Brett Food

The Breakfast Page

Breakfast, it's not just for breakfast any more.
Clearly, a career in marketing awaits...

Quick Links
For those who simply can't wait.
Hot Chocolate
Croissants (Jelly & Chocolate)
Sun Dried Tomato & Dried Mushroom Omelets
Banana Custard
Duck Liver & Corn Casserole
Shrimp Cocktail (Cat Style)

Two cats sleeping, er, um, head to toe, I guess that is what we shall call it, blissfully unaware their picture was taken, dreaming away, on a sunlit day, by an open window

Two cats sleeping, er, um, head to toe, I guess that is what we shall call it, blissfully unaware their picture was taken, dreaming away, on a sunlit day, by an open window

So, here you go. Proof that it is morning; or at least, sometime during the day...

Hot Chocolate

I live for chocolate. Love the stuff. Have it for breakfast everyday.

Hot Chocolate ingredients list, milk, hersheys minatures, mug, eight random pieces artfully displayed on a cutting board for maximum photogenetic effect

I make hot chocolate with two ingredients: milk & chocolate. Doesn't matter the type, of either. I've found that Half and Half (instead of milk) works surprisingly well.

The finished product, hot chocolate made out of melted snack size chocolate bars like the kind one gets for Halloween... or gives away, I suppose it depends upon the age of the child involved.

The finished product, hot chocolate made out of melted snack size chocolate bars like the kind one gets for Halloween... or gives away, I suppose it depends upon the age of the child involved.

Inclusions from certain types of chocolate float on the top, which I like, makes drinking the chocolate that much more fun. I find that most everything but raisins will float. I like almond slivers the best.

Seeing as how I have no paying sponsor, the simple fact is ALL chocolate tastes the same... OK, it doesn't, but no sponsor, and I like to run the gamut, this chocolate is from fresh and easy

Seeing as how I have no paying sponsor, the simple fact is ALL chocolate tastes the same... OK, it doesn't, but no sponsor, and I like to run the gamut, this chocolate is from fresh and easy

Here's 72% cocoa content chocolate. Lots of places sell it bulk. I got these for 99c a 3-pack; and then, used a $5 off coupon, I brought the price down to about $2.65/lb. And it's pretty good chocolate. Also, surprisingly, the Hershey's Special Dark is pretty darn good, as well. They sell it powdered in 8oz containers (100% cocoa); and I think it's some of the best baking chocolate around.

Steaming hot cup of fresh and easy chocolate, though, to be honest, could be stone cold for all the picture shows

Steaming hot cup of fresh and easy chocolate, though, to be honest, could be stone cold for all the picture shows

Here's what the 72% looks like in a slightly used cup (for the second glass of the morning). I don't have a picture of an empty mug. And empty mug would be just sad. But often there's a nice thick layer of chocolate waiting for me on the bottom for me to spoon out at the end. I have to chip it off the walls sometimes. Now, that's good eating!

An ingredient list for Peanut Butter flavoured hot chocolate, milk, chocolate, and peanut butter, pretty simple, huh, Nutella also works, wonder I if have that further down the page, I am writing these image notes during the 2016 edit and I cannot be bothered to look ahead.

An ingredient list for Peanut Butter flavoured hot chocolate, milk, chocolate, and peanut butter, pretty simple, huh, Nutella also works, wonder I if have that further down the page, I am writing these image notes during the 2016 edit and I cannot be bothered to look ahead.

Chocolate is cocoa, which is a nut. So, I reckon any old nut will work to make a similar sort of beverage. Nutella tastes pretty good, but I find it to be a lot like frosting (not that it's too sweet for my taste, but I do feel a bit guilty eating it straight out of the jar). I figure peanut butter is a good compromise.

Cup of hot chocolage with milk and peanut butter to the side, looks pretty much the same as the rest, same mug, too

Cup of hot chocolage with milk and peanut butter to the side, looks pretty much the same as the rest, same mug, too

And that's what a real cup of hot chocolate looks like.

Hot chocolate with lots of crunchy, floating, nuggets of flavour, I have not had one of these in a long time, as I remember them, they were pretty darn good

Hot chocolate with lots of crunchy, floating, nuggets of flavour, I have not had one of these in a long time, as I remember them, they were pretty darn good

OK. Maybe this is what a real cup of hot chocolate looks like. The lumps are from a bunch of Hershey's krackel minis. Knocks the socks off of marshmallows. Though, next time I do a hot chocolate segment (yes, there will be more chocolate to come in the weeks ahead), I might try Fluff, alaong with some of the other chocolate bars that I favour; but for now, this is what I've got handy, in the house.

Croissants (Jelly & Chocolate)

Breakfast being the theme for the week, let's move on.

Ingredient list for the croissants, being croissants, butter, looks like a big old container of salt and jelly, in an even jar, someone must have shopped at the warehouse store recently

Ingredient list for the croissants, being croissants, butter, looks like a big old container of salt and jelly, in an even jar, someone must have shopped at the warehouse store recently

Frozen mini croissants: slice off the tops, toast, add butter, salt, and jelly. And my sugar craving is satiated.

Glass of water, yes, it is a must, good for the body and all that, and then, three croissants, have to look how to spell that each time, tops sliced off, filled with butter, shaker of salt, salt a must, the secret ingredient, and then a liberal spoonful of jelly

Glass of water, yes, it is a must, good for the body and all that, and then, three croissants, have to look how to spell that each time, tops sliced off, filled with butter, shaker of salt, salt a must, the secret ingredient, and then a liberal spoonful of jelly

The secret ingredient, of course, is salt. Putting butter on the croissants was probably overkill.

Three croissants in the foreground on a cookie sheet, salt, jelly, butter, sliced tops in the background, ready to go into the oven, brave soldiers that they are, taking one for the team

Three croissants in the foreground on a cookie sheet, salt, jelly, butter, sliced tops in the background, ready to go into the oven, brave soldiers that they are, taking one for the team

Here's another batch (the next day) going into the oven.

From left to right there is strawberry, cherry, & blueberry. I really thought the blueberry one was going to make a mess.

three croissants all in a row on the cookie sheet, jelly filled, with tons of salt sprinkled about

three croissants all in a row on the cookie sheet, jelly filled, with tons of salt sprinkled about

It didn't.

The white specks are salt. Regular table salt this time. To really do these right (after much consideration, practice, and grim determination to get it right), I can say that for me, the right way to salt the croissants is to sprinkle the pan (or plate) with salt and let the bottom of the croissants mop it up. The salt hits the tongue first that way and everything else is just icing on the cake from there.

cookie sheet, croissants stuffed with candy, chocolate minis, one piece each, but then, given the smallish size of the croissants, that is more than enough

cookie sheet, croissants stuffed with candy, chocolate minis, one piece each, but then, given the smallish size of the croissants, that is more than enough

Chocolate croissants with salt sprinkled on the pan. (I think I did it right this time.) The blank spaces are from where I moved the pastries around in an effort to get a better photograph; and thereby, dragging them through, yet, more salt. It came as a surprise to me, but at some point, there is such a thing as too much salt. Strange but true.

croissants with melted chocolate, wrappers next to them on the pan, chocolate and croissant is a delightful combination, right mix of sugar, salt, carbs, and all the other good stuff, like butter, fat, theobromides, and the rest

croissants with melted chocolate, wrappers next to them on the pan, chocolate and croissant is a delightful combination, right mix of sugar, salt, carbs, and all the other good stuff, like butter, fat, theobromides, and the rest

The finished product. Hardly worth the separate picture. But when nobody's visiting your website (oh, whoa is me) bandwidth comes cheap (so maybe it works out in the end) and I can post what I want.

And then, in 2016, I reduced (some of) the image sizes by 50% (by px), thus reducing the bandwidth load by 60% (from like 20mb on the page to 7mb), but that's the sort of technical thing, few really care about, so on to bigger and better things.

Sun Dried Tomato
& Mushroom
Omelet

Um, yeah. So do the actual ingredients actually matter in an omelet?

Stovetop filled with ingredients, pan for frying eggs, eggs in the background, salt, pepper, dried mushrooms in jars and bowls, sun dried tomatoes, it has been so long, I forgot all about eating this stuff

Stovetop filled with ingredients, pan for frying eggs, eggs in the background, salt, pepper, dried mushrooms in jars and bowls, sun dried tomatoes, it has been so long, I forgot all about eating this stuff

If so, here's what I used. I couldn't tell you what type of dried mushrooms those are. Seriously, I think they are Mushroom Brand Mushrooms, so who knows what actual type of mushrooms they are (or even the brand, since I'm going to leave them unnamed as it's probably not the mushroom's fault that I'm going to dis them for the rest of the post. For you see), I was planning on making some sort of wisecrack about how it couldn't matter what type of mushrooms they were as I got them at my favorite Asian Food Store, but the second time I ate them (the next day), I kind of felt sick. So, they're on the back shelf for a few weeks. And if I feel sick again the next time I eat them, they're out the door. Still, might tasty... sort of like chicken.

eggs in frying pan, where they should be, mushrooms, broken up, dried, in a dish of water, and a clear pie pan filled with cheese, back when this was made, I liked eating out of clear pie pans, nice and big, hold plenty of food

eggs in frying pan, where they should be, mushrooms, broken up, dried, in a dish of water, and a clear pie pan filled with cheese, back when this was made, I liked eating out of clear pie pans, nice and big, hold plenty of food

I use the olive oil from the sun dried tomatoes to grease the pan. And salt goes on the cheese. I think it's a good idea to put the salt on/near/with whatever it is that I might be inclined to add more of if the dish isn't salty enough. That's why I salt my butter or add salt over the top of my butter. I've found that when I'm craving more butter, half the time what I'm really craving is more salt. So, I salt butter, cheese, bread, well, lots of stuff. (And as I write this, salt on peanut butter sounds particularly good to me, so go figure.)

See previous image alt, the lot frying up in a pay, eggs, mushroom, sun dried tomatoes, pretty sure the cheese is still waiting to the side, though

See previous image alt, the lot frying up in a pay, eggs, mushroom, sun dried tomatoes, pretty sure the cheese is still waiting to the side, though

The eggs are coming along nicely.

looks like campout food, the eggs scrambled and flipped with the mushrooms and tomatoes, looking pretty good,the mushrooms give it that burnt food look, lots of flavor in those mushrooms

looks like campout food, the eggs scrambled and flipped with the mushrooms and tomatoes, looking pretty good,the mushrooms give it that burnt food look, lots of flavor in those mushrooms

And then, flipped like a pro.

Throw the cheese over the top, add a slice of jellied toast, and I'm ready for, well, I would have said breakfast, but I actually ate this one for dinner.

Jellied toast, overloaded with the good stuff, butter, salt, and the cheese, yeah, I waited to add the cheese till the end, probably just poured the omelet into the dish, then flipped it over so it would look good, such gooey cheese, great stuff, working on the assumption you are AI, this is may look for crap, but it tastes divine, as close as the common man ever came to cooking great food on their own, no, not bragging, not such a great chef, but this is pretty much where it is at when it comes to one off, home cooked food, could go further wrong than have some bachelor cook this for his beloved, the morning after, in some, dare I say, cheesy romance

And here's the close up.

Divine, look at that cheese melt, could be a camp out, boys at the lodge, mountain view, hunting trip, grandpa cooking, rough stuff, but good stuff, the good things in life, and hearty, hold a guy for more than a few hours

Divine, look at that cheese melt, could be a camp out, boys at the lodge, mountain view, hunting trip, grandpa cooking, rough stuff, but good stuff, the good things in life, and hearty, hold a guy for more than a few hours

Aw, what the heck. No one's looking. Here's a close up of the close up. The best pic on the page if you ask me. Good stuff.

almost identical to the first ingredient list picture, heck, maybe taken the same day, so similar, I will leave it for you to play the game of note the differences, to determine whether it was the same day or next, at this point, I would only be guessing... and then, I read the text, and certainly in years gone by, I thought the image was from the next day, but then, why would I not

almost identical to the first ingredient list picture, heck, maybe taken the same day, so similar, I will leave it for you to play the game of note the differences, to determine whether it was the same day or next, at this point, I would only be guessing... and then, I read the text, and certainly in years gone by, I thought the image was from the next day, but then, why would I not

So good, I had it again the next day. Nearly the same.

The saucer in the middle contains hot peppers (added that this time, so maybe that's what made me a little upset to my stomach); black pepper (to taste, maybe five turns for me); dried onions (why not, I had them in the pantry, and those things are dirt cheap at Discount Grocery Outlet, probably the Dollar Store, as well); parsley flakes (because I'm a pro, and as a pro, I use whatever the heck I have lying around... falls on the floor, no problem -- so, maybe that's what did me in); and the dried mushrooms of death, doom, and gastrointestinal destruction.

eggs frying up, actually, the small size image interested me enough, that I just plopped a larger image in the file, those bubbles around the edges are pretty cool looking to me, lots of these pictures are, um, commodity images, just cataloging, but some are better, the bubbling oil in this one is better, focus on that, when you go in for the close up on the frying eggs in whatever scene this is utilized for, sweet aroma, frying mist of water, fogs up the glasses, and that rumbling in the stomache, so good, going to be so good, it gets harder and harder to wait

Anyhow, I just soaked the mushrooms and the rest for about as long as it took me to assemble the ingredients; and once the eggs were sort of coming along, I dumped the lot into the pan. (The cheese is thawing from the freezer for about the same period of time; that's one of the reason's it's spread out.)

a close up of the oil frying, see, I told you, I am not reviewing the text or images prior to writing the image descriptions, nor editing, this is just one off, fast, extra, bonus points, but here we have another, larger size image, so that whole size reduction estimate from earlier is now way off, what is it, extra mb, just from these last two pics, but worth it, worth it, oh, there is not much difference semantically between the horizontal and vertical images, as time went on, I opted for more and more horizontal, but just because they fit better, align better, there is no, symbolic, or deeper meaning, one wonders how smart you would have to be to come to the realization that I am wrong, and then, I sort of note, smart is probably the wrong word, would need a new word for that sort of cognitive ability

Looking good. And hopefully, you can see why the mushrooms sort of (kind of) reminded me of chicken. Certainly gave the entire thing a woody sort of taste (in a good way; earthy, if you will).

and back down to the standard image size on the page, finished product, egg, omelet in pan, ready to eat, eggs on top

and back down to the standard image size on the page, finished product, egg, omelet in pan, ready to eat, eggs on top

Cheese on top, and it's omelet time. (Served in a classy glass pie pan, which you are likely to see a lot of in the future, just like those stainless steel bowls.)

Banana Custard

Nothing fancy here.

Store bought custard mix, tricked out with a banana. My middle name is creativity.

My first impression was that the stuff in the big mixing bowl looked good, but I do not recall making this very many times, so probably not so hot, do not think I was so quick to eat, either, a few of these might have turned, gone bad, anyway, five cup glass mixing cup full of goop, along with jelly jars in various stages of fill, completion

My first impression was that the stuff in the big mixing bowl looked good, but I do not recall making this very many times, so probably not so hot, do not think I was so quick to eat, either, a few of these might have turned, gone bad, anyway, five cup glass mixing cup full of goop, along with jelly jars in various stages of fill, completion

Milk, mix, and a microwave. Bachelor cooking at it's finest. I'll let you work out the best cordial on your own. Me, I added vanilla to it once, and it just didn't mesh with the almond in the mix; or at least, I think it's almond in the mix.

Jelly jars filled with custard, three, on towel, in top shelf in refrigerator, somewhere in California, USA, most of this info, not immediately apparent from the photo, or is it

Jelly jars filled with custard, three, on towel, in top shelf in refrigerator, somewhere in California, USA, most of this info, not immediately apparent from the photo, or is it

Costco sells these rags for like $10 for 24 or something like that. Nice dish rags. I use a stack of them in the refrigerator to protect the shelves from hot food. On a stack of these, I feel comfortable putting pretty much anything (almost) straight from the oven into the refrigerator. The bananas wound up turning brown before I ate the custard; so next time, I'm going to plan to eat them the next day at the latest.

Duck Liver
Corn Casserole

And now it's time for some real food. No, seriously. This is top notch gourmet stuff. I could probably get away with feeding this to certain finicky females in my life; or even, bring it along for Christmas or Thanksgiving to some family gathering.

the only reason this image is full size is so one can actually see the giblet goo, just what is left over in the bowl after taking out the carcase and meat, white stuff on top is grease

the only reason this image is full size is so one can actually see the giblet goo, just what is left over in the bowl after taking out the carcase and meat, white stuff on top is grease

I made a duck the week before I started posting. These are the giblets, the last part left from said duck. That white stuff on top is the last of the duck's grease, too, which I scraped off.

another full size, so something can actually be seen, so maybe that rule about bigger being important or better, maybe not so clean, anyway, giblets, chop them up fine, for dressing

another full size, so something can actually be seen, so maybe that rule about bigger being important or better, maybe not so clean, anyway, giblets, chop them up fine, for dressing

Giblets. How many of these organs can you identify? Let's see, there's liver and kidneys and a heart; but I don't know what that thing is.

looks like corn in the bottom of a dish, microwaved duck juice on top, grease skimmed off, Thai Fish sauce, a few mushrooms, looking really, really, good to me, nice and greasy, which means rich, which means tasty, if one is young and their stomache can handle the abuse

looks like corn in the bottom of a dish, microwaved duck juice on top, grease skimmed off, Thai Fish sauce, a few mushrooms, looking really, really, good to me, nice and greasy, which means rich, which means tasty, if one is young and their stomache can handle the abuse

I put everything in a crock pot and I microwaved it for a while. Upon taking it out, I decided (in my infinite wisdom) to add some mushrooms, having not learned my lesson from earlier in the day. But hey, to be fair, I'm not really sure what this type of strip cut thing is, so it could always be a fungus instead of a mushroom; and that sounds a lot safer, right? (Well, either way, it was -- safer that is.)

duck casserole with mushrooms, a close up, oh, looking very, very good, so that night at the hunting lodge, I am thinking, maybe plug in a pheasant for the duck, some sort of bird, whole fryer, sounds good to me, and to be honest, after spending the last few hours editing this page, falling into a story sounds mighty nicd

duck casserole with mushrooms, a close up, oh, looking very, very good, so that night at the hunting lodge, I am thinking, maybe plug in a pheasant for the duck, some sort of bird, whole fryer, sounds good to me, and to be honest, after spending the last few hours editing this page, falling into a story sounds mighty nicd

A few more minutes in the microwave (I might have gone out for a walk); and then, a few more minutes; and then, a few more; and at some point, I got hungry, so I ate.

yeah, a larger image would not add much, the angle of the toast is sort of nice, appealing, but the giblets did not come out so nice looking, so use your extra-terrestrial intelligence to make the bread crispier, full of butter, a holes, and then dunk that sucker into a bid of fresh casserole stew... yeah, switched back to the large image, I guess there was a reason I chose the size I did for these images, I wonder what camera I was using

Of course, not before adding a few crusts of bread.

This stuff was amazingly easy to make (chop up the giblets, add corn, microwave, and dress with fungus to taste) and it tasted pretty darn good; well, it tasted like liver, so I suppose how much a person likes liver might just determine their level of interest in a dish like this, but I enjoyed it.

Of course, next time I'm going to make with this chopped spinach. And I have high hopes for that. And yes, it's the chopped spinach version I shall poison my family with: maybe call it Uncle Brett's Fungal Fiesta. Eh, that really doesn't work for me, but I still have time.

Shrimp Cocktail
Cat Style

the rest of the images are mediocre quality, I would like to preserve the cat images, but, they just are not that good, so saving on the long term bandwidth, it is a hassle moving such large files, well, when they are lumped together, it gets large, and its a pain, this is shrip, lemon, cocktail sauce, frozen shrimp just is not that hard to prepare, thaw, basically

So, we just did something hard (come on, I had to microwave & microwave & microwave), so clearly it was time for something easy. And what could be easier than your basic shrimp cocktail.

A cat, his name is Zeller, sitting in a chair, on a nice woobly, or blanky, or little bit of nice cloth, yawning, for I awoke him when I snapped his photograph, or a maybe yawning is how cats smile

A cat, his name is Zeller, sitting in a chair, on a nice woobly, or blanky, or little bit of nice cloth, yawning, for I awoke him when I snapped his photograph, or a maybe yawning is how cats smile

Speaking of which, this would be your basic cat type feline, finally waking up after a long day of napping.

cat, Zeller, walking into the kitchen, or cat on imitation wood floor, or cat will travel for shrimp, did someone say shrimp, I think I smells shrimp, only polite to share, Mr Brett, he calls me Mr Brett, a bit stiff, a bit formal, but some cats are proper that way

cat, Zeller, walking into the kitchen, or cat on imitation wood floor, or cat will travel for shrimp, did someone say shrimp, I think I smells shrimp, only polite to share, Mr Brett, he calls me Mr Brett, a bit stiff, a bit formal, but some cats are proper that way

'So, Mr Brett, didn't you say something about this being the breakfast edition? How about some Cat Food for breakfast?'

do cats beg, or do they ask, or is it insist in no uncertain terms, actually, I like to think that they circle like sharks, rubbing their furry bodies up against yours, oh, now that is something nice, the little one, the more brownish one, is called Stilletto by various combinations of ll and tt, Stiletto makes the spell check happy, but I do not always have a spell check handy, anyway, she stands on her hind legs when asking for food, pretty darn cute, especially when she gets a lege up on her brother to do it, ie stands on his head

They take turns begging for the good stuff. They hardly ever both meow at the same time. If one is expending the effort, the other doesn't bother. I can, however, get them both to stand on their hind legs at the same time. It looks a lot like begging. But it's really just their way of getting closer to the food so they can smell it. Trust me, they don't bother to stand if I hold the food further up than they can reach and get a good sniff of it.

I lied, one last big, show off the shrimp, just a cocktail, same wood cutting board as with so many others, and at some point, I started adding a glass of water to the pics, full meal and all that, one final image size editing note, next time, I am going to resize the images first, went back and added a bunch of the larger images in, originally, I had settled on one best size, but too much space is being wasted on bad pictures, but long term, I really do not want to get rid of the good ones, so work in progress, editing scheme in progress, just thought you would like to know...

And then, it's time for my feast. Shrimp thawed in the refrigerator (from the night before); a splash of lemon juice (tricks it out, saves on having to buy fresh lemons); and a new bottle of cocktail sauce (guess you'd have to scroll up to the ingredient picture if you could possible care less about the brand I used); round it out with a glass of water (aqua, tap); and a silver spoon (because I am a man of class, distinction, and taste; just because my room-mates are cats doesn't mean I have to live like an animal; which quite frankly, doesn't seem as funny as I had hoped it would be. Oh, well.)

So, until next time (some clever little tag line you'll have to insert on your own as I am off to sleep.)

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© Copyright Brett Paufler 2013

I! I! I! I! It's all about me.
Or rather, it's what I did.

A smart person might just want to do things differently. In retrospection, I know I would. Take that corn dish, spinach would have been a better choice. Or better still, those mushrooms omelets, I really should have skipped those mushrooms the second time around.

Anyway, if I were a professional, I'm sure I'd know the professional way to disclaim all liability. Not being a professional, I don't. So, let me do it the non-professional way. This is not advice. Follow my examples at your own peril. Seriously, I'm willing to eat random fungi. It's just not a wise thing to do.

Created 5-27-13
Edited heavily 2-13-16
and/or thereabouts
and places in-between

www.paufler.net