Breakfast and Pie

I love, Love, LOVE restaurant breakfasts. For years, I always ordered a skillet breakfast if one was available. Then one day I was complaining that I wanted one and we didn't have the extra money, so Bryant suggested I make my own. Why I hadn't thought of it is beyond me. So here's the method we use, feel free to tweak this based on your tastes or whatever you happen to have on hand.



Scrub up 2-3 russet potatoes, depending on the size of the potatoes and the size of your appetites. Dice the potatoes pretty small - I use my thumbnail as a size gauge - the squares of potato should be no larger on any side than the length of my thumbnail. I also chop up some red or white onion and whatever meat I want to use. If you're going to use bacon, cook it up ahead of time because it won't have enough time to fully cook with the potatoes.



Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a large skillet, adding an equal amount of olive or canola oil when the butter is nearly melted. Drop the potatoes in and season with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally over medium high heat, until the potatoes are cooked through and starting to turn golden. Toss in the onion and ham, bacon or sausage. Continue to cook until the potatoes are good and crispy and the onion is softened.



Divide the cooked ingredients into two or three cereal sized bowls. Sprinkle on some shredded cheese, if you like that sort of thing. Fry up one or two eggs per bowl, over easy, and place on top of the cheesy potato mixture. Don't forget to season the eggs, too. You can melt a little more cheese over top or leave it as is. Delicious!!



You can certainly make a larger batch, but in my opinion, overcrowding the potatoes makes them mushy and less crisp. When I'm making enough for all of us, I do two or three servings at a time.



The second recipe I'm sharing today is one I posted on Facebook a long time ago, but it's good enough to warrant being posted twice. Markelle, this one's for you - I hope you love it!



Dutch Apple Pie

1 pie crust, homemade or purchased

5 1/2 C peeled, cored and sliced cooking apples (I almost always use Granny Smiths for this)

1 T lemon juice - bottled is fine

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/4 C brown sugar, packed

3 T flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, fresh or canned



Topping:

3/4 C flour

1/4 C granulated sugar

1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 C butter, room temperature



Preheat oven to 375 degrees. To keep drips from getting all over your oven, stick a foil lined cookie sheet on the rack below where the pie will go. Place crust into pie plate, being sure not to stretch the crust too much. In a large bowl, mix sliced apples, lemon juice, both sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.



Pile all that deliciousness into the crust, spreading it gently to the edges.



In a medium bowl, combine topping ingredients until coarsely crumbled. Sprinkle evenly over apples. Resist the urge to eat the apples raw.



Bake for 50 minutes or until the pie is golden and bubbly. Yes, it really is that easy to make a delicious apple pie and crumble topping.



By the way, that topping is also good on peach, cherry, blueberry or just about any other kind of fruit pie.