AFMFL #6: Breakfast for Dinner

Yes, as we get behind in the marathon of gluttony, sometimes we look for ways to cut corners and to do easy things.  Well you know what?  Sometimes it's worth it.  Just to take seemingly mundane things to the extreme levels that make them rise above the every day.

It had been three weeks since I had done a dinner and my dear friend Tommy was in visiting from Rome, where he lives.  I wanted to throw two dinners together in one weekend to maximize the amount of times he could attend during his trip.  We had lined out the theme for the Sunday night dinner, but then we couldn't think up anything for the Saturday one, even though it was already Saturday afternoon.  

And so I had to put my southern foot down.  It's time like these that call for Breakfast for Dinner.  Good, down home, old fashioned greasy southern breakfast served up in the evening which makes it somehow taste even better.  So that I could get the dinner to "count" as one of the project dinners I had to use at least one recipe from the NY Times Cookbook.  Being a southern gentleman himself I thought Craig Claibourne would fail me not.  I chose a simple buttermilk biscuit recipe.  It actually was the least tasty thing of the whole damn dinner!  Hard and flat.  Damn you, Craig!  What were you a-thinkin', cuz your recipe for buttermilk biscuits ain't a-workin'!  (pause while the culinary ghost stirs from the grave to curse me and my ancestors).

 On the first day God said "Let there be light."  Well I feel pretty sure that on the second day he said "Let there be bacon."  Or at least he should have.  You just can't go wrong with bacon as a crowd pleaser.  I mean, I don't eat it.  I haven't eaten "meat" per se in over 21 years, but I've never been strict, liberally using broth and--as we shall see here--grease with abandon to make other stuff taste good.  After all, what southern kitchen is complete without a ceramic or glass jar of bacon drippings in the fridge?  It does after all make the BEST gravy.  Also a cast iron skillet (my very own courtesy of the folks over at LODGE) is indispensable too.  Biscuits and gravy just taste too good for words.  And NO.  I don't mean British "biscuits" which are essentially what us Americans would call "cookies".  These are flaky scone like creations that beg for butter and greasy stuff to smother them.  

The hashbrowns were frozen out of the bag.  Yes, I suck.  I know.  I cut corners.  But damn it, sometimes you have to.  When I realized in horror that I was out of cooking oil, I assessed my options.  When suggesting that we could use butter to fry I honestly thought some people's jaw would hit the floor hard enough to dent the wood.  But when Davina agreed that this was an option--and I might add here that she is a professionally trained chef, ladies and gentlemen--I knew I had something good in mind.  So I melted two cups of butter and let the hash browns swim around in the clarified lake of yellow dairy love until they were so golden you almost couldn't look at them directly, as if they had become a solar eclipse.  DAMN THEY WERE GOOD.  I mean DAMN.  I am determined to fry more things in butter.  Just the evilness of it is tempting in an of itself.  :)  Do it people.  Go forth and use butter.

And I might mention that all the dinners this weekend were free form affairs.  Grab a plate and gather round the kitchen, taking things off the stove as they become ready.  So much for the stuffyness of a sit down meal.  The food itself in this case dictated such.  It wasn't "high Southern".  It was most definitely "low Southern" and therefore I chose accordingly. 

Oh and so I could feel like I was participating I had bought some veggie bacon.  But since I was out to prove that I wasn't scared and rules were meant to be broken........I fried it in the leftover bacon grease.  Oh yeah, that's right.  Can't say it was that bad.  

Some sort of weird garlic and something german sausage was purchased as well and promptly fried up.  I gotta be honest, I really should have been some Jimmy Dean Country Sausage which comes in a roll or premade patties, but they alas do not offer this to my knowledge in Bangkok.  So it was some high brow german stuff.  Took a bit longer to brown and didn't make as much grease (can you see that I judge meat by the amount of grease they make with more being good?).

Tommy had brought me some amazing cheese from Italy, a "stinker" as he called it.  And so I made a cheese and cracker platter for folks while they waited on other things to be cooked.  There were even these special jams that were made to be eaten with the cheese.  I love Italians!  The spicy fig one was my favorite.  Went really well with the dried nuts and strawberries and candied mangos that I got.  Yum.  Sorry about the crappy pics overall this time.  I was up to my elbows in grease and hope some of the other guests who were lucky enough to attend got some good shots.  Thanks to Tommy, Craig, Joe, Davina and Joyce for making it a great night.  :)