Once, I found myself in the situation where all I had to eat in my fridge (that did not involve prep work) was beer, strawberries and feta cheese. My distaste for ready-to-eat, or waking up to line up outside the local brunch spot had come back to bite me because right then I could have killed for a cheese omelet with some ketchup-drenched hash browns, a side of sausages…all washed down with a nice café au lait.
Figuring that the effort of going out in seaerch of brunch would kill me, I found myself first halving then quartering my strawberries, adding these to the crumbled feta, piling it on a cracker…taking a bite…and loving it! Pouring myself a beer, and tucking in as I sat in a sunny patch of my living room. It made me smile…I had stumbled on a food pairing that just worked.
My friend Mina and I are partial to crackers as snack food, but sometimes I incorporate them into my regular meals. We top them with everything from smoked oysters, pâté, cheese, olives, to vanilla ice cream. I don’t really like sandwiches where the filling is between two slices of bread…I prefer open faced sandwiches (less bread involved). Crackers are the perfect base for open-faced sandwiches since they don’t get soggy like bread, and they add some ‘crunch’ to the overall effect (Wasa crackers are thick and gritty, just perfect for my needs, but even smaller crackers work too).
I’ve stumbled on other interesting pairings- my favourite being fried egg and marmalade sandwiches downed with some nice cold milk. I discovered this by accident when I was a kid and I accidentally put marmalade on my toast instead of buttering it. Still love it when I want to ‘regress’ and just feel like a kid again. It’s simple:
1. Toast bread
2. Slather the toasted bread with marmalade
3. Top with fried egg
4. Eat with cold milk or beverage of choice.
Yummy!!!
This was the first recipe I ever came up with, so it is fitting that it should be the first in my Food series. I’m experimenting with putting all my culinary creations into recipe form to keep myself busy.
13 Comments
April 5, 2008 at 10:39 pm
And your shortest post too! I was looking for the “read more” link to get the whole story
I used to think I was a good cook, now I have serious doubts. I prefer to eat what others cook, which unfortunately does not happen often!! My yummy discovery was the plain old pan cake lazed with honey. Yet pan cakes is something I should not eat, (I, of the weightloss fame), but it is one of those things that bring fond childhood memories. My kids love them, and more so with the honey.
April 5, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Beer and strawberries!! Isn’t beer kind of taken in the evening and not as a brunch….
April 6, 2008 at 12:55 pm
True, I’ve never posted anything this short. Pancakes are good comfort food. Whenever we’d eaten a heavy lunch, my mum would make them for a light supper. Hers were crepe-like, and perfect for rolling up cheese. I liked the crisp edges best.
better than even coffee!
As for beer and brunch? Sometimes, especially on a hot summer day, beer is best
April 6, 2008 at 1:28 pm
café au lait. that is all that brought me here this Sunday morning. Yum.
I shall try that marmalade with egg thing. If it works i shall be begging you for your recipe book!
April 6, 2008 at 1:48 pm
@31337. Oh you’ll be begging alright…marmalade & egg just works.
April 7, 2008 at 5:03 am
weka that recipe book together, i’m always excited at new recipes….you should have seen how excited i was to discover honey-glazed chicken…to add to my boiling water (with or without egg) recipe…
maybe too coz i was never allowed in the kitchen as a kid…modo in kitchen is like bull in china-shop – mum’s saying.
oh, and how is an open-faced sandwich a sandwich? hmmmm, i was sandwiched between one car…okay, thinking aloud.
haiya my comment is longer than your post…LOL!
April 7, 2008 at 5:51 am
Just incase you are writing a book on ‘friends’ recipes’ here is my favourite meal of all time.
Warm bread, straight from the bakery, unsliced, you cut the loaf into 2, and reach for a handful of the middle soft part without the crust. Have this with a cold packet of UHT milk and for a few minutes, you can travel into 7th heaven!
April 7, 2008 at 11:30 am
Modo by the time you’re done with my cookbook, it will be goodbye boiled water w/without egg, hello modo-in-the-kitchen
Catso that soft inner part of the bread is really nice with jam too (I crave jam once every few months, and when I do, the fluffy bread works best) wouldn’t it be nice if you could just buy that part and no crust?
April 7, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Wasn’t there an episode on Seinfeld where they had only muffin tops and not the rest of the muffin. . .perhaps someone can do bread sans crust!
What about buttery scrambled eggs with just so toasted whole wheat bread on a Sunday, reading the newspaper or latest novel. .. yum!
April 8, 2008 at 5:31 am
My favourite is chesse+eggs+ham(assorted)+tomatoes+green peppers washed down with cold milk or chai thopthop(tea with loads of milk)
April 8, 2008 at 7:43 am
Afrofem, yes, the muffin tops episode is probably one of the few eps of Seinfeld I watched, I think that’s a great idea, I love the top of the muffin and always save it for last…the inner part is just cake! Scrambled eggs…it’s funny, I remember the first time I ever made those (it was with a recipe from Kenya Cookery!!!Remember that?)
Gish, chai thopthop…I like that description…thopthop has a nice ring to it
April 8, 2008 at 9:40 am
A, cooking. I wish I wasn’t as lazy, cause that is much better than eating out. But laziness always triumphs!
Have to agree on the soft inner part of bread. Or the samosa sandwitch we had at school where you cut the freshly baked bread into quarters, then you sandwitch samosas in between margarined quarters. MMm..!!!!
April 16, 2008 at 5:00 pm
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