Classic English Breakfast

On September 5, 2019September 5, 2019 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Food, Recipes7 Comments

One of the things that we enjoy eating wherever we travel is a classic English or Irish breakfast. It is one of those perfect “breakfast for dinner” meals that is simple and tasty. Traditionally it is served with blood sausage, also called blood pudding, but we weren’t able to get that from our butcher. It is a unique combination of eggs, beans, sausage, ham, mushrooms, and tomatoes that isn’t typically found in the United States unless you happen to visit an English pub. Not only is it delicious but it is very filling. The baked beans are always a simple, ketchup-based style bean that aren’t overly sweet. Here is our version of a traditional English breakfast.

INGREDIENTS
• 4 Large Eggs
• 6 Breakfast Link Sausages
• 4 Slices of Canadian Bacon
• 1 cup Button Mushrooms- sliced
• ¾ cup Cherry Tomatoes- sliced in half
• 1 16 oz can Baked Beans
• 4 slices of White Toast- buttered and cut diagonally
• 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 1 tbsp Unsalted Butter
• Salt and Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat an oven to 250 degrees. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the mushrooms. Simmer the mushrooms until golden brown. Set the mushrooms aside and add the sausage links to the skillet. Brown the sausage on all sides until fully cooked, about 10 minutes (we cooked a full package). Heat the beans in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Remove the sausage and place on an oven-safe plate, cover, and place in the oven to keep warm. Put the Canadian bacon into the pan and cook until both sides are browned. Add the bacon to the plate with the sausage, recover, and place it back in the oven. Add the tomatoes to the skillet along with the mushrooms and cook until the tomatoes start to blister. Remove them from the pan and put them on an oven-safe plate, cover, and put them into the oven to keep warm. Start toasting the bread and crack the eggs to place them in the skillet. If necessary, add more butter to the pan. When the egg whites are no longer translucent, add 2 tablespoons of water and cover. Cook for 2 minutes, being sure that the yolks are still runny. Butter the toast, plate, and serve. Serves two.

Sampling Food in Colorado Springs

On February 21, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Colorado, Food, Recipes3 Comments

There are a variety of restaurants in downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, which means you can find something for any taste. Most of the restaurants are independently owned and each of them has its own unique style. We were only downtown for a day, so we only had time to visit a few locations. In order to maximize our experience we went to a Colorado themed restaurant, an Irish pub, and a seafood restaurant.

Historic Building with Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub

Our first stop of the day was at Colorado Craft Social, which was serving Sunday brunch. We ordered the Green Chili Cheddar Biscuits with eggs over easy. As always, we shared our meal as it was definitely a lot of food. As a bonus, the meal came with a free mimosa to help start the day out right and they also served a lot of local Colorado beers. After eating our fill of comfort food, we walked around the downtown area to enjoy a sunny day in Colorado Springs.

In the afternoon, we headed to Jack Quinn’s to listen to some authentic Irish folk music and enjoy a pint of beer and some chips and dips. Chips are obviously the same as French fries and it came with two dips, one that was a curry dip and the other was somewhat similar to a thousand island dressing. The building that houses the restaurant was built in the late 1800’s and is part of the historic downtown district. It was hard to leave the wonderful ambiance of the pub, but we needed to head back to our hotel for some warmer clothes as the temperatures drop quickly once the sun goes down.

For dinner, we ended up at Bonny and Read for an upscale seafood experience. After a half dozen oysters, we shared the Yellow Tail Snapper. It is served whole with a lime ginger sauce and coconut rice giving it an Asian flare. Although we don’t usually like to have to filet our own fish at the table, it certainly tasted wonderful. With all of the wonderful choices to choose from, downtown Colorado Springs certainly is a great place to go for a night out.

Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage

On June 14, 2017June 20, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Recipes4 Comments

One of the things that we enjoyed during our time in Europe was having breakfast at one of the many outdoor cafes. Europeans eat healthier breakfasts than what most restaurants here in the United States serve, so we don’t tend to go out for breakfast now that we are back home. We do, however, still enjoy a good healthy breakfast and since pork sausage or bacon can be high in calories, we decided to make a healthier alternative. We used ground turkey and spices to create a very tasty breakfast sausage that won’t leave you feeling guilty when you are done eating. It was actually really easy to make and we think that it tasted as good as store-bought pork sausage.

INGREDIENTS

1tsp Dried Sage
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1/8 tsp Dried Marjoram
1 lb Ground Turkey

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine all of the herbs and then mix them in a bowl with the ground turkey. Be sure that all of the spices distribute equally throughout the ground turkey. Then, using your hands, make small patties that are each 2 to 3 ounces of ground turkey. Ours were about 2 1/4 ounces each, which resulted in 7 patties. To cook, fry the sausage patties in a skillet heated to medium-high with a couple of tablespoons of oil for about four to five minutes per side. Serve with your favorite breakfast items such as eggs and fruit.