The Caveman Diet (aka The Stone Age diet; aka The Paleo Diet; aka The Paleontology Diet) is based on an understanding of foods that were consumed during the Paleolithic era.  During that time some 2.6 million years ago, our ancestors relied on hunting and gathering to provide 100% of their nourishment.  It’s a common belief among those on the diet that consumption of grains and any processed foods runs counter to the nutritional needs of man (prehistoric or modern).  They tend to lay blame for modern ailments on ‘unnecessary’ advances in food technology.

The simple rules of a Paleo diet are this: If you can’t pick it or kill it, you can’t eat it.

Disclaimer:  I don’t endorse this or any particular diet.  However, I do endorse that everyone on any kind of diet should be entitled to have a tasty breakfast every morning.

Foods To Avoid: All grains and foods made of grains, all dairy products, sugar, potatoes and all processed foods.

Foods Allowed:  Vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, eggs and nuts.

At first glance, you might assume that the Paleo Diet is no friend of breakfast.  Common recipes for pancakes, waffles, French toast, muffins, coffee cakes and hash browns are off-limits.  But a look through the MrBreakfast.com treasury of recipes turned up a number of very satisfying recipes that adhere to Caveman standards. Plus, there’s a bunch of recipes that can be made Paleo compliant with slight ingredient substitutions. Here are a few of our favorites. Ugga-booga.  Ugga-bogga.

Bacon Breakfast Cups – Follow directions for the recipe but skip the layer of bread at the bottom of each cup.  Bacon should be eaten in moderation on The Caveman Diet as it is considered too salty.

Stone Age Biscuits And Gravy – The biscuits are made with a combination of almond flour and coconut flour.  The gravy is rich, nicely seasoned and loaded with sausage.

Ham-Wrapped Breakfast Burritos – It’s a breakfast burrito but the tortilla is replaced by a hearty piece of ham.  This one has eggs, bacon, peppers and onion.

Bacon-Wrapped Breakfast Links – What’s better than sausage? How about sausage wrapped with bacon.  Traditionally, this is a breakfast side dish.  But on the Paleo diet, it can be a fun main course.

Broccoli And Bell Pepper Frittata – To make this recipe Caveman Diet appropriate, replace the milk with water and omit the cheese.  It will still be quite flavorful if you use fresh vegetables.

Simple Bacon Omelet – No adjustments are necessary.   Just be sure to limit your salty bacon intake to only once or twice per week.

Green Eggs and Ham Omelette – To make this recipe Paleo proper, just replace the butter with olive oil and skip the optional cheese and salsa (unless you know your salsa is paleontology-approved).

Scrambled Eggs In A Green Pepper – Roast a green pepper in the oven at 375 degrees until somewhat tender – about 12 minutes.  Then cut it and fill the halves with scrambled eggs.

Low Carb Spinach Scramble – To make this scramble Stone Age appropriate, put a dab of olive oil on a paper towel and wipe the inside of your pan instead of using cooking spray.

Afghani Eggs – Use the recipe as directed, but make sure to use olive oil instead of canola oil.  Canola and vegetable oil are must-avoid items on The Caveman Diet.  Olive oil and certain other un-pressed oils can be used.

Onion And Tomato Scramble – You’ll want to skip the toast that’s shown in the picture.  Besides that, this recipe is stone cold stone age appropriate.  Be sure to use olive oil where the instructions mention oil.

Eggs And Corn Scramble – For this one, omit the cheese and milk and replace the butter with olive oil.  If possible, replace the canned corn with 11 ounces of fresh corn kernels. Unfortunately, you must also skip the toasted English muffins shown in the picture.

Kentucky Scramble – To make this scramble applicable to the Stone Age Diet, use bacon dripping and not butter where that option is offered.

Mushroom And Herb Omelet – Replace the butter with olive oil and this omelet is Paleozoic perfection! Replace the toast in the photo with an apple or a carrot.

Fruit Smoothies – To wash down your Paleontology breakfast, consider blending together any combination of fresh fruit, fresh squeezed juice or berries (with a couple of ice cubes).  If a smoothie recipe calls for yogurt, replace it with a banana to achieve the creamy smoothness that yogurt provides.  If you throw enough good stuff in a blender, it can act as breakfast all on its own.  Visit our Breakfast Drinks section to get more ideas.

Other Omelets And Scrambles:  If you take a look through our Omelets, Scrambles and Egg Dishes recipe collections, you’ll find hundreds of other recipes you can easily modify. Just remember to skip any cheese, replace milk with water and opt for olive oil or bacon drippings instead of butter or canola oil.

Store-bought frozen breakfast burritos are disgusting. Often times, you wouldn’t know what you were putting in your mouth if the package didn’t tell you.  If I asked you to describe most store-bought burritos, you would probably say, “Oh… it’s some vaguely breakfast-flavored amalgamous gloop plopped into too much tortilla.”  Your words.  Not mine.

This phenomenon baffles me.  The majority of non-supermarket breakfast burritos are excellent.  To recreate the store-bought experience, you’d need a blender and some kind of solvent that removes color.

Luckily, fantastic homemade breakfast burritos are exceptionally easy to make and they freeze amazingly well.  They taste and look 1,000 times better than their store-bought equivalent.  In this post, I’ll show you how I make 10 days worth of frozen breakfast burritos in less than 2 hours.  You may never buy a frozen breakfast burrito again.

When making a bunch of frozen burritos, most of the ingredients can be prepared hours before assembly.  The exception is the eggs.  If you let them set out too long, they get dry and lose their tenderness.  For my burritos, I fried up 2/3 pound of sausage, 10 strips of bacon and two big handfuls of tater tots.  Then, I grated 1 cup of Cheddar cheese and 3/4 cup Pepper Jack cheese and a diced one red bell pepper.  I used 14 eggs to make 10 burritos.  I like to mix my eggs and meats so the main ingredients are uniformly distributed in the burritos.

Lay out as many tortillas as you can on a table or on the counter and fill the burritos as you please.  I use large or burrito-size flour tortillas.  If you offset the mound of fillings to one side, you’ll find it easier to fold the burritos.

I filled some with bacon, some with sausage and some with both meats.  Same with the cheeses.  Anything goes.  It’s a free-for-all of variety!

Once filled, just fold, fold, fold and roll.  Wrapping a burrito is much like wrapping a present.  The image above shows the technique that I use.

To prevent freezer burn, I double wrap each burrito in plastic wrap.  If you create a wide variety, it’s a good idea to label each one.

How To Microwave Homemade Frozen Breakfast Burritos:

Do you remember 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain?  He had a 9-9-9 plan to reform the U.S. tax code.  I have a 2-2-2 plan for heating frozen breakfast burritos.

Defrost for two minutes at 40% microwave power.

Flip the burrito and microwave on high for two minutes.

Let set two minutes.  2-2-2!

Here’s a sampling of how the burritos turned out.  Each one was heated days after they were frozen.

Sausage Potato Pepper Jack

Double Meat & Double Cheese

Bacon Potato Cheddar – For this one, I defrosted for 2 minutes, microwaved on high for 90 seconds and then topped with cheese and threw it under the broiler for 2 minutes.

Sausage Potato Cheddar

Bacon Potato Pepper Jack

More Homemade Frozen Breakfast Burrito Tips:

When preparing a lot of bacon at once, consider using the oven.  Just lay the strips out on a baking pan and bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes until well-browned.  Place cooked bacon on stacked paper towels to remove excess grease.

I find that frozen tater tots work better than shredded hash browns.  Strangely, the tots taste more like hash browns that the hash browns do when everything is reheated. I think it’s because the tots have such a defined fried exterior. Each piece is like a wee-small serving of hash browns – crisp and tender in each bite.

I recommend NOT putting salsa in the burritos before freezing.  I find that it can make parts of the tortilla soggy after heating. However, I do keep a lot of salsa handy for serving.

Check out these recipes for breakfast burritos:

Basic Sausage Breakfast Burritos

Breakfast Tortilla Wraps

Low-Fat Breakfast Burrito

The idea of savory oatmeal might sound weird to people used to sweetened packets of oatmeal or simple Old Fashioned oats with brown sugar, etc.  If done wrong, savory oatmeal is weird.  If you use the right oats and treat them like rice or other grains associated with savory dishes, the result is pretty cool.

This post started when I tested a recipe submitted to the site called Billbo’s Cheddar Oatmeal.  It received a handful of positive comments and I wanted to try it for myself.

The ingredients were super simple: Old Fashioned oats, milk, cheese and sugar.   It’s a microwave recipe that takes only 2 minutes.

The recipe worked and I understood why some people liked it.  Unfortunately, I personally didn’t like it that much.  My mental association of Old Fashioned oats with sweet ingredients is very strong and it took a few spoonfuls to accept that I was eating something savory.

As I was trying it, my overriding thought was that it would be better with steel-cut oats. Steel-cut oats have a firmer, rice-like texture. That kind of texture makes more sense in a savoy dish than the mushy texture you get from Old Fashioned or quick cooking oats.

From experience, I know that steel-cut oatmeal always benefits from the savory flavors of butter and salt. It seemed totally feasibly that they would get along with cheese.

I also thought… as I always do… that the dish would be better with bacon… which everything always is.

So I set out to experiment with steel-cut oats, hoping to achieve something that would transcend oatmeal as we commonly know it.

Steel-cut oats require about 30 minutes cooking time.  I found that if I let the oats set for an additional 10 minutes, the texture became a bit more creamy and reminiscent of risotto.

I was right.  When mixed with cheese and bacon, steel-cut oats are 100 times better than Old Fashioned oats.  I used LOTS of cheese and bacon.  The oat flavor worked with the savory ingredients, but it worked best when it was overpowered by the cheese and bacon… leaving the oats to act as more of a texture agent than an equal flavor component.

The thing that brought the dish together was a sunny-side-up egg in each serving.  Breaking the yolk and allowing that extra bit of richness to permeate the oats was like putting salt on popcorn…  It just needed it.

In theory, you could add any cheese, herbs, sautéed vegetables or cooked meat to any prepared oatmeal.  But I’d urge you to take the time to use steel-cut oats.  After you try it, it opens the door to many more flavor combinations:  Tex-Mex Pepper Jack Oatmeal,  Gruyère & Sausage Oatmeal,  Parmesan Pizza Oatmeal… and on and on.

This post is a companion piece to 2 recipes from MrBreakfast.com:

Bacon Cheddar Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Billbo’s Cheddar Oatmeal

For over 150 other oatmeal breakfast ideas, visit our Oatmeal Recipe Collection.

Recipe Realities:

My experiments with savory oatmeal brought me to an interesting conclusion.  It made me realize how much I love grits.  You can make oats work in a savory context, but it will always feel like an experiment.  The corn porridge cousin of oatmeal is grits.  When you pair grits with cheese, butter and bacon, it’s like pairing a bird with the sky.  Some things are just naturally meant to be together.

I started this post with the title question, “Bacon Cheddar Oatmeal?”  I had hoped that the answer would be a resounding “yes.”  As it turns out, the answer is “sure… but if you have grits, make Bacon Cheddar Grits instead.”

Here’s 25 grits recipes you might want to try.

Last month, I had the great pleasure to conduct a cooking demo at a resort called Villa La Estancia just north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in Nuevo Vallarta. On the breakfast menu that morning: Pumpkin Waffle Maker French Toast, Spicy Pecan-Encrusted Bacon and a healthy Pumpkin Pie Smoothie.  In this post, I’ll show you the seasonal dishes I made and share a little about my trip to one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

I started the demo with my Pumpkin French Toast.  You can get the recipe here.  Since we were just coming off of Halloween and it was the official start of the holiday cooking season, it felt appropriate to share this fantastic dish.

I was excited to show the guests, staff and a handful of reporters that you can take almost any French toast recipe and cook it in a waffle iron.  This is one of my favorite breakfast tricks.

We needed something to go on the side of the French toast so I opted to demonstrate Sweet & Spicy Pecan Bacon.  You can get the recipe here.  It’s very easy to do.  The amazing chef at Villa La Estancia, Sergio, liked it so much he’s considering adding it to their permanent breakfast menu.

Last but not least, we needed a drink to go with our breakfast.  Since the staff had already made fresh pumpkin for the French toast, I decided to use that to make a delicious smoothie that tastes almost exactly like pumpkin pie.  You can get the recipe here.

The demo was a wonderful success.  The ultra-accommodating staff prepared full-sized servings of the breakfast for everyone who showed up.  I saw many smiles.  My job was done.  Next, I would demonstrate how to take a relaxing nap by the pool.

If you ever get the chance to visit Villa La Estancia in Nuevo Vallarta, do it.  It’s more serene and secluded than nearby Puerto Vallarta. It’s an escape from the local tourist traps and a chance to truly relax and enjoy the beauty of your surroundings.

Above, you can see the view from my suite.  They treated us like royalty from the moment they picked us up from the airport.  I want to say they did that because I’m a big-time breakfast expert. But after a few days at the resort, it was clear that they treat all their guests like royalty.

I want to say a big thanks to everyone at Villa La Estancia.  I hope to see you again soon.

Hasta la vista and Feliz Navidad.

We knew it was a hard-sell entering the big pie contest with an entry called “Fig Jam & Spam Breakfast Pie.”

The use of Spam was not a quirky, retro decision.  I’d made several test pies using bacon, ham and even chorizo as the meat in the filling.  But in every instance, the meat inside was overshadowed by our distinctive spicy, candied bacon crumble topping.

Test Pies: Preparing For The Big Day

We’d gone camping the previous weekend and had campfire sandwiches made from the portable meat, so I happened to have an extra can of Spam on hand.  I gave it a shot in a test pie.  It worked.  It provided a flavor that contrasted but still paired with the bacon topping.  It not only worked, but it provided an umami element… a taste you remembered growing up but had almost locked away forever.

For our official entry in the savory category, we made a flaky herbed crust and lined the bottom with onions caramelized with a gorgeous homemade fig jam.  We mixed our quiche base with a combination of Gruyère and Cheddar cheese, to which we added the Spam and seasonings.  Once almost fully baked, we topped the pie with crumbled bacon that had been rubbed with brown sugar, smoked paprika and crushed cumin seeds.

The Pie Contest Begins

As instructed, we made one pie for the judges and one for mass consumption.

It was a real blast serving the pie to the public.  As people read the name of our entry, we were greeted with either huge smiles or looks of complete dismay.  Fig Jam and Spam.  It was a risk.

I was very surprised that a handful of people asked us what Spam was.  When we told them that it was basically processed ham preserved in a can.  They seemed intrigued.

I had no real expectation of winning, but I found myself suddenly hopeful as people who tried our concoction returned to tell us that our pie was the best they tried.  In many instances, they said it quietly as if to say, “… but don’t tell any one that I like Spam.”

Mr Breakfast At The Pie Contest

Things would be so different if Spam was a product of France or Italy.  Why does a preserved meat like prosciutto bring culinary experts to their drooling knees, while a canned American meat product makes them roll their eyes?

A Prosciutto And Gruyère Quiche would have been an easy win. I threw my apron in the ring with a Spam pie.  What was I thinking?  It’s like I sent a lovable donkey to a purebred horse show.

One tent over, a Savory Korean Short Rib pie gleamed in the sun.

What if the Spam pie won?  It would be a victory for the underdog!  All the hoity-toity pies with their expensive ingredients would bow their crusts as the crowd erupted in Rocky-like cheers!

The judges approached the stage.  Host and Radio Food Phenom Evan Kleiman thanked a group of children for making pies, but said they were all winners and wouldn’t be judged, per say.  Lucky for them.  I was starting to feel confident.  My Spam Pie would have destroyed them.

Mrs Breakfast At The Big Pie Contest

Former musician turned professional vegan enthusiast, Moby announced the winners of the vegan category.  He seemed like a high-brow hippy, too good for Spam.

Then it was our turn… the savory category.  Famed Los Angeles Chef Susan Feniger announced the results.  Third place… a summer tomato pie.  Second place… an onion quiche.

And the winner is…

My spirits were low as we walked to judges room to pick up our pie plate.  We were foiled by a Chicken Curry Pie.  It was probably great.  I didn’t try it because it sounded disgusting.  Oh fate, put down your wretched mirror! I see the parallels.

We lost fair and square… or did we…

As we entered the judges room, I saw pie after pie with only a single forkful taken out.  Yards and yards of pie in exactly the same condition.  And then there was our pie, two-thirds gone.  The judges didn’t vote for my pie, but it was the only one they had made a meal out of.

Decimated Spam And Fig Jam Breakfast Pie

Actions speak louder than words.  By devouring my pie, they proclaimed my pie to be the king of all pies!  That was good enough for me!  (However, I still retain the option to file a legal appeal based on this astounding new evidence.)

This article is a companion piece to the following recipe on MrBreakfast.com:

Fig Jam & Spam Breakfast Pie

The pie contest described here took place on September 7, 2013.  It was the 5th Annual Good Food Pie Contest sponsored by KCRW.  It took place at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Eggs and bacon sandwiched between a sliced glazed donut… crazy or genius?  I can report that it’s insanely easy and it tastes amazing.  Therefore, I’m leaning toward genius.  This recipe is a recreation of the Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich that was recently introduced by Dunkin’ Donuts.  Above, you can see my version.  Below, you can see the Dunkin’ Donuts version as it appeared in their press materials.  Believe it or not, their donut sandwich has only 360 calories.  Mine has a little more bacon.  I hesitate to recommend either version for your weight loss program.

The donut breakfast sandwich concept isn’t new. A few smaller donut outlets were doing them well before Dunkin’ Donuts put them in the news.  Buddha Belly Donuts in Sarasota, Florida offered a version with sausage.  Unfortunately, that shop is now closed. The Bleeding Heart Bakery in Chicago offered the Make-Your-Own Doughnut Breakfast Sandwich where you could choose any or all of the following ingredients to accompany the fried egg: bacon, ham, sausage, fried green tomatoes and Cheddar or Swiss cheese.  Strangely enough, that shop also closed recently.   Beware Dunkin’ Donuts!  There seems to be a trend.

I decided to try something quite controversial… I recreated Dunkin’ Donuts Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich using glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme.  Let’s face it, a Dunkin’ Donuts glazed donut is good, but Krispy Kreme is the current non-disputed champion for exceptional glazed donuts.

How To Make A Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich

Step One:  Acquire a glazed donut and carefully slice it with a serrated blade, trying not to dimple the beautiful sugar sheen of the glaze.

Step Two: Fry some bacon.

Since I was making multiple sandwiches with lots of bacon, I used the oven.  It’s a good tip to remember.  Whenever you want a lot of bacon done at the same time, just spread some slices out on a rimmed baking sheet and bake them at 400 degrees for 14 minutes.  No flipping is required and it comes out just as good and crispy as pan frying.

Step Three:  Fry an egg.

I guarantee that any properly prepared egg will taste great in this sandwich.  You could scramble, fry, poach or even use hard-boiled egg slices and you’re still in for a treat.

I decided to use an egg ring to make egg patties just so my sandwich would more closely resemble the Dunkin’ Donuts version.

When using an egg ring, beat each egg slightly in a small bowl.  Place a small frying pan over medium heat.  Rub olive oil over the inside of the egg ring with a paper towel.  Place the ring in the pan and then pour about 1/8th of a cup of water in the pan around the ring.  When the water sizzles, pour the egg in the ring.  Cover the pan, so the trapped steam cooks the top of the egg.  After 3 minutes, the egg will be mostly done.  Drain the water from the pan. Loosen the egg from the ring.  Flip the egg and cook one more minute or until completely cooked through.

Step Four:  Put the egg and the bacon in the donut and chow down.

Here’s the hardcore truth about Donut Breakfast Sandwiches: They’re kind of sloppy.  The glaze starts to melt from the warm fillings and the heat from your hands.  Have some towels ready.  For all the perceived indulgence of it, a nice biscuit or croissant is more complementary to eggs and bacon.  A plain biscuit is like a lonely person.  It’s not really complete until it finds a soul mate in the form of an egg, some jam or a piece of sausage. Donuts shine by themselves.  They don’t need anything else to be their very best.  But with that said, my final word on the subject is that donuts make awesome buns.

Cooking Note:  When making multiple sandwiches, keep your prepared bacon warm in an oven set to 200 degrees.  As you make each egg patty, you can also keep those warm next to the bacon.  When it’s time to serve, everything is good to go and you can have a very quick assembly.

The other day, I went to Denny’s to try their new Hobbit menu which is available for a limited time to celebrate the premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  In particular, I wanted to try their Hobbit Hole Breakfast – “two eggs fried right into the center of grilled cheese bun halves” served with slices of bacon and hash browns topped with cheese and crumbled bacon.

Here, you can see how it looked on the menu and how it actually looked on my plate at Denny’s.  It was kind of a mess, but I can report that it was delicious. My only complaint was that the cheesy hash browns (while crisp and tasty) didn’t have crumbled bacon on top as seen in the menu photo.  Instead, it was topped with half a slice of bacon broken into 3 pieces.  But all things considered, I was a happy with the meal (and very, very full).

Maybe I was inspired by the Lord Of The Rings stories… but on the way home, I decided I would have an adventure. I would create my own Hobbit Hole Breakfast. I would cut out bread in the form a ring and forge a wonderful meal.  If it turned out super great, I would call it “Lord Of The Rings” (ie. The Almighty King of Breakfasts that resemble a ring).

Armed with bacon, a potato, two eggs, cheese and a roll (and a little butter and canola oil), I would transform these items into a complete breakfast – a feat of magic worthy of Gandalf.  (He’s a wizard in the Hobbit movie – for those of you here for the recipe and not the cutesy movie correlation).

Let the adventure begin!

We’ve covered crispy hash browns and crispy bacon here before, so I’ll post some refresher links to those at the bottom.  For now, let’s concentrate on the Hobbit Holes themselves.

Many of us have been making Hobbit Holes for years.  But we’ve used regular bread and called them Egg In The Hole, Egg In The Basket, Popeyes or Birdies In A Nest.  The only difference between those and a Hobbit Hole is the bread that you use.  I found a terrific cheese roll at a local bakery.  I’ve seen similar rolls in grocery stores, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding them.

Slice the roll in half and then cut a (hobbit) hole out of the center of each half using a 3-inch biscuit cutter.

Melt a couple Tablespoons of butter on a skillet or in a frying pan over medium-high heat.  Place each slice on the hot surface with its flattest side down.  Then, carefully crack an egg into each of the holes.  Fry until the egg is almost fully set and then flip and fry the other side for one minute.

Tips: One of my Hobbit Holes was cooking slower than the other, so I placed the lid of a small pan over it to trap more heat and move things along. If you’re worried that the egg could plop out when flipping, take a flat wooden spoon and hold it over the hole as you flip and then just slide it out.   Don’t forget to fry the little holes you cut out as well.

That’s all there is to it, my precious. If you make your own Homemade Hobbit Holes, let me know in the comments below.

Resources:

How To Make Crispy Hash Browns

How To Make Crispy Bacon

Fun Side Note:

I went to a Denny’s in North Hollywood, CA.  A few booths over from me, a tattooed hipster was actually reading J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit to his girlfriend as they ate.  He read the character voices in a stern British accent and the narrative in his usual California valley voice.  Here’s the funny thing… they didn’t order off of The Hobbit menu.  They had a Moons Over My Hammy and a club sandwich.  Go figure.

This is such a simple and fun concept, I’m surprised it’s not already wildly popular.  Basically, all you do is make tiny pancakes, chop some fruit and stab everything with a toothpick.  Any pancake batter will do.  I like to use a popular pancake recipe on MrBreakfast.com.  But you can just as easily use Aunt Jemima or another pancake mix.

I’ve seen a few examples on the internet of people using strawberries, bananas and apple slices, but I thought it’d be fun to take it a few steps further.

Make pancakes about the size of 50-cent pieces.  I’ve found that 2/3 Tablespoon batter per pancake gives you the right size.  In the picture above, the pancakes to the left were actually too large.  The ones on the right, as Goldilocks might say, were just right.  Be sure to have some maple syrup standing by as a dipping sauce.

The way my mind works, I immediately thought of bacon.

These baked apple pancake skewers were delicious.  I prepared the apples in the microwave with sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup.  Here’s the directions to make apple pancake topping in the microwave.

The strawberry pancake skewers were great.  The banana pancake skewers were terrific. But I can tell you, the strawberry and banana skewers surrounded by whipped cream were dynamite.

The bacon and sausage pancake skewers were a little unwieldy, but I mean… you can taste them with your eyes, right?  If I had a do-over with this one, I’d probably use small sausage patties instead of links.

This was the start of my hyper-experimental phase:  Baked Apple & Country Sausage Pancake Skewers.  There’s nothing particularly “country” about the sausage.  I just liked how it sounded in the name.

Towards the end of my Pancake Skewer Breakfast Party, I was going a little insane.  However, there was magic in my madness that resulted in the bacon and banana pancake skewer.

I’d dipped most of the other skewers in maple syrup.  For this one, I put some creamy peanut butter in the microwave for 20 seconds so it had more of a sauce-like consistency.  I liked it.  If he were alive today, I think Elvis Presley would have liked it too. (That’s a reference to the famous Elvis Presley Breakfast Sandwich.)

For as many pancake skewers as I made, I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface. The possibilities seem almost endless.  What about a ham skewer?  A pineapple skewer?  How about a ham and pineapple Hawaiian pancake skewer?   If you have an idea for a skewer, let me know in the comments section below.

Here’s wishing you a fun and successful Pancake Skewer Breakfast Party of your own!

A recent survey revealed that bacon is the overwhelming favorite food of Britain.  One in ten Brits put bacon at the top of their list.  In honor of that great nation of bacon lovers, I’d like to focus on a British staple that’s practically unknown in the U.S., the Bacon Butty –  a simple bacon sandwich.

When Prince William married Kate Middleton, her precocious brother-in-law Prince Harry planned a post-wedding, wee-hours party with Bacon Butty sandwiches as the main course.

The Bacon Butty is so popular in the U.K. that you find it on the menu of their Burger King Restaurants.

McDonald’s in Britain serve a Bacon Butty, but they call theirs a Bacon Roll.

To make a Bacon Butty, select a thick-cut bacon.  Bacon in Britain is traditionally thicker than our bacon.  For the bread, I decided to use two over-sized dinner rolls, but you could use any bread you like to make your Butty.

Fry up the bacon so it’s completely cooked but still a little flexible.  Transfer to stacked paper towels to remove excess grease.

Cut the rolls in half and butter.  At this point, many Brits assemble their sandwich.  Others fry the buttered side of the bread until browned and crisp.  That’s what I did.

HP Sauce (aka Brown Sauce) is the most popular thing to put on a Bacon Butty, but A.1. Steak Sauce and regular tomato ketchup are also common.  I tried all three and liked the A.1. most of all.  I had to visit a British specialty shop to get the HP.  As long as I was there, I picked up a small British flag to act as the perfect garnish for my homemade Bacon Butty.

That’s all there is to it.  Just pile bacon on your bread.  Douse your favorite sauce on top and there’s your sandwich.  Now pop that scrummy Butty in your gob.  That’s British slang for placing the bacon sandwich in your mouth.

That’s a Bacon Butty from your Breakfast Buddy.  Enjoy!

Bonus:

These young British guys, Joe and Ollie, love the Bacon Butty so much that they wrote a song about it.  Nice harmonies dudes!  (That how we say “mates” in the U.S.)

Nowhere does the flexibility of eggs shine as bright as in the omelette.  It’s a structure.  People who make great omelettes should be called omelette architects.  An omelette has a foundation.  Will it be just eggs?  Do you add  a touch of milk for a softer structure?  Do you add a pinch of flour for a firmer structure?  Herbs and other ingredients can be added within the beaten eggs resulting in flavor-packed art deco effect.

The omelette featured here might look modern, but it’s actually based on an old German recipe.  I adapted if from a 1955 cookbook from Narcissa G. Chamberlain called The Omelette Book.  That book was a favorite of cooking legend Juila Child who displayed it prominently in a show she dedicated to omelettes.  More on that special book later as it deserves a post of its own in the near future.

Speckled with chopped bacon and chives, this omelette is beautiful and delicious.  The thing that makes it unique to regular-Joe omelette eaters is the shape.  A little flour is added to the egg, like a crepe, so it’s a little more pliable. Then, it’s rolled – sort of like a cigar, so each bite is essentially a dense swirl loaded with flavor.  The spice of distinction in this omelette is nutmeg.

Here’s the recipe:

Rolled German Omelette With Bacon

This isn’t an omelette for filling.  The fillings will squeeze out as you roll it into shape.  I learned that obvious lesson the hard way.  I do find this omelette perfect for the old-school practice of topping with a sauce.  If you have some country gravy leftover from dinner, you have a sauce.

To make a simple cream sauce, just place a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter, stir in a teaspoon of flour and then gradually add 1/2 cup of milk or cream.  Season with salt and plenty of pepper.  Simmer and stir until thickened.  Spoon that good stuff over your omelette and – wham, bam, thank you mam – the result is amazing.

So whether you make this recipe or are just inspired to try omelettes in a new shape, remember that you are an omelette architect building the best structure known to man… breakfast!  Enjoy!