Mardi Gras, Yeah Baby!

By Marilyn Hunter

Our family eats pancakes for dinner on Shrove Tuesday. You may know it as ’“Fat Tuesday” or “Mardi Gras.” “Gras” is French for fat and “Mardi” is French for Tuesday. However you say it, it’s a time to indulge because it’s the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, the season of fasting and abstinence. Pancakes are the traditional food of Shrove because they use up all the foods that are forbidden during Lent…fat, butter, sugar and eggs.

This year we’ll celebrate Shrove New Orleans-style with Bananas Foster Pancakes. For the pancake recipe, I always defer to the granddaddy of them all, James Beard. For the Bananas Foster topping, I’ve created a quick and easy version of the classic.

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Breakfast Tomatoes – a Winter Indulgence

By Lori Powell

I love roasted tomatoes and think that they are a great accompaniment to most dishes, not only for flavor, but for color. Ever since I had the traditional Irish breakfast in Dublin, I crave a hit of the roasted red.

My dad is a die-hard ketchup lover with eggs, burgers, sandwiches and most things. So as his good daughter, and the only one, I must add, I have followed suit. A little odd to have such gorgeous scrambled free-range chicken eggs (I have my own heirloom chickens) to then enrobe them in the saucy red. Most people would consider that criminal.

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Christmas Past and Present

By Marilyn Hunter

“Tell me about Christmas,” Nicky says to me with a twinkle in his eye. “Tell me your favorite thing when you were a little girl.” I tell him about how much I loved baking cookies with my brother to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve and how we would fight to stay awake to hear the sound of reindeer hooves on the roof. It seems like yesterday, those sleepless Christmas Eves. My brother and I could hardly wait until sunrise.

After all these years, I now understand the work that went into making those Christmas mornings so magical. They’re as sleepless for the parents as they are for the kids. We work to assemble and arrange toys, wrap presents and set the table for breakfast. Round about midnight, I appreciate my parents’ efforts and now understand why Dad was so droopy eyed at dawn when we came rushing from our rooms.

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Serve a Simple Strata

By David Hu

Strata, similar to a savory version of bread pudding is a great way to use leftover bread. This simple strata combines bread, eggs, bacon and dried plums to make a dish fit for brunch. Or serve it as a side dish for dinner.

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Strawberry French Toast - Yum!

By David Hu

French toast is a simple way to make plain bread exciting – add some strawberries and it becomes even more special. Today’s video is a Strawberry Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast. While the peak strawberry season is between April and June, half of the California strawberry crop is harvested after June 1, so this is a dish you can make pretty much year round. It’s an easy recipe for breakfast but if you’re in the mood for something simple and sweet at night, this fits the bill to a “T.”

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