Christmas Breakfast

Welcome to the Christmas morning breakfast we hosted for my mom, brother, sister-in-law, and niece. This is only the second year we've had them over for breakfast and gifts, but I've already grown to love it. I set and arranged the table the night before, making sure everything was just so. I had a lovely centerpiece, a bubble bowl filled to the brim with shiny round ornaments, but it had to be set aside to make room for the meal. My brother, who works at Starbucks, brought a fresh pound of coffee to serve. I had peppermint tea for my mom, who is battling a cold and wicked cough. We had a pretty pitcher full of orange juice too. I heart my Pottery Barn pitcher.













I made my version of Deb at Smitten Kitchen's Boozy Baked French Toast. This time around it took about 1 1/2 loaves of Challah, so it was certainly lucky for me that Josh suggested we get two loaves while standing in the bakery at Central Market. It was a big hit with everyone, and definitely less time consuming than the pancakes I did last year. I think I'll definitely use this recipe next year, maybe with a filling, or different flavorings to keep things fresh. Do you need to freshen up something that happens once a year? I don't know, I guess we'll see. I also made Sweet & Spicy Bacon. I found this recipe on Orangette many moons ago. It is one of the best recipes I could have ever come across. When my brother came by a few weeks before Christmas he asked if we'd have the bacon again this year. He said that his wife considered just asking me to make the bacon again as part of their Christmas gift. We love this bacon too and we rarely eat bacon any other way now. Consider this bacon a gift to everyone this year, ha.

Sweet & Spicy Bacon
Recipe from Gourmet via Orangette

1 ½ Tbs packed light brown sugar
Rounded ¼ tsp cayenne
Rounded ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 lb thick-cut bacon (about 12 slices)

-Position an oven rack in the middle position, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
-In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cayenne, and black pepper.
-Arrange the bacon slices in 1 layer—not overlapping—on a foil lined rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan. Bake the bacon for 10 minutes. Turn the slices over, and sprinkle them evenly with the spiced sugar. Continue baking until the bacon is crisp and deep golden, about 15 minutes more. Transfer to paper towels to drain before serving.
*I had a 1.5 lbs of bacon, so I used two batches of the seasoning.













And last, but not least, I served up a little fruit to try and lighten things up a bit. Oh who are we kidding, fruit is the least when compared to the bacon, but we ate it anyway, ha. My niece especially enjoyed the banana and clementine wedges. My brother thought the banana combined with the french toast was stellar. And that pretty much wraps up the tour of our Christmas breakfast. I already can't wait till next year!

I'm just crazy bout 'Cados, 'Cados crazy bout me....

Last night's dinner was a variation on something I'd done before. You may recall the Southwestern Turkey Clubs I blogged about in March. This time around I decided to eliminate the middle slice of bread, resulting in Southwest Turkey BLTs. Equally delicious, slightly easier to eat, and less calories since removing the middle slice of bread also eliminates the need for extra bacon and applying multiple layers of the avocado spread. I served these up with Chili Roasted Sweet Potato Fries. An easy and enjoyable dinner for our Monday evening.

Southwest Turkey BLTs
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart; Serves 2
4 slices whole wheat bread
1 avocado, pitted and peeled
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 to 2 tablespoons pickled jalapeno, chopped
coarse salt and ground pepper
4 slices bacon
4 slices peppered turkey breast
1 Roma tomato, thinly sliced
torn lettuce leaves, I prefer romaine

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Bake bacon for 20 minutes, turning slices halfway through cooking time. Remove from baking sheet and place on paper towels to drain.
• While bacon is cooking mash avocado, jalapeno and lime juice together in small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Toast bread. Spread one slice with avocado mixture. Top with lettuce, tomatoes, 2 slices bacon, 2 slices turkey and second piece of bread. Repeat for second sandwich.

Chili Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4
1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (2 to 3 medium)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder
coarse salt and ground pepper

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut each potato into 8 wedges lengthwise; halve long wedges crosswise.
• On a large rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper, toss potatoes with oil, sugar, chili powder, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper, until coated. Arrange wedges, cut sides down.
• Roast potatoes until browned and tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Season with additional salt, if desired, before serving.

My notes: Like I said, this sandwich is just as good, and even easier, than the original it was inspired by. I forgot that last time I decided it was too limey, and had similar results this time. Still good, but very limey. Next time I will only use half the amount. And I only used 1 tablespoon of jalapeno. I think I will try 2 next time. As far as the wedges go, I typically mix everything in a bowl with tongs and then transfer to the baking sheet. This time for better coating I added each ingredient one at a time and tossed after each addition. I think they were definitely coated better this way. Also I cut this recipe in half, since there is just the two of use and I even have a few wedges leftover to go with my lunch today.

Real Simple?

Last night I was planning on making a recipe from my latest issue of Real Simple. I honestly didn't think this recipe would be that hard, but then again I didn't take my total lack of motor skills or mental concentration into account. I really am not that great at multi-step cooking. Now I'm sure you're wondering to yourself, "Aside from toast, doesn't most cooking require more than one step?" And yeah, you'd be right. But the fact remains that since this recipe required me to put things in a skillet, remove them, add more things in the skillet, move to oven, and then back to the skillet with more ingredients that I should probably have realized I would be doomed. The outcome tasted good, but if you think that it looked anything like the picture below, you are sadly mistaken. I would recommend this recipe if, you know, you're not task-handicapped like me.

Sauteed Chicken With Corn and Edamame
Recipe from Real Simple; Serves 4
4 ounces sliced bacon
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 6-ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2 cups frozen shelled edamame, thawed
1 1/2 cups corn kernels, fresh (2 ears) or frozen

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• In a large skillet, over medium heat, fry the bacon until crisp, about 6 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Discard the drippings. Wipe out the skillet and heat the oil over medium-high heat.
• Season the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a baking dish and roast until cooked through, about 8 minutes.
• Meanwhile, add the onion to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the edamame and corn and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes. Break the bacon into pieces and add them to the skillet. Stir in the remaining salt and pepper. Spoon onto individual plates and serve with the chicken.

My notes: Most of the problems with this recipe were my fault. My chicken breasts were definitely larger than 6 ounces, but I'm kind of limited to what I can find and afford at my small grocery store. So, I had to bake them for longer than 8 minutes. Much longer. Which then threw off the onion mixture. Also, I can never, ever get bacon to cook crisply in a skillet. After 6 minutes I had 3 soft pieces of cooked bacon. I threw it in the oven with the chicken, and it got a bit crisper. I tore it into bits, which allowed me to only use the meaty portions of the bacon, eliminating at least some of the fat. From now on I refuse to cook bacon any way other than in an oven. Also, since my chicken breasts were really big, I just cut them into big chunks and mixed them in with the bacon and veggie/bean mixture. This meal was pretty good, actually, but not worth the amount of time and effort it took me to complete it. Josh for some reason, despite being a man, didn't like the smokiness of the bacon with everything else. Real Simple mentions you could go sans bacon to cut the fat, and apparently Josh would support that suggestion. Another note- try to remember when you've just taken a dish out of a 400 degree oven. Luckily I let go of it quickly enough that I barely burned my fingers.