pain perdu

french toast, bacon, and cabbage...
a rather international breakfast

I'm writing this about a week later than intended thanks to a complete failure of internet at the new apartment. Ah, well... several hours spent on the phone with the internet people and one new modem later, we're back in business! 

Last Monday, after a long weekend of moving and unpacking, breakfast for dinner was in order. Because let's be honest - breakfast, in the proper sense of the word (i.e. bacon must be included) doesn't happen all that often during, well, breakfast hours. But who doesn't love bacon and french toast? 

Funny story about this dinner, too...

pig on pig

'If you want a subject, look to pork!' 

                        - Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Digging through my fridge yesterday morning hoping to find some inspiration for dinner, I hit the jackpot with the discovery of a thawed pork loin (thank you, past self!) and a few slices of bacon. Combined with the makings for green bean casserole, which I found in my pantry, and some homemade rolls and apple sauce, we'd have a nice dinner - enough to share with friends, even.

holiday brekkie

“Hallo! Whoop! How are you! Merry Christmas!” 
                                                       - Ebenezer Scrooge 

I woke up this morning at a lovely late hour in the mood for a good breakfast. Then I realised it's Christmas Eve, and I especially wanted something nice. Lucky for me, I had on hand half a loaf of thick-sliced honey wheat bread and just enough bacon to feed my brother and me. French toast and bacon it was!

one of those weekends

As one of my favourite chefs likes to say...

There's a time and a place for everything, and it's called college.

Okay, I admit, Chef isn't really a chef. Nevertheless, his statement is relevant. My diet this weekend (which ran over into Monday) consisted of chips, queso, black & tans, puppy chow, white Russians, pizza, Jager bombs, cookie dough, B-52s, and wings. The only thing my binge-mates and I were missing was the hot tub of bacon.

You read that right.

Behold the beautiful product of a beloved cast iron pan, three pounds of bacon, and a case of insatiable munchies!

brekkie

Never work before breakfast; if you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first.  ~Josh Billings

There's only one obvious solution to having an hour of free time between work and classes: breakfast. And I definitely don't mean a bowl of cereal. Cereal is more usually for dinner... but that's a different story. I'm talking about a thick slice of bacon fried and married with an egg, cosied up together under a blanket of provolone between two halves of a quarter loaf of asiago focaccia liberally spread with mayo on one side and half an avocado on the other, the whole assemblage grilled in a bit of (okay, maybe quite a bit of) bacon grease.

Heck yes.

This baby was so delicious I didn't even take a picture before going to town on it. In my defence, I did have to get to class.

What I do have a picture of is the iced coffee I drank on my walk to campus - the most epic, Japanese canned coffee:

BLACK BOSS.

It is black. And it is boss. What more is there to say? I bought out the last of this stuff from one of my favourite Asian grocers in Iowa City, and my back-up plan in case they don't carry it any longer is buying it online at $2.50/can and flat rate shipping of $6.95 for orders under $99... not a terrible price. 

Then again, I'm only a little dedicated to these things.