Brunch In Bridgetown

The very technical ingredient list.

All I ever heard growing up was, "Michael clean your room, Michael vacuum the steps, Michael guest post on my healthy food and travel blog...."  It got a little tiresome.  Luckily I happen to be dating a rather remarkable chef so - never being one to miss an opportunity - I saw an opening to kill two birds with one stone.  By partaking in the cooking of brunch and documenting the affair I could make the ol' ball and chain happy AND knock off a to do list with the old lady.  See what I'm sayin'?

  Just kidding of course.  Mary and I regularly make brunches out here in lovely Portland, Oregon and thought it would be fun to share with everyone what we did this weekend.  Mary wanted to make potato pancakes (something she had never done before) and I'm a fan of chorizo so we threw that on the plate along with baked eggs + chives.  We had some pineapple for a healthy desert.  

Potato pancakes.

  Right around here I should get into how these tasty potato pancakes were made but to be honest I was on chorizo and music duty so I'll give you what I remember:

   Grate the potatoes and onion.  Separate from the water using a fine mesh strainer or dry with a paper towel.  Place the shredded onions and potatoes in a big bowl and add the (beated) egg, 1 tbsp of flour a tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of black pepper.  We added some chives.  Stir the mixture and form into several pancakes. Heat some veggie oil in a skillet and add the the pancakes.  Heat until golden brown or about 4 minutes per side.  With two russet potates and half an onion we made about 10-11 pancakes.

chorizo.

 Our chorizo came in a tube that honestly could have been mistaken for astronaut food, but after heating a thick iron skillet over medium heat and stirring the meat - it actually starts looking pretty good (see above).  The last part of the meal was a few baked eggs and if you don't know how to make an egg perhaps you should be spending less time reading cooking blogs and more time ordering the Grand Slam from your local Denny's.  Just open an egg over the pan, cook until light brown on the bottom, then with intense focus flip the egg so as not to break the yolk.  Add some chives if you like to live dangerously.

  Thats about it, folks.  This week was a bit of a hodgepodge of food but we both thought it was fun to have so many different flavors on the plate.  Not much room was left for the pineapple, but then again maybe thats the mark of a job well done.

Mary and the guy who made your chicken parm at Blitz's Deli in New Jersey.