After Tapas night, Saturday of Friendship Weekend was supposed to be a breeze. Mai and Erin, both from out of town, had stayed at my apartment and the day's plan consisted of three very important things: Breakfast, Whatever We Decided to Do That Cost Mostly No Money In the City of Brotherly Love, The Franklin Institute’s Giant Dinosaurs Exhibit at 5pm and Whatever Fun to Follow. I’d planned out breakfast to coincide in terms of timing, everything was supposed to be prepped at the same time and then cooked at the same time at the same temperature but like they say, you make plans and God laughs. God pretty much guffawed at me so loud I had to laugh along with him.
We woke up and chatted in a snugglezone for a while before Erin finally mentioned the idea that breakfast would be appreciated. We got right down to it after that.
Oyster Casserole – from Epicurious.com via Gourmet magazine (I got the idea to find this recipe from my stepmom who makes this for holiday breakfasts and I OBSESS OVER IT EVERY YEAR). I also reduced it to four servings.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups bread crumbs – I might have accidentally overdone this. I used crumbs that I created by making a bread loaf the previous evening.
- 2 eggs – check
- ½ cup heavy cream – check
- ½ cup whole milk – I used 1% because that’s my preferred method of milk. Judge as you will.
- 1 tsp lemon juice – freshly squeezed! Check.
- ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce – check
- 1/8 cup parsley – check
- 1.5 doz shucked oysters, roughly ½ cup – check
Step 1: Spread the bread crumbs in a pan and bake at 375F until golden brown (roughly 15minutes) then cool. This is also when you should be doing muffin-making things.
Step 2: Whisk eggs, cream, milk, lemon juice, worchestershire sauce, parsley, and 1/8 tsp each of salt and pepper; gently stir in oysters to this mixture; gently stir in bread crumbs to this mixture until slightly gooey.
Step 3: Pour this amazing business back into your baking dish; bake at 375F until custard is set and top is golden, 25-30minutes or longer. I baked this longer, which I immediately regretted as I enjoy the casserole a bit watery and it was more straight cooked than my stepmom's version.
Regardless of the lack of watery attitude, the casserole was very good! Mai and Erin enjoyed it, they both agreed that it was a surprising taste for breakfast but delightful. Good. I enjoyed it too. This foodsperiment: +4 for taste, +5 for ease, -1 for not so easy cleanup since I soaked that baking dish for a WHILE before it was finally ready to use again.
Oyster Casserole - so much bread
As a compliment to the casserole I considered muffins a necessary idea. They probably weren’t but the leftovers served as breakfast for the next week.
Cream Cheese Filling – from both rodale.com and countryliving.com
It turns out that the cream cheese filling for both kinds of muffins was the same so I made that first.
Ingredients:
- 4 oz softened cream cheese – check
- 4 tbs sugar – check
- 2 tbs egg sub – or ½ an egg…roughly, check.
Step 1: Mix together all ingredients and set aside for use as filling.
Carrot Cake Gems – from rodale.com and/or prevention.com
This is a recipe I’ve actually used before but I halved it of course and tried to make it work for me.
Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup and ¼ tbs flour – check
- ¼ cup whole wheat flour – no I didn’t use this, I just used regular flour
- ¼ tsp salt – check
- ¼ tsp baking soda – check
- 1/3 tsp baking powder – check
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon – check
- 1 tsp canola oil – I used veg oil, check.
- 2 tbs sour cream – check
- 1 tbs brown sugar – check
- 1 tbs sugar – check
- ½ egg – check
- ½ tsp vanilla – check
- ½ cups freshly grated carrots – check, thanks to sues chef Erin
- ¼ cups drained crushed pineapple – check, thanks to sues chef Mai
Step 1: Combine the flour(s), salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Set aside
Step 2: Cream together oil, sour cream, and sugars until well blended, beat in the egg and vanilla, stir in the carrots and pineapple.
Step 3: Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients just until combined.
Step 4: Fill muffin cups about a quarter of the way with batter, add 1 tbs of filling, then top with more batter. Good luck because this is a science I still have not mastered even having made these muffins a few times. They always end up looking odd.
Step 5: Bake 20-25 minutes or until they are all muffinish. Consume.
These were good. I enjoyed them, I think Mai and Erin liked them too, but I may have been force feeding them good things at this point. Also they ended up taking way longer to finish than I expected. But no matter. This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for relative health value.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins – from countryliving.com
Ingredients:
- 1 ¼ tbs sugar – check
- 1/8 cup flour – check
- Handful pecans – check
- ¾ tbs butter – check
- ½ cup sugar – check, ok maybe a little more
- 2/3 cup less 1/8 cup flour – check, I did that math once it’s too rough to try it again.
- 1/8 tsp salt – check
- ½ tsp baking powder – check
- 1/8 tsp baking soda – check
- 2/3 tsp cinnamon – check
- ½ egg – check
- 1/3 cups solid packed pumpkin – alas I accidentally got pumpkin pie packed, so that was an oops and I should have been paying WAY MORE attention.
- ¼ of 1/3 cup veg oil – check
- 1/8 tsp vanilla – check
Step 1: Toss 1 ¼ tbs sugar, 1/8 cup flour, pecans (which you already cut into small pieces), butter (melted, but be careful because butter explodes easily in the microwave), and 1/8 tsp cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside.
Step 2: Combine remaining sugar, flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl, set that aside too while you are so busy setting everything else aside.
Step 3: Lightly beat ½ egg, pumpkin puree, oil, and vanilla together.
Step 4: Combine wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.
Step 5: Divide half batter into cups, pour in cream cheese mixture (from above, roughly 1 tbs each), and pour more batter on top. Then sprinkle some of the sugar/butter/pecan mixture on top.
Step 6: Bake at 275F 20-25minutes, or until they are truly muffins.
These tasted “ok” but they probably get filed under my fail foodsperiments more than the win foodsperiments. First of all, pumpkin pie puree is not a good sub for pumpkin puree. The spices/sugars in the pie mixture make for something completely different. Also, the first batch of these (there were two sets of three so a total of 6 muffins) looked like monsters. They spilled all over the muffin pan. I mean they still tasted ok, but there was a lot of awkwardness in which I wish I hadn’t shown Erin and Mai the finished product or made them eat it (even though they really were pretty good). They were on the menu because Erin said she liked pumpkin things, so I wish they'd turned out better. Well better luck next time. This foodsperiment: +3 for taste, -5 for monsters, -5 for being very messy, -5 for halving the recipe making math so difficult. Better luck next time.
Top Two - Carrot Cake Gems, Bottom Two - Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filled Muffins
Overall though, breakfast was still a win. We spent the rest of the day touring some free sites in the city, including but not limited to Betsy Ross’s grave, the Liberty Bell, and Dim Sum in China Town adding some epic friends along the way. Also, the Dino exhibit was excellent, as was the friendship and Dance Party 3 involved Saturday eve. Friendship weekend was a win. Happy Sperimenting!
