COMFORT BAKE BREAKFAST

Ingredients:

5 eggs
1/4 cup milk
16 oz refrigerated breakfast biscuits (the Pillsbury flakey kind)
4 scallions (green onions, spring onions, whatever you prefer to call them)
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
If you’re into the meats – cooked center cut bacon or cooked sausage

11×17 pan, sprayed with cooking spray (Note: a 9×13 works too, but might need to bake a little longer)

1. Mix your eggs and milk in a large bowl.  Cut each biscuit into fours and add it to the bowl.  do this before cooking the bacon or cutting up the scallions – give the biscuits some time to really soak in the eggs.

2.  Cut up your scallions, shred your cheese, cook and break up your bacon (or sausage). Add everything to the bowl. 

3. Mix it all up and pour into your pan.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes (make sure it isn’t runny.)

Southwestern quiche

Ingredients

cooking spray
8 canned whole green chiles, or more to taste
7 eggs
1/2 cup chopped onions
3 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, cubed
2 tomatoes, sliced, or to taste (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a pie plate with cooking spray. Cut chiles lengthwise into strips. Line strips over the bottom of pie plate to form a crust, placing pointed ends toward the center. Beat eggs in a bowl and mix in onions, cream, garlic salt, cumin, and pepper. Fold in Cheddar cheese. Layer tomatoes over the chile 'crust,' and pour egg mixture on top. Bake in the preheated oven until quiche is set, 30 to 35 minutes

CINNAMON ROLL CAKE

Cake:

3 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. butter, melted

Topping:

1 c. butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Mix everything together except for the butter. Slowly stir in the melted butter and pour into a greased 9x13 pan. For the topping, mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes.

Glaze:

2 c. powdered sugar
enough milk to make a runny glaze about 6 or 7 tablespoons
1 tsp. vanilla

While warm drizzle the glaze over the cake.

Mexican breakfast casserole

Ingredients

• 2 14.5-ounce cans whole mild green chiles or fresh green chiles roasted and skinned
• 1 lb monterey jack or pepper jack cheese whole brick, cut into finger sized long strips
• 1 lb cheddar colby cheese shredded 
• 5 - 8 large eggs, depending on size of crowd to serve
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon powdered dry mustard 
• Cooking Spray 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a large rectangular glass baking dish (9×13) with cooking spray.

2. Open and drain each can of chiles. Stuff each chili with finger sized pieces of monetary jack cheese and arrange in the bottom of the baking dish.

3. Sprinkle 1 1⁄2 cups of shredded cheddar colby jack over chili’s.

4. In a separate medium sized bowl combine eggs, flour, milk, salt and dry powdered mustard and whisk until most of the clumps are gone (some may remain).

5. Pour egg mixture over chiles.

6. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes. Add remaining cheese to the top of the casserole and return to 350 degree oven for an additional 5 minutes or until firm.

7. Remove and allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Recipe Notes
You can order Hatch Green Chiles and other varieties from ChileMonster.com. Canned chiles will give you anywhere from 8-12.  If you can't find whole green chilies, you can use the chopped green chilies, four small cans. Drain them well and put them on a paper towel lined plate to draw out excess moisture. Instead of cutting jack cheese in fingers, cut into cubes and toss with chilis. Use this for bottom layer of casserole.

Green Smoothie

There are lots of variations that can be made to this basic green smoothie recipe. You can use a variety of fruits and greens, but the ratio should be:

1/3 water

1/3 greens (after blended)

1/3 fruit

I usually start with 2 cups of water in the blender, then pack the blender full of greens (kale and spinach are what I usually use). Throw in 1/4 of a lemon (rind and all). Blend it down and add more greens and keep blending until the total volume is 4 cups after it's blended. Then fill the rest of the blender with fruit and blend until smooth. I almost always add a banana or two and frozen berries. If you like it sweeter, you can add some chopped dates as well. 

Steel Cut Oats 3 ways

1 cup steel-cut oats
3 cups water
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

(optional)
Spices like cinnamon, nutmeg or ground cloves
Maple syrup or brown sugar
Fruit such as berries, chopped apples, or chopped bananas

Basic Stovetop Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Boil the water. Add the steel-cut oats to the pot, along with a pinch of salt, and bring back to a boil. Stir (traditionally done with a wooden spoon.) Reduce the heat to medium low and cook uncovered for about 20 to 30 minutes. Start checking for doneness at about the 20-minute mark. For chewier oats, cook less. For more done oats, cook more. Do not stir the oats as they simmer. Allow them to rest in place as the water cooks them. Turn the heat lower if the oats seem to be drying out too quickly.

Add the milk to the oats. Stir the mixture well using a wooden spoon. Let the oatmeal simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the oatmeal from heat. Spoon into bowls for serving. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, maple syrup, or fruit.

Baked Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a medium pot on the stove over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the steel-cut oats. Use a wooden spoon to toss the oats with the butter. Toast the oats, stirring occasionally, for about three minutes or until brown.

Pour 3 - 3 1/4 cups boiling water into the pot with the oats. Stir the water into the oats with a wooden spoon. Stir in milk, salt, and optional ingredients such as cinnamon, apples, raisins, craisins, other dried fruits, etc. Scoop the mixture into a buttered glass baking dish. Place the dish in the preheated oven. Bake the oatmeal for 50 - 60 minutes. Check on it after 30 minutes to make sure it isn't burning. The oatmeal is ready when the top has browned. Serve with cream, fresh apples, or the toppings of your choice.

Overnight Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Butter your slow-cooker insert or crock. If you don't butter your crock first, you'll have a tough time extracting the oats from the slow-cooker in the morning. Place the steel-cut oats, salt, milk, and water in the crock pot or slow-cooker. Optional: Place the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and/or nuts in the crock pot or slow-cooker as well. Mix all the ingredients together until incorporated.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and turn the setting to low. Let the oatmeal cook overnight. If possible, check for doneness after five hours.

In the morning, remove the container from the slow cooker and stir the oatmeal. Spoon into bowls and stir in the toppings of your choice.

Easy bread pudding

6 small sandwich rolls- preferably 3-6 days old
4 eggs
1 cup of milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Grease or butter a casserole dish generously and preheat over to 350 degrees.
Tear rolls into small 1" bits. These don't need to be uniform, and don't stress if some are bigger than others. Place into casserole dish.
In a large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and milk.
When well mixed, pour over bread in casserole dish.
Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown and puffy.
Serve hot with syrup or on its own- bread pudding will deflate the longer it is out of the oven.

Scones

• 2 3/4 cups flour 
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 3/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1 tablespoon baking powder (not baking soda!)
• 1/2 cup cold butter (1 cube)
• 1 cup chopped dried fruit, flavored chips, nuts, or a combination, optional 
• 2 eggs, beaten with 1/2 cup half and half, milk, or cream and 1 tsp. extract of your choice (vanilla, orange, etc.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Work in the butter just until the mixture is crumbly; it's okay for some small chunks of butter to remain unincorporated. Stir in the fruit, chips, and/or nuts, if you're using them. (I like chopped craisins with orange extract.) Make a depression in the center of your dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Stir until all is moistened and holds together.  If you need to add more moisture because your scones won't hold together, you can add up to 3 tbs. more cream (or 1/2 and 1/2, or milk, depending on what you used).

To bake:  I used my pampered chef stone to bake these, and sprayed on a little PAM on to make sure they didn't stick.  If you use a different type of pan, you can line it with parchment paper.  I prefer small scones, like the "mini" scones you can buy at the supermarket.  I took about half of the mixture at a time, formed it into a triangular shaped "tube," and sliced it about 3/4 of an inch thick so that each of the mini scones would be triangular shaped and would be nearly an inch thick when they were finished.  If you prefer large scones, divide the mixture into two parts, round each half into a 5-6 inch circle about 3/4 inch thick right on the baking stone or parchment-covered pan. Using a knife, cut each round into six wedges and pull the wedges away from each other so that there is about half an inch of space between them to allow for them to rise a bit.

You can brush your unbaked scones with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon sugar before you bake them if you like.  (I didn't do this because I serve scones with clotted cream and lemon curd, so I didn't need to add the extra sweetness.)

Bake large scones at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until they're golden brown. Small scones are done quicker, they should be finished in 10 minutes, but all ovens are different so keep an eye on them and as soon as they are golden brown, take them out.  Remove the scones from the oven, and cool briefly on the pan. Serve warm. When they're completely cool, store in covered container at room temperature for up to a week or so.  I actually had them for about 2 weeks and they were still fine.  However, they are best in the first few days of course.

Avocado hollandaise and eggs benedict

avocado hollandaise

1 ripe avocado
1 lemon, juiced
1/3 cup hot water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Add the avocado, lemon juice and hot water into blender and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides if needed. With the blender running on high, stream in the olive oil slowly. Continue to blend until pureed and smooth.

​For Avocado Eggs Benedict​:

6 slices bacon, fried
6 eggs, poached
​6 slices of toasted bread (sourdough is good)​
a pinch of red pepper flakes
fresh herbs or chives ​ for garnish

Poach the eggs and put the ​toast on the plate. Break a piece of bacon and set it on top of the toast​ and cover with a poached egg. Pour the avocado hollandaise on ​top and sprinkle on some crushed red pepper. Top it off with some fresh herbs or chives​ if desired.

Buttermilk syrup

• This stuff is so good I will never eat maple syrup again. Or whatever it is that passes for maple syrup at the grocery store. I think it's even better than real maple syrup, but then I never was a fan of that, though I know many people love it. Use it for pancakes, French toast, waffles, or whatever else you use syrup for.
• 
  
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla

1. Combine butter, sugar and buttermilk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar completely dissolves. Then remove from heat and add baking soda and vanilla. Stir to combine. Syrup will foam up. Don't be alarmed.
2. David made this for a Mother's Day breakfast for Sarah, Carolyn, and me, and it was absolutely spectacular.

Breakfast Pizza

Crust:
2 c. flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
3/4-1c milk

Toppings:
1 lb sausage
1 c frozen hash browns, thawed
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well. Use a fork to cut in the butter and mix until resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add milk and stir until mixture leaves the side of the bowl and forms a soft, moist, dough. Press dough into a greased 9x13 baking dish.

Cook sausage; drain. Layer sausage, hash browns, and cheese on top of the dough. In a small bowl, stir eggs, milk, salt, and pepper together. Pour evenly over pizza. Bake at 375* for 20 minutes or until eggs are set and crust is golden.

Cinnamon Roll Swirl Cake Recipe

Cake:

3 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup butter, melted

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together except butter. Once mixed, slowly pour in butter. Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan.

Topping:                 

1 cup butter, soft to the point of almost melted

1 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp flour

2 Tbsp cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife.  Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Glaze:

2 cup powdered sugar

5 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

Stir ingredients together. While the cake is warm, drizzle the glaze over the cake.

Recipe from Incredible Recipes by Cheryl (a Pampered Chef recipe)

Krub (Klub) for Mona

I thought it was interesting to note that the meat was optional in all of the recipes I looked at.  I remember that Grandma and Mom put sausage in theirs, mixed in with the grated potato.  I seem to remember that the potatoes they used were partially boiled.  Mona, do you remember that?  I would sure take care of the problem of too much moisture, but I was just a kid so I could be remembering wrong.  If that's the case though, I'll bet you could use the frozen hash browns, thawed, instead of peeling and shredding your own.  (I'm always looking for shortcuts.)

• 6 slices bacon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups potatoes, peeled and finely shredded (or ground).  Important:  Squeeze as much moisture out of the potatoes as you can.
• 1 egg (helps hold the mixture together
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 2 tbs. grated onion
• (Optional:  8 oz. pork sausage, ham cubes, or salt pork.  Sausage can be mixed throughout, other meat is to be used in center of dumpling. 

1.Place bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry to render out the fat. Remove bacon from the pan and crumble.  Reserve the grease.

2.In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Stir in potatoes, optional sausage (raw), ½ tsp of salt, pepper, egg, and onions to make a sticky dough. Knead for 10-15 minutes till the dough is no longer sticky. Use more flour if needed.

3.Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add 1 ½  teaspoons of salt. (Alternately you can cook these in pork stock or a mixture of equal parts beef and chicken stock with a little bit of bacon to kick up the “porky” flavor.  If you do this, omit the salt in the boiling liquid.) Squeeze the potato mixture into 6 or 7 dumplings, or your desired size, no bigger than a baseball. Some pictures showed them as sort of flattened balls, some showed them round. If you are usng meat other than sausage, push it into the center of the dumpling and seal it shut.  Drop carefully into the boiling water, stirring often to make sure they do not stick to the bottom or sides of the pan.  Simmer for 45 to 60 minutes depending on the size of your krub. (I remember this always seemed to take forever when we were kids.)  Remove to a platter with a slotted spoon.

4.Serve with bacon grease brushed over the top, and crumbled bacon. These may also be sliced and fried the next day which is more visually appealing since then they're browned and crisyp, Mom always served them fried piping hot with chunks of cold butter.  They freeze well.  

Tip: If your dumplings are too “wet” from boiling, put them on a baking sheet in the oven for about an hour covered in the bacon/sausage drippings, it will get rid of the excess water, then serve with butter and salt and pepper to taste. Also, these are good served with cream gravy made from any kind of meat drippings.

Breakfast Burritos

These were surprisingly good and super easy to just microwave for a minute or so.

Breakfast Burritos

Makes 4 burritos

4 large Tortillas

1/3 lb sausage, cooked and drained

6 eggs, scrambled with salt and pepper to taste

1 cups shredded cheese

Warm tortillas in the microwave to soften. Fill each tortilla with some sausage, eggs, and cheese. Wrap into a burrito and then wrap in foil. Put foil wrapped burritos into a ziploc bag and freeze. Thaw and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and they are heated through, rotating halfway through baking time.

English Muffin Bread

English Muffin Bread (From "one good thing" by Jillee)

·         5 1/2 cups warm water

·         3 packages RAPID RISE yeast 

·         2 Tablespoons salt

·         3 Tablespoons sugar

·         11 cups flour

Dump all ingredients in big bowl, mix altogether (can mix with a mixer or with a big spoon by hand.  No kneading necessary), then spoon into 4 well-greased medium loaf pans.  Let rise in pans until dough reaches the top of the pans, and bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown.  10 minutes before done, brush with melted butter. Makes 4 loaves. Bread will be moist at first. Allow to COOL COMPLETELY before cutting. Makes terrific toast.

Too easy Banana Bread

1 box yellow cake mix

2 eggs
3-4 overripe bananas

Add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix well. Fill two small, greased loaf pans or one large loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes (longer if using large loaf pan.)

Even though I have a banana bread recipe that I really like I found this one on the web and thought I'd post it for those times when there just wasn't time to make banana bread the real way, but you have over-ripe bananas and you want to use them up.  I haven't tried this but it looks pretty easy.  Plus you could probably do these in a muffin tin pan too.  (I'd bake them at the same temperature for about 20 minutes, test for doneness.)

Hard Cooked Eggs – Steaming Method

What you will need:

about 1.5 quarts of water
up to a dozen eggs (single layer in pan)
a pan with a steamer basket and lid

1. Put the eggs into the steamer basket.
2. Fill the pot with about 1.5 quarts of water, enough that you can simmer for about 20 minutes, but not so much that the level of the water is higher than the bottom of the steamer basket. 
3. Set the steamer into the pot and turn on the heat.  Cover the pan with the lid.
4. Bring the water to a boil, and then turn down the heat to a simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Allow the eggs to cool enough for you to handle – you can peel them immediately or whenever you are ready to eat them. and apparently they're so easy to peel you can do it with one hand. Eggs will not have that dark green ring around the yolk either.

Clotted Cream

Yield:  about 1 c. clotted cream

Ingredients: 2 pints heavy cream, preferably with a high fat content and not ultra pasteurized (try to find Cedar Summit Farms or similar.)

Method: Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Pour the cream into an oven safe pan or dish such that the cream rises one to three inches deep. Cover the pan or dish, and bake for eight to 12 hours, or until the cream has formed a thick, yellow skin. Cool the cream at room temperature, and then refrigerate it for eight hours. Skim the yellow clotted cream from the top and serve. You may use the cream that remains below for baking.  When you serve the clotted cream with your scones, split the scone, dollop the clotted cream on the scone and add a smaller dollop of jam (strawberry is traditional) on top.

Cream Scones

Yield: 8 scones

·         2 c. all purpose flour

·         ¼ c. sugar

·         1 T. baking powder

·         ½ t. salt

·         1 pint (2 c.) very heavy cream

·         2 T. butter, melted

·         1 T. sugar

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together the dry ingredients with a fork. Pour in the cream and stir it in with a fork. Give the dough a few gentle kneads with your hand. Transfer the dough to your baking sheet and pat it into a circle roughly 10” in diameter. Cut the circle into eight equal triangles and separate them. Brush the scones with the melted butter and sprinkle them with the sugar. Bake for 17 minutes, or until they spring back a bit when pressed. These scones are best the day they are baked. Serve warm or at room temperature.  Recipe note:  The proportions of cream to flour are correct.  Measure your flour by scooping and leveling.  I use an exceptionally thick cream.  If your cream is thin, begin with 1 ½ cups and add additional cream as needed.  The dough should be very soft.  You can increase sugar to ½ cup and add 1 cup blueberries (fold in very gently); or increase sugar to half a cup and add ½ cup dried cranberries with 1 tbs. grated orange zest.  Top with the tablespoon of sugar and bake as directed.  Serve with clotted cream and jam, recipe to follow.

Coffee Cake in a Mug

I haven't tried this yet but it gets excellent reviews (unlike the chocolate cake in a mug, which gets mixed reviews) and I wanted to put it down here with all of the little additions and options that I've found.

• 1 mug (small if you want it to puff up over the top, large if you don't.) Add the following:
• 1 Tb. butter (soften in mug, try not to melt it)
• 2 Tb. sugar (stir into butter till it's fluffy)
• Egg (break one into a small bowl and beat it, use half an egg for each mug.  If you are only making one you can use the whole egg, or you could actually leave it out but it will be less cake-y.  You could also use 1/8 cup egg product.
• 2 Tb. sour cream (can sub. yogurt, greek yogurt, buttermilk, or even regular cream.)
• Few drops vanilla
• Pinch salt
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda

Crumb topping:
In separate bowl, mix 1 Tb. softened butter, 2 Tb. flour, 1 Tb. brown sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon.  Mix together with a fork or with your fingers till it's crumbly and add to the top of your mug full of batter.

Microwave for 1 minute, then microwave for 10 second intervals till it's done to your liking.  (Careful, it'll be very hot when it first comes out of the microwave.)

Some of the reviewers said they used pumpkin instead of the egg, but that got mixed reviews.  Some added raisins, some added cocoa to make it chocolaty.  I was thinking that if you use regular cream instead of sour cream you'd need to use about half a tsp. of baking POWDER instead of baking soda to make up for the loss of the acid.

Anyway, nice to have an individual sized dessert when you crave something.  :)