Baked French Toast

This is a great recipe my daughter-in-law, Mandy, shared with me.  You have to make it ahead of time, so plan accordingly.  We made it last year for Thanksgiving morning because we knew we would be too busy to make breakfast.  I made it for Christmas morning and also made it for a covered dish with my breast cancer support group, Pink Posse.  Everyone loved it.  The best part is that you make it the night before and just put it in the oven the next morning.

Breakfast DONE!

Baked French Toast

1 ½ cups packed brown sugar

¾ cup butter

3 Tbsp light corn syrup

1-2 baguette's (depending on the length, Batter will be enough for 24-36 rounds) or 1 loaf French bread, cut into 1 inch thickness

8 eggs

2 ¼ cups milk (I use part milk and part half and half to equal 2 ¼ cups milk.)

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Place first 3 ingredients in medium size saucepan and heat over medium heat, just to congeal (Do Not Boil). Spray baking dish (large foil pan) with nonstick vegetable oil, pour hot brown sugar mixture into baking dish. Place eggs, milk and vanilla into blender and blend until smooth. Pour milk mixture into a dish and dip bread slice (I do at least 5 at a time), making sure they really soak up the mixture. Place into pan with brown sugar mixture and scrunch pieces together (should get about 32-36 slices in the pan). Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees and place uncovered dish in oven for 30-45 minutes or until firm and slightly browned. Brown sugar mixture should be bubbling.  Serves 8 to 10 people.

**It usually takes 2-3 baguettes, especially if you scrunch them together. Also, I always turn over the slices about halfway through or towards the end so that it gets the entire slice covered in the sauce.  This seems to help cook each slice a little more evenly. But if you don't flip them it is still good.

Banana Muffins

 

When I have too many ripe bananas, I always make banana Bread   That's because we love my Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.  But I wanted to try something different.  I came across this banana muffin recipe that looked delicious, and I was in a baking mood.  So  I made it and we loved, loved, loved it!

Banana Muffins

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 bananas mashed
¾ cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted

Topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon butter

In a small bowl, mix together the topping ingredients:  brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon.  Cut in 1 Tablespoon butter until mixture looks crumbly.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 ½ cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, egg, bananas and melted butter. (I use a hand mixer)  Spoon into prepared muffin cups.

Sprinkle topping mixture over muffins.

Bake at 375 for 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean. 

Banana Egg Pancake

Bananas and Eggs?  Sounds like a weird combination to me.  And in a weird way it was delicious!  My sister gave me this recipe because it was healthy and good for me. I hate to admit it, but she was right.  It has a good combination of protein and carbs and is very filling.  A good way to start the day.  Need I say more!

Banana Egg Pancake

1 egg
1/2 banana, mashed
cinnamon
honey or maple syrup

Mix the egg and banana until well blended.  Add a sprinkle of cinnamon to your taste.  Mix again. 

Spray a small fry pan with Pam.  Heat at medium high.  Pour in egg mixture.  Cook like you are making an omelet,but don't fold.  Flip like you would a pancake.

Put in a plate and drizzle with honey or maple syrup--actually I pour it on (as you can tell by the above picture) because I have a sweet tooth.  Whether you drizzle or smother, I think you will enjoy this different breakfast treat!  Yum!

Mandy's Almond Kringle

I've been wanting to post this recipe since last Thanksgiving.  My daughter-in-law, Mandy made this delicious pastry while we were in Utah.  It is a traditional Scandinavian treat enjoyed in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark at Christmastime. It is called Kringle. There are various types, but Mandy likes to make Almond Kringle.  Here is her recipe.  It seems like a lot of work but it is worth it!

Almond Kringle

1/2 c butter, frozen and cut into slivers
1 c. all-purpose flour
1-3 tbsp. ice water (as needed for consistency, I usually use 2, but at Tricia's I used 3 because of the altitude in Utah)
1/2 c. butter
1 c. water
1 tsp. almond extract
1 c. all-purpose flour
3 eggs
Sliced almonds, if desired

Glaze
2c. confectioner's sugar
2 tbsp. butter, softened
2 tsp. almond extract
2-3 tbsp. milk or cream

In a large bowl with a pastry blender cut 1/2 c. frozen butter slivers into 1 c. flour; sprinkle 2-3 tbsp. water and mix until crumbly. Divide in half and place both portions on ungreased baking sheet. The dough will have pea sized lumps, but don't fret! Shape the two halves into 12x3 in. strips, approx. 3 inches apart on baking sheet; set aside.

In a medium saucepan bring 1/2 c. butter and 1 c. water to boil; remove from heat, and add 1 c. flour; mix until smooth ( I do this step in a kitchen aid). Beat in eggs one at a time mixing well after each egg. Spread dough evenly over 12x3 in. strips covering them completely and filling the space in the middle. Bake pastry dough @ 350 degrees for 55-60 min. I often have to loosely tent the pastry with foil when it has browned to my liking, to allow it to finish baking properly. If you remove the pastry too early, you will have a custard like crust on bottom. The pastry puffs quite a bit while baking, and will fall slightly as it cools.

Meanwhile combine the confectioner's sugar, softened butter, and cream. I tinker with the consistency until it is just pourable. You don't want it too runny, or it will completely fall off when you pour over pastry, but I do prefer to pour rather than ice the pastry with a knife. It looks prettier this way :-)  After glazing the pastry, I sprinkle sliced almonds on the pastry while the icing is still wet. Cut pastry in bars and serve.

Delicious!

Bakery Style Blueberry Muffins

I've had a wonderful summer vacation with all of my children and grandchildren.  We went to the Isle of Palms and enjoyed every minute of it.  Can't wait til next year. 

 In the meantime I have some great recipes to share with you.  I'll start with these delicious blueberry muffins. 

Bakery Style Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

1/3 cup milk (plus 2 Tablespoons)

1 cup fresh blueberries

Topping:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons butter, cubed

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line muffin pan with liners or grease muffin cups.  Make the topping for muffins in a small bowl by mixing all topping ingredients with a fork until crumbly.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine the 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons baking powder.  Add the 1/3 cup vegetable oil, beaten egg and milk.  Mix together.  Gently fold in blueberries and fill muffin cups.  Sprinkle top with crumb topping and bake for 20 minutes until done.

Enjoying the beach and each other!

Matzo and Eggs

I just got back from visiting my family in Charleston.  I had a great time and was very excited to come home with a box of Matzos.  Usually I get my matzo after Passover--my sweet sister gives me her leftovers.  But this year she surprised me and gave me a box before Passover. (She knows I love matzo.)  So, this morning I made me some Matzo and Eggs.  Ummmmm, it was soooooo good!  Brought back lots of memories.  Thanks, Cat!

How to make Matzo and Eggs:

Crack 2 eggs into a bowl.  Add salt and pepper to taste and beat eggs together. 

Take 1 square of matzo and rinse it with water for several seconds.

Break matzo up into eggs.  Mix the eggs and pieces of matzo together, coating the matzo.  Set aside.

Now heat a frying pan on medium high and add a slab of butter.  Coat pan with the melted butter and add the egg and matzo mixture.  Turn heat down to medium.  Stir often until egg is cooked, only takes a few minutes.  Put in a dish and enjoy!

Now this is could be enough for 2 people, but I always eat the whole thing and still want more.  Can't wait to fix it again tomorrow morning.

HAPPY  PASSOVER!

Snowman Pancakes

We got an early Valentine's surprise--SNOW! Do you believe it? Snow in South Carolina? Well, it does happen every once in a while and when it does we celebrate and have a "Family Snow Day"! The best part is making and eating snowman pancakes. Just use my "Mom's Pancakes" recipe and pour two circles of the mix. The top one is smaller than the bottom. Add chocolate chip eyes, mouth and buttons, and you have snowman pancakes!


Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. Let it snow! Let it snow!
Let it snow!

Playing in the beautiful blanket of snow!

Eating the snow. Ummm, tastes so good!

Making a snow angel!

Building a snowman!

Enjoying the snowman pancakes!

Even Grandma Cleo loved the snowman pancakes!

Hope each of you have a

Happy Valentine's Day!

Egg-In-A-Hole

My son, Jonathan, and his wife, Mandy, gave me a neat cookbook for Christmas. It is the #1 New York Times Bestseller, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Ree Drummond (the Pioneer woman) says, "Sometimes it's the simplest things that taste the best." I agree with that statement. So I chose one of her very simple recipes and said to myself, "Why didn't I think of that?"

As many of you know, my husband and I are caregivers for his 97 year old mom. Every morning she wants egg and toast for breakfast so I decided to give it a little twist and serve her Ree Drummond's Egg-In-The-Hole (I call it Egg-In-A-Hole).

Well, Mom loved it. I toasted the piece of bread from the hole and put strawberry jelly on it. She loved that too. I think the round shape confused her because she wanted to know what it was because it was so good (Mom has a sweet tooth!). I had a lot of fun preparing this for her. Can't wait to make it for my grandkids. I think they'll love it too.

It really is the simple things that taste the best!

Egg-In-A-Hole

With a biscuit cutter or a glass, cut a hole in the center of a piece of bread.

Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Put bread in skillet and let it soak up the butter for about 1 minute. Crack a large egg into the hole. Hence the name "Egg-In-A-Hole". Sprinkle salt and pepper on the egg and cook for another minute.

With a spatula, flip to the other side. Sprinkle with salt and pepper if you'd like. Cook until egg is desired doneness.

Lynn's Christmas Coffee Cake

My friend, Lynn (the one who gave me that adorable snowman ornament), shared with me her special Christmas Coffee Cake that she makes for her family every Christmas. She told me it was delicious and that her family always looked forward to her making it. So I thought I'd try it. Since I don't work with yeast very much, Lynn gave me very simple directions that were easy to follow so I wouldn't kill the yeast. So, I'm going to give you those same directions (word for word) that she gave me, because the coffee cake turned out delicious! I took the first bite and thought, "Umm, this is good." Then took the 2nd bite and before I knew it, I had already eaten 3 pieces--IT WAS THAT GOOD! As a matter of fact, I can't wait to make it again. I even asked my son-in-law, Jason, who teaches early morning seminary to the youth at church, if he'd like me to make one for his class. Let's see--he has 14 kids--I can cut the cake into 24 pieces and if I give him 15 pieces so he can have one too, then there will be 9 pieces for me! Yep, that will work! Enjoy!

Lynn's Christmas Coffee Cake

1. Heat 1 cup of milk and pour it over 1/2 cup shortening in a large mixing bowl. The shortening will melt some but it doesn't have to melt completely.

2. In another bowl, mix together 4 1/2 cups white all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup sugar.

3. Add flour mixture to milk and shortening. DO NOT STIR YET!

4. Beat 2 eggs and pour them into the bowl with the flour/milk mixture. DO NOT STIR YET!

5. In a small bowl, mix together one package of dry yeast, 1/2 cup lukewarm water (100 - 110 degrees F--I use a candy thermometer--and I did too) and 1 teaspoon sugar. Stir to dissolve sugar and yeast.

6. Add yeast mixture to the bowl.

7. Mix all ingredients together. I uses my Kitchen Aid mixer (wish I had one!) with the bread hook, but before i had that, I just used a wooden spoon. I used the wooden spoon and it worked great! But I'd still like a mixer--hint, hint--in case anyone in the family is reading this :-)

8. Spread dough into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Spread softened butter on it. And that's what I did, I spread butter in pan. But I found out that I needed to spread the butter on top of the dough and I could use the cooking spray for the pan..

9. Cover with a clean dry dishtowel and let rise in a warm place. This will take a while--an hour or more. It took more than an hour and it didn't seem to want to rise for me. Sometimes I put a bowl or a pan of very hot water on the lowest rack in the oven and put the 9 x 13 pan on a rack above that. With the door closed, the hot water makes the oven warm enough for the dough to rise in a relatively shorter time. I actually put my oven on warm for about 5 minutes, turned it off and waited about 5 minutes and put the pan in the oven and it did rise some.

10. When the dough has risen (I let it rise until it is almost to the top of the 9 x 13 pan--mine didn't rise that much), sprinkle the top with a mixture of 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. I never measure this! I just sprinkle with sugar and then sprinkle the cinnamon on top of that. I did measure because I wanted to make sure I put enough on top.

11. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 - 20 minutes. I test with a toothpick in the middle. When it comes out clean, I take it out. Sometimes it only takes 15 minutes, sometimes longer. Maybe it depends on the humidity or whatever. Mine was done in 15 minutes.

You can tell by my comments that I wasn't sure if it would turn out right--especially because it didn't rise like I thought it should and I didn't spread the butter on the dough. But I must have done something right because it was so good. Thanks, Lynn, for sharing this recipe with me. It may just become a tradition in our home not just at Christmas but anytime the whole family gets together!

Fluffy Scrambled Eggs

I'm always asked, "How do you get your scrambled eggs so fluffy?" My husband's Aunt Evelyn taught me the secret. It's so simple you won't believe it. Do you put milk in your scrambled eggs? Well, STOP! Try adding a little bit of water. Yes, water (about a half teaspoon per egg). That's it--fluffy scrambled eggs every time!

Oh, and be sure not to cook them too fast. Start out at medium high, but quickly lower temperature to medium and continue to scramble. If you cook them too fast they get dried out and hard. When the eggs are almost done, I usually remove them from the burner and let them finish cooking in the heat from the pan.

Mom's Pancakes

For many years now I have held the title of the "World's Best Pancakes"--well, at least according to my kids. I think they're pretty good myself. I love to put maple syrup on my stack of pancakes and stick them in the microwave for about 30 seconds to get the syrup nice and hot. Mmmm, so good!

Mom's Pancakes

3 cups baking mix (Jiffy or Bisquick--I use Heart Smart Bisquick)

2 eggs

2 Tablespoons oil

1 1/2 cups milk (you'll need to add more as mixture thickens)

Mix together above ingredients with a wire wisk. You will need to add more milk so it's not too thick. Also as the mixture sits, it thickens, so you'll need to add a little more milk.

Put a small amount of oil in a non-stick frying pan or griddle. Wipe oil out with a paper towel.

Make sure pan is hot, then turn heat down as you cook the pancakes. Pour in batter. I use a soup ladle. When you see bubbles on top, flip the pancake over to finish cooking.

Grits

While at the wedding in Birmingham, I received a frantic call from my son in Charlotte. "Mom, how do you make your grits? It's not on your blog." So here is the way to make creamy, delicious grits.

I use Quaker Quick Grits. Do not use the instant grits. The most important thing to remember is that you use 4 times as much water as grits. So if you want 1 large serving of grits, you use 1 cup water and 1/4 cup grits. If you use 1/2 cup of grits, use 2 cups of water. I don't follow the directions on the package. Here is what I do:

Put the amount of grits you want and 4 times the water in a pot. Add a small pat of butter and add salt to taste. Mix together and let everything come to a boil. I will usually mix it a couple of times before it comes to a boil. When it boils, cover and turn heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Don't peek! After 5 minutes, remove from stove, uncover and stir. After stirring, recover and let sit for 5 more minutes. Stir again and serve. I like to put butter on the top. My kids and grandkids love to put cheese on the top.

As you can see in these pictures, my granddaughter, McKinley, loves Nana's grits.