Still Behind

Remember Christmas? You know, that big holiday that was over a month ago? Yeah, I still haven't posted what we did for Christmas breakfast. Better late than never. I guess. We were in such a hurry to get to the presents that we just tucked in to breakfast and I didn't even take a picture of the table set up. I did manage to shoot a quick pic before I put the goodies in the oven to warm though. I made my usual Sweet & Spicy Bacon- that's a requirement according to my brother and his wife. Additionally I made cheap, fast and easy sausage rolls- no real recipe there, refrigerated crescent rolls, shredded cheese and small smoked sausages. Voila! And then for the sweeter side of the menu I made Deb's Whole Wheat Apple Muffins. On half of them I added a topping, and the other half I left plain to avoid possible allergens for my niece.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen; Makes about 16













1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grease and flour a muffin tin and set aside.
• Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.Mix in the buttermilk gently. (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.) Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.
• Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400 degrees, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

My notes: I used buttermilk, and don't worry about the curdling. I mixed it in the first time like I was folding clouds into the batter and it still curdled. Everything comes back together when you add the dry ingredients, so it doesn't really make a difference how gentle you are. I skipped the brown sugar on the plain muffins because I didn't really want to coat my niece's muffins in sugar. The topping for the other muffins is comprised of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans- basically a version of what I did for the Peach Muffins but with more oats and pecans. Since I wasn't doing the brown sugar topping I simple cooked the muffins at 400 degrees for 17-20 minutes. Much easier than me remembering to turn the temp down. Because I just wouldn't remember, ha.

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!

No Pictures :(

I very regrettably forgot to take my camera with me for our Christmas dinner at the Pop-in-law's last night. I wish I had pictures of the totally awesome and delicious pheasant and duck kabobs we had. So good, tender bites of meat skewered with bell pepper and onion chunks, fresh from their garden, and wrapped up in always-awesome bacon. Oh, for the love of flavor, why did I forget my camera and why am I not eating more of those kabobs right now. Hunting season is far from over, so hopefully I can look forward to some more before too long. I just had to mention them because it was such an enjoyable departure from the typical turkey or ham. We more or less noshed through the evening, also enjoying some barbecue meatballs, spanikopita, veggie and cheese assortment, delicious mississippi mud cake, pound cake, and brownies. I love grazing. :)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I've been waiting several weeks to post this recipe. But that isn't the reason it's been so long since I last posted. I've just been lolly-gagging around while a cold virus kicked my butt. And a cold in my nose equals a cold kitchen. Well, I did make some cookies and pumpkin bread for Thanksgiving. And there was a failed attempt at pie crust that we will NOT be discussing just yet. But aside from that I pretty much didn't go near the kitchen. However I wouldn't let myself post this recipe because it's relation to Christmas made me feel as though it should be saved for the right time. And now that Thanksgiving has come and gone the time has come to share.

For the second year in a row I will be hosting my mom, brother, and sister-in-law for Christmas morning. Last year I made pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sweet & spicy bacon. We had a delicious breakfast, but a late breakfast. I had a lot of trouble timing everything, especially in my teeny, tiny, apartment kitchen. The kitchen where I took up almost all counter space with the electric griddle for the pancakes. Leaving me to balance the bacon plate on the small ledge in front of the sink to drain. And Josh and I bumping into each other constantly as he scrambled eggs and I flipped pancakes. It all came out well in the end, but I was a bit frazzled when it was all said and done. So I pretty much decided from there out that things would be different this year. Now, I can't predict the future, so I can't say for sure that things will go more smoothly, but I am doing my best to try and ensure that it does. And part of that effort has been the search for a great baked french toast recipe. I decided that this dish would be the ideal Christmas morning dish. I tried one from all recipes that was okay. Josh liked it, his co-worker loved the leftovers I sent him to work with, but I only thought it was okay. Does okay sound good enough for Christmas? No, I didn't think so either. So, I continued the search. That's when I came across a recipe for Boozy Baked French Toast from Deb over at Smitten Kitchen. I gave this recipe a shot and ladies and gentleman (Josh, you're likely the only man who reads this), we have a winner. As soon as I took my first bite I knew that I had found what I was looking for. So, to start off the holiday season around here, here is the recipe we shall be dining on Christmas morning.

Baked French Toast
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen; Serves 6

1 loaf Challah bread in 1-inch slices
3 cups whole milk
3 eggs
3 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Generously grease a 9×13-inch baking dish with salted (my choice) or unsalted butter.
• Arrange bread in two tightly-packed layers in the pan. If using braided Challah, cut one slice into smaller pieces to fill in gaps.
  
• Whisk milk, eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla and pour over the bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
• Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The bread will absorb all of the milk custard while you sleep.
• Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until puffed and golden. This will take longer if you have additional layers.
• Cut into generous squares and serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit, powdered sugar or all of the above.

My notes: This is the teetotalers version of this recipe. I was looking for a recipe with just a hint of sweetness, which the teaspoon of vanilla and sprinkle of cinnamon sugar provides. For those of you who are more adventurous than I, Deb had the following advice for flavorings: "I use 3 tablespoons Bailey’s and 3 tablespoons Cointreau, but Frangelico (hazelnut), Chambord (raspberry), Crème de Cassis (black currant) Grand Marnier or just a teaspoon or two of vanilla or almond extract can do the trick. You can bump up a citrus flavor with a teaspoon of zest, add a half-cup of chopped nuts such as almond slivers or pecans between layers or on top or a similar amount of raisins or other dried fruits." If you're going to add any fillings, like nuts or dried fruit, then that needs to be done the night before while arranging the bread in the dish.