Most people choose recipes that sound good. I choose recipes that amuse me.
When Trisha Yearwood’s Food Network cooking show first aired, I remember watching an episode where she prepares Garth’s Breakfast Bowl. She layered tater tots, sausage, bacon, cheese tortellini, scrambled eggs, and cheese. I watched in absolute fascination as she explained how Garth loves to put cheese tortellini in everything, including breakfast.
This episode’s been rattling around in my brain ever since. After dinner one evening, I turned on a recent episode of Trisha’s Southern Kitchen and described how she made Garth’s Breakfast Bowl to Jake. “On top of the tots, eggs, cheese, and meat, she adds cheese tortellini! How weird is that?” I exclaimed.
“Actually, that sounds pretty good,” Jake responded. “I love cheese tortellini. We should add them to more dishes.”
And so Garth’s Breakfast Bowl came to fruition. I prepared it in the name of science, of course. To showcase the full glory of Garth’s bowl, I served it in the prettiest glass bowl could get my hands on (thanks Beth). The bowl steamed up as I added each layer (or, ribbons, as I like to call them) of breakfast food.
One of my friends commented that the tortellini-filled breakfast bowl reminded her of the Friend’s episode where Rachel tries to make an English trifle for dessert. She adds beef, whipped cream, peas, custard, and jam, but, alas, no cheese tortellini. Garth would have totally added tortellini.
View the clip on Youtube.
So, how did Garth’s Breakfast Bowl taste? It tasted exactly how you’d imagine tater tots, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs and cheese to taste. The dish was heavy and didn’t provide much textural contrast, but the sum of the flavor didn’t taste any more offensive than each individual component. I froze the leftovers in little containers for occasions where we need some extra fuel.
Honestly, my favorite part about this dish were those cheese tortellini. I guess that means Garth might be onto something. . .
I’m not sure how I feel about this dish, but in all seriousness, Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood were two of my first favorite singers and “Beaches of Cheyenne” and “On A Bus To St. Cloud” were my first favorite songs.
