Mean Street Breakfast

New York is the place to be for breakfast. All over this country misguided diners and delis serve what they think are Bacon, Egg & Cheese Sandwiches. But this most perfect morning confection is only truly available to folks in the Empire State-- and I don't even know if I should include anything north of Poughkeepsie in that statement. Oh wait... except now, you can make it at home because I've figured out that all you need is loads of bacon grease, a cast iron skillet and an attitude that says "I'm better than you."

So welcome to the new order of amazing weekend breakfasts. I used to spend my Saturday mornings whipping up a veritable smorgasbord: scramby eggs, whole wheat pancakes, oatmeal raisin scones, lots of fruit. But not any more. And  it's a good thing i figured out how to make these little sandwiches now, considering all of the ingredients will probably be illegal in New York very soon.

Frico Salad

I had to make these when I saw them.

Yes, they're ridiculous. They're little baskets made out of parmesan cheese and they're ladylike as all hell. Plus, calling them fricos really helps them rise above the white trash stigma associated with shaping anything out of cheese. I witnessed Giada making them the other day-- she was doing some lonely-ladies-luncheon or something and I knew if I wanted to be a real lady... I had to make these little fricos.

Pudín de Pan

I decided to make this because a) The french bread I bought went stale, and (b) I've been daydreaming about bread pudding with bourbon sauce since tasting the glorious gumbo over at Crawdaddy's** this weekend.  

This takes about a minute to whip up, and you can make and eat dinner while you're waiting for the mix to set up... ahem... or you could not eat dinner at all and instead watch two or three episodes of Kell on Earth. It's a pretty filling dessert (and I kinda lost my appetite after watching Skinner cry her eyes out anyway), so it's your call.

Follow the jump for the recipe and possibly more trash talk

Get Fresca

Agua Frescas are not just for summer. Or people who live in bordertowns.

They are water + fruit and/or vegetable and they are delicious. If you really can't handle a cold drink right now (I'm looking at you, entire Northeastern part of the country) you could always make this with hot water instead. Of course then you may as well just add some bourbon, make it an unofficial Hot Toddy and call it a day. I'm just sayin'.

Follow the jump for the full recipe!

Captain, Good Fortune Smiles On Us

  I've officially hit the nerd ceiling. Yesterday I made fortune cookies with fantastically ominous sci-fi messages inside.

All of this has happened before...  

and all of this will happen again.

Embarrassingly enough, I found a decent recipe from about.com (who knew?)
Follow the jump for the full recipe and a few more snazzy pictures...

Borscht!

, originally uploaded by Laniebird5000.

Did you know beet leaves are edible? i really cannot wait until the scientists implant a Google search bar straight into my brain.

Borscht is Ukrainian for yummy. It's also really cheap to make, since we got almost all of the ingredients for $8 at the Aldi.

Also-- no chopping! You just shred any root vegetable you can get your hands on and boil it all up. I got to shred the carrots. Uh, Michelle did everything else.