Quick Way to Spice up your morning oatmeal

Add a spoonful or two of pureed pumpkin or pumpkin pie mix (whichever you prefer) to your morning oatmeal and stir. Pumpkin is very high in fiber and potassium.

Some of my other favorite oatmeal mix ins: dried cranberries, cinnamon, brown sugar, almond, walnuts, berries, apples, bananas and peanut butter.

Did I miss anything else?

Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

I had some fresh blueberries sitting in my fridge that I didn't know what to do with. I've been wanting to make a coffee cake for awhile since my husband loves coffee cake. So I decided to find a recipe for a coffee cake to make. So I went to my favorite recipe hunting ground - recipezaar and found one that looked good.

Ingredients

Cake
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 egg

Streusel
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened

Combine the blueberries and 2 T flour;
toss gently and set aside.

Combine 1/2 cup butter, 2 cups flour,
2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 cup sugar
and 3/4 cup milk in a large bowl.

Beat 2 minutes at medium speed with an electric mixer.

Add egg; beat one minute.

Fold in blueberries.

Spread batter evenly in a greased and floured 9-inch square pan.

Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon in a bowl;

cut in 1/4 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Spread this mixture over the batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Baked French Toast

We love french toast. We just don't make it that often. That could be because we don't really cook breakfast too often - and when we do - its eggs and toast or eggs and potatoes, or we use our awesome waffle iron to make some humongous waffles. I must say my waffle iron was a gift from my husband about a year after we'd been together. It was a weird christmas gift. I know we were talking about getting one.. luckily it wasn't my only christmas gift that year.

Anyways, back to French Toast. I had seen some recipes for baked french toast and it intrigued me. It sounded easy enough. I worried about the direction to "let sit it in the fridge overnight" would make it soggy. I guess I would find out.

Ingredients
5 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup half and half
1/2 loaf french bread - cut diagonally into 1" slices
1/2 cup of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup of butter - melted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons cinnamon

• In a large bowl - whisk together eggs, milk, cream, cinnamon and vanilla
• Dip bread slices into the mixture
• Place in a greased 9x13 pan and refridgerate overnight
  


• Preheat oven to 350
• Take pan out of the fridge to take some of the chill off
• In a small bowl - mix hot melted butter, brown sugar and maple syrup.
• Spoon sugar mixture over the bread.
  


• Bake 40 minutes
• Let stand 5 minutes before serving
  

Verdict? - We both thought it was soggy. Maybe it was the fact that I used french bread? Maybe I should have used a thick solid bread. Maybe it was because it soaked overnight. Either way. I'm going to try again tomorrow to see if not letting it soak overnight makes it any less soggy. Either way,it was edible. Just not our cup of tea. We like moist, but not so much that it falls apart in your mouth.

If that doesn't work, I'm going to change the bread.

Hollandaise Sauce

I love eggs benedict. I get it sometimes when we go out for breakfast. I've just never made it at home because of the sauce.

Hollandaise Sauce always sounded very daunting to me. I don't know why. When I came across this recipe online, I thought it didnt sound so hard. So I thought I'd give it a try. It was pretty easy to make. For awhile, I wondered if it was ever going to thicken, but when it did, it thickened fast

Ingredients

5 egg yolks

5 tablespoons of butter - melted

1/4 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of water

pinch of cayenne

• Whisk yolks and lemon juice together until mixed in a big glass bowl
• Place bowl over a pot of boiling water (the bowl should NOT touch the water)
• Whisk the egg mixture - don't let it get too hot or they will scramble
• Slowly add the melted butter
• Whisk until the sauce is thick
• Take off the heat and whisk in the salt and cayenne

I thought this recipe was really lemony. Almost like biting into the lemon itself. If thats what floats your boat keep it- I think if I make this again, I'll add only a little bit of lemon juice and just subsitute water for the rest.

Buttermilk Pancakes

When I went to the grocery store to buy the buttermilk for the cupcakes, they didnt have the little cartons. So I bought a half gallon.

So what do you do with so much leftover buttermilk? So I made my husband some buttermilk pancakes the next day. Which prompted him to look at me and ask why I was bothering to make them from scratch when we had perfectly good pancake mix in the cupboard.

I think these were delicious - sweet, light and fluffy. It also gave me a good opportunity to try out our new Cuisinart Griddler. It is an amazing appliance. I like it so much better than our previous foreman grill. The interchangeable plates and the ability to lay flat makes it one of my favorite wedding gifts.

FYI: This recipe made about 10 good sized pancakes.

Ingredients
2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
4 tablespoons unsalted melted butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• In a bowl beat eggs until frothy
• Add buttermilk, melted butter (room temperature) and vanilla - mix well.
• Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat on medium speed until blended
• Heat griddle to 350 degree.
• Ladle pancake mixture onto hot griddle.

• Wait until the topside starts bubbling and flip
• Remove when both sides are golden and enjoy.
  
  We like to put syrup and butter on at our house..

YUM!