Breakfast Burrito

 

 

Some weekends we hardly have more than a cup of coffee and some toast for breakfast. Others we have a bit more of a hearty breakfast and skip lunch. One of the weekends prior to Christmas, I opted for something different. Instead of doing cinnamon roll waffles, pancakes, or hard fried eggs, I decided to make a breakfast burrito. To be honest this was partially because we had a bunch of tortilla shells left over and I didn’t want them to go to waste.

Linda cooked up bacon for both of us and some scrambled eggs for me. I broke up the bacon and added some cheddar cheese to the eggs in the tortilla shell. Notice that I leave a little more empty towards the bottom of the shell as well as to the left.

I fold up the bottom and then roll it to the left so everything is fully contained inside and nothing can fall out the bottom. Make sure not to put too much stuff inside or it can be very difficult to roll without breaking the tortilla shell.

It’s a quick and easy way to make a little more of your breakfast.  You can add sausage and hash browns if you’d like. We just had bacon handy. Not only does this change this up a bit from the ordinary breakfast, it’s also more portable if you’re on the go.

 

Weekend Cheese Omelet

My wife, Linda, works Saturday mornings at Gold’s Gym. I’m not usually up for much of a breakfast right after getting up so I wait until after she leaves to make breakfast for myself. Usually, I just have a bowl of cereal and sometimes I’ll just wait until lunch to eat. This weekend I figured I needed something a little more substantial.

We recently started fostering a puppy that’s just a little over a year old. He doesn’t look much like a puppy though. He’s a little bit bigger than our 10-11 year old Pit Bull, but has WAY more energy. I’ve been walking the two dogs every morning for about a mile and then later in the day we go out for a nice long 2.5-3 mile walk. Did I mention that he has little to no leash training? He just wants to run. It takes a lot of my energy to keep him at my side.

So I decided that a nice 4 egg cheese omelet would really hit the spot.  I crack the 4 eggs into a bowl and add a decent splash of half-n-half and then use a fork to whisk it all together. I heat a Teflon pan with a little butter on medium heat. Then I add the eggs. We had some shredded colby/cheddar cheese on had so sprinkled that on one side of the eggs. I like the shredded cheese because it gives you much more control over where you get cheese and how much. I let the eggs cook until they start to get a little less runny and then I flip one half onto the other. I never get it perfect. There is almost always a little offset, but try to get it as close as possible. I continue to cook it on that side until the offset starts to get a little more solid. Then I flip the whole thing over and let the other side cook a little more. I like my eggs thoroughly cooked so I actually let them brown just slightly. You can let them stay runny if you like but I think most fussy eaters probably like their eggs fully cooked.

The cheese omelet makes a great start to the morning. Fortunately, the dogs are getting along well and the puppy is slowly starting to get the hang of walking on a leash.

Adirondack Balloon Festival

Nothing says fall has arrived like the changing of the leaves – except for my wife’s pot roast and the Adirondack Balloon Festival. It’s pretty much a yearly tradition with us and we were fortunate enough to get two of our kids to go with us this year. We get up well before dawn to make an hour drive up to the sunrise launch. The first year we went, we were quite surprised that they let you get right up close and personal with the balloons. In past years, we even helped spread out one of the balloons. The picture up inside the balloon was not taken with zoom. I really was right behind the basket.

Little by little the balloons start popping up like popcorn against the sunrise. It’s really an impressive sight. They launch around 100 balloons by 8:00. The sky is filled with balloons rather quickly and then just as quickly, the wind carries them away.

There are generally two highlights that get the crowd’s attention. The first is flames. People just love it when they fire up the burners. Some of the crews even light them up before the balloon has even been spread out just to excite the crowd (and possibly test systems too, I’m sure). The best flames can be seen once the balloons are upright. Against the early morning sky, they look so majestic lit up from the inside.

The second crowd pleaser is the custom balloons. Most of the balloons are the standard shape, but look around a little and you can see somewhat goofy looking balloons with strange faces. Sometimes, they don’t even look like balloons at all. This year marked the 40th anniversary of the balloon festival. To commemorate the event they had a giant birthday cake balloon. They probably could have done a better job picking out a place to set up though. The cake looked like it was in danger of being eaten by a large dinosaur.

After the launch, we head to The Silo, a restaurant and gift shop nearby to get breakfast. The place is an old renovated barn complete with silo, its namesake. They make a great breakfast up there. Most of us ordered The Big Country which consists of 3 eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, home fries, toast, and 2 pancakes.

It’s a great hearty breakfast that’s really hits the spot. I ate everything but the home fries. It’s a great way to wrap up a really awe inspiring morning. Even with the stop for a large breakfast, we still get home between 10:30 and 11:00.

If they have a balloon festival near you, I would really recommend that you check it out. If it’s the Adirondack Balloon Festival, make sure you stop in at The Silo afterwards for breakfast – you won’t regret it.