Is it “Brinner” or a Breakfast Skillet?

Brinner.  That’s a term I first heard on the CTV sitcom “Corner Gas” which, an incredibly funny show set in Saskatchewan about a gas station/café in a tiny prairie town.  And “brinner” is what attorney Dismas Hardy likes to throw together in his vintage cast iron skillet (he’s the main character of most of John Lescroart’s crime novels set in the San Francisco Bay area).

So on those nights when I haven’t gotten round to planning dinner or when I’m too lazy to plan dinner and I’m looking for something that’s “stick to your ribs good”, I’ll rummage around in the fridge, freezer and pantry and come up with the fixings for “brinner”—breakfast for dinner.

And that’s what I’m is going to talk about today.  Yeah, it’s going to involve a recipe but bear in mind one thing—a lot of Cheap Bastid’s recipes are more like “guidelines” than recipes structured with obligatory ingredients.  “Brinner” is a comfort food and, yes indeed, you can cook it for breakfast too!  It’s great on a morning when you’ve got the time to pull everything out, eat hearty and then do the minimal clean-up.  But you really don’t want to do it on a morning when you’re hungry and running late to get off to work.

Remember earlier when I mentioned “rummaging” around for the “fixings”.  That’s right.  You can use sausage or hamburger or chicken or bacon or turkey or tofu—whatever you’ve got and want to throw in it.  Eggs or no eggs.  ‘Taters or no ‘taters.  That’s the neat thing about dinners like this.  For this particular dish, I used about 1/3 lb of breakfast sausage and about 2 ounces of left over chorizo.  And I had some left-over burrito sized flour tortillas.

So here’s my version of “Brinner”.

Recipe: “Brinner” aka Breakfast Skillet

Summary: Whether it’s for breakfast or “brinner” Cheap Bastid’s skillet breakfast will stick to your ribs.

Ingredients

• 2 medium potatoes
• 6 oz. appx. Sausage or ground beef or bacon or a combination
• ½ cup appx. Chopped onion
• ½ cup appx. Chopped bell pepper—pick your color!
• 1 Jalapeno pepper chopped
• 1 medium tomato chopped
• 2-3 eggs
• ½ cup shredded cheese
• 2-3 tbsp oil for cooking
• Seasoning

Instructions

• Get out a big skillet, cutting board, 3 bowls and chef’s knife.
• Chop the onion, bell pepper and jalapeno and put them in a bowl.
• Chop the tomato and put it in its own bowl.
• Crack the eggs into a small bowl and whisk them with a fork.
• Cut the potatoes to size for skillet frying (I cut them in half lengthwise, rotate 90 degrees then cut again lengthwise and then cut 1/8 thick slices. Mrs. CB cuts it into about 3/8” cubes—whatever floats your boat).
• Put the skillet on your stove’s big burner and turn to medium high (a skosh lower if you’re using a cast iron skillet). Put about 3 tbsp of oil into the pan.
• When the pan comes to heat, put the potatoes down in one layer to brown. Season with salt, pepper and cumin (why cumin—because we LIKE cumin!).
• After 4 or 5 minutes flip the potatoes and give them a good stir. Add the onion, bell pepper and jalapeno and stir them in.
• Let peppers cook with potatoes for 2-3 minutes then push it towards the sides a bit and add the meat. (Note: If you prefer you can cook the meat first and then remove it to drain cooking the potatoes and vegetables in the leftover fat).
• When meat is browned, stir everything together and turn down the heat to medium low. Taste it! Adjust the seasoning if you need to—we like to add a bit of “heat” to “kick it up a notch”.
• Add the eggs and stir everything together until the eggs are incorporated and cooked.
• Turn off heat. Add the shredded cheese, stir everything one last time and serve with toast or biscuits or, like we did, wrapped in tortillas as a breakfast burrito.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 15 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 3

My rating 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)

 

We made this as burritos but you can glop it onto a plate and eat it with toast or biscuits too, which is what we usually do. Enjoy!

There you have it.  This is one terrific breakfast skillet or stick to your ribs “Brinner”.  It sure beats anything you’ll get at Denny’s for $7 to $8 and this feeds 2.  We get a “Jones” for “brinner” at least once a month and we’ll make this as a hearty weekend breakfast at least once a month too.

The Cheap Bastid Test:  Well, 6 ounces of sausage, ground beef or bacon costs about $1.40.  The potatoes cost about $.40.  The tomato, onions, bell pepper and jalapeno set us back about $.60 this time of year.  Eggs are running $2.00 for a dozen and a half at Costco so 3 eggs cost $.35 and I use about $.50 worth of cheese.  So the total for this meal for 2 (3 if you like smaller portions) is $3.25.  That’s some really good, really cheap eating!

That’s the Cheap Bastid Way:  Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful!