It’s Friday night, and it’s breakfast time.Breakfast for dinner was a regular occurrence for me growing up. My parents had an old (even in the ’80s) waffle iron that made four 4-by-4-inch waffles at a time. I don’t recall their preferred box mix, but it always was tasty. Toppings frequently included peanut butter, bananas, and maple-flavored syrup. Talk about a stick-to-the-ribs meal. And it was cheap, too.
I call breakfast-for-dinner nights at VHHQ with regularity, probably for the same reasons my folks did: economy, ease, and expediency. My standard waffle recipe is Crunchy Cornmeal Waffles (with no optional ingredients) from The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion. The recipe delivers foolproof and delicious waffles.
My most recent breakfast-for-dinner episode also included some lightly cooked pears as a topping. Follow these directions to bring underripe fruit to your table in a hurry:
Breakfast Topping Fruit
1. Melt 2-3 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat until foamy.
2. Meanwhile, thinly slice 1-2 pieces of fruit (pear, apple, what have you).
3. Add sliced fruit to skillet. Sprinkle fruit with 1-2 teaspoons sugar. Sprinkle with cinnamon to taste, if you please. Or ginger. Or mace. Or nutmeg. Or all of these delicious baking spices.
4. Give fruit a stir every once in a while, and saute until fruit is tender but not too mushy. The butter sauce will thicken. If it’s too gooey, add a splash of water (or maybe a liqueur or fruit juice; recall, though, that the fruit will release water, too). Doneness of this fruit is a very personal thing.
5. Top waffles, pancakes, or even oats with sweet, tender fruit.
And I say as long as you’re having breakfast for dinner, bacon, sausages, coffee, tea, and OJ also have a place at the table.
How often do you eat breakfast fare in the p.m.? Any other fans out there? Too subversive for you? Do tell!