Paper plates and Breakfast Sliders

....just a couple of my favorite things, perfect for a weekend morning with the family.

Isn't this just two plates full of happiness? Disposable plates, that is. Even in fall colors.

Wanna copy these fun guys?

1 dozen small Hawaiian rolls, cut open
1 chicken sausage, cut on the diagonal into slices and heated in a fry pan
5 eggs, beaten, (scrambled in same pan)
a handful of shredded sharp cheddar cheese tossed on top of hot scrambled eggs
salt & pepper
{serves 4-5}

Voila. Breakfast Sliders. We polished off all of them. Yep. I'm not ashamed. Oh. And everything tastes more delicious to kids if served with toothpicks. A little family swashbuckling took place afterwards. Naturally.

Happy Saturday, friends.

Enjoy the day!

I'm makin' waffles!

I can't help but hear Eddie Murphy's voice when I say that. "I'm makin' waffles!" (Are you feelin' the Shrek in there?)

Well, my darling girl who turned nine yesterday request breakfast for dinner for her birthday. YESSSS! And she doesn't mess around. She is lover of all things breakfasty that can be covered with whipped cream.

I am soooo thankful that you brought the Joy of Cooking into my life a few years ago, because WOW. Best. Waffles. Evah.

And how happy is it to be at the start of the strawberry season for toppings to go with that waffley goodness? (Carrots have nothing to do with this post, but look what beautiful carrots we got at the organic farm?)

I have to share the waffle recipe I made (and slightly altered, of course), just for the folks who don't have the Joy of Cooking, or just need a reminder that once you make waffles from scratch, your life with waffles will never be the same. Eggo is a four-letter word to me now. Well, I guess it was all along. You know what I mean.

Check it. I do not know what makes this batter so incredibly fluffy. It was not like any batter for pancakes or waffles that I've ever made. It seemed too thick - it would not pour, but had to be scooped - and lo. It was perfection.


Buttermilk Waffles, pg. 647

Whisk these dry ingredients in a large bowl:
1 3/4 C flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk these wet ingredients in a small bowl:
1 stick melted butter, (slightly cooled)
1 1/2 C buttermilk
3 eggs
1/2 tsp almond extract (my addition!)

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour the wet into the well, and mix "with a few swift strokes of the whisk".

Scoop a heaping 1/2 cup of batter onto the hot, ungreased waffle iron. If you're using a regular waffle iron, it claims to make about 6 waffles. With my belgian waffle iron, it made nearly 5.

{And since the waffle iron can only cook one at a time, I kept the others heated in the oven at 250. I moved them directly onto the oven rack because on the plate in the oven, they were getting softish underneath from the steam. Keeping them right on the rack preserved the crispiness.}

Voila. I want it for dinner once a week.



Ya know, it is the kind of thing that I may not want to make on a Saturday morning because it takes longer than using the boxed pancake/waffle mix. But for dinner, it's actually quicker than a lot of things I would make. It feels more worth it to be a dinner meal. Just for some protein, I paired the waffley goodness with some smoked chicken and apple sausages. Those I did not make from scratch. Gross.



My birthday girl did "big eyes" when we told her that her special glass was one we used in our wedding.  This time, however, it contained apple juice, Pellegrino and berries.

I didn't whip my own whipped cream. I know it is so many light years better than the canned kind. But what's fun about whipped cream on your birthday if you can't try some straight from the can?

Yeah. I shoulda taken a picture of that. I promise it was her, not me.

My go-to holiday breakfast

Hey Mrs. Reed....(does that sound too much like I'm addressing your mother-in-law?)...

I had to share what has become our family's traditional holiday breakfast (meaning we have this on Christmas morning and Easter morning....mornings when I'd rather be holding a camera than a spatula, and I let my oven do all the work).



And guess what? I have already prepared my Christmas morning breakfast for this year. It took about ten minutes of assembling.  If you don't have any inspirations for this year, you should try it. I think your picky people would love it.

And YOU will love it because I won't tell you exact amounts of the ingredients. It is so easy that it can be thrown together without a lot of measuring. Yes, I'm growing as a person.


Make-Ahead Holiday Sausage & Egg Strata
{a.k.a. one less thing to worry about}

(adapted from a recipe in this cookbook)

STEP 1: Line a buttered 9x13 dish with sliced up bread. (cut the crusts off if it is tough)

STEP 2: Sprinkle the bread with cooked, diced up sausage - I use an entire pkg of turkey sausage links, about one pound.





STEP 3: Mix together in a bowl 4 eggs, 2.5 cups of half and half (or milk or a combo), salt, pepper, and a small handful of dried or fresh herbs that go well with eggs. I usually use thyme, the recipe calls for sage. Chives would be great too.

STEP 4: Pour the egg mixture over the sausage and bread.

STEP 5: Cover the dish with shredded cheese.





STEP 6: Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until browning and puffed up. (If you're cooking it straight from the fridge, it will take a little longer.)

I can't show you my "after" picture because I'm not cooking it until Christmas morning, remember? So here is what the cookbook shows.

So my strata strategy, if you will, is this:

Christmas morning, wake up right before my kids do. Preheat the oven to 350*, and put the strata from the cold fridge into the cold oven. So it warms up as the oven heats. Grab the camera. Don't think about the breakfast during the next 30 minutes of happiness and kisses and shredded wrapping paper and giggles. Smell my breakfast being prepared for me...mmmmm.

Eat, relaxed, with my family at the table. Kids ask for seconds. Probably use paper plates. And we have enough hearty, protein-rich food in our tummies to last us until we arrive at someone's house for Christmas Day.

That, my friend, is a little peace on earth. 

Cake in a can?

hello little busy bee!
you have been very creative lately!
i am having a bit of a creative block.
but that's ok. i'll get over it.

for now, haven't you tooooooatally wanted to try this?

baking yummy stuff in tin cans?!

come on!

everyone wants to do this!

right?

right?

well i did  it.

i mixed up a batch of pumpkin bread and poured a little bit of olive oil into the washed and de-labeled cans and swished it around.

then i just filled um about 3/4 full.

baked um on a rack with a cookie sheet on the lower rack to catch spills (learned that the hard way ;)

and then when they were cool, ran a knife around the rim to remove them!

look how cute the round loaf is!

why to my kids love this stuff so much!?
those picky little eaters would chow down the entire batch if i let them!

why do they have their shirts off?, you may ask....
i actually had to make them get their pants on since they would run around in their underpants all day if i let them....but for pictures, we try to clean it up a bit.
pants are a must.
shirts optional.

also, jake has to be bribed to have his picture taken at this point in time.
and for this particular picture i had worn out the bribery card.
shoot to the hand.
isn't he darling.



so, it worked!

i am so pleased!

little round pumpkin loaves!

yay!

now to move on to the dessert for the party this weekend....

chocolate mousse crunch cake....in a jar.

oh gosh. i just got chills, did you?

cause those things are gonna be the yummiest thing ever!

(don't i sound a bit like junie b, right now?)

What do you get when you cross a dog with a rose?

Or my son's five year old version, "What do you get when a dog crosses the street... (pause, because he knows he's getting the joke mixed up somewhere...) with a rose in it's mouth?"

A collie flower.

This is the joke I've heard a gazillion times because it is printed on the side of the juice boxes from Trader Joe's. For some reason, that makes it the funniest joke in the world I guess, to receive that kind of honorable placement.

I know, it's not a funny joke. But it IS a good way to introduce this really yummy dinner that uses cauliflower! (did you see that cheesiness coming??)  

I've never appreciated or known how to prepare that mysterious, white broccoli-ish product known as the cauliflower. Raw cauliflower on the salad buffet - my primary exposure - is so gross to me. But this recipe has totally won my heart! And my tummy. And the tummies of those in my family.

You have to try it one night, because not only is it quick and healthy, my kids totally liked it and they didn't even know they were eating cauliflower. The magic is in the roasting. While the veggies roast, they assume a very nutty, carmelized, wintery flavor that is like nothing else. MMMMM. Here it is.

{borrowed from Everyday Food magazine. I have no idea what issue, because I ripped it out and put the page in my recipe book long ago.}  

pasta with roasted cauliflower, parsley & breadcrumbs

1. I preheat my oven to 475* while I core and break up into small florets a whole head of cauliflower. Also, I'm getting my pasta water ready on the stove.

2. Toss my cauliflower florets with 1 medium sliced up onion and 5 cloves of garlic, also sliced up. Oh, and 2 T of oil, salt & pepper. Spread it out onto a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet and roast on LOWER rack for about 20 minutes, or until browned and tender. I toss it all once somewhere in that time.





3. Meanwhile, I pulse 4 slices of white bread in a food processor with a little oil to make breadcrumbs, then bake them on the upper rack until golden brown, about 5 minutes. (OR I just buy them.)





4.  Then I boil 12 oz. of some kind of shortish pasta - I used gemelli (the twisty kind), the recipe calls for cavatappi (the corkscrew kind), but really, who cares which kind of pasta you use, right?

5. Here are the most important ingredients. Parsley and good quality parmesan. You need 1/4 C of each.




I always try to have the real deal - parmigiano reggiano (parmesan from the actual Parma region of Italy) on hand - and not be stopped by how expensive it is compared to the gross kind that is only $3. The real kind makes such a difference, a little goes a long way, and the wedge lasts forever. And I can justify the cost because think about how CHEAP all the rest of these ingredients are. Even with my $9.00 block of good cheese, the dinner was under $15 for our family of four. And then my husband and I had generous portions for lunch the next day too. Six meals for $15. Can't beat that. Buy the cheese.

Then I grate about 1/4 C of it with another of my favorite cooking friends. I could sing a song about this friend, if I sang. My MICROPLANE! I have it in two sizes. Really fine and not-so-fine; those are my technical names for them. The one in the bottom picture is the not-so-fine. My finer one is more for zesting citrus and ginger. This one is perfecto for making delicate shavings of hard cheeses or chocolate or carrot...stuff like that.  

So you're done, except for the beautiful mixing!  When I strain the pasta, I reserve about 1/4 C of the water in the pot. Then mix in the vegetables and the parsley.





Top each bowl with a sprinkle of the breadcrumbs and a generous heap of cheese.





My little dude wanted his own side dish of breadcrumbs and basically covered his pasta with crunchiness. That was his favorite part.

I had seconds. I love love love it. Hope you do too!

Look what I found!

Did you know I have this weird space at the top of my stairs with a door the height of a large gnome (and with a door frame on which I always bump my head) that we call the Christmas Closet? It's locked with a key that hangs out of small people's reach because I hide presents in there. (If you were my kid, I know you'd want to sneak the key!)

But other things are in there too. Here are some of the things in my Christmas Closet:

Seasonal linens that are out of season
Themed party supplies (luau anyone?)
A ceiling fan that never got installed
Kids clothes to be sent to consignment
Tubs of stuff I want to save (large pieces of fabric, kids' baby keepsakes)
and PRESENTS

....for Christmas, kids' birthday parties, people who need a sudden present like teachers or neighbors but not my mail lady...

And guess what else I found in there while cleaning it out?

THESE.




Aren't they so cute? I remember buying these two years ago after Christmas on super-duper clearance at a Joann's Fabric store. I think they were less than $1 each. I had 10 of them tied up in a plastic bag that I'd forgotten about and now I need YUMMY IDEAS.

Please share all yummy ideas for treats to make and give as gifts. Any good recipes for nut brittles? Truffles? Candies (that aren't too hard) or something like that? 

This recipe for APPLE CIDER CARAMELS from Our Best Bites sounds amazing. I may have to try it.

Santa may even bring you a box too!

Wait, that dude gets way too much credit, especially with my kids.

So you won't get a tin dropped down your chimney from a jolly old man in a red suit. I will bring you one my big self.

But to the door.
Maybe I'll even put jingle bells on my weiner dog and harness him to a red wagon filled with the tins.
That would be awesome.

Pumpkin and spice and everything nice

Tonight I had a quiet house. I had so many choices of how to spend my time and I decided to bake.

You know my love for science makes me love baking in a special way; mix a lot of things together and they make something entirely different. A lot of cooking is not really cooking, in my book. It's assembling. A recipe for a salad, for instance, is not cooking. It is just gathering things into one yummy space. The ingredients don't change one another and interact and explode into something unexpected.

But baking. Baking has a special place in my heart because there is specific, measurable, predictable science involved. (Did you know that about me?) Flour, eggs, butter and sugar make magical things happen. And that magic has a way of trickling from the mouth to the heart.

Tonight, while listening to the Reed Life mixpod over and over, I made my favorite fall treat, Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip cookies. And you'll be so proud. I even took photos along the way. And even more surprising is that I even changed the recipe a bit, and it turned out even better. Whew, have you recovered from the shock of my spontaneity?

This recipe is doubled from the original because they are so yummy and I like to give some away.
It makes 50 large cookies.
Oven @ 350.

Here are the goods. BTW, I always use whole wheat flour and no one knows. You can't even tell the difference in my best-ever macroons.

In a large bowl, mix together (in a mixer or with a handheld):
2 t vanilla
2 C canned pumpkin
2 C sugar
2 eggs
3 sticks of butter

(works best in a cutie apron)

In a small bowl, mix together:
4 C flour
2 t salt
2 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

You know the drill. Add the dry, in batches, to the wet.



As if the batter is not beautiful enough already, stir in a whole bag of chocolate chips. Yea.



Here is my favorite baking friend.



He loves uniformity like I do. You'd probably never have one of his kind, huh? You'd probably take pictures at the sea of misshapen, irregular cookie shapes coming out of your oven and write something inspiring about them, like how they represent something about humanity.

But I say, "Cookies, if you don't look like the others, I will eat you at once so you won't be on my pretty plate."

So above is the original recipe. But this time, I added 1 C oats in place of one of the cups of flour, since I love oats in cookies. And the oats gave a little more structure to the fragile cake-like texture that is caused by the pumpkin.  You should try it. In fact, next time, I'll do 2 C oats, 2 C flour.

Bake for about 15 minutes per batch.
Then, magic.



And dinner. Then breakfast tomorrow. Hey, pumpkin is a vegetable, after all.