Christmas Eats

I actually don't care for a lot of "holiday" food.  

I don't like stuffing--let's be honest folks, it's soggy bread.  

I don't like yams that are full of sugar and covered in marshmallows--if you're gonna eat a yam or a sweet potato, just treat it like a potato!  Don't try to mask its taste with all that extra stuff.

I only like cranberries if they are from fresh berries.  Cannot stand that canned stuff.

I don't like green bean casserole or any other casserole that has a cream-of-X soup in it or is covered with those crispy fried onion bits stuff.

I don't like ham a lot of time--unless it's a really expensive kind.  If it's the kind from the regular market it's just got a strange texture and squeaks on my teeth.  

But, I LOVE the holidays.  So I have to do my own thing.  One thing I adore is Christmas breakfast.  I love breakfast in general, which is not cereal.  Cereal is a great snack.  Breakfast is warm and buttery and requires a fork.  Christmas breakfast especially.  The oven must be turned on.  And it should take a good long time to eat it, while we sip coffee or tea and watch the sun move across the window.

Christmas Breakfast

Fruit Parfait (fruit, angel food cake, fruit dip)
Cinnamon Toast (from Trader Joe's)
Baked Egg in Ham Cup with Fontina and Dill

Baked Eggs

Christmas Dinner

Beef Wellington with Red Wine Sauce
(Gana and I had a good cut of meat,
but the kids' I made with ground beef.)
Mashed Potatoes
Garlic Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Served up with a Cabernet Sauvignon

Eggnog Shortbread Trifle, AKA a little bit o' heaven

Breakfast Challenge Day 5 (By Meg)

Granola


I add some nuts & cranberriers.

Breakfast Challenge Day 4 (By Meg)

Peanut Butter Bars Made With Leftover Oatmeal

The Peanut Butter Bars Took Over 15 Minutes.

:-)

Breakfast Challenge Day 3 (By Meg)

Breakfast Challenge Day 3 Easy Egg Fritata

Breakfast Challenge Day 2 ( By Meg)

Baked Oatmeal.

Soaking the oats the night before.



Cracking the eggs.


It's ready.

The boys put thumbs up!

Breakfast Challenge day 1 (By Meg)

I'm doing a healthy breakfast challenge.


The Breakfast Challenge was fun. :-)

Soaking steel cut oats:



Cover overnight:

silly faces:

Resurrection Morning!

For some of our Easter traditions and meditations, click here, here, and here.

Easter breakfast is a big to-do in our family. Here are some of what we enjoyed this year:

I cut the pineapple into egg, chick, and bunny shapes.

Blueberries and whipped cream

Creme Brulee Coffee and White Hot Chocolate, both with whipped cream

Fruit, sausage, eggs, and Cherry Coffee Cake.

I don't have a picture of the coffee cake, but you can see it in the right hand corner of the above picture. It's our Easter morning tradition. It's soooooo good. Here's the recipe, (originally from here). You won't be dissappointed:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling

Topping:
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I use Cinnamon-Plus from Pampered Chef)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch baking pan.

Combine butter and sugar and large bowl. Beat until creamy. Beat in eggs and sour cream.
Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Gradually add the sifted dry ingredients to cream mixture. Beat after each addition. Add vanilla.

Spread 1/2 of this mixture into the prepared pan. Spread with Cherry-pie filling. Spread remaining 1/2 of mixture over pie filling.

Mix sugar, cinnamon, flour and pecans in a small bowl. Cut in butter with two knives. Sprinkle over batter.

Bake 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Post-Birth Breakfast

My sister had a baby February 23. This is what I made her for breakfast the morning she gave birth. Fruit, whole milk vanilla yogurt, and scones with lemon curd.