David Leite's Chocolate Chip Cookies, slightly modified

Here's what I had for breakfast today - a large cup of coffee, and two gigantic chocolate chip cookies. Following the famous recipe David Leite's Chocolate Chip Cookies pretty closely, I made up a batch of cookie dough on Monday night, and baked 6 large cookies this morning. They weren't bad - I especially liked the slightly chewy inside and crispy edges, and the sprinkling of Maldon sea salt flakes on top of a chocolate cookie is genious. But if I ever make these again, I drastically reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe. I made the mistake of having two of these with my coffee this morning, and that is not something I recommend. I was very close to opening a can of tinned sprats to reduce the effects of all that sugar.

Other than that, I was pretty pleased with the way these spread out and baked. Some foodbloggers mentioned that the cookies were flat - not in my kitchen - they were about 1 cm /just under half an inch/ in the center. I baked large cookies, ca 75 grams each (that's just under 3 oz), which is way larger than what's considered a socially acceptable cookie size outside the US, I'm afraid. I'll share the metric recipe here - if you're cooking and baking in cups and ounces, then please refer to any of the good foodbloggers below.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Ameerika šokolaadiküpsised)
Makes a lot, recipe can be halved and the formed unbaked cookies can be frozen



480 g all-purpose flour
1.25 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
275 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 g soft brown sugar (I used 'fariinsuhkur')
300 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
500 g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (at least 60% cacao content)
Maldon sea salt flakes for sprinkling

Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a measuring jug. Put aside.
Using the paddle attachment of a food processor, cream the butter and sugar together for 5 minutes, until it's creamy and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract, and beat until well combined.
Add the flour mixture, and stir just to combine. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
Using your hands, press the dough into a large ball and place in a bowl. Cover with a clingfilm and refridgerate for 36 hours (or up to 72 hours).
Line a baking sheet with a Silpat mat or parchment paper. Using a large ice cream scoop or a similar utensil, scoop out balls of cookie dough, each weighing about 75 grams. Place the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet, leaving plenty of space for spreading (I placed 6 cookie dough balls on my large baking sheet). (Return the remaining dough into the fridge!)
Sprinkle lightly with Maldon sea salt flakes.
Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 175°C oven for 16-18 minutes, until the cookie looks golden on the edges, but is still just pale tanned in the middle.
Remove from the oven, gently transfer onto a metal rack to cool slightly and firm up.
Repeat with the remaining dough.

Some other foodbloggers have tried and tested the recipe:
Molly @ Orangette
Deb @ SmittenKitchen
Stephanie @ Bay Area Bites
Clotilde @ Chocolate & Zucchini (who was smart enough to halve the recipe)
Kristin @ Kitchen Sink Recipes
Pim @ Chez Pim

Saturday morning pancakes

Small buttermilk pancakes, made using eggs from these free-roaming chicken and served with the last of wild strawberry jam and a cup of milky coffee. All made by my dear K.

One cannot ask for more...

Sunday morning pancakes

I've mentioned before that every weekend we have pancakes for breakfast. I'm no good in making them, so I stay in bed until K. calls me to table. Here's a lovely photo of last weekend's pancakes - small and chubby farmers' cheese pancakes that we enjoyed with home-made lingonberry and pear jam (lingonberries were picked by K's mum, pears are from my parents' backyard and the jam was made by me). That's family cooperation, isn't it :)

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend!

Another Quick Brunch Recipe: Swiss Toast with Egg and Cheese

I seem to get excited about brunch recipes recently. First there was this utterly simple, yet genius idea of cracking an egg into a tomato 'shell' and baking it in the oven (Baked Eggy Brunch Tomatoes). Then I saw a recipe for 'Swiss Toasts' in Oma Maitse, an Estonian food magazine. The recipe was simple enough - slice of buttered bread, boiled halved eggs smeared with mayonnaise and topped with cheese. But I wanted something even simpler, so I omitted the butter and 're-located' the mayonnaise.

It's brilliant, should you happen to find some boiled eggs in your fridge in the morning. We've made it twice during last week alone, so I definitely recommend it. Use a cheese that melts nicely - and although I've made it with white bread, brown or rye bread would work well, too.

Grilled Swiss Toast with Egg and Cheese
(Šveitsi võileivad)
Serves 2, can be easily doubled

4 slices of bread
4 tsp of mayonnaise
2 boiled eggs
4 slices of cheese (f. ex. Havarti)

Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F.
Smear the mayonnaise onto bread slices.
Peel the eggs and cut into two halves lenghtwise. Place one egg half on each slice of bread, cut side down.
Balance a slice of cheese on top.
Put into a hot oven for 8-10 minutes, until the cheese is starting to melt and the egg and bread are warm.

Garnish with a sprig of thyme from your windowsill and serve with some sliced tomatoes.

Nami-nami turns three and makes a great brunch dish

On Sunday this little food blog of mine, NAMI-NAMI, turned three. On June 15, 2005 (while still living in Edinburgh), I wrote my first post, which has led to three more years of food-related posts. Starting this food blog was one of the best decisions I made that year, as it has led to making and meeting many good friends both in 'real life' and on the Internet. Lots of other things have changed during that time. I've moved back home to Estonia. I've started a new life with K. I've started a new job. More importantly, during that time I've become a better cook. I've learned a lot from reading your food blogs, dear readers. I've read zillion cookbooks, taken two professional cookery courses here in Tallinn, done an 10-day internship in a top gourmet restaurant, relaunched my Estonian site. I've got a new camera, and even took a short photography course last year. Life is good..

Thank you all for being such generous readers and a special thank you to K. for putting up with this somewhat obsessive blogging of mine..

Here's what we ate on the morning of Nami-nami's third blogday:

Baked Eggy Brunch Tomatoes
(Küpsetatud tomatid munaga)
Serves 4, can be easily halved, doubled, trebled
Adapted from BBC Good Food (June 2006)



4 large tomatoes
4 medium free-range eggs
butter
salt
freshly ground black pepepr
4 slices of thick rye bread
8 slices of smoked bacon

Heat the oven to 200 Celsius.
Cut a lid off tomatoes and scoop out the seeds, using a small spoon.
Place tomatoes on a baking sheet, season the insides with salt and pepper.
Break an egg into each tomato and top with a small piece of butter. Season again and replace the lid.
Bake in the middle of the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes, until the eggs are set to a suitable degree (20 minutes, if you prefer your egg runny).
Place the bacon slices ionto the baking sheet for the last 10 minutes, so they could crispen up.
Toast the bread, and smear with butter.
Place two slices of bacon onto each slice of bread and top with a tomato.
Garnish with some fresh herbs and serve. (Note that baked tomato is very hot in the beginning!)

Other relevant posts:
Nami-nami turns ONE
Nami-nami turns TWO
Moving back home

Cottage Cheese Muffins

Great minds really think alike.

You see, four weeks ago I made these lovely cottage cheese muffins for breakfast. Ideally, of course, I would have wanted to blog about these muffins earlier, but then I was in Budapest, spent a day on the seaside, took part in the Daring Bakers and WTISIM blog events, plus I've been spending time trying to learn how to cook from the real masters. Somehow the whole of November came and passed without blogging about these muffins..

Although I do follow Heidi's blog, it was only after making my cottage cheese muffins that I came across the recipe for Sun-dried Tomato Cottage Cheese Muffins over at Heidi's blog. Last night I decided that today is the day for my cottage cheese muffin post. Imagine my delight then when I spotted Kalyn's version of Heidi's muffins first thing this morning: Cottage Cheese and Egg Breakfast Muffins with Ham and Cheddar. You see what I'm telling about great minds thinking alike??

My version is simpler - just cottage cheese and herbs. If you fancy a more substantial version with ham or sun-dried tomatoes, check out Kalyn's and Heidi's posts, respectively.

The recipe is adapted from "Kohupiima- ja kodujuusturaamat" (100 Rooga). I've added fresh herbs that make the muffins so much more interesting, and also adjusted the quantities to fit the size of most commonly available cottage cheese tubs.

Cottage Cheese Muffins
(Kodujuustumuffinid)
Makes 12 muffins



350 g cottage cheese
2 eggs, lightly whisked
125 g butter, melted
3 Tbsp sour cream
50 g cheese, grated
a handful of chopped fresh parsley
100 g plain/all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Mix cottage cheese, grated cheese, eggs, melted butter, sour cream and chopped parsley.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl, stir into the cheese and egg mixture.
Spoon the mixture into prepared muffin tins* and bake in the middle of 200 C oven for about 25 minutres, until the muffins have puffed up and golden.
Cool a little and serve. The muffins are even better on the following day, so they'd make an ideal picnic item (or breakfast item, of course).

* I suggest using silicone muffin pan (12 hole capacity) to make these cottage cheese muffins (I've also began using silicone muffin pan for making Molly's beautiful Bouchons au Thon, as these slip out of a pan very easily). Alternatively, use paper muffin cups, or butter your regular metal muffin tin thoroughly.

Old-fashioned Soups: Pumpkin Soup with Semolina

With Halloween just a fortnight behind us, there may still be an odd wedge of pumpkin in your fridge. I made a pumpkin risotto recently, and had had a lone half of a orange-fleshed pumpkin waiting in the fridge ever since then. I thought of re-making Johanna's roasted pumpkin and blue cheese quiche again. Or the simple pumpkin soup with vegetable stock. But eventually I decided to make something very unusual (to my international readers), yet typically Estonian. Milk soups - either with various grains (rice, semolina, pearl barley), pasta (macaroni or vermichelli noodles), or even vegetables (just like this beautiful summer soup by Deinin) are all common in Estonia. Granted, with the general increase of living standards and international influences, these humble soups do not enjoy the popularity they once did, but they're still very much part of the culinary heritage.

This milk soup with pumpkin and semolina can be eaten for breakfast, as a dessert or just as a light meal. It's best served warm, with a spoonful of jam, a dollop of butter or a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil (like I did), or even maple syrup (like K. did).

Ka Thredahlia tegi hiljuti kõrvitsa-mannasuppi - retsepti leiate siit. Ja ka Nami-nami blogisse võib kommentaare jätta eesti keeles:)

Milky Pumpkin Soup with Semolina
(Kõrvitsa-piimasupp mannaga)
Serves 4



500 ml milk (~ 2.5%)
300 ml water
350 g pumpkin flesh, coarsely grated
20 g or about 1.5 Tbsp wheat semolina (Cream of Wheat)
0.5 tsp salt
2 Tbsp demerara sugar

Bring milk and water to the boil in a heavy saucepan. Add pumpkin, reduce heat a little and simmer, stirring regularly, for about 15-20 minutes until pumpkin is softened.
Sprinkle in semolina, stirring to avoid lumps. Season with salt and sugar, reduce the heat further and cook for another 5 minutes, until semolina has expanded and softened.
Serve in small bowls.

In search of a perfect Fried Green Tomatoes recipe

The autumn is truly here. Whereas only few weeks ago the sun was still warm and kind, then now we've been told to prepare ourselves for slush this weekend. I hope the predictions are unfounded, as I still hope to make it to the forest for one more wild mushroom hunt, so do keep your fingers crossed for me:) In any case, cooler autumn days also means the appearance of green tomatoes at the market, as there's simply not enough sun to ripen the otherwise grown-up tomatoes. We spotted huge boxes of them at the market last month already, and had to buy some. When I did the week-long eGullet foodblog recently, then a eGulleteer Scottie suggested his easy way for frying green tomatoes (I watched the movie again just a week earlier, incidentally), and made a lovely Sunday brunch of them.

Now I know there are lots of different ways to prepare the famous fried green tomatoes. I'd appreciate if you'd share your favourite version or any other tips and advice for preparing green tomatoes - there's plenty left, you see!

Fried Green Tomatoes
(Praetud rohelised tomatid)



green tomatoes*
finely ground cornmeal**
salt & pepper
Cayenne pepper
butter for frying

Mix cornmeal/cornflour, salt, pepper and Cayenne pepper on a small plate.
Cut tomatoes into 5 mm slices, crosswise, then dip into the cornmeal/cornflour mixture.
Heat a heavy frying pan on a moderate heat, add butter and allow to melt.
Layer tomato slices onto the frying pan and fry gently from both sides for a few minutes, until cornmeal/cornflour has browned a little and the tomatoes have softened.
Serve at once with fried eggs and a spicy mayonnaise sauce or adjika (a Georgian red pepper condiment).

* They must be fully grown tomatoes that are simply not red yet. Do not use undergrown green tomatoes, which contain high levels of glycoalkaloid tomatine, which isn't good for you. The amount in grown-up green tomatoes is negligible.
** You want the yellowish flour here, not the white starchy Maizena cornflour (UK)/cornstarch (US)!

Copycat: Johanna's omelette and smoked salmon stack

On our recent trip to London, K and I stayed with my friend Johanna's for a weekend. During that time we had the pleasure of feasting - literally - every morning. We had eggs benetine or florendict on Saturday (great poached eggs!) an omelette layer cake with smoked salmon and rocket on Sunday (an impressive-looking layered affair), and a savoury clafoutis with cherry tomatoes and rocket on Monday (a 'requested breakfast' dish - I had the pleasure of eating this on the morning after Jeanne's & Johanna's blog birthday bash in June 2006, and couldn't wait to have it again). Each one of those breakfasts sounded & looked fabulous and tasted een better. But it was the omelette layer cake with smoked salmon & rocket that kept haunting us long after we were back home in Estonia. So it happened that we recreated Johanna's omelette layer cake at home last Sunday, when my friend Liis came for a Sunday brunch with her family. We followed Johanna's recipe to the letter as far as the omelette pancakes were concerned. Our resident pancake-expert (that's obviously not me, but K) did a good job and cooked no less than seven thinner-than-thin omelettes, six of which were perfect (and the seventh one had few beauty shortcomings).



The rocket leaves were picked from our windowsill garden, and partially replaced with some young spinach leaves. I also used salt-cured sliced trout, which I quickly pan-fried on a dry frying pan and drained on a paper towel to rid of excess oil. I then simply crumbled the fish between omelette layers, interlacing them with green leaves.

We served the omlette and smoked fish layer cake with a herby sour cream sauce (sour cream, mayonnaise, dill, salt), which nicely complemented the saltiness of the fish. And for the garnish, few extra rocket leaves from the window sill..

A great dish, believe me, and I heartily recommend that you go and check out that recipe yourself!

Blueberry Pancakes for a Sunday Brunch

We had another beautiful and sunny Sunday here. As I've told you before, no Sunday morning should start without pancakes. A fortnight ago we had golden saffron pancakes, last Sunday plain 'normal' pancakes (with last of the Moominmamma's rhubarb & ginger jam). Today we opted for blueberry-studded ones, which were wonderful. Ideally I would use freshly picked wild blueberries, but if these are not available, then frozen ones will do, too. Remember not to add blueberries to the batter, as this will probably colour the whole batter into an unsightly shade of purple (though it wouldn't affect the flavour, obviously).

We ate these thick small pancakes with a generous drizzle of Canadian maple syrup, but a runny honey would be just as good.

Blueberry Pancakes
(Mustikapannkoogid)
Serves 4



300 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
300 ml milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp melted butter
100 grams blueberries (frozen are fine, as long you defreeze them first)

To serve:
pure maple syrup or runny honey

In a mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
Mix milk, egg and cooled melted butter in another bowl, then add to the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Add vanilla extract.
Heat a frying pan on a low to moderate heat, add some oil or butter.
Drop a small ladleful of pancake batter into the pan, scatter some blueberries on top. Cook until it's golden brown, then flip over and fry the other side, too.
Serve with maple syrup or runny honey.

Other blueberry recipes @ Nami-nami:
Blueberry tart (April 2006)

Other pancake recipes @ Nami-nami:
Buttermilk pancakes with sliced bananas, toasted nuts and warm maple syrup (March 2006)
Golden saffron pancakes (May 2007)

Golden saffron pancakes on a sunny Sunday morning

We always have pancakes for breakfast on Sunday mornings. I don't know if we can call it a tradition yet, as we've only lived together for just over six months (I moved in with K. upon my return from Scotland in mid-October), but we've surely had loads of pancakes during that time. If we're not having pancakes at home, we enjoy them at either my parents' place or at K's mum's place. Not having pancakes for Sunday breakfasts seems almost wrong.. I wonder if "Sunday pancakes" might be an Estonian thing, as I know many-many other families who start their Sundays with pancakes and some jam. Any thoughts?

But there's a pancake confession I need to make: I'm not very good in making pancakes. Althought I can make small, fat pancakes (dropcakes), I'm utterly useless in making thin crepe-style pancakes. K., on the other hand, enjoys making pancakes in all shape and form. Thin ones. Thick ones. Small dropcakes. Large crepes. Pancake batter made with milk, with buttermilk, with whipping cream, with curd cheese. You name it. So it's usually him making pancakes on Sundays, to my great delight. This morning he woke me up with a batch of saffron pancakes, served with freshly made rhubarb jam a la Moominmamma. I had bookmarked both recipes to make myself, but when K. offered to make these himself, I didn't complain. After all, it meant I could lie in bed for half an hour longer :)

These pancakes - a cover recipe of the 3/2007 issue of the Finnish food magazine Glorian Ruoka & Viini (see left) - caught my eye with their gorgeous golden colour. And it wasn't just a trick photography - in our kitchen the pancakes had a deep amber hue, and a definite whiff of saffron. The original recipe accompanied them with a jam made from berries (f. ex. raspberries, strawberries, cherries, apricots or such like), vanilla, star anise and rhum. That sounds good, but I've got loads of rhubarb just now, and I knew these would go well with Moominmamma's rhubarb & ginger jam. I was right.

Saffron pancakes
(Safranipannkoogid)
Source: Glorian Ruoka & Viini, Numero 44, 3/2007
Serves 4



400 ml plain flour (240 g)
2 tsp baking powder
0.75 tsp salt
4 Tbsp sugar (70 g)
2 Tbsp water, boiling
0.5 g saffran (a very scant pinch!)
300 ml milk (low-fat is fine)
3 medium eggs
50 ml butter, melted and cooled

butter or oil for frying

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar) in a bowl.
Pour boiling water into a measuring jug, add saffron and mix, until the water has coloured. Add milk and pour the mixture onto the dry ingredients.
Add the eggs and the melted butter and mix until combined (do not overmix). Add a bit more milk, if the batter feels to thick.
Heat a heavy-bottomed frying pan on a medium heat, add a bit of butter. Add a small ladleful of batter and fry pancakes for couple of minutes on both sides, until golden brown.
Keep pancakes warm under a piece of foil, while you bake the rest.
Serve warm with some home-made jam.

Other pancake recipes @ Nami-nami:
Buttermilk pancakes with sliced bananas, toasted nuts and warm maple syrup (March 2006)
Wild strawberries on pancakes (July 2006)

Cafés with a view: three breakfasts on Santorini

I will write soon about my three days in Volos, Greece, but here are some pictures from Santorini. I spent 3 days and 2 nights on the island, where my friends Annemieke (Scottish) & Georgios (Greek) got married in a beautiful ceremony on Saturday night. Three days on the island also meant three breakfasts with gorgeous views in the capital, Fira. Now - this being Santorini - the views are always gorgeous, especially if you're eating on the Caldera side of the island. However, you do pay a premium for those vistas. While I'm sure we could have had a breakfast for a fraction of the price on the other side of the town, we were actually happy to splash out a bit for a the visual privilege. It's not every morning that I can sip my frappé while watching cruise ships, ferries and yachts passing by below.

In the interest of research, I had a coffee (cappuccino freddo on day 1 as featured on my new profile photo, frappe on days 2&3) and yogurt with fruit & honey for every breakfast.

Day 1, Friday: Café del Mar e Sol



Best - though priciest - breakfast of the three. The yogurt was thick and creamy, accompanied by lots of fresh fruit and a generous drizzling of honey. Exactly what a girl needs after floating on the sea for 12 hours.
Frappe €4.50, Cappucino freddo €6.00, Ice tea €4.50 Yogurt with fruit & honey €9.00

Day 2, Saturday: Café Ocean


Most disappointing - if cheapest - of the bunch. The fruit salad had obviously been made in advance (or maybe it was me having a particularly late breakfast?), and the bananas had become all mushy. Nice sprinkling of nuts though.
Frappe €3, Yogurt with fruit & honey €6

Day 3, Sunday (morning after the Greek wedding party): Hotel Enigma Outdoor Café



Though the yogurt only came with apples and bananas, these were freshly chopped and the breakfast was a very good value for money, especially considering that the café is part of the pretty expensive Enigma Club entreprise.
Frappe €3.50, Yogurt with fruit & honey €6.50

Now. I'm still not sure which view did I like best. Which one would you choose?

Sunday breakfast: buttermilk pancakes with bananas, nuts & maple syrup

A simple recipe for deliciously rich and fluffy pancakes that are perfect for a lazy Sunday breakfast at home. Drizzled with warm maple syrup and layered with sliced bananas and nuts of your choice, these are positively decadent.

Buttermilk pancakes with sliced bananas, toasted nuts and warm maple syrup
(Petipannkookid vahtrasiirupi, pähklite ja banaanidega)
The quantities below will feed two, but can be easily multiplied by 2 or 3 to feed a crowd.



100 grams plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1-2 Tbsp sugar
150 ml buttermilk or kefir
1 large egg
25 grams butter, melted

sunflower oil or butter for frying

To serve:
1 banana, sliced
25 grams of nuts (pecans, sliced almond, walnuts are all good), toasted until aromatic and golden
maple syrup, heated

Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl.
Whisk the buttermilk, egg and melted butter in another bowl, then mix into the dry ingredients. Heat a non-stick frying pan on a medium, add a bit of oil or butter.
Take about 2 Tbsp of pancake batter for each pancake and fry in small batches on both sides until golden brown (about 2 minutes per side).
Keep pancakes warm in a cool oven or under a piece of foil (or do what my Mum does - she always makes one large pancake at the end and puts on top of the small ones to keep them warm).

To serve the pancakes, layer them with sliced bananas and toasted nuts, and pour over the maple syrup.

Forks and knives are optional:)

Sunny brunch: Bill Granger's potato & feta pancakes

After couple of bright and sunny mornings in Edinburgh, today was positively miserable. The sky was overcast - a starck contrast to the blue morning skies earlier this week. It was drizzling with very wet rain. It was cooooooold. Dreich, as the Scots would say. The only way I could get myself to wake up on a morning like this was to drag myself out of my bed, and head for a caffeine kick at a nearby cafe. It helped - a lot actually. Before I headed out though, I leafed through bills Sydney food, just to remind myself that there are places in the world that are always sunny, whatever the season.. Oh, and pick a recipe idea for brunch.

One latte, almond croissant and morning papers later, I was back in my kitchen. It was still drizzling outside, the rain ferociously beating at my window. But it didn't matter as much anymore. I was grating potatoes, mincing spring onions and crumbling feta cheese, trying out an Australian (= sunny) recipe for a Greek (= sunny) dish. On the menu:

Potato and feta pancakes
(Kartuli-fetapannkoogid)
Adapted from Bills Sydney Food by Bill Granger*



500 grams potatoes, peeled and grated
5 spring onions, white parts only, chopped
2 eggs
2 tsp dried mint
2 Tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley
100 grams feta cheese, crumbled
4 Tbsp plain flour
salt and black pepper

Vegetable oil for frying.

Mix the grated potatoes and chopped onions with a pinch of salt, put into a colander to drain for 15 minutes.
Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl, add the herbs, feta cheese and flour. Squeeze the excess moisture from the potatoes and add to the egg mixture. Season and mix to combine.
Heat a little oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Take 1 Tbsp of mixture and dip into the hot oil, press to flatten. Fry on both sided on a medium-low heat until golden brown (if the heat is too high, your pancakes will brown before the potato is cooked).

Think of this as a Greek version of the British brunch staple hash brown, with herbs and salty speckles of feta cheese. Just a bit brighter and warmer and sunnier..

* Bill's recipe included 1 small onion, 2 Tbsp of mint, and parsley to serve.

What I Had For Breakfast MeMe

A one-off meme started by Andrew of Spittoon, exploring the eating habits of food bloggers across the world.

My breakfasts are quite varied, depending on my appetite, day of the week, time of the day (it can be anything from 8am to noon, even on weekdays), time of going to bed night before etc etc. There is no fixed Sunday breakfast - apart from the fact that I tend to have it outside and it tends to be accompanied by newspapers. So instead of blogging only about what I had on Sunday, here are snapshots of some of my breakfasts this week...

Wednesday:
Breakfast (almost) in bed. Had a leisurely breakfast sitting on the floor next to my bed, basking in the winter sun and listening to BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour..

A big cup of wild strawberry flavoured black tea from Fortnum & Mason. A tub of Tesco Finest Swiss Black Cherry Yogurt. A clementine. A slice of cranberry orange loaf. A piece of yummy Turkish feta and spinach pie baked by my temporary flatmate. Mmmm...

Thursday:
Got up at 8am. I am teaching on Thursdays, so I need to get up far too early for my liking – too stressed to stay in bed anyway. A tub of above yogurt in the kitchen, followed by a cup of latte and chocolate croissant in Peckhams, my favourite deli that is conveniently on my way to work.

Saturday:
After a long night in (a Scottish meal of haggis, neeps & tatties, cranachan and wine and whiskymacs at my place, story to follow), I get up very late on Saturday. Head for a latte and blueberry muffin at BeanScene, where I am greeted with this gorgeous smiley face.

Sunday:
Have another Estonian visitor in Edinburgh, this time a friend studying in London. Head for a proper Scottish fry up at Native State on Bristo Square. Not really my kind of place in the evenings – lots of pre-club drinkers, huge TV screens showing sports and loud music. But years of testing and tasting have shown their fry up to be one of the best and I come here about once or twice a month. You get a huge meal, glass of juice and a cup of tea or coffee for £4.50 as long as you order before 11am. Good incentive to get out of bed early :)

I am not vegetarian, but I don’t really fancy loads of meat first thing in the morning. So I usually go for the vegetarian breakfast. And although I quite like haggis, both in its traditional and vegetarian form (especially McSweeney’s of Edinburgh haggis), the Native State own recipe haggis isn’t for me. So instead of haggis I usually ask for an extra sausage. Scrambled eggs, baked beans, tomato, mushrooms, hash brown, potato scone, toast and butter. Orange juice and cafetiere coffee.