Garden Breakfast: Kale & Squash Blossom Omelette

So in one of my garden boxes, I just let whatever was in the compost sprout. That turned out to be squash, squash, tomatoes, squash, tomatillos, squash, squash, and squash. Though most of the squash are winter ones (I think?) they are still producing a huge amount of the fragile, tasty delicacies that are squash blossoms. Squash blossoms are a great reward of having a garden - they're expensive to buy and not of the best quality, since they start to wilt as soon as you've picked them. Grow your own, and eat like people pay to in restaurants.

I wake up, I'm hungry, I go out to the garden and pick the stuff that needs picking. Good heavens, that's a lot of greens. Stay tuned for greens recipes.


Ingredients

• 5-6 eggs
• 2 cups squash blossoms (if you don't press them down)
• a good handful of kale or other green
• a shallot or small onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• some kind of sharp cheese; I used cotija, I've also had good results with goat cheese. Feta would work nicely.
• Whatever else you get from the garden that day. I used broccoli. You could use tomatoes. Really it is hard to go wrong.

Instructions
Mince the garlic and the shallot. Fry in oil or butter until transparent.

Add the squash blossoms. Fry on medium heat until wilted and soft.

Push the vegetables out of the pan and crack the eggs into it. (Or you could mix them eggs up beforehand; I like the contrast of yolk and white that you get if you break the yolks after they've started to cook. You'll want to make sure the pan is not too hot.

Once the eggs have turned opaque but have not yet finished cooking, lay the cooked vegetables down in a line on one side of the eggs.

Wash the kale or greens and lay a layer of leaves over the top of the squash blossoms. Let the heat soften them a little bit, then put on your last layer of vegetables - here, broccoli. Sprinkle on some sharp cheese.

Gently fold over the top of the omelette and let it cook until set. Serve with hot sauce.

Black Sesame Breakfast Bread

So like all y'all, I'm trying to eat less sugar, refined grains, and processed food. But sometimes you've just got to say "Whatever! Time for a quick bread!" Like if you've got a little kid that you're teaching to cook! This bread is great for that! It's super-fun to mix in each of the ingredients and watch the different ways that they behave: stirring in the eggs till their yolks break, watching the oil pool on top of everything until it's stirred in, and all throughout the little black dots of the sesame seeds. The batter is also very tasty, though if you get salmonella it wasn't me who told you to lick the spoon.

If this recipe looks suspiciously familiar to you, it's because it started out life as a poppyseed bread recipe. You know what I couldn't find cheaply at stores here? Poppyseeds! You know what I had on hand? Black sesame seeds! And my goodness, it changes the whole character of the bread. I made a few other changes to the sugar and the flour as well - the result is a bread that's mildly sweet and robustly flavorful. I don't post recipes unless I think they're unusually delicious or unusually useful or both. So seriously, try this bread. Play dates with your grandkids will never be the same.

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup oil (use a light-tasting oil. Peanut would work too, with the nuttiness of the bread.)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp almond extract (I have eliminated this on occasion)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp black sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 cups milk

Instructions
Combine sugar, oil, eggs, and extracts, and beat until smooth. Stir in the sesame seeds.

Add the dry ingredients (flours and baking powder) alternately with the milk. I usually do this in three sets - flour then milk.

Grease two bread pans (these are the 8x4 ones) and divide the batter evenly between them. Bake in a 350 oven for about an hour.

If you want to get extra fancy, take 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar. Mix it with just enough lemon juice or orange juice to make a paste slightly thinner than toothpaste. Frost the top of your bread with this. Let your bread cool to room temperature before you try, otherwise it will run all over everywhere.

Price
Ugh, trying to price out a baked good! This is pretty cheap. The expensive stuff is the eggs and the milk. I don't have to tell you to buy the black sesame in an international supermarket, right? If you are still buying your spices from McCormick or whatever your standard grocery aisle brand is I will smack you and smack you. What is this, the 1600s? Spices do not turn the world economy and fuel colonial expansion, so stop paying if they did.

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry muffins are my favorite kind of muffin. As summer slowly approaches and cheap fruit is all over stores, making blueberry muffins for a weekend breakfast. I love this recipe with the nutty taste of browned butter and the crumb topping. The berries ooze and it's a delicious treat.

Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Joy the Baker
yields 12 muffins

For the muffin batter
7 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups washed blueberries

For the crumb topping
1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons of cold butter, cut in small cubes

Preheat oven to 375 and line muffin tin with wrappers.

Put butter in saucepan and cook on medium heat until it starts to turn brown, occasionally swirling the pot. Keep an eye on the butter, as it's easy to burn it. Remove from heat.

Whisk together the milk, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk in browned butter, being careful to mix the whole time so the eggs don't scramble from the heat. Whisk in dry ingredients. Fold in blueberries.

Fill all muffin tins with batter.

Mix together butter and sugar. Cut cold butter in, using a pastry cutter or two knives, until very fine. Pour over top of muffins.

Bake 18-20 minutes, then let sit in the pan for 15 minutes. They are delicious warm or cold.