What Time is Brunch?

I'm having beer with quiche right now and it's wonderful. So the question...Is it okay to drink beer with brunch?
I think it depends on the company you keep.

Steel Cut Oats


It doesn't get much more comforting than a hot bowl of oatmeal. Unfortunately, instant oatmeal has shaped the view of this food for the past few decades.
Find some steel cut oats, and about an hour to cook and eat them. Though the oats take a long time to cook, this is not an active dish.

Here's what I do:
3 cups Water
1.5 cups Steel cut oats
Healthy pinch of Salt
Milk or Water as needed

Boil the water, stir in the oats, turn down to a simmer, and go about your business for the next 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. About this time the oats may need more liquid and I like to add whole milk as needed to achieve a creamier result but water will work fine. It should take at least 40 minutes to get some nice oatmeal action. When cooking for a family or group of friends it's easy to set out an assortment of toppings so everyone can customize their own bowls.

Note: The actual ratio should be nearly 4 to 1, liquid to oats. I like the added control of adding the last bit of liquid towards the end but it is not necessary.

Now for the toppings...
I usually stir in the toppings right at the end but sometimes you may add them earlier if they would benefit from the cooking. The beauty of oats is that anything goes:
Nuts, Maple syrup/sugar, Brown sugar, Dried fruit, Fresh fruit, Seeds, Cooked pumpkin, Sweet spices, yogurt, brown butter, various cheeses (for the adventurous) etc. Food snobs be sure to always monte au buerre!

This morning I enjoyed Mexican brown sugar and coconut. It paired perfectly with my coffee.

Thinking About French Toast

French Toast, or more romantically Lost Bread, is a breakfast that I should cook more often. It is one of the few foods that I have loved all my life. As a kid there were two types I liked: Texas Toast that my dad made and I would smother in generic maple flavored syrup; and sourdough from the Italian Cottage, a Chico institution of red-checked table cloths and #10 can Italian food.
These days I believe in four breads for superb French Toast: Sourdough (I'm from California), Pugliese, Brioche, and Challah.
There are certainly dishes that would do well with other breads. Breads featuring nuts or dried fruits could be excellent. However, my top four always perform well and are quite versatile.

Getting Started

Two years ago I was bouncing this blog idea off a great friend; he said not to do it. He also creates things for a living but his industry is TV, not food. That conversation happened during a rough time when he had a great pilot in the works only to hit a major roadblock while another production company snatched the concept and beat him to market. He lost a lot of money and time in that botched deal.
We were talking about that and a cookbook that I had been working on. As I wondered aloud about offering all my recipes for free in blog format he stopped me. Pointing out that I would be giving away my property, nobody would ever have to buy the book to get my recipes. As true as that is, I've since learned that most books never make a profit anyway.
The real epiphany came when I was making fun of a cook who refused to share her secret mustard recipe. Her mustard is very good, but you can never have the recipe. Someday she will die and her legacy will be a mustard that nobody can make. What's the point of that?
Her active secrecy is no different than my passive secrecy for the past few years. I would always share my recipes if asked, but no one asked because they didn't know they should or could. So here you go; you can have them all.