how I spent my Friday morning

Guess it all worked out that Hadrian got me up AN HOUR EARLY this morning at 4:45 a.m… I had plans to make these:

Brioche!

I needed an egg bread for Saturday morning’s French toast, so I figured I’d just go ahead and make my own. (Just call me Martha; I’m now on my third set of friends who have spontaneously started calling me Martha. I must have it tattooed my forehead or something. First college, then the ones in Ohio, and now my school friends. When the guy who sits next to me in Advanced Nutrition called me ‘Martha,’ the other day, I almost fell out of my chair. It’s her homemade food approach I like, not her tablescapes–let’s be clear in that.)

Anyway, so I started the brioche last night:

It was surprisingly easy to make, and turned out quite well. I made myself a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch–delish!

what i made this weekend

Before I get too far, remember that salmon, broccoli carpaccio and wild rice I was supposed to make for Valentine’s Day?

It was dinner Friday.

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with all those broccoli stalks you have left after cutting off the florets, here is your recipe.

And, I’d been waiting to make this Maple Bacon Biscuit Bake for like, EVER. It’s a King Arthur Flour recipe that caught my eye a long time ago.

I mean, it was bacon, with maple syrup and brown sugar and butter—all mixed together! It’s kind-of an upside-down thing; you put the bacon mixture in the pan first, then top with biscuit dough dropped by the tablespoonfuls. On a second go-round (and there will be one), two things: 1) less biscuit-to-bacon mix ratio (more gooey goodness needed) and 2) definitely heed the directions to flip the pan over IMMEDIATELY. I accidentally let it sit for too long and the syrupy mix started to harden. Sad.

And can you believe Andrew said he was “scared” he would get this instead of monkey bread in the future? Scared. REALLY?!?! Who says that?!

I don’t know if he can dig himself out of THAT hole, but he started tonight when he said he liked what I made for dinner–Chicken Artichoke Lasagna. I was kind of shocked, actually. Andrew’s not a huge fan of artichokes, but I really wanted to make it and after going through the usual checklist (cheese? no. olives? no. mushrooms? no. beans? no.), I figured I’d give it a try. I didn’t take a photo, but it turned out quite well. In fact, it’s already in the “favorites” binder. I don’t know that I can say it was fantastic, but it was good and different and easy.

Pittburgh’s Pamela’s Pancakes Party!

Say that five times fast.

Andrew and I went to Pittsburgh a couple weekends ago to visit Alex and his girlfriend, Mackenzie. Read the post here.

While there, we went to Pamela’s Diner for pancakes. It was our second time; Andrew and I went a couple years ago while we were in the city for a weekend. Pamela’s is famous for super-thin pancakes with rough, scraggle-y, crunchy edges. The crunch is seriously amazing. Below are photos from our recent trip:

I ordered mine the ‘classic’ way, which is served with strawberry slices, sour cream and a little brown sugar. The way the flavors and textures meld together is unreal.

Andrew, of course, ordered his plain. Check out those edges!

Well, the morning we were going to leave on our trip, I got my bi-weekly email from King Arthur Flour (of course I get emails from a flour company?!) and what did they feature but Pittsburgh’s Famous Pancakes! Before I even scrolled to the bottom I forwarded to Andrew with only this line: “Could they mean Pamela’s??”

Yes. Yes they did. And now I had the recipe.

So, of course we had to plan a pancake party with Alex’s parents in order to try out the recipe. Somewhere along the way, we decided to make bloody marys, too….

Cheers!!

What a fun brunch-time drink 🙂

And maple-roasted bacon…

Our pancakes certainly didn’t turn out as prettily as Pamela’s seem to…

…but we had a blast together. We picked up other ‘diner’ sides, like cottage cheese and fruit cocktail, and somehow ended the meal with vanilla ice cream (???). I’m convinced I can give the pancakes another shot, so perhaps we’ll get another taste of P-burgh soon.

BTW–Update on the frozen laundry room pipes: After our bout of freezing rain yesterday morning, all the snow disappeared and we’re well above freezing. I have the first of four loads of laundry in the washing machine right now…