Pancetta and Mushroom Quiche

I love eggs. If we go out to breakfast, it's hard for me to resist getting an omelet or frittata or scramble of some sort. When I was a kid we used to go out for big, family brunches on Sunday at the buffet at a local casino, and the first thing I would do was head straight for the omelet making station, every single time. Breakfast is one of my favorite dinners. I seriously just love eggs.

Another thing I love is pie crust, though Justin thinks that that love is unnatural. I think if he could have pie without the crust, he'd be all for it. I on the other hand want it surrounded by crust--bottom, sides, and top. I'll take the extra bits that stick up off of his pieces of pie. Pie crust is flaky and delicious. I don't know what his problem is.

Naturally, these things combine to mean that I really, really love quiche. It's basically a frittata in a pie crust, and what's not to love about that? According to Justin, everything apparently. He likes eggs, but he doesn't like it when they're baked. He's weird like that. Therefore, quiche is one of those things I only get to make when he's not around. This was my first time trying this particular combo, and it's definitely a winner. If you are cheap--like I am most of the time--you could just get regular bacon instead of pancetta, but where's the fun in that?

Chicken Breakfast Biscuits with Gravy

When Justin and I were trying to come up with dinner ideas, he randomly asked me, "Why doesn't anyone ever put chicken and eggs together?" I've seen a few omelets with chicken on menus before, but he's right that it's not very common. I don't know exactly why that is, but I do know that these breakfast biscuits we decided to make with both of them are quite delicious. I think they're going to be make frequent appearances on our meal lists.

When trying to decide how we were going to combine the two, I immediately thought of some sort of sandwich because at many fast food restaurants you can now get chicken breakfast sandwiches, in addition to the usual egg ones. If we just combine the two, voila! To tie it together a bit more, I decided to make some white gravy to go on the sandwiches--Justin's a little iffy about eggs and white gravy, but after giving this recipe a taste with just a little of the gravy, he piled on the rest of his portion of gravy and happily gobbled it all down.

Blueberry Drop Scones

In my pastry-making days at the coffee shop, I made a lot of scones. The dough involved a decent bit of work, with all the frozen butter grating and dough rolling and whatnot. People really seemed to prefer our other pastries though, so a lot of times we'd end up having to throw some of the scones out, aka let the other employees fight over who got to take them home. I honestly think that was one of their favorite parts of the job--what did Leslie bake that I can take home today?

All that changed one day when for whatever reason--I can't remember if I was just being lazy or what--I decided that instead of rolling out the dough and then filling it with goodies before folding it up and cutting it into wedges, I would just mix the goodies directly into the dough and drop it by large spoonfuls onto the pan. I know that I had made drop biscuits a few times around then, so I'm assuming that's where the idea came from. I tried it out, and customers couldn't get enough of these scones. None of the flavors changed. We used the exact same recipe to make them; we basically just changed their shape, and people went crazy for them. It was so weird. They are slightly fluffier, I suppose, because the dough isn't rolled, but that's about the only difference. I only made scones this way after that point. I even made a double batch of these the morning of our wedding as breakfast for everyone who was helping us decorate.

Mellow Cheese Grits

Having grown up in the South, I love grits. I can eat them for any meal. They can be the whole meal. They can be a side dish. It really doesn't matter. One of my absolute favorite breakfasts/lunches/light dinners is a big bowl of grits and a tall glass of sweet tea with plenty of ice. The only thing better than grits is cheese grits.

Tilapia Omelet

Justin made something he wanted me to share with you all--a tilapia omelet. He broke the rule about not mixing cheese and fish, but I don't think he cared. He liked it, and that's all that matters. If you aren't as much of a rebel, feel free to leave the cheese out. There isn't that much in there anyway.

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of fish. I love crab, shrimp, crawfish, lobster, and all that tastiness, but I just don't really like plain ol' fish. Never have. Therefore, I didn't partake in any of this omelet. Justin enjoyed this for a casual, one-man, weekend brunch. Like I said, he thought it was good enough to share with you all, so here it is.