Poached Eggs

Poached Eggs

You probably all know how much Gabe and I love our weekend brunch by now. When we have a little more time in the morning, we try to whip up a hearty breakfast at our own kitchen as well. We usually go for the bacon, but this time, we decided to poach some eggs.

I'd like to say I know how to poach eggs too, but I can't take credit for this one. Gabe is the super star cook in this relationship, really; plus, my knowledge of poached egg was really limited to those involved in Chinese noodle soups until I met Gabe.

The magic potion to poaching eggs is a few drops of vinegar. The vinegar helps the protein stay together in water. When dropping in the egg, the more gentle you are the better. We like our eggs runny, so we only poached them for about 2 minutes till the egg whites are cooked, if you like it firmer you can add a minute or two.

The eggs were served with sausages and saute spinach on rye toasts, topped with a homemade hollandaise sauce. I just learned on Top Chef Canada (It's so addicting to watch!) hollandaise sauce is one of the most difficult sauce to make. Gabe's hollandaise sauce here is not really close to the real rich hollandaise. He just winged it with an egg yolk, butter, mustard (substituted for the lemon juice) and Thyme. It was a nice complement to the dish.

gettn' schooled

gettn' schooled

we finally made it to "the school" bakery + cafe. I've always known about this place, but never got around to it. I think we would just go to mildred's anytime we were in liberty village area. So during our christmas present hunting day, we dropped by for morning class. Incase it isn't obvious, they really play up the "school/classroom" thematic.. from apples on the tables to plaid skirts on their waitresses. It isn't as cheesy as it sounds.


may cannot function without her morning coffee...hehe


Jen, over at Days and Amused recommended via the virtual world that i try the spiced benny on cheddar biscuit with back bacon. And since i usually favour benny's, and love bacon + biscuits, it was a no brainer. Bonus points for serving it in a Staub cast iron pan, i definitely want one now too.

May ordered the super cheesy french toast with double smoked bacon which was brilliant. Even the two ladies sitting on the next table jaw dropped when her plate arrived.


canadian encyclopedia! I always wanted a set when i was a kid.

it is also worth mentioning that i thought the service was too relaxed. It almost seemed as if they had forgotten our meals, and maybe i was super hungry but in my impatience after a second inquiry about our meals, i asked if they could bring us a little something in the meantime (in a polite way) and the waitress seemed to glaze over that idea and made it seem as if our meals came out at the perfect time even tho the table next to us almost finished their meals; even tho they sat down after us.

oh and by the way, stay tuned for our upcoming Best of BRUNCH list. coming soon..

random mash ups

random mash ups

hello there, haven't posted in a while. we've been all over the place this past week and here are some meals we've been mashing up randomly while trying to eat up our pantry


we breaded chicken breast with panko that was on sale, then added boccocini, tomatoes, sauce on pasta with basil. no leftovers here, but definately a random mash up of things


we made this dish with some left over rice and stir fry and completed it with a slice of spam with a hole of a fried egg inside! oh and that's a left over shrimp on top.. haha (like i said, mash up)


some split pea soup from a previous meal, with a sandwich where i added a good layer of antipasto that we bought from costco

the best meal of the day...

the best meal of the day...

a few photos of breakfast i've had recently...



my grandma has one waffle with a little syrup and a bananna once in a while. so this is my version, except i doubled the waffle and added peanut butter in between. i also toast mine a little longer because i like the waffle crunchy.



this is the new cereal i've been eating for the past month.. i bought them at costco.. one is a flake cereal with flax seeds ground right in. Good for omega 3's and i like it because its crunchy, lots of fibre and not too sweet. the museli is just a good mix of dried fruits, nuts seeds and oats to compliment the flakes. they were $7.50 & $6.99 respectively at costco.. (the boxes are costco sized). the coffee "Lavazza" is a coffee that May and I used to drink every morning before she left for work. Its the best brew coffee.. and i can't take credit for it.. i totally found out about this Italian coffee from Liam & Heather who used to make me the best coffee in cambridge. I miss having coffee with them in the mornings. oh and by the way, May and I found that you can buy lavazza at Honest Ed's for $2.29 vs the standard $3.99 and up you'll pay at the average grocery store



and then my biggest of big breakfasts.... I woke up on a saturday morning, half my family was sleeping, half my family was out somewhere.. so i decided to eat up left over luncheon meat (not sure from where) and an avacado... and before i knew it.. the meal turned into this! haha

yay for breakfast!

protein breakfast

protein breakfast

i didn't really plan it this way.. but it just turned into a mega protein breakfast. i ate a leftover sausage.. made two hard boil eggs, cheese on toast. apple and my daily yoghurt drink and green tea. You'll notice that i've changed my pro-biotics yoghurt drink, i'm switched to the ones made by Danone for a few reasons. It was on sale, and they actually taste better. I've also realized they sell it at costco which is another plus

if you have no idea what probiotics are, check this previous post out =]