My family loves having breakfast for dinner (more commonly known as brinner), and honestly, what is there not to like?
Having pancakes at any time of the day is a gift from the heavens (or at least Aunt Jemima) and a perfect excuse for eating unhealthily while pretending that pancakes are a normal meal.
(Now believe me, I am an ardent and steadfast supporter of flapjacks, but there is no way that they are really part of a healthy meal. But somehow, a parent decided that he/she would let her children get away with combining cake, butter, chocolate chips (a great addition) and sugar in syrup form and it would be okay for their children to eat. I am eternally grateful to that person.)
But before I delve into how to make an exceptional brinner (which doubles as how to make an exceptional breakfast), I have to link to one of my favorite TV shows, Scrubs, and thank it for providing me with inspiration.
When making a solid brinner, it is important to realize that it not simply breakfast. Pouring cereal and toasting Pop-Tarts may be acceptable for breakfast, but not for brinner. Brinner requires a solid base of foods, using foods that typically are used in traditional dinners in a different form. Instead of having ham, have some bacon. Instead of having mashed potatoes, make some hashbrowns.
But making sure to couple those with a breakfast favorite is important.
Here is my pick for the ultimate three-course brinner. (Editors Note: I was going to make it five courses, but it turns out I am the only person that eats five-course brinners. To find out what the other suggestions were, follow me on Twitter and ask me, @adam_flango.)
First Course: Bacon
Personally, I'm a fan of breakfast sausage instead of bacon, but I will defer to the masses on this one. Bacon is not difficult to cook at all (spray pan, heat pan, cook bacon), and is the perfect starter for your meal. It is not nearly as filling as some of the other breakfast meats, but one key is to make sure you do not make too much bacon (yes, there is such a thing.) Stick to making only as much as you want to eat, or however much you anticipate your roommates eating. If you are going to eat two or three (the recommended amount by my unofficial health standards,) then do not make a dozen strips. The more you eat, the more full you'll be. (That last sentence was courtesy of John Madden's School of Obvious.)
Second Course: Fruit
This course is dealer's choice. While I have never been a big fan of fruit because I am stuck in the mindset of an 8-year-old, I have grown to be fond of a few fruits, such as strawberries and bananas.
This part of the meal largely depends on the time of the year and what fruit is ripe, but my suggestion would be to go for berries or citrus-y fruits. They can serve as a nice palate cleanser too. (Ever since I ate a fancy restaurant for the first time and had a palate cleanser before my main meal, I have been a big fan.)
Third Course: Pancakes
My love of pancakes was documented in the opening of the post, and sadly I do not have any specific recipe that I use. But honestly, my mom always made them from the back of the Bisquick box and they always turned out delicious.
Here are a 5 different ingredients that add even more taste to pancakes.
Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips: My personal favorite
Pumpkin: Great this time of year
Blueberry: Classic
Ice Cream and/or Whip Cream: Because you're in college, and you can.
Applesauce (on top of the pancake): A Flango family favorite. Plus it makes pancakes kind of seem healthy.
For more pancake goodness and some creative designs, check out this awesome blog. And be sure to check out the pancake toilet bowl, which had me laugh out loud. Remember, I have the mindset of an 8-year-old.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Filling out the roster (or meal)
Find me a star athlete and I will show you an exceptional sidekick.
Nearly all athletes that have led their teams to championships have had an excellent supporting cast around them. Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen. Larry Bird had Parish, McHale, Havlicek and a lot of others. The Yankees had Jeter, Clemens, Rivera and a slew of talented people. Joe Montana had Jerry Rice. Terry Bradshaw had Franco Harris, Lynn Swann and John Stalworth.
And that is just off the top of my head.
The point is this: no team has ever been great simply because of one player. Championship level teams usually need a great player, but also a great supporting cast.
The same thing goes for cooking.
While it might be a stretch to call my cooking championship-level after three weeks of cooking on my own, I have at least begun to lay the groundwork for a championship-caliber lineup (i.e. good side dishes that I can cook in addition to a couple of solid entrees.)
What I failed to realize when starting out is that simply making a hamburger or pasta was not quite enough food. There needs to be more to it than just my world-famous (okay, maybe just Athens famous, or perhaps just my apartment-famous) pasta dish or my delicious burgers. I need to add a supporting cast to my great player. I needed to find some solid side dishes.
When my mom was preparing me for college, she was focused on helping me learn to cook healthy entrees. The idea of side dishes was not discussed much, but I have begun to find what dishes work well with what types of foods. Here are some suggestions for easy side dishes to go with your meal.
1.) Baked Beans
Conventional logic would say that you can simply pour the beans into a pot, stir them up and serve them. But I've found that most canned beans (and by most I'm basically referring to Bush's Baked Beans) can taste a lot better by putting in a little extra effort.
(This is for a 28-ounce can of Bush's Baked Beans.)
To start, drizzle some olive oil (an ingredient you should have in your kitchen based on my previous post) into a pot and put the pot on medium. Then, cut up about 1/3 of a cup of onions. Dice the onions into fine pieces, the smaller the better.
Next, put the onions into the pot and let them cook a little while. They should cook for about 4 minutes, but they should not brown. If they are browning, turn down the heat and add the beans.
Once the onions have cooked (and they will begin to liquify), pour in your can of baked beans and stir the ingredients together.
Once you have poured the baked beans, immediately put in 1/3 of a cup of ketchup. This is the part that is most important. The ketchup adds a nice flavor and adds a bit of a thicker consistency, which I prefer in my beans.
Cook until you see the beans starting to bubble and/or smoke a little bit. (That might not be the technical term, but that was my queue for turning it off last night, and they tasted delicious.)
Finally, and enjoy. (And when you serve, don't worry about a serving dish. Remember, you're in college. Just put a hot pad or a pot-holder on the table, pot on the hot pad, and you have yourself a serving dish.)
Now if that seems a bit elementary and you are feeling more adventurous, try this recipe for a bit more advanced approach to baked beans. I plan on trying it sometime soon, and will make sure to pass along my thoughts.
2.) Baked Potatoes
There are less work when making potatoes, but they are an excellent side dish because they are filling, so they are ideal to accompany a lighter main course. Potatoes can be cooked in many different ways, but here is how I typically make them.
First, you boil some water. While the water is boiling, wash the potatoes (any amount will work). I don't peel the potatoes (the less work the better!), but you can peel the potatoes if you want. Then, when the water is boiling, add in the potatoes. The potatoes should take no more than about 8-10 minutes, but you can keep checking them as they boil. To check if the potatoes are done, simply stick a fork in the potato. If the potato slides off the fork, the potatoes are done. If the potato sticks to the fork, they still need to boil, and if the potato breaks apart, then you should have taken them out a minute or two earlier.
Once the potatoes have boiled, dump them into a strainer and let them sit for a little. (At this point, you could eat them if you wanted, but I like to add a little bit more to them.)
As they sit, get out some ham and some onions. (Slices of ham are preferred, but lunch meat ham would probably work.) Slice up the ham and onions into little chunks.
Then, cut them up into chunks, about bite sized. Then, put a pan on the stove on medium with either some olive oil or butter in the pan. When the pan has heated up, add the potatoes, ham and onions. Cook them up until you see that they are ready, adding some salt and pepper too. (All those items are fine to eat pre-cooking, so serve when you think they are ready.)
For the finishing touch, put the food into a tupper-ware container. Add 1 to 3 tablespoons of light miracle whip into the tupperware (depending on how many potatoes you used), shake it all up, and serve.
This was a variation on a dish my mom made growing up, but for my culinary capabilities, it tasted pretty darn good.
For more potato recipes, who better to turn to then Betty Crocker? Once again, those are a bit more complicated.
Other side dishes I'm sure are good, but those are a few of my favorites. (And basically the only ones I know how to make.)
Nearly all athletes that have led their teams to championships have had an excellent supporting cast around them. Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen. Larry Bird had Parish, McHale, Havlicek and a lot of others. The Yankees had Jeter, Clemens, Rivera and a slew of talented people. Joe Montana had Jerry Rice. Terry Bradshaw had Franco Harris, Lynn Swann and John Stalworth.
And that is just off the top of my head.
The point is this: no team has ever been great simply because of one player. Championship level teams usually need a great player, but also a great supporting cast.
The same thing goes for cooking.
While it might be a stretch to call my cooking championship-level after three weeks of cooking on my own, I have at least begun to lay the groundwork for a championship-caliber lineup (i.e. good side dishes that I can cook in addition to a couple of solid entrees.)
What I failed to realize when starting out is that simply making a hamburger or pasta was not quite enough food. There needs to be more to it than just my world-famous (okay, maybe just Athens famous, or perhaps just my apartment-famous) pasta dish or my delicious burgers. I need to add a supporting cast to my great player. I needed to find some solid side dishes.
When my mom was preparing me for college, she was focused on helping me learn to cook healthy entrees. The idea of side dishes was not discussed much, but I have begun to find what dishes work well with what types of foods. Here are some suggestions for easy side dishes to go with your meal.
1.) Baked Beans
Conventional logic would say that you can simply pour the beans into a pot, stir them up and serve them. But I've found that most canned beans (and by most I'm basically referring to Bush's Baked Beans) can taste a lot better by putting in a little extra effort.
(This is for a 28-ounce can of Bush's Baked Beans.)
To start, drizzle some olive oil (an ingredient you should have in your kitchen based on my previous post) into a pot and put the pot on medium. Then, cut up about 1/3 of a cup of onions. Dice the onions into fine pieces, the smaller the better.
Next, put the onions into the pot and let them cook a little while. They should cook for about 4 minutes, but they should not brown. If they are browning, turn down the heat and add the beans.
Once the onions have cooked (and they will begin to liquify), pour in your can of baked beans and stir the ingredients together.
Once you have poured the baked beans, immediately put in 1/3 of a cup of ketchup. This is the part that is most important. The ketchup adds a nice flavor and adds a bit of a thicker consistency, which I prefer in my beans.
Cook until you see the beans starting to bubble and/or smoke a little bit. (That might not be the technical term, but that was my queue for turning it off last night, and they tasted delicious.)
Finally, and enjoy. (And when you serve, don't worry about a serving dish. Remember, you're in college. Just put a hot pad or a pot-holder on the table, pot on the hot pad, and you have yourself a serving dish.)
Now if that seems a bit elementary and you are feeling more adventurous, try this recipe for a bit more advanced approach to baked beans. I plan on trying it sometime soon, and will make sure to pass along my thoughts.
2.) Baked Potatoes
There are less work when making potatoes, but they are an excellent side dish because they are filling, so they are ideal to accompany a lighter main course. Potatoes can be cooked in many different ways, but here is how I typically make them.
First, you boil some water. While the water is boiling, wash the potatoes (any amount will work). I don't peel the potatoes (the less work the better!), but you can peel the potatoes if you want. Then, when the water is boiling, add in the potatoes. The potatoes should take no more than about 8-10 minutes, but you can keep checking them as they boil. To check if the potatoes are done, simply stick a fork in the potato. If the potato slides off the fork, the potatoes are done. If the potato sticks to the fork, they still need to boil, and if the potato breaks apart, then you should have taken them out a minute or two earlier.
Once the potatoes have boiled, dump them into a strainer and let them sit for a little. (At this point, you could eat them if you wanted, but I like to add a little bit more to them.)
As they sit, get out some ham and some onions. (Slices of ham are preferred, but lunch meat ham would probably work.) Slice up the ham and onions into little chunks.
Then, cut them up into chunks, about bite sized. Then, put a pan on the stove on medium with either some olive oil or butter in the pan. When the pan has heated up, add the potatoes, ham and onions. Cook them up until you see that they are ready, adding some salt and pepper too. (All those items are fine to eat pre-cooking, so serve when you think they are ready.)
For the finishing touch, put the food into a tupper-ware container. Add 1 to 3 tablespoons of light miracle whip into the tupperware (depending on how many potatoes you used), shake it all up, and serve.
This was a variation on a dish my mom made growing up, but for my culinary capabilities, it tasted pretty darn good.
For more potato recipes, who better to turn to then Betty Crocker? Once again, those are a bit more complicated.
Other side dishes I'm sure are good, but those are a few of my favorites. (And basically the only ones I know how to make.)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Cooking Essentials
To be able to cook somewhat successfully, there are certain ingredients that are fundamental to a solid dish. These ingredients are not meals by themselves (ground beef is not an ingredient, but italian seasoning is), but rather are accessories to the meal, but key in adding flavor.
Here are some simple ingredients that can make a big difference in your kitchen.
1.) Salt and Pepper
It may seem basic, but I have been amazed at the kitchens I've been in on campus that lack the two basic seasonings. Salt in particular should be used more than when the food is cooked. It's an important beginning seasoning and should be used when boiling noodles, cooking eggs and boiling potatoes, just to name a few uses. Click here for more information on the importance of salt.
2.) Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
This ingredient headlines Food Network's Chef Cat Cora's list of 10 essential cooking ingredients. Olive oil (or E-V-O-O if you are Rachael Ray) can be used in a variety of recipes. Adding a little olive oil in a pan and lightly cooking it, along with adding a couple of other choice ingredients (my favorites: garlic and baby tomatoes) can make for a quick and easy pasta. But olive oil can also be used to add flavor to any vegetable dish or anything cooked in a frying pan. And if that's not enough to add olive oil to your kitchen, it also has health benefits.
3.) Onions and Garlic
While the two do not make your breath smell any better, they will make your food taste better. Onions are a more common ingredient than most people realize; they are present in nearly any sauce and and used to add flavor to many meat dishes. Garlic only requires a little bit to be effective. Be careful when you are using garlic; too much garlic can ruin a dish.
4.) Noodles
This may go against my rules for this list being comprised of ingredients, but nevertheless, noodles are a quick and easy way to make a good meal. But to be able to eat noodles, you have to be able to boil them. Here is how to boil noodles (when I wrote this would be a basic cooking blog, I meant it):
Step #1: Boil Water. Fill a pot with water (any temperature works) and putting it on the stove on high. Typically, it takes water about 10 minutes (give or take a few) to boil.
Step #2: Add salt. This step can be done anytime before the noodles are added to the boiling water. The salt adds a little flavor to noodles.
Step #3: Add noodles to boiling water. When you add the noodles, you need to make sure that a.) the water is boiling and b.) you set a time right away. When adding the noodles, check on the box how long you should keep the noodles in the water. I prefer cooking the noodles al dente, which typically means 10 minutes for spaghetti and 8 minutes for penne.
Then, simply put the noodles in a strainer and add your olive oil, onions and garlic and you have a pasta dish. It's all about having the right ingredients
Here are some simple ingredients that can make a big difference in your kitchen.
1.) Salt and Pepper
It may seem basic, but I have been amazed at the kitchens I've been in on campus that lack the two basic seasonings. Salt in particular should be used more than when the food is cooked. It's an important beginning seasoning and should be used when boiling noodles, cooking eggs and boiling potatoes, just to name a few uses. Click here for more information on the importance of salt.
2.) Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
This ingredient headlines Food Network's Chef Cat Cora's list of 10 essential cooking ingredients. Olive oil (or E-V-O-O if you are Rachael Ray) can be used in a variety of recipes. Adding a little olive oil in a pan and lightly cooking it, along with adding a couple of other choice ingredients (my favorites: garlic and baby tomatoes) can make for a quick and easy pasta. But olive oil can also be used to add flavor to any vegetable dish or anything cooked in a frying pan. And if that's not enough to add olive oil to your kitchen, it also has health benefits.
3.) Onions and Garlic
While the two do not make your breath smell any better, they will make your food taste better. Onions are a more common ingredient than most people realize; they are present in nearly any sauce and and used to add flavor to many meat dishes. Garlic only requires a little bit to be effective. Be careful when you are using garlic; too much garlic can ruin a dish.
4.) Noodles
This may go against my rules for this list being comprised of ingredients, but nevertheless, noodles are a quick and easy way to make a good meal. But to be able to eat noodles, you have to be able to boil them. Here is how to boil noodles (when I wrote this would be a basic cooking blog, I meant it):
Step #1: Boil Water. Fill a pot with water (any temperature works) and putting it on the stove on high. Typically, it takes water about 10 minutes (give or take a few) to boil.
Step #2: Add salt. This step can be done anytime before the noodles are added to the boiling water. The salt adds a little flavor to noodles.
Step #3: Add noodles to boiling water. When you add the noodles, you need to make sure that a.) the water is boiling and b.) you set a time right away. When adding the noodles, check on the box how long you should keep the noodles in the water. I prefer cooking the noodles al dente, which typically means 10 minutes for spaghetti and 8 minutes for penne.
Then, simply put the noodles in a strainer and add your olive oil, onions and garlic and you have a pasta dish. It's all about having the right ingredients
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
An Amuse-Bouche
Growing up in a large, Italian family welcomes certain stereotypes. Yes, my family talked very loudly, often while using their hands. But the most important, and most accurate depiction of Italians is at the dinner table.
Each weekend, my mom would prepare a big, delicious meal that would make the guys from the movie Goodfellas proud. (Except she did it primarily by herself and not in prison. But I bet it tastes just as good.)
Heading into my junior year at OU, I was excited to finally be able to cook my own meals, and perhaps do my own Goodfellas impression. But there was one slight problem. My cooking skills made Mrs. Doubtfire seem like a gourmet chef.
So this summer I asked my mom to give me a crash course in cooking, to give me some background so that I could fend for myself in the kitchen. I learned the basics; I can cook eggs, boil noodles and grill a mean hamburger. But nothing was on the level of momma's home cooking.
Now, after a summer that saw some interesting and some successful attempts at culinary greatness, I have finally begun to fend for myself.
This blog will chronicle my amateur foray into the world of cooking by incorporating cooking articles, recipes and other food related items, as well as personal videos and pictures depicting my feeble attempts at concocting meals. The blog will also blend cooking with sports, my one true love, and pop culture.
I will also include snippets from my roommates endeavors, which may be worse than mine (some of their creations belong on this website.)
And through all of my trials and tribulations, I will keep one phrase in my head: at least it's not the dining hall.
(Title courtesy of watching season two of Bravo's Top Chef and learning what an amuse-bouche was.)
Each weekend, my mom would prepare a big, delicious meal that would make the guys from the movie Goodfellas proud. (Except she did it primarily by herself and not in prison. But I bet it tastes just as good.)
Heading into my junior year at OU, I was excited to finally be able to cook my own meals, and perhaps do my own Goodfellas impression. But there was one slight problem. My cooking skills made Mrs. Doubtfire seem like a gourmet chef.
So this summer I asked my mom to give me a crash course in cooking, to give me some background so that I could fend for myself in the kitchen. I learned the basics; I can cook eggs, boil noodles and grill a mean hamburger. But nothing was on the level of momma's home cooking.
Now, after a summer that saw some interesting and some successful attempts at culinary greatness, I have finally begun to fend for myself.
This blog will chronicle my amateur foray into the world of cooking by incorporating cooking articles, recipes and other food related items, as well as personal videos and pictures depicting my feeble attempts at concocting meals. The blog will also blend cooking with sports, my one true love, and pop culture.
I will also include snippets from my roommates endeavors, which may be worse than mine (some of their creations belong on this website.)
And through all of my trials and tribulations, I will keep one phrase in my head: at least it's not the dining hall.
(Title courtesy of watching season two of Bravo's Top Chef and learning what an amuse-bouche was.)
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