Tim Horton's Breakfast Sandwich - Copycat recipe

I've posted before how much I love the Tim Horton's Breakfast sandwich.  I order the egg and cheese on a tea biscuit.  It is such a yummy way to start the day (especially with French Vanilla coffee to accompany it).  I've never quite figured out how to do the egg part.  It completely eluded me.  At home, I've been making a cross between an Egg McMuffin and a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich for a few years now.  Today, I figured it out.  Now that I know what I'm doing, it's so easy!  I'll let you in on the secret.

Biscuit Recipe

2 Cups Flour
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 tsp onion powder
3/4 cup milk

Pre-heat oven to 450*
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Use a pastry cutter to add in the margarine until it's really nice a crumbly looking. Stir in the milk (dough will be quite sticky).
Flour a flat surface and kneed the dough until soft and workable (flour your hands really well too for this). Roll out about 1/2 inch thick. Use a circle cutter (I use one of my kids plastic cups, about 2'' in diameter) to cut out the biscuits. Place on non-stick sprayed sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. I err on the side of less time to avoid burning and keep the baking sheet on a higher up rack. This recipe makes a dozen biscuits.

The Egg part

Spray a coffee cup with non-stick spray.  Crack an egg into it.  Mix well.  Add a little salt, pepper and parsley flakes to season.  Mix.  Cook in a microwave for 1 minute on high heat.

Putting the Sandwich together

Cut one biscuit in half.  Lay a slice of cheese* on the bottom.  Put the egg on top of the cheese.  Top with the top half of the biscuit.  Enjoy!

*Processed cheese slices are what they use at Tim's.  Now that you know what to do at home you can mix it up a bit with different cheeses.  Add a slice of ham or bacon if you like. 

Sizzling Calamari Al Diavolo

This kitchen experiment of mine (like any good recipe) has a back story. My husband I both enjoy eating out, a lot more than we should. In fact at one point we were going broke because we were eating out way too much. The funny thing is that we both like to cook and we are both good cooks. I think we were just tired. We also were finding it increasingly difficult to order when we were out because we didn't want to order anything that we could make at home (and better). We both have a kind of agreed upon policy to order things we can't make at home just as good.
One of our favorite chains to eat at is East Side Mario's. And I pretty much order the same thing every time. Sizzling Calamari Al Diavolo to start and then their Seafood Linguini. The Calamari dish was a fluke when we once ordered regular calamari and they brought us this by mistake. We were instantly hooked. I love this dish.
We are now pretty much reformed from eating out. Eating out has become a treat for once in a while once again. So it really was a treat to stop at East Side Mario's on our way home from a camping trip this August. And of course I had the Calamari. Since then I'd been thinking that there must be some way to make this. We have a cast iron skillet after all. Then last week at my grocery shop a bag of calamari just jumped out at me from the freezer section. I bought it. Last night I did my best to imitate East Side Mario's recipe. Their menu gives a few clues on what's in it. The rest is just my guess work. I was really happy with the results. So was my husband. He said I got the flavor bang on. Yay me!

East Side Mario's Menu reads:
Sizzling Calamari Al Diavoli
Lightly seasoned calamari with garlic, onions, read, green and hot cherry peppers served in a tomato broth. Spicy!

I couldn't find any cherry peppers, so used a jalapeno instead. I also realized I was out of green peppers, so I substituted a yellow in it's place. Here's my recipe:

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, cut into chunks
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
1 yellow pepper, cut into chunks (can use green)
4 cloves garlic, chopped into small pieces
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped into small pieces
1/4 cup fajita cooking sauce (I used PC Brand Memories of Mexico, but I think any tomato based fajita sauce would work)
2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
up to 1 cup water
2 tsp Tex-Mex seasoning
a few shakes Franks Red Hot Sauce
1 pound pre-breaded frozen calamari (this would be even better if you made your own breaded calamari I think)

Drizzle a cast-iron skillet with olive oil over medium heat. Add the veggies. As the veggies begin to soften add the fajita sauce, chicken bouillon, Tex-Mex seasoning, and Frank's Red Hot Sauce. Mix together. Let the veggies cook slowly to soften well. Don't be tempted to cook it fast or it will burn. Drizzle a little water as needed to keep the food from catching, but don't drown it. Once everything is cooked to done, add the calamari and mix in. Cook for just a couple of minutes to heat the calamari up (cooking too long will leave calamari rubbery). Serve immediately.

*The next time I make this, I'm going to try to deep fry the calamari and then mix it in, just to try to improve the texture a bit. Otherwise, really yummy.

**Edit Update - I made this again, but baked the calamari according to package directions first, then added it to the veggie mix. It was delicious! Much better than adding the calamari in without cooking it first.

Johnny's Hamburgers

One thing we have noticed since living in the big, bad city and not our old small town is the amount of real hamburger joints around.  These are the places that have been open for decades, usually run by the original family whose menus haven't changed, ever.  They sell the real deal: burgers, fries, shakes, and onion rings.  Of course who could resist such places, especially when you see that they are hopping at all hours of the day?  We certainly can't.
This is the best we've found yet.  Arguably the best burger place in the GTA, Johnny's Charcoal Hamburgers looks exactly as you would imagine it did when it opened.  It has the original orange and wood paneling decorating.  There isn't a place to sit (unless you count the rickety picnic table out back).  The prices are cheap and the food is delicious.  Rumor has it that Mike Myers used to hang out here back in the day as a Scarborough youth and I believe it.  I would if I was a teenager in the area.
We took our order to go.  We ordered 3 cheeseburgers for our family.  They are large enough for our kids to share one between them.  You can get it made the way you want.  The kids just had ketchup, my husband added bacon and got everything.  I had mine with fried onions, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard and relish.  We ordered sides of fries and onion rings to share and everyone had a shake to finish. 
*side note - if going to a place like this get the shake!  They are so much better than anything Mickey D's has to offer.
Everything was just as you would hope for a place like this.  This won't be the last burger we have at Johnny's.

Timmy's vs. Mickey D's

2 breakfasts out. 2 mornings in a row. Highly unusual for me. What I'm about to write is just my own experience this week. It doesn't mean it's always like this, but this week it was.


Thursday morning, 8:30am, I went through the McDonald's Drive-thru on the west side of town. My order: An Egg McMuffin, with just egg and cheese. Hash browns. Peppermint Tea with Splenda. My wait time? A good 20 minutes. I had to be at work at 9. I walked into work at 8:58. (Oh, and she couldn't remember what I wanted in my tea)


Friday morning, 8:30am, I went through the Tim Horton's Drive-thru on the west side of town. My order: An egg and cheese breakfast sandwich, hash browns, a hazelnut smoothie and a fruit explosion muffin for my break later in the morning. My wait time? Less than 5 minutes. I got to work early enough to enjoy my breakfast in the parking lot and read a bit of my book before heading in the building.

I don't know why this is. Both line ups had about the same amount of cars in them. In fact Timmies is on a busier corner. I just found it interesting that's all.

***An addendum due to comments/questions.
I enjoy breakfasts at both places. The Egg McMuffin is one of the best fast food breakfasts going as far as I'm concerned. Also the Tim Horton's sandwich is fabulously tasty. Here's the differences for my American friends who don't know about this Canadian institution. The Tim's sandwich is served on a toasted buttermilk biscuit. The egg is more of a seasoned scrambled egg patty. The hashbrowns are smaller than at McD's but are seasoned with herbs. Take a look here if you want to see.