All-American Breakfast Month

This is a new find...for me at least. The addiction level is really high so prepare yourself. You start off with a grilled cheese sandwich. After it's cooked you move the sandwich onto a plate where, using a glass or cookie cutter, you punch a hole in the center. Put the grilled cheese sandwich back into the pan and crack a egg right in the hole you just made. Cook until the yolk is how you like it. 

My only problem with this is that my egg always gets stuck while I'm trying to flip it. That is only a menial problem though and totally worth the outcome. A friend suggested slipping a little sliver of butter in the hole before adding the egg. I gotta try that one.

PS - Don't throw out the circle of grilled cheese goodness you punched out!! That can be used as a dipper for the egg or to just savor!!

Fruit Shrub

Another little treasure from long ago that I found is called a fruit shrub or drinking vinegars. Like the switchel, there is a lot of wiggle room and experimentation in a fruit shrub. The word "shrub" actually comes from the Arabic term "sharbah" which means "drink". We also get "sherbet" and "syrup" from the same word. There's a long of history on vinegar drinks which is completely fascinating. I always wondered how the colonial folk dealt with just water, beer and wine for common drinks! By long history, I mean really long! Like way back in Babylonia, folks were putting date vinegar in their water to make it safe and the Romans mixed vinegar and water into a drink called "posca". The Colonial sailors would take shrubs with them to prevent scurvy. Since it was made from real fruit, it was high in vitamin C. Shrubs gained quite a bit of popularity during the Temperance movement. They had to have something to drink! Alcohol was gone!!

I haven't tried making a shrub yet considering I really JUST found out about them, but if you would like to, then here is the link that I found. I'm sure there is more if you Google.

www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-fruit-shrub-syrup-174072

From reading the article, fruit shrubs are more like a flavoring syrup than an actual drink which means there are about a million different uses. The one use that really interests me is using a shrub to naturally flavor water or sparkling water. There are so many of those little containers of water flavoring, but they all have artificial sweeteners in them which are bad news.

If you try out this recipe, then let me know how it came out!!

Switchel

So I was looking through Facebook and came across a recipe for "Switchel" which is also known as Haymaker's Punch. It's a vinegar drink that was common back in colonial days. Supposedly, it's a great drink for those really hot summer days and is comparable to Gatorade. There are a bunch of recipes of varying ingredients and measurements. I used the one below.

1 gallon water
1 1/2 cups molasses
1/3 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger

Here are my ingredients

My finished product

Well, I made the drink. It made a lot!! The whole gallon of water wouldn't fit in the container. I took a sip...pretty gross. I let it sit in the refrigerator...sill pretty gross. Molasses is a strong taste and personally I love it, but it was WAY too much. The ginger gave it a nice kick. I thought the idea of vinegar in a drink was strange, but it wasn't too bad. Here is another recipe that I found that I may try. It's a smaller recipe and might do a little better.

Ginger Switchel

Makes 1-2 drinks

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
4 teaspoons sweetener (molasses, maple syrup, honey, sugar)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger or 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in a jar or glass. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to a day.

Shake or stir before serving. Taste and adjust sweetener, if desired. If using fresh ginger, strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth.

Pour over ice or mix with soda water, if desired.

Give it a try yourself and let me know how it works out for you!