Let’s talk about potatoes! More specifically, #BreakfastWeek Potatoes: Hash Browns, Home Fries, and Potatoes Pancakes. The three most popular ways to serve potatoes for breakfast and it’s no wonder we do. Potatoes can grow just about anywhere and in any climate, provide more nutritious sustenance faster and on less land than any other crop in the world, and they can be utilized to make just about any type of dish: fried, baked, shredded, and more!

Photo Credit: ValleySpuds.com

Hash Browns are probably the most popular way to serve potatoes for breakfast.  They’re also pretty simple to make.  All you have to do is shred a few uncooked potatoes, rinse away the excess starch in cold water, pat dry, season, and brown in a pan of heated butter. From there you can do choose to eat this breakfast treat any way you want! With a side of ketchup, hot sauce, or even just topped with a sprinkle of fresh ground salt and pepper. You can’t go wrong with these!

Second most popular would have to be Home Fries! Made by dicing cooked potatoes into cubes, and either browning them in a skillet with oil, butter, and seasoning, or by coating them in oil and baking them for a lighter version of the dish. Best part about home fries is all of the foodie goodness you can add to them! Peppers, onions, garlic, and fresh herbs make a great addition to a hearty home fries recipe. Cook it all up and eat them straight from the skillet, wrapped up in a Breakfast Burrito, or serve with eggs and bacon. So good!

The last and equally delicious way to serve up potatoes for breakfast, is by making the ever classic Potato Pancake, or Latkes. If you haven’t had these before, you’re missing out! They’re a combination of cooked potatoes (peeled and mashed) with eggs, flour, fresh herbs, and seasoning. They’re like little potato cakes, fried over butter—savory, not sweet. I have my own Jalapeño Potato Pancake version that’s pretty killer!

What’s your favorite way to serve up breakfast potatoes?

There’s a reason for everything—if not most things. Breakfast is no exception. There’s a reason why bacon and eggs rule the morning roost, and it goes back to Victorian England. During a time when the industrial revolution was roaring and England was at it’s richest. People needed new ways of “Keeping Up With The Joneses,” and there-in the traditional english breakfast was born! Breakfast became an opportunity for people to flaunt there riches by showing a range of their available abundances: eggs, meats, grains, potatoes, fresh fruit. This type of luxurious morning meal became habit, breakfast became “the most important meal of the day,” and tradition of having a well-balanced breakfast spread globally.

To much surprise, bacon and eggs were not a part of the tradition that was immediately embraced by the American culture. Americans adapted a lighter version of the english breakfast that mainly consisted of grains, toast, fruit and coffee. It wasn’t until a man by the name of Bernay, Sigmund Fraud’s nephew and pretty much the king of what we know as “PR,”was hired by the Beech-Nut Packing Company to help move one of their lowest sellers—bacon. Bernay convinced thousands of doctors to state that a heavier breakfast was beneficial to the American diet. Sold on the idea, bacon and eggs became as ordinary in the American Breakfast as the English. Bacon, even more so, became a staple for all meals of the day! BLT’s, bacon bits, bacon burgers, bacon this, bacon that, bacon, Bacon, BACON!

Lucky for us, eggs have also joined the category of the constantly redefined. We all know the question well: “How to you like your eggs?” Do you like them scrambled—that is  with the whites and yolk whipped together and then cooked—or do you you like to keep the two parts separated by cooking them sunnyside up, with only the the exposed egg whites being cooked against a hot pan, while the majority of the yolk on top remain runny?  Or you could flip it, cook it on both sides, and you have a fried egg.

 Perhaps you don’t want the fuss of frying at all and you want a simple boiled egg.  Options there are a hard boiled egg, with the egg boiled whole (shell included) and then pealed once the egg has cooked through entirely, or maybe you want a poached egg, where the egg is cracked into a pot of boiling water, while the outside of the yolk cooks and capsulates the runny yolk inside. Maybe you want a entirely egg breakfast? There’s always the ever-classic eggs benedict, a poached egg topped with ham or bacon, hollandaise sauce, and closed between two english muffin halves—or the crowd pleasing omelette. Made a million ways to sunday, it can be any scramble of eggs mixed with cheeses, onions, peppers, bacon, ham, you name it!

With so many killer choices out there—what ‘s your favorite breakfast combo?

Waffles vs. Pancakes vs. Crepes! Three breakfast desserts, with three very similar recipes, that make three very different, yet delicious, breakfast entrees.  So what’s the actual difference between the three? Are the batters really are interchangeable? Why is one crunchy, one soft, and one sheet thin? All very different products, with very subtle differences.

Derived from Belgium, waffles are very similar to pancakes in that they both use the same ingredients: flour, eggs, baking powder, sugar, and milk. The key difference is the increments, the cooking method, and the result.  Waffles are crunchier than pancakes for a reason. They’re typically made with slightly more sugar than pancakes and they’re cooked using a two sided, dual-heated griddle that’s typically well greased. The extra sugar ever so slightly caramelizes the outer layer of the waffles, accounting for part of the crunch factor, and the well-greased griddle lightly fries the surface of the waffles (while the inside portion bakes)—accounting for the rest of that delicious crunchy exterior and fluffy interior! Also, if you’re cooking waffles the old school way, you’re separating the yolks from the eggs whites, whipping the whites, and then folding that and the yolks into the batter separately.  Is makes for a fluffier waffle, but the majority of folks don’t follow this method anymore. Regardless, the best part of waffles is how well they can cradle heaps of melted butter and syrup; not to mention the countless other toppings they’re sturdy enough to support!

Pancakes, hotcakes, flatjacks…are apparently  interchangeable names for the same awesome breakfast. They’re thin, yet fluffy, round, and dense bread cakes—made by whipping the same ingredients as waffles (only with a little less sugar and sometimes less egg), into a lump free batter that gets poured onto a med-high pan or griddle.  As the exposed side begins to bubble, and then the bubbles begin to pop open, you flip it, cook it for slightly less time on the second side, and then start the signature pancake stack—one, two, three, and more if you’re really hungry! They tend to be more dense and more moist than a waffle. Very sponge like, perfect for sopping up syrup or even chocolate! The outside, though lightly browned, remains soft and smooth like a sheet cake—not crunchy like a waffle. Crazy how the tiniest change in ingredients and cooking methods, make such different, yet delectable treats.

 Crepes are no exception. A french dish, it’s prime ingredients are identical to that of pancakes and waffles…that is except for one thing—baking powder. Without baking powder, there’s no rising agent, accounting for the thinness of a crepe. They also tend to be made with the less sugar, resulting in less of a sweet taste and of more of a subtle egg flavor.  That’s one of the greatest things about crepes! Since they’re not abundantly sweet, they can, and often are, served sweet OR savory. They can be stuffed with nutella and strawberries, OR they can be wrapped around ham, spinach and melted cheese.  Traditionally, crepes are so light that they’ll commonly be eaten as a snack throughout the day. Personally, toss a little powdered sugar on top, and I’ll eat them any time you want!

Of the three, which is your favorite, and how do you like to serve it up?