Fallen Souffle

This breakfast is so good! Seriously, it is the best of all possible worlds. Bread, cream cheese, sweet blueberry…it’s awesome. This french toast reminds me of the blueberry cheesecake bread I used to make at the bakery, sort of the same idea, dough wrapped around a mixture of cream cheese and berries with some brown sugar. Next time I may whip up the cream cheese and sweeten it with some sugar but this wasn’t a bad start at all!

I didn’t use a recipe, I used more of a technique. I smeared some cream cheese on some slices of french bread, sandwiched two together and dunked it into a mixture of about 3 eggs, a splash of cream, about a tablespoon of sugar and a sprinkling of cinnamon. I cooked these on a medium high griddle until golden then flipped. In a small saucepan, I added half a bag of frozen blueberries, about 1/2 water, a couple tablespoons o sugar and some vanilla. Brought it up to a boil and allowed to thicken a bit. I let mine cook too long and didn’t have a ton of syrup so if it looks too thick add some more water. Drizzle the blueberry sauce over hot french toast. YUM!

Next I will try this with nutella and a bananas foster sauce

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

One of the best parts of my weekend is when Jen gets a hankerin’ for some fresh bagels. And when I mean fresh bagels, I don’t mean Manhattan Bagels or Panera Bread. Although both are delicious, they don’t touch fresh from the oven bagels that Jen makes. Warm, crispy but soft, and the whole house smells like fresh bagels. Its amazing. Slap on a little honey butter and bacon and that is the second best way to start my day!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

My parents came to visit this weekend to go to the NC State Fair and see the NC State/Wake Forest football game. It would not be a true visit unless I made breakfast one morning. I had some leftover buttermilk from a cake I made and it always seems to go to waste because I can’t use the other 3 cups in time (they really should make buttermilk in smaller containers). But this time I was not going to waste it! I have been in a cleaning out the fridge and freezer mode so I also used some Eggbeaters I had in the freezer. These are from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine from September. I never thought I would buy any of her magazines but I was quite surprised at the recipes in here. Granted there were still the typical only-Martha-would-ever-make-this-dish recipes (Broiled Polenta with Mushroom Ragout- she obviously doesn’t live with a man!) but I was really surprised to see some wonderfully simple recipes.

I originally picked this recipe out because she suggested creating a large amount of dry mix to keep on hand so you just spoon out what you want, add the wet ingredients and cook them up. I have been looking for short cuts in preparing meals now that I am a working girl (don’t worry Mom- not that kind of working girl!) so this is perfect for us!

These pancakes were light and tender with a lovely amount of flavor that complimented the real maple syrup quite well. Now I want to experiment with flavoring syrups…doesn’t that sound special!

Buttermilk Pancakes
1 cup all purpose flour
2 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 T. oil or melted butter
1 large egg
oil or vegetable spray for pan

1. In medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.

2. Add in wet ingredients and mix until just combined, do not overmix!

3. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of batter onto skillet or griddle and cook until some bubbles have appeared and the underside is browned.

4. Carefully flip (I had a time flipping these but my Mom definitely has the skills!) Cook for another 1-2 minutes. Serve immediately!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The weather in NC is finally turning more fall like. Perfect timing for the State Fair which starts this weekend. I pulled out a sweater I have been dying to wear and decided this would be a great morning for some apple muffins hot from the oven. These muffins were highly rated on Allrecipes so I decided to give them a whirl. I changed the recipe a bit (changes not noted in the recipe) adding only 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 applesauce so as to cut down on the fat and to add some more apple goodness.

These muffins were a hit at the office…I have no doubt you will love them! You must make the strudel topping, it adds a nice crunch and a bit of sweetness.

Apple Strudel Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped apples

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.

4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.

5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I am usually not a fan of anything involving soggy bread, this includes bread pudding and stuffing. So I was a bit apprehensive to try this recipe but I wanted a lazy way to make french toast on the weekends. I love making breakfast on the weekend but am often lucky to get out of bed by lunchtime, so this recipe seemed perfect to throw together the night before and bake off in the morning (or early afternoon!)

When I first took this out of the oven, it smelled divine but was a bit too soggy in the center for my taste so after putting it in a bit longer, it puffed up and solidified nicely. Evan loved this, and he shares my feelings of soggy bread. This has a lovely crunchy crust and a perfectly soft center. This would also be great with some pecans or walnuts thrown on top.

French Toast Casserole
serves 2-4

5 cups of thickly sliced bread, cut into cubes if desired
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 T. sugar
1 t. vanilla
3/4 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg

Topping:
2 T. butter cubed
2 T. sugar
2 T. cinnamon

1. Place bread in a greased 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour over bread.

3. Cover and refridgerate for atleast 8 hours or overnight.

4. Remove form fridge 30 minutes before baking.

5. Dot with butter. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top.

6. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until puffed up and golden. Toothpick inserted should come out clean.

7. Let stand 5 minutes before dousing in maple syrup and enjoying!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Oh how I love brunch. This special meal means sleeping in and eating enough food to cover two meals…and you can do it in your comfy PJ’s! What could be better! But for Easter we like to dress things up a bit and make things extra special, like taking the time to make a classic food from scratch. So for this month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge #4
I have decided to show my baker’s muscles by whipping up some homemade bagels. And when I mean muscle I am not kidding. These heavenly treats are not hard at all to put together if you are familiar with bread making. The recipe calls for a simple sponge and dough technique but this dough is much stiffer than you are used to. I really had to put my weight behind it and even broke a bit of a sweat! Yes, I did everything by hand because I wasn’t sure if it would all fit in my mixer (this recipe makes 12 good sized bagels).

The beauty of this recipe is that you start it the night before and let it rise in the fridge so the next morning you just wake up, boil some water, preheat your oven and in 30 minutes you have fresh bagels unlike anything you have ever had before. This sure beats those overpriced bagel shops! (Because bagels are SO cheap to make!)

Ok, so I didn’t actually get this recipe from a cookbook, I got it from Floyd over at The Fresh Loaf , but he got it from a cookbook does that count? Floyd has great step by step instructions and I followed his method to a T and they worked out great. The only change is that I did not buy malt powder I just used honey. I topped mine with an array of toppings including dried onion, garlic, poppy seeds and kosher salt.

Well to be fair, here is a yummy recipe for flavored cream cheese, to round out the “Bagel Shop in Your Kitchen” feel.

Vegetable Cream Cheese
from Barefoot Contessa Family Style

16 ounces of softened cream cheese
2 T. minced scallions, white and green part
2 T. finely chopped carrot
2 T. finely chopped celery
2 T. finely chopped radishes (2 radishes)
2-3 pinches kosher salt
1 pinch fine black pepper

. Place all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until well blended.

* I think this would be great with some chopped red pepper in it too- yummy!

Happy Easter!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Where has the time gone! I can’t believe it is time for Lent once again, time to ponder what it is I am going to give up for 40 days and to think about this solemn time of year. Most people know today as Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras, which has deservingly so, receive alot of attention this year. But this traditional goes back quite a while.

A short history; the day before the beginning of Lent is known as Shrove Tuesday. To shrive someone, in old-fashioned English (he shrives, he shrove, he has shriven or he shrives, he shrived, he has shrived), is to hear his acknowledgement of his sins, to assure him of God’s forgiveness, and to give him appropriate spiritual advice.

Shrove Tuesday is also called Fat Tuesday (in French, Mardi=Tuesday; gras=fat, as in “pate de foie gras”, which is liver paste and very fatty), because on that day a thrifty housewife uses up the fats that she has kept around (the can of bacon drippings, or whatever) for cooking, but that she will not be using during Lent. Since pancakes are a standard way of using up fat, the day is also called Pancake Tuesday. Also of note, IHOP has named this day Pancake Day and often hand out free short stacks from 7am-2pm.

When I was in high school, our church youth group would always host the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper for all of the families of the church. It was a great fundraiser and always great fun to put on, and we were always sick to death of the smell of syrup. I haven’t been to one of these suppers in years but decided that this year we were going to have pancakes! I also haven’t felt much like cooking, or eating much in fact, so pancakes would be easy to throw together and filling for both of us. Evan exclaimed that these were (insert expletive adjective here) great pancakes! I can’t remember the last time I got such a reaction form him, so this recipe is definately a keeper!

Buttermilk Pancakes
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 large egg

1. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients until just moistened. Add an additions if desired, I threw in some frozen blueberries into my serving.

2. Heat griddle until a drop of water sizzles, brush or spray lightly with oil. Drop pancakes by desired size and cook until tops are bubbly and edges look dry. With wide spatula, flip and cook until underside is golden brown. Repeat with remaining batter.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The weather in NC has been really wacky lately. It was extremely windy at the beginning of the week which threw the trash can and all of my outdoor pots all over the yard. The it was a balmy 70 degrees over the weekend then I woke up yesterday to a rainy yucky 40 degree day. Yuck! I am afraid to put my summer clothes away!

So this morning was rainy again so after I got back from a much needed work out I whipped up some comforting oatmeal. This oatmeal is packed with all things good for you…whole grains, calcium, potassium and the wonderful benefits of cinnamon. As a side note, cinnamon is great for helping with high cholesterol, so if it runs in your family it wouldn’t hurt to have a teaspoon a day.

So if you need an energy boost or just something to get you through a nasty day…this breakfast is right on target. Sorry for the lack of pictures, the camera didn’t want to focus and oatmeal isn’t really photogenic as it is

Oatmeal with Bananas
serves 1

1 cup low fat milk
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 medium banana, smashed
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, heat milk until simmering. Add oats and cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring continually.

2. Add the remainder of the ingredients and stir until combined. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for about 2 minutes, Stir again before stirring.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Ok so for us it was more like Good Afternoon We had a wonderful time at our party last night, saw lots of friends and drank lots of champagne. The onion dip was a hit! We slept in till about 11:30, which actually meant I got up and transferred to the couch to watch Food Network. Everyone was making breakfast this morning and by 3pm I was starving! I knew I needed to get a dose of black eyed peas today for good luck but I was also intrigued by all of the “hashes” the Food TV stars were making, so I decided to get a little creative and combine the two…and boy was it good! I was quite shocked that it turned out, because I had been on a been of a streak of failure when it came to trying to experiment, but this dish was a complete 180…who knows what I will come up with for dinner!

This would be great as a New Year’s Brunch dish, I made it all in one large saute type pan so clean up was easy. You could cook sunny side up eggs in with the mix but I just topped them with some scrambled eggs and cheddar. Add Giada’s Iced Amaretto Cappuccino’s and that’s one heck of a start to the new year!

Jen’s Black Eyed Pea Breakfast Hash
serves 2

1 large baking potato, cubed
5 strips of turkey bacon, cut in bite size pieces
1 small onion or half of a medium
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

1. Boil potatoes until about 3/4 of the way done. You don’t want to over cook them or they will break up in the hash but boiling them helps speed up the cooking process. Drain the potatoes in a colander.

2. In a large saute pan, cook the turkey bacon until just turning brown. Add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add onion and potatoes. Allow the onions to begin to carmelize a bit before you stir it. This also allows for a nice crust to form on the potatoes. Once the onions begin to brown a bit stir in the garlic and black eyed peas. Carefully stir the mixture, allowing for the potatoes to become brown and the peas to heat through.

3. Salt and pepper to your taste. Top with eggs prepared to your liking and some shredded cheddar cheese.

Happy New Year! With this dish, the upcoming year is sure to bring lots of good luck!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Damn you Food Network for giving me a craving for waffles, and Evan for that matter. The hubby and I were watching “The Secret Life of Waffles” this weekend and we both got a serious hankering for some Belgian waffles. But not for breakfast…for dessert!

So it made complete sense to us to run to the grocery store after we worked out and buy Nutella and marshmallows so we could make some S’more Waffles. Yep, a warm waffle, a slathering of Nutella (you can see Evan’s fondness of this product) a jumbo marshmallow, ice cream and whipped cream. Ok Evan added the last two ingredients just for kicks. I opted for a more subdued waffle with coffee ice cream and whipped cream. These were out of this world. It was so easy to make a quick half recipe of waffles in our handy dandy waffle iron then topping with whatever. And Evan has waffles leftover for breakfast now…hopefully sans the heap of Nutella.

This would be so fun to do when friends come over. Like making your own sundaes but with waffles!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!