Breakfast Club - A Valentine's Day Special

Let me start this post by saying that if you don't like Valentine's Day (and I totally understand those feelings only too well!) then please don't read any further!

Are you sure you want to go any further? I'll understand if you turn back now.

You've been warned. Read on at your peril!

So to start this story at the beginning I have to admit that I'm one of those people who tend to look down their nose at Valentine's Day. Personally I blame all those year's of being single on the 14th Feb for my dislike of the day. I didn't always used to be like this. When I was five years old I thought Valentine's Day was the most wonderful day ever and that when I met my prince charming he would sweep me off my feet and whisk me away to our castle to live happily ever after. I thought that every day would be like valentines day, full of perfume and roses, bright blue skies and boxes of chocolates in big red heart shape boxes.

Oh the innocence of youth! If only fairy tales worked out like that in real life. As I got older my view of the day dimmed ... quite a bit! For me, it turned into an overly commercialised day that did nothing more than remind the lonely [read:me!] of how lonely they [again, read:me!] were. Yep it would be fair to say that I HATED valentines day! Please don't mis-understand me as not being romantic or sentimental, I have all of those attributes in abundance, perhaps even in excess but my feeling towards the day has not improved all that much, even now I am happily married. My opinion is still that there are 364 other days in the year that are spent with our loved ones, so why do the overly grand (and overly priced!) romantic gestures have to be confined to one day?

Now my Husband sits firmly in the other camp (much as he would say he belongs to no camp at all). Every year I have insisted that we do nothing more for Valentines Day than enjoy a nice home cooked meal together. And every year he has agreed with me and then on Valentine's morning I awake to find a card and some flowers and a gift. Big soppy bugger that he is (and I love him very much for his soppyness!) just can't let the day go by. This year is no different. A lovely card to accompany a teddy bear with chocolates, a beautiful big bunch of tulips with a single red rose in the middle and a love heart hamper filled to the brim with chocolates. If you are anything like me you'll understand the sense of 'Argh but awe' at the same time (mind you if you were anything like me you would have heeded my warning at the start and not read any further!) That man of mine is such a softy.

So each year I have found my nice home cooked meal for the day raising the bar ever so slightly on the previous years efforts. This year I'll be trying to recreate one of Hubby's favourite meals he had while we were on honeymoon ... no pressure there then! But seeing as Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday this year it seemed only right that our breakfast club would also need to take this event into account. But what to make? Hubby's current favourite breakfast items are crumpets and while I've not quite got round to the stage of making them from scratch just yet (that one is ear marked to try very soon though) I knew today's breakfast would need to include them. Hubby also loves french toast, then I remembered a Jamie Oliver recipe card that came in a magazine a few years ago for Eggy Crumpets. Do you think I could find that recipe card??? Nothing else for it but to make it up as I went along!

Eggy Crumpets

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

Zest of 1 orange

A splash of milk

Crumpets

Mix all the ingredients together in a shallow bowl. When combined, dip the crumpets in and leave to soak for a few seconds. Then turn the crumpets over and leave to soak for a few seconds more.

Add to a hot pan and cook one side at a time until lightly golden.

Serve with raspberry butter (recipe follows) or maple syrup.

This mixture made enough to coat 12 crumpets (no we haven't eaten them all!)

Raspberry Butter is a treat I normally reserve for pancake day, unfortunately I'm already booked up for the day this year. It seemed only right to make the butter to go with the eggy crumpets, the colour is so Valentine's Day-ish. If it wasn't so bad for the hips, I'd eat this butter a lot more often than just once a year ;0)

Raspberry Butter

115g butter, softened

50g raspberries, fresh or frozen

2 tsp icing sugar

If using frozen raspberries, leave in the fridge overnight to defrost.

Add all ingredients together and mash to make a pink butter. Don't try to completely mash the raspberries down, I always think some flecks of red scattered through the butter add to its charm.

Makes enough to serve 12

Happy Valentine's Day to all of those who aren't too jaded to actually like the day ;0)