4 ms·

What making a big breakfast taught me about execution intelligence

12 points by krmmalik 17y ago

jswinghammer 17y ago
Nice post. I just made a big breakfast for my family on Sunday so I can relate. It's hard to make things well and have things not get cold. You definitely need to plan ahead and learn from your mistakes. Breakfast is a tough meal to make without help. The experience always makes me appreciate my grandmothers' ability to pull it off without complaining or messing anything up.
- krmmalik 17y ago
  Thank you for your kind words, like you my respect and admiration has gone way up for the people that have been serving me all these years.
  - halostatue 17y ago
    Cooking is a skill, just like any other. If you make your breakfast often enough, you'll just get to the point where you know when and how to do everything you want, and when to throw your plans out the window. The people who serve you at restaurants were pretty darned incompetent when they first started. The good ones, especially at a short-order environment, know when and how to mix things. Try shredding your potatoes instead of slicing them, next time (or use sweet potatoes/yams!). Don't bother boiling them. When shredded, the potatoes cook faster, and you get a nice difference in texture. Later, you can start experimenting with a bit of cheese (cheddar is always good) and even pouring the scrambled eggs in with the shredded potatoes (which, with a bit of cheese, can be very good). For an alternative approach, try chilaquiles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilaquiles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilaquiles), which is super easy to make and I regularly make it for 6 - 8 people (it requires a dozen or so eggs to make it at that point).
    - bricestacey 17y ago
      If you shred the potatoes as halostatue mentions, I suggest sprinkling them with salt and squeezing the liquid out in a colander before frying them (you'll be amazed at how much water is released). Also, I prefer to cook them in a well heated cast iron skillet. You can forget about them and flip them once, keeping things simple.
ugh 17y ago
I have nothing but the greatest admiration for anybody willing to put up with actually cooking in the freaking morning. I, being the lazy continental European that I am, never went beyond boiling some eggs. Oh, and I think I once even scrambled some eggs. But other than that never anything more complex than baguettes and croissants.
- kd5bjo 17y ago
  If you made those baguettes and croissants yourself, that's a fair amount of work in itself.
shalmanese 17y ago
krmmalik: If you want to see a huge collection of seriously impressive breakfasts, check out this thread on the egullet forum: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/53260-breakfast-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day/ http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/53260-breakfast-t... Probably best to start from the end and move backwards as many of the earlier posts are missing photos. Maybe this will give you some inspiration for other things to make.
- krmmalik 17y ago
  That's a great thread. Thank you for that.

12 points by krmmalik 17y ago

Nice post. I just made a big breakfast for my family on Sunday so I can relate. It's hard to make things well and have things not get cold. You definitely need to plan ahead and learn from your mistakes. Breakfast is a tough meal to make without help. The experience always makes me appreciate my grandmothers' ability to pull it off without complaining or messing anything up.

krmmalik 17y ago
Thank you for your kind words, like you my respect and admiration has gone way up for the people that have been serving me all these years.
- halostatue 17y ago
  Cooking is a skill, just like any other. If you make your breakfast often enough, you'll just get to the point where you know when and how to do everything you want, and when to throw your plans out the window. The people who serve you at restaurants were pretty darned incompetent when they first started. The good ones, especially at a short-order environment, know when and how to mix things. Try shredding your potatoes instead of slicing them, next time (or use sweet potatoes/yams!). Don't bother boiling them. When shredded, the potatoes cook faster, and you get a nice difference in texture. Later, you can start experimenting with a bit of cheese (cheddar is always good) and even pouring the scrambled eggs in with the shredded potatoes (which, with a bit of cheese, can be very good). For an alternative approach, try chilaquiles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilaquiles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilaquiles), which is super easy to make and I regularly make it for 6 - 8 people (it requires a dozen or so eggs to make it at that point).
  - bricestacey 17y ago
    If you shred the potatoes as halostatue mentions, I suggest sprinkling them with salt and squeezing the liquid out in a colander before frying them (you'll be amazed at how much water is released). Also, I prefer to cook them in a well heated cast iron skillet. You can forget about them and flip them once, keeping things simple.

ugh 17y ago

I have nothing but the greatest admiration for anybody willing to put up with actually cooking in the freaking morning. I, being the lazy continental European that I am, never went beyond boiling some eggs. Oh, and I think I once even scrambled some eggs. But other than that never anything more complex than baguettes and croissants.

kd5bjo 17y ago
If you made those baguettes and croissants yourself, that's a fair amount of work in itself.

shalmanese 17y ago

krmmalik: If you want to see a huge collection of seriously impressive breakfasts, check out this thread on the egullet forum: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/53260-breakfast-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day/ http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/53260-breakfast-t... Probably best to start from the end and move backwards as many of the earlier posts are missing photos. Maybe this will give you some inspiration for other things to make.

krmmalik 17y ago
That's a great thread. Thank you for that.