If Martha Stewart were a 40-ish widow in rural Ohio, the result would be Suzanne Dietz, heroine of Bedeviled Eggs by Laura Childs (official site). Suzanne is one of three partners in The Cackleberry Club, an adorable breakfast/lunch/tea restaurant with an adorable bookstore nook, an adorable knitting supplies nook, and a slew of adorable community activities. Her partners and best friends are Petra, who does the actual cooking, and Toni, who seems to be the town wild child.

In this book, third in the series, an adorable community event (“read dating”) turns sour when a mayoral candidate is murdered. Some of the murder-related scenes (and their aftermaths) are so grim that the extreme coziness starts to read like Dietz’s deliberate pushback against a harsh small-town reality, though the character’s not self-aware on that level.

What this book supplied, along with so much adorability that I feel a lingering guilt at not decorating for minor holidays, is a slew of tempting egg dishes. One is a breakfast pizza that sounds remarkably like the famous Kum & Go breakfast pizza but turns out to be made with biscuit dough. This was a must-try. And it just calls for a little swing, with Hilary Lester and Mick the Knife covering Dean Martin.

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Pssst! Cranberry-mushroom flan with onions and walnuts!

This is my go-to Thanksgiving dish for vegetarians, and you will want to make plenty, as non-vegetarians will snurfle up more than their share. This version is a flan, rather than a quiche, because it lacks a crust, thus making it a lot lower-calorie, as well as gluten-free (if you omit one optional ingredient).

Since it’s thrown together somewhat randomly, I’m going to take a random stroll through my Twitter feed and play whatever comes up, regardless of thematic consistency. Let’s start with Colorado blues-rock band The Amends (official site), who endearingly want to be your 11th favorite  rock ‘n’ roll band. Preheat the oven to 350 and check out their latest single.
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Then there are the days when it’s questionable whether I know how to cook. As a result, this post may have some NSFW moments. Click cautiously.

Run Hundred‘s top workout songs for June included the Men in Black 3 theme, “Back in Time,” which is working extremely well for me as a summer confection that I enjoy on the radio now but won’t remember by Thanksgiving. This seemed to call for a 1960s recipe, updated. Since the song is a mish-mash mash-up, I wanted a casserole.

After enough tiptoeing around the web that I was really, really hungry, I realized that Nibble Me This’ baked eggs Napoleon (recipe), which I’d Pinned as a recipe to try, had the right 1960s feel of haute cuisine fanciness laminated onto simple pantry ingredients. Plus, it would easily lend itself to modifications. So preheat the oven… no, wait, the oven preheating thing causes an unstable time loop… Read the rest of this entry »

Any Midwesterner would have been certain that for Indiana, I’d have to capitulate and deep-fry a hunk of breaded meat for a pork tenderloin sandwich.

Fortunately, Indiana also had German and Dutch immigrants who appreciated the beauties of a ham-onion tart.

It also offers us a change from shoegaze and dream-pop, as I dug up a “southern rock” group called Buffalo Head (Myspace), whom I think we need to keep around for their name, if nothing else. Every home needs a buffalo head. Read the rest of this entry »

A brief lapse in our potent monsoon-season combo of 108-degree temperatures and 90% humidity allowed me to contemplate breakfast just as SeriousEats touted Kaiserschmarrn, which is essentially scrambled eggs with ideas slightly above their station.

Since the general impression is of English nursery food (not ruled out by the German name, given Queen Victoria’s origins), it seemed like the time to dip a spoon into the British singer/songwriter tradition of the second folk revival, notably in the form of The Assorted Family Circle (MySpace or official site). Yes, I get bonus points for choosing a band whose name goes with the whole Victorian-nursery-milk-in-first theme. But we won’t make any progress if we don’t break some eggs. Read the rest of this entry »

My first successful dish after a long bout of flu — with resulting reluctance to eat, much less cook — defies the laws of physics.

The concept was to construct an individual-sized portion of TheKitchn’s Quick Breakfast Casserole, thus enabling myself to eat some nice eggs without standing pathetically over a hot stove, weakly waving a spatula. And then it puffed.

A concept dish requires a concept album. I’ve been mildly obsessed with B.o.B.’s The Adventures of Bobby Ray since belatedly buying it a couple weeks ago. Plus, much like my accidental souffle, it consists of a bizarre agglomeration of ingredients that nonetheless melds and sings. You can take a partial listen here, but I’m going to go more-or-less track by track, with a surprise at the end. If B.o.B. has somehow slipped your mind, the video of his nigh-unto-ubiquitous hit is after the jump and before the recipe. Read the rest of this entry »

My favorite bun-in-a-bowl is some of the provocation to review my favorite recipes since starting the blog. A few caloric goodies are going to be featured in the early weeks of the New Year just to wrap up the holiday baking, but I’m thinking lasciviously about salad these days. So shed a tear for some of the more caloric goodies but take a listen to their accompanying soundtracks.

Best Breakfast for One
Philadelphia Sticky Buns
It requires getting up early in the morning for the last rise, but these buns in a bowl are worth the effort. Cocoa in the filling is the necessary touch of sophistication. Read the rest of this entry »

These are indie crustless quiche-lets. They’re a little rough-hewn around the edges but very sincere.

We have here one quiche flavor for each of Ryan Star’s opening acts at Martini Ranch: lorraine, spinach-cheddar, and plum-ricotta. And just to make things challenging, I’m going to go in reverse order in which the acts appeared. So let’s preheat the oven to 350 and start with TC4E featuring Angela Anne (listen).

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How committed am I to salad in the wake of the cheeseburger-and-a-half weekend?

This is breakfast salad. I had a little snuggle with Google on the topic of “breakfast salad” and determined that (a) it exists and (b) it requires poaching an egg, not in the “hand secretively under the hen” sense but in the “raw egg in hot water” sense.

This seemed like the moment to go with chealion’s recommendation of Saving Jane (listen — or not, as vids follow). The first thing you need to know about Saving Jane is… remember that Taylor Swift hit about “she’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers”? Saving Jane covered that territory earlier and better. The more grown-up music is even better. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday’s World Cup Food Challenge plans ran aground on a 99-cent taco special at a restaurant between the Phoenix Public Library and the freeway. I blame the combined presence of Chile, Honduras, and Uruguay.

Today’s menu is beef with pea pods (Argentina-Nigeria), yam fries with feta (Greece-Nigeria), and onion flan (France-Mexico).

And I have a shameful confession to make. While I do my utmost to be open-minded about music and try new things… I cannot get into Argentine rock. I’m on my fourth band tonight, and it’s not happening. We’re going to listen to Dalmanerea (listen) as the most interesting pick, and afficionados of the Argentine indie scene can leave irate comments to tell me why I’m a philistine. Please leave them in English so I can appreciate the vituperation. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a plantain. I do not know if it is grown on a plantation.

Tonight’s musical theme is salsa, and tonight’s meal will include none. The plan is to cook Puerto Rican, and on the theory of starting with dessert, there is flan. Read the rest of this entry »