#189 What's your favorite breakfast food?

There's nothing quite like great breakfast

I can never get over how magical breakfast is. Whenever someone talks about enjoying a slow morning, I think about breakfast. No other meal is imbued with as much optimism. The baby sun is in the sky. You’re whisking eggs. Birds are chirping. The smell of toasted sourdough is in the air. Compound butter is soft and ready to be spread. You’re making some juice. You get your things ready for your post-meal coffee walk. Life is good.

It’s truly a blessing to be able to experience a nourishing breakfast without having to rush. If you’re someone who gets up early every day for work, I urge you to try at least having one lazy breakfast every weekend. The kind that starts your day off on a good note. You wake up with no alarm, put your hands above your head to stretch, and get adjusted to the brand new day and all the possibilities that lie ahead.

If you’re new here, you might think we’re exaggerating. I mean, it’s just breakfast, right? Well, I’m a firm believer that in this life you have to appreciate and cherish the little things. Especially when you’re caught up in the hustle and bustle of the everyday. A good breakfast is one such joy I will never take for granted.

Here are some tips for better breakfasts:

1. If you’re having bread / sourdough, always prepare it last
   I know some people enjoy bread that isn’t toasted but I’m not one of them. Sure, sometimes it works great in a sandwich but good bread is almost always better toasted. Don’t make the mistake of toasting it first only for it to be all soft and soggy the moment you bite into it. Bread always gets toasted last - same rule with the buns of any burger you make.

2. Pair your coffee well
   If you like having coffee with your breakfast, pair it well. You want to feel good after breakfast. Personally, I go with a piccolo if I’m having coffee right after the meal itself (especially if it’s particularly heavy). It goes down much better that way. A cappuccino has too much milk if you’re having it with a heavy breakfast. The ideal situation for me has always been some eggs, butter, sourdough, maybe some smoked salmon, a glass of freshly pressed juice, some sparkling water and a warm piccolo on the side. Absolutely glorious. I will say though, some mornings it’s nice to just have a frothy cappuccino with a warm, airy pain au chocolat. The Europeans are real ball knowers.

3. Use breakfast as an opportunity to have more cheese
   You don’t need to relegate cheese to charcuterie board time with the friends. Use breakfast to try new cheese! I used to always wander into a cheese shop and find something cool I could bring back home to have with breakfast. You can just serve it on the side (as is traditional in Turkish breakfasts) or get something like a good block of herb gouda which you can grate on your eggs! From there you can slowly learn what you like, what you don’t and build a little cheese library.

4. Hydration is important
   Everyone always tells you to immediately chug some water down after being asleep for eight hours. Well, they’re right. You’re dehydrated and you need some fluids. Though, how boring is it to just sip a glass of room temperature water with an electrolyte packet? I prefer living a life with more fun than that. Get some fruit in your system! Slice some fresh dragon fruit. Enjoy some blueberries! Make juice. Have some mango. Come on, it’s summer. If you’re truly a fan of freshly pressed juice you should get a stainless steel mechanical juicer! It’s one of the best investments anyone can make. If you need some inspiration on what fruits to get, here’s our fruits for July chart:

5. The many types of eggs you make

One of the best things about eggs is the many ways you can make them. It blows my mind how you can just scramble them when you want to. American omelet. French omelet. Sunny side up. Poached. Fried. Soft boiled. Hard boiled. It just goes on and on! I urge you to use breakfast as an opportunity to experiment with different types of eggs. Maybe you’re in a poached egg phase. But if you want a reason to change things up, consider soft boiling your eggs! Try something different. It’s impossible to get bored of eggs when there are so many ways you can enjoy them. OG followers will know we were at one point incredibly fascinated by the French omelet. In my opinion, it’s absolutely gorgeous and so satisfying when you nail it. I tried everything possible to perfect it and I’ll say this is the egg dish you should make if there’s anyone you want to impress. You can find the recipe here:

6. Explore your compound butters

It’s the same idea with cheese, really. Use breakfast as your time to experiment with new flavors of beautiful compound butter. Lately, I’ve been enjoying this oignon de roscoff (roscoff onion) from Maison Bordier. I know it sounds bad but it’s actually really good!

So, what makes your perfect breakfast? Let me know in the comments below :)

P.S. we also posted a “breakfast formula” of sorts in the past which might help you come up with some ideas for your next lazy weekend breakfast! Check this out:

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❋ Spaghetti with Sardines, Capers, Olives and Tomato Sauce

“The ultimate pantry storage dinner! If you don’t feel like doing groceries, and want to fling something together from what you have at hand, this is what you should make. Or at least get these ingredients in your storage for a quick dinner after a busy day. Oh, and a healthy dish as well!”

❋ How To Make Homemade Ranch Dressing [Paid] by andrew gruel

“If your ranch tastes like seasoned mayonnaise, you are using the wrong ingredients.

Mayonnaise should give ranch its body, but it should not become the entire personality of the dressing. Good ranch is creamy but still pourable. It has enough tang to cut through the richness, fresh herbs you can actually taste, and a savory finish that keeps you going back for another bite.

The most important place to start is the ratio. My base uses mayonnaise, buttermilk, and sour cream. The buttermilk and sour cream bring the tang, while the mayonnaise holds everything together. From there, fresh dill and chives make the dressing taste alive. Lemon juice and zest brighten it, and Worcestershire sauce, nutritional yeast, and aged Parmesan build the deep savory flavor that makes homemade ranch so difficult to stop eating.

This is not just one ranch recipe. Once you understand the base, you can make it thicker for wings, thinner for salads, or turn it into chipotle ranch, jalapeño ranch, or smoky ranch.” — andrew gruel

❋ How to Love Cooking & The Easiest Pasta Recipe Ever by Emily Oberg

“I began cooking when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old. I grew up in a house full of women who cooked extremely well. My mum was and still is an incredible cook and my grandma and aunt owned a Filipino bakery that served traditional Filipino dishes along with sugary pastries and elaborate wedding cakes. Food has always been a big part of my family, as it is in most Asian households. Holidays are spent cooking everything from scratch, time together ALWAYS involves food and our love language is cooking your favorite meal and feeding you until you can barely move. Looking back, I feel so fortunate that I was fed a home cooked meal every night and had a packed lunch to take to school everyday. Now that is luxury.

When people say they don’t like cooking, I generally think it’s just because they didn’t grow up with anyone who truly loved it. Sure, cooking can be a chore— it’s time intensive and can be stressful and overwhelming. But for me, there’s nothing better than seeing people I love enjoy the food I put my heart and soul into making for them— I have a rule that I won’t cook for anyone I don’t actually love or care about. With the growing popularity of food delivery services, I fear that cooking will become even more of a lost art. And due to the compulsive need for us to “optimize” our lives and our time, I’ve no doubt that it will soon become the least of our priorities. Let’s not let that happen ok?

I know sometimes when people say a recipe is easy you might think “for WHO?”. But this one actually is, and you only need a few ingredients, most of which you already have at home. Now, I’m no pasta making expert, but I’ve tried dozens and dozens of pasta pomodoro dishes from all over. I’ve tried making this recipe a handful of different ways but this is the one I could eat every day if I had to.

I don’t measure anything when I cook, so I’ll give approximate amounts for the ingredients but don’t worry too much about it. Cooking is all about tasting as you go and unlike baking, most things can be estimated and easily corrected.” — Emily Oberg

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“People underestimate circadian health- but it’s just as important as hormonal health. Healing lights in your home can give you serious benefits, & you only need to put in the effort to switch your lights once! Truly, you are under lights all the time, so it is so beyond worth it.

In the morning: I open my windows for sunlight & turn on the full spectrum grow lights if I want even more light.

In the evenings: it’s incandescent, red lights, or beeswax candles. I also always use my red blue light blocking glasses!” — Valerie Ribon

❋ Summer rituals by Mary Beth

“The Count of Monte Cristo - Castles perched above the sea, hidden treasure, secret identities, and daring escapes. The Count of Monte Cristo is an epic of adventure and transformation, exploring justice, vengeance, hope, and the question of whether becoming the instrument of fate comes at the cost of one's humanity. I’m currently reading it in its entirety for the first time (after always loving the movie and abridged version from English class) and it’s immediately becoming one of my favorite classics.” — Mary Beth

❋ Rissoles by Jamie Schler

“Long, long ago, according to legend, the lands around the great medieval fortress of Coucy were terrorized by a ferocious lion “who had thick, long hair, a proud and hideous gaze, and bristling fur.”. The Lord of Coucy, Enguerrand II, slew the beast and freed the countryside. The victory was considered so momentous that a stone lion was carved and erected in the town square as a permanent memorial. A relief of the lion was also sculpted above the gate of the great tower of the castle.

This story of this glorious feat performed by the 12th-century Seigneur of Coucy, Count of Amiens is recounted, among other historians, by Maximilien Melleville in his 1848 history of Le Château de Coucy. From this victory, Melleville continues, annual festivities were instituted in Enguerrand’s honor. One extremely bizarre ceremony was performed by the Abbey of Nogent, which owed a feudal obligation to the Lords of Coucy. Three times a year, the abbot, or more commonly his tenant, had to present rissoles to the Lord of Coucy in the square where the stone lion stood. But, of course, this being the Middle Ages, a mere presentation wasn’t enough.” — Jamie Schler

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“These Peach Fritter Donuts with Brown Butter Maple Vanilla Bean Glaze are just perfect for peach season — soft and fluffy on the inside, yet have that perfectly golden and crisp (almost slightly chewy) exterior that makes a really good fritter impossible to beat. Then tucked into each bite is a warm and gooey peach filling that is full of those juicy, tart peaches that just BURST and are so full of flavor. Fried until perfectly golden and coated in my favorite glaze ever, brown butter maple vanilla bean glaze — it melts into every crack and crevice and adds that deep, warm, nutty richness that pairs so beautifully with the peaches!” — Kiley Heard

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Enjoy your week beautiful people!
— Rocky

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