

Resist the urge to fold them too early to serve them. The liquids will leak out of the corners instead of redistributing themselves in the meat, the cheese, the toppings, and tortilla. Patience will reward you when you wait to dig in.

I didn’t wait long enough, and there was grease and special sauce left on my plate, whereas the husband’s was made first and rested longer, and well, his plate was practically spotless when we finished eating.

 

Cake Mix + Soda = Soda Pop Cakes

I’m not a big fan of basic birthday cake, and by extension, cupcakes. But. I have to believe if you spice up a basic cake batter, I might try a portion should I be offered. I made half a box of yellow cake mix for the husband’s recent birthday, but I forgot all about flavouring it because I wanted to try futzing around with the icing in a can to make a galaxy looking effect for him. It wasn’t special beyond the icing effect which turned out ok. He liked what I was going for.

Anyway, back to the flavour matrix. There is a Youtuber who did a taste test on most of the above and she only deemed a few of them worth the effort. If you care, here is her full video.

Meat & Potato Bombs

I lost the YouTube video link, but thankfully I scribbled down some notes as I watched it. I didn’t think much of the recipe’s concept, but I do love piping mash potatoes, so I gave this one a whirl.

And we are glad I did. We loved it. I have plans to turn this into a Shepards Pie meal. I also want to try stuffing an egg yolk under the mash next time.

This recipe is good for 8 bombs, but you can easily cut it in half for a lovely dinner for two, or for a solo dinner + a lunch for the next day.

Meat & Potato Bombs:
400 g Ground Meat (of choice – I used turkey. It might have been chicken. I forget.)
1/2 Yellow Onion, diced or grated
2 Garlic Cloves, minced or grated
1 tbsp AP Flour
3 tbsp Neutral Oil
1 Yolk
S&P
Parsley, chopped

Mix this by hand to form the patties. Place on a small sheet tray or a big plate and wrap to chill 30 mins. In the meantime, work on the mash. Preheat oven to 350*.

2 Medium Sized Yukon Potatoes (you can use Russet instead), 1″ x 1″ cubes
1 tbsp Salt

From cold water, bring the potatoes in water to a boil with the salt in. Let it boil until the edges of each cube look slightly fuzzy. It should be about 10 mins or so. Drain and process the potatoes into a medium size bowl using a ricer. This tool gives the smoothest mash needed for piping.

40 g Butter
1/2 C Milk
50 g Cheddar Cheese, grated
Pinches of Salt & Nutmeg (if you like it; I don’t)

Warm up this in a small sauce pan as soon as you drain the potatoes and start ricing. At the same time, warm up some pasta sauce. (Jarred is fine, or make a fast pasta sauce using the following.)

Take the bombs out of the fridge. After all the ricing is done, add the dairy mixture. Fold in gently.

100 g Passata Sauce
30 g Olive Oil
1/4 tea Italian Seasonings (rubbed between your fingers first)
S&P

Lay a scant bit of pasta sauce on bottom of a small baking dish or a skillet that is oven proof. Set it aside. Place the bombs over the pasta sauce. Use a finger to indent the middle of the bombs a bit.

Set up a piping bag with a star tip inserted in the bottom hole. Spoon mash into the bag and pipe it over the bombs starting in the middle, moving out to the edge while circling it into a hive like shape.

Spoon the rest of the pasta sauce between the bombs. Cover the pan’s handle with a sheet of tin foil if it’s plastic in nature to protect it. Otherwise, pop the dish or skillet into the oven.

Bake for 30 mins. Longer if you want more colour on the tips of the mash potatoes.

Serve with a side of your choice.

Ways to Cut A Watermelon

Once you crack open a watermelon and grab a few slices, then what? How are you going to break it all down to store it in your fridge? Or, if you’re like Ellen, give it away to your siblings for the kids? Here are some great ways. I used a few of these when working in catering, and they are very solid storage methods.

Peanut Butter Cookies

OPCPeanutButterCookies

Something about today is just breaking my brain. Or, perhaps my brain isn’t quite awake like the rest of me? Not sure. But, I’m fairly certain only simple things will get done today, like this simple 3-ingredient recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies. All it requires is one egg, 1 cup of sugar and one cup of peanut butter. (Ratio: 1:1:1)

Or, if you’re running on full steam unlike me today, and you like a bit of jazz hands with your Peanut Butter cookies, you can always try this version from Tasty Kitchen. You can’t go wrong with anything from that site!

Vincent Talleu, Master Baker

I am a huge fan of these four Vincent Talleu‘s youtube videos showing him in his bakery making bread, chocolate pastries, etc. I could watch these all day long if I had time.

Check out this bread making marathon one. This one if my favourite. It’s 11:38 minutes long, but worth every second you spend watching it. I’d be highly surprised if you don’t drool or exclaim from five new tricks you pick up watching him.

Master bakers. Bless their hearts. They’re not only awesome to work with, but awesome to stand back and watch if they let you.