The Original Steve's Diner

This might be hard to believe but there is a diner that we actually have not had brunch at. Several friends had recommended The Original Steve's Diner but everytime we drove by there was a line out the door. (Their Facebook page.)

Today we braved it and got in line. Once inside I understood why there was a line. It's tiny inside! Maybe ten tables and a counter.

Once we were seated and I saw this extensive eggs benedict menu I got excited.

I got the Eggs Blackstone and it was really good.

Always happy to add another brunch spot to our list!

Quiche for breakfast

I wanted to make something that Aaron and I could have for breakfast quickly each morning, so I decided to make a quiche. Can you believe I've never made one before? It was so easy to make and it turned out delicious! All we had to do was cut a slice each morning and heat it up in the microwave.

A lot of people asked what recipe I used and it's the quiche lorraine recipe out of my tried and true classic Betty Crocker cook book.

10 minutes. Waiting. Waiting.

A video posted by Jenny Cisney (@ljc) on Apr 10, 2016 at 8:22am PDT

The hardest part of the recipe was waiting 10 minutes before digging in! (weird mini hands courtesty of Aaron)

Hotteok - Sweet Korean Pancakes

When were were in Korea, I remember seeing street vendors selling sweet pancakes or hotteok. They are a crispy on the outside, doughy on the inside, sweet brown sugar syrup filled delight.

I thought about making some from scratch, but then I spied this box of mix at the Korean grocery store and it seemed the way to go.

Plus it came with the handy dandy pancake squasher tool pictured above.

They were easy to make and I put the squasher to good use.

They are supposed to be a snack food but we had them for breakfast. Really can't go wrong with sweet and yummy for breakfast.

Brunch on the East Side

In the same Yelp newsletter where we learned about Shmegs, we read about a breakfast spot on the east side of the city. About 15 minutes away, in Webster, we went to check out Mama Lor's.

We were not disapointed. The restaurant is cozy and they have a coffee pot at the door where you can help yourslef as soon as you come in. Look at this breakfast skillet!

The people are super friendly too. Aaron got the apple pie french toast special. I could have eat the sauce with a spoon. We will be back again!

Super special limited edition baked goods

I kept rolling past these Limited Edition Thomas' English Muffin at Wegmans until I couldn't take it anymore and tossed them in my cart.

LIMITED EDITION. Gotta get them while I can! I mean, the Pumpkin Spice isn't even on their website!

It's like the frenzy I go into when the Halloween monster cereal comes out. It's once a year people!

Part of me says - Really you should be making homemade english muffins! C'mon... get with the program. But.

But these english muffins smell so good and are so easy to pop in the toaster.

Paired with some maple butter that my friend Tina gave me and they go to an even higher level.

I should probably be making my own maple butter too.

Baby Dutch Babies

Just when I thought dutch babies couldn't get any better, Aaron came up with an idea. My mom just gave me another small cast iron pan and so he made BABY dutch babies in them! Single serving dutch babies for breakfast!

We have been having dutch babies in our house for breakfast and brunch for years. The way they pouf up is always a fun morning show.

To shake things up this time, we made a sort of bananas foster syrup to pour on top.

Here is our tried and true Dutch Baby recipe:

2 whisked eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter

Cut butter into a cast iron pan and heat in a 400 degree oven until the butter melts. While butter is melting, mix other ingredients together. Pull the pan out of oven, pour batter into it and return to the oven. Bake until puffy and browned, about twenty minutes.

Waffle tip

Sunday waffles. My tip for the best waffles. Warm up the syrup.

The pugs don't care if there is warm syrup or not.

Goodbye to Jim's Restaurant

About ten years ago Aaron and I stumbled upon Jim's Restaurant. Quite frankly when I first saw it I thought it looked run down. As soon as we walked in we were hooked. The mug collection over the counter, warm greetings and good food made it our favorite weekend breakfast spot.

Turns out the property Jim's sits on is owned by someone who is plannig to develop it and those plans don't involve Jim's Restaurant.

The owner, Elena started working at Jim's 17 years ago and bought it 14 years ago. In fact she bought it May 16, 2001. When we found out their last day would be May 16, of course we would be there.

My favorite breakfast was two eggs over easy, crispy hashbrowns and toast. Aaron likes the sausage and biscuits and the Elena Delight frittata.

We came back later that afternoon and got two mugs for mementos.

And Aaron brought his drone to take pictures and video.

It's a shame to lose this local treasure, but the real treasure at Jim's Restaurant is the people. Elena has a second location - Jim's Too on Main Street. It is closed right now due to damage from a kitchen fire but they hope to reopen in July.

You can be sure we will be there.

Dinosaur eggs

I picked up these dinosaur silicone egg rings at TJ Maxx (or was is Marshalls? I get them mixed up) They make the perfect shaped fried eggs for breakfast sandwiches on english muffins. Plus they look funny sitting on the frying pan.

The handiest tool in the kitchen?

Did you know you can put Pillsbury Cresent dough in the waffle maker? It gets crisp on the outside and goes well with berries and whipped cream.

You can put Pillsbury Grands dough in a waffle iron too. They bake up thicker and are tasty with jam.

What CAN'T you put in a waffle iron?!

We tried a new brunch spot today, Trata. Trata quite simply stands for "the restaurant at the armory". We have had dinner there a couple times but this was our first brunch.

Aaron had an amazing french toast that involved peanut butter and jelly, coated in crushed frosted flakes and deep fried. I got the eggs benedict. If there is gnocchi, rissoto or eggs benedict on a menu, I have to order it. We also split a delicious cheddar hash brown casserole that came in a cute little cast iron pan.

Honeycomb

Aaron got us this block of raw honeycomb with honey and we have been eating it spread on warm buttered toast. It sounds strange but the beeswax is very thin and is not like eating wax at all. It's actually so tasty!

Honeycomb is is filled with concentrated nectar and is honey at it's most raw and healthiest state. It is slightly chewy, sweet and really fresh tasting!

Here are some other ways I would like to try honeycomb.

Over warm oatmeal

On a waffle

Or like we had it in Korean - over ice cream!

Breakfast on the newstand

I couldn't pass up this magazine when I saw it. A magazine all about my favorite weekend meal - breakfast/brunch!

There are lots of tasty looking recipes, but I really love this super simple suggestion of Nutella on toast. The photos in this magazine are mouthwatering.

Mmm-mmm eggs! I have a porcelain egg holder like that so I feel I am well on my way to mastering these recipes.

One thing I haven't tried is making biscuits from scratch. I love this picture too. I wish my countertop looked this picturesque when I baked!

Magic Marshmallow Puffs

This is what happens when I am left in charge of breakfast. Magic Marshmallow Puffs.

These are so easy to make. They consist of Pillsbury crescent dough with marshmallows rolled in butter and sugar inside. This was a good opportunity to use up some of my vanilla snowman marshmallows.

The marshmallow melts inside as the dough bakes leaving fluffy sweet parcels. A cup of coffee and you have breakfast.

Oven Baked Bacon

I had read that you could cook bacon in the oven. I'm always up for an experiment in the kitchen, so when we made breakfast yesterday I gave it a try.

First I divided the package of bacon in half. Half to cook and the other half was wrapped piece by piece in parchment paper and put in the freezer for later. I covered a baking sheet with aluminum foil and put it in the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

A lot of people told me on Facebook and Instagram that I should place the bacon on a wire rack over the sheet for crispier bacon.

The problem is, Aaron doesn't like crispy bacon, he likes it chewy. So the cookie sheet method worked well for us. I cooked his bacon for 15 minutes at a lower temperature than the instructions called for, pulled off his bacon, then put mine back in the over for another 5 minutes.

I love cooking bacon like this! It was so much easier than hovering over a skillet, dodging pops of hot grease jumping out of the pan. Plus it was so easy to clean up. I just rolled up the aluminum foil and put it into the recycling bin.

Aaron seemed pretty happy with his bacon.

Breakfast Nook

When we were working on the kitchen we rearranged the breakfast nook to be... a breakfast nook.

Previously, we had a big shelf crammed with appliances and kitchen tools. It has taken some reorganization and shifting but we cleared out the nook to hold just the table with chairs.

This weekend, I was thinking that it had been a long time since we had made breakfast ourselves. We love to go out for breakfast/brunch on the weekends but I wanted to get back in the habit of making a long, leisurely breakfast at home too.

Now that we have our proper breakfast nook, it's perfect for Aaron's ebelskiver (Danish pancakes) and all the fixins.

Oh and what do you listen to on the record player when you are making breakfast at home? Breakfast at Tiffany's of course.

Breakfast & Brunch Magazine = Breakfast Cookies

I spotted this issue of Better Homes and Garden: Breakfast and Brunch when I was Christmas shopping and had to pick it up. An entire magazine about breakfast food! Brilliant!

I was reading it in PA over the holidays when I mentioned out loud there were breakfast cookies. Both my dad and Aaron started hinting pretty heavily that a batch of those would be most appreciated.

I love the idea of breakfast foods that A. you can make a big batch of for the week and B. you can grab and take with you. So I was more than happy to bake a batch of these breakfast cookies. They turned out great. They aren't as sweet as a typical cookie but very satisfying for breakfast.

Here is the BHG online recipe for Banana Oat Breakfast Cookies.

Note that I didn't have any dried cherries on hand so I actually used chopped up marachino cherries. I didn't hear anyone complain.

I would like to make these Double Oat Breakfast Cookies next!

Monster Cereal

It's the time of year for monster cereal and Aaron picked me up a box of each of my favorites. Did you know Frankenberry came out in 1971 and Booberry was released in 1972?

What a great chance to use my Cuppow BNTO. The cereal goes in the jar and the milk in the BNTO, so the cereal stays nice and crunchy til I'm ready to eat it.