Breakfast for dinner!

I think I've mentioned before that breakfast is my favorite meal to cook. I do, of course, love getting out the fine china and making special meals on occasion, but really, I'd make a fancy breakfast every day if I had my way. To extend the opportunity to make more breakfast food, it was breakfast for dinner tonight! There are so many great things about breakfast for dinner, including it being generally cheap and fast. Tonight I decided on bacon, frittata and blueberry pancakes.

Blueberry pancakes in October?! Yes, well, these were frozen blueberries. I had serious reservations about using frozen blueberries in anything other than a smoothie, but these ones I've been buying are really good for frozen berries. They are large, plump, and return to "life" easily in a water bath.

The frittata was particularly scrumptious. I started by sauteing some onions in my non-stick and oven safe (up to 350) skillet. While they were very soft and starting to brown (and get sweet), I beat together 6 eggs, some skim milk, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped grape tomatoes, salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash table seasoning. I poured that into the skillet, which was on medium heat, and left it lone for a couple minutes to start setting. Then I put it into a 325 degree oven until it no longer giggles when you give the pan a little shake. The seasoning is very important. I feel like this application of eggs can be really bland and disappointing if under seasoned. However, I do still want the eggs to shine, and things like sauteed garlic sometimes over power them.

T-bone

This was the first time I brought a T-bone steak home to cook. This is mostly due to the price of this cut, but it was on sale and looked good, so I went for it. When I think of T-bones, I think of Papa buying one as a treat for my mom on occasion (pretty sure I would get a hot dog that night- but being a kid who loves hot dogs, I'm sure I didn't know what I was missing!). So of course, for my first attempt, I phoned Papa for advice on cooking it. I had three options in my head: 1) Outdoor grill. I threw this out almost immediately because firing up our charcoal grill is a bit of a process and with two kids to watch (it being a weeknight so Erik couldn't do it, or we wouldn't eat til 9pm), this was a tough option to justify. 2) My indoor grill- imitation George Forman type. This seemed like a pretty good option, but I was worried the bone in the steak might not allow the top of the grill to close onto the lower portion of the steak and cook it unevenly. 3) Cast iron pan. The old standard. This type of pan is great for meat because it gets ripping hot and holds onto that heat well once food is put in it. Papa and I decided this was the way to go. It can also be transferred to the oven and with this being a relatively thick T-bone, we figured a nice hot sear on both sides and then finished in the oven to desired doneness would work well. And it did. I had seasoned it with salt and garlic powder. I didn't want to put fresh cracked pepper on it because I didn't want it to burn in the hot pan. I let it go just a shade too long and it was more on the medium well than medium rare side of things, but with such a quality cut of meat, it was still wonderful and the fillet side could be cut with a butter knife.