friday breakfast: round 1

Happy Friday!  Did everyone have a good St. Patrick's Day?  I celebrated in a bit of an untraditional way.....it was bridge night and we ordered Thai food.  Yes, I am 23 and I play bridge.  It's such a fun, challenging game and a real blast when you have a good partner and exciting competitors.  (Hey Stephanie, are you reading today?)  We had a great time, and we played until almost midnight.  It may have been more fun than a crowded pub!  I made it festive with some Harpoon Celtic Ale and green curry to honor St. Pat.  I'm coming around on this tofu thing.  If you live in or near the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC, you've gotta check out Beau Thai!  That place is awesome.  I've only had the green curry and the drunken noodles, but both are flavorful and spicy (just the way I like it).  Everybody else is always happy with their dishes, too.

But this post is about BREAKFAST!  Fridays are my favorite weekday, not only because it means the weekend is coming, but because I get the privilege of working from home.  This means that I get to sleep in and make my own breakfast before I start working.  Normally that means eggs - I love eggs, any way.  Fried, scrambled, poached, soft boiled, it doesn't matter - as long as it's fresh and yolky, I'm a happy girl.  However, I didn't want eggs this morning, and I wasn't thrilled about any of my other options, either.  I thought about making oatmeal, but I've had yogurt most mornings this week and didn't really want anything out of a bowl.  On top of that, for some odd reason, I wanted pancakes, which is bizarre because I'm not typically a huge fan of yeasty breakfast foods like pancakes and waffles.  So....after quickly googling the interwebs, I decided on Oatmeal Banana Pancakes!

That is the last bit of enthusiasm I will show because these were just okay.  They weren't bad, but they weren't really great either.  The inside was still kind of dense - not really uncooked, but not fluffy and airy like pancakes usually are. 

I probably messed up the proportions or something - this is why I don't bake.  Normally, people with Type-A personalities like me love baking because it's a science.  It's black and white.  The proportions must be correct and you must follow the directions exactly.  If you don't, you're wrong and you fail.  That perfectionism is the mentality to which I prescribe in most areas of my life.  I admit, not my finest trait, but I'm working on it.  However, when I'm cooking, I don't play by the rules.  The way I see it, cooking is a release, and it's oddly therapeutic to follow your impulses and not worry or obsess over everything.  I hardly ever follow recipes and work off my tastebuds, which is why I don't enjoy the precise science of baking in the least.  I subscribe to an old school way of cooking I learned from my mom - "Ehh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.  Maybe a teaspoon, maybe a tablespoon, I don't know!  Just taste it."

So, long story short, I threw a bunch of stuff together in a bowl (pulsed oats, a bit of flour, 1/2 an overripe mashed banana, a little bit of egg, milk, some baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and a hint of vanilla), mixed it together until the consistency resembled pancake batter, and then threw it on the stovetop.  They seemed to cook just fine, but as I said before, the texture in the middle was just meh.  The best part was the brown outside and the toppings - chopped almonds and sliced banana.  I topped it all off with some maple syrup - not the bobo kind, but real, 100% pure maple syrup.  My Canadian co-worker gifted me a half-liter from his latest trip to the motherland. 

I guess it wasn't an epic failure because I ate it, but I would definitely classify this as a misstep rather than a step.  I'm not even going to provide a recipe because I'm not exactly sure what I did.  Hope everybody has a great weekend - it's a beautiful day in DC so I am off to do some work so I can get off early and enjoy the weather.  I am determined not to let my allergies to get me down just yet!  Meanwhile, Matt Bomer is co-hosting the Today Show.  I DIE.  Sorry ladies, but it's widely believed that he is gay.  Either way, he's such fun to look at.  They should replace Kathie Lee with him permanently.  Check out this refined hipster. (picture from his Wikipedia page).

What does everybody else like for breakfast on a lazy morning?  (Matt Bomer is not an acceptable answer).
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