Christmas Breakfast Ideas and French Toast Recipe

I was hungry the other morning and decided to make myself an "Egg in a Nest", which is one of my favourite ways to make eggs.
Then I got an idea.
How about if I used a Christmas themed cookie cutter to cut out the middle of my bread.

So I grabbed a Christmas Tree cookie cutter and did it.  I buttered both sides of the cut bread, placed it into a pan, broke an egg into the middle, cooked it until it was almost done, then flipped it and ate it.

And that's when the big idea hit.
Whew, I tell you I amaze myself sometimes.
How about making French Toast for the kiddo's using Cookie Cutters to cut shapes out of the bread?   You can use the scraps of bread you cut off for, Bread Pudding or Stuffing or bread crumbs.   No waste, and the kids have a fun themed breakfast. 

Or you can just own up to it, and make it for yourself. 
Since it's Christmas, use your Christmas cookie cutters. 
I discovered that to get the bread out of the cookie cutters, it was helpful to pick it up and press into the bread from the other side.  This ensured a clean cut.

Bonus, here's my French Toast recipe.  Actually, I got it from a friend many years ago, and I make it this way every time.    Feel free to double, triple or quadruple the quantities.  I find I can get two or three slices of french toast for each egg I use.

Recipe: French Toast
1 egg, beaten
2-3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon melted butter


Whisk together the egg, milk and sugar.  Melt butter, whisk that in and get ready to dip that bread.

  Dip the bread, flip it, and dip the other side in the egg batter, briefly.  Lift out of bowl with either a fork or a slotted spoon.

  You don't want it to soak in too much.  Otherwise, it will take forever to cook all the way through.   Cook in a greased pan over medium heat, then flip and cook the other side.  Serve with some butter and syrup.

I had some Maple Syrup and some Golden Syrup out today.

  Couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted, and finally decided on the Golden Syrup.

 For some reason it just sounded better than the Maple Syrup.  

Since it's the weekend tomorrow, how about surprising your loved ones with a nice breakfast to kick off the anticipated holiday week. 

Why wait for Christmas? 




 

Leftover Chocolate, really...

I've had such fun making Chocolate Covered Chocolates and Coconut Snowball Truffles the past couple of weeks, and along the way I've had adventures.

You wouldn't believe the mess I made trying to figure out how to dip chocolates properly.
But they got done, and don't look too bad if I say so myself.
I'm bringing the Cherry ones with me on Friday to a gathering, we're doing a Christmas gift exchange. But the cherries aren't a gift, they are there to share with everyone.

One of the adventures I had in the kitchen was some chocolate 'seizing' up on me.  Somehow a drop or two of water got into the bowl, and the next thing I knew this gorgeous fluid chocolate was a big clumpy mess.

I could have cried, but I just took more chocolate out of the pantry, melted it and continued on.

In the meantime, the chocolate that had seized up, was sitting there.  I didn't want to throw it out, so I dug it out of the bowl and discovered that it crumbled.
I had an idea.
I crumbled up the rest, put it in a plastic bag and into the fridge it went.  I'm going to use it to decorate or roll some truffles into it. 
Waste not, want not.   I couldn't say Seize the day, cause I seized the chocolate.

I also had some more chocolate that I'd melted but it was acting rather strange, it was too thick to dip the rest of the Chocolate Covered Cherries, so I put it into the fridge overnight.

Then I got an idea, I'd add some hot cream to it, and turn it into a ganache and then freeze that so I could use it as a frosting for a chocolate cake or some cupcakes or ... later on.   I like to freeze frosting in a piping bag, that way it's ready to go when I pull it out of the freezer.   I just thaw it in the fridge overnight and then I'm good to go.
And as for the ganache, you can also add a spoonful to your morning coffee as a sub for a flavored coffee creamer.  It's very good.  

Well, gotta go clean up the rest of the mess, sigh.
The elves are on strike at my house, so I have to do it all.

Sauteed Swiss Chard

A few years back we were living in Malibu, in an RV park and a friend there was growing Chard and would give the excess chard to us and others. 
Well, I got hooked on chard sauteed with a little onion and bacon, and would eagerly accept and fix and eat all the chard they brought me.
I got burned out on it, and haven't made it much over the past few years, until I got some Red Chard in my Organic veggie share this past week.
I'd forgotten how much I love Chard.  I did use some of the stalks in my Beef Cheddar Pastries, last week, but I still had a lot left.

So I fixed it the other day, just how I like it.
And it was good.

Recipe:  Sauteed Chard

2-3 slices bacon cut into lardons, and fried
1/2-1 onion cut into slices
1 bunch Chard, stalks cut into 1 inch pieces
the tops from the chard, chopped
8 oz. Mushrooms sliced
1 tablespoon Olive Oil if needed for frying
0r
2 tablespoons water or stock
1 or 2 grinds of black pepper if needed.

Fry bacon til just crisp, then remove from pan, set aside.

Saute the onions and chard stalks in the bacon fat until softened, over medium heat,
add the mushrooms, let cook another minute or two, then add the tops from the Chard.  Stir all together and if needed add the olive oil or an additional water or stock, place a lid on top and let steam for about another 3-5 minutes.  Serve.

I didn't add any salt or other seasonings here, I didn't think it needed any additional salt as there was plenty in the bacon.  I did add a couple grinds of black pepper, but honestly, it complemented the grilled chicken breast we had for dinner that night very well. 

I still have a Savoy Cabbage left and I'm thinking it would go wonderfully in some Spring Rolls.

I've been baking some No-Knead  Bread for a friends Gumbo fest the past couple of days
and taste testing the bread as well as the
 Chocolate Covered Cherries, and well, I think that the Spring Rolls will do the trick for lighter eating.  






At least til next weekend...
 

Chocolate Covered Cherries

I made some Chocolate Covered Cherries this week.  I've been meaning to make them for a long time, but they are supposed to take two weeks to cure and get really tasty.

I'd think about making them a day or two before Christmas or Valentines Day and decide against it.

But I remembered this time, it's just over two weeks til Christmas, which means they'll have time to get all nice and gooey and tasty inside.

Here's the recipe and my how to's.
To start with you need a jar of Maraschino Cherries. 
 1 jar of Maraschino Cherries, drained, reserving the liquid
 Drain the cherries well, and place on a piece of paper towel to make sure most of the liquid is gone. They need to be quite dry for the next step.

 Next up, you need to make a basic fondant.  This isn't a true fondant, but it's close enough for this purpose.  The fondant covers the cherries before you put the chocolate over it all.
 16 oz. of chocolate, or chocolate bark.  I used some Semi-sweet and some Milk Chocolate
Recipe: Fondant 

2 -3 cups Confectioners sugar  (more if needed)

2 tablespoons softened butter
2-3 tablespoons Maraschino Cherry Juice**
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 teaspoons golden or light Corn Syrup
Mix the butter, cherry juice, corn syrup and sugar together in the bowl of your kitchenaid or mixer.  Mix til well blended, then add the vanilla extract.   It should look fairly dry.

Dump out onto a pastry sheet and knead the mixture until it has combined and is smooth and elastic.   I ended up using over 3 cups of sugar, as it was fairly humid here.
Next up, cut or portion off the fondant into equal amounts, I rolled them into a ball, about the size of the cherries.

Pat each ball out into a circle, and place the cherry

in the middle of it, folding the fondant over the cherry

and sealing it. If you have excess fondant, pinch it off and set aside for another cherry.
  Continue until all of the cherries have been covered with the fondant.   Place the cherries into the fridge or freezer for a couple of hours to firm up.  I put mine in the freezer overnight.

Melt whichever kind of chocolate you like, I used some Semi-Sweet and some Milk Chocolate.

Dip the fondant covered cherries into the chocolate, and put into either a mini cupcake wrapper or onto a parchment paper, making sure that it is totally covered with Chocolate.  You don't want the cherry juice to escape as it starts its journey from fondant to cordial.








I had to cut into one of them so I could do a quality control taste test. 

 And then I had fun taking pictures.

They look so pretty, and yummy, and I'm seriously wondering if I can wait two more weeks...

I did say I had adventures.
I wanted to show how thin you should pat the circles of fondant out to wrap the cherries in. Well, seconds after taking this picture the fondant fell, to the floor, and became an offering to the kitchen goddess.
That didn't stop me though, I had lots of fondant left and I kept on until every cherry was covered in this pink stuff.

And talk about making a mess. sigh.

I found out that while toothpicks are good, a bamboo skewer worked better for poking into the cherries and dipping them into the chocolate.  I also used my silicone spatula to help mound the chocolate onto the cherries as I was dipping them.

All that effort will be worth it in just over a week, if I can wait that long.

Beef Cheddar Pastries for December SRC

It's time for the Secret Recipe Club reveal for December and then Group A takes a break.

Until February.

I think you know the spiel by now, I'm a member of the Secret Recipe Club, which is divided into four groups, A, B, C and D.
Each group takes a turn posting recipes on a Monday, Group A gets the first Monday of the month, Group B the second Monday and so forth.

Each member of each group is assigned a secret blog to make and post a recipe from.  You keep it a secret until your "REVEAL DAY" and then you tell the world about which recipe you picked and why.
My problem is always picking  just one recipe.

This month my assigned blog was Things I Make (for Dinner)

Turns out Sarah is also a fellow Canadian.  I'm still Canadian even after all the years in the US.  And she made my Butter Tart recipe a few months back as as her Secret Recipe Club pick.  Which reminds me, I need to make some Butter Tarts soon, it's almost Christmas.
And she's got some great recipes on her blog.  I wavered between a few, as usual.   I wanted to make these crostini's cause there is just something about a nice crostini topping, but I'm saving that recipe for a Christmas party I'm attending in a week or so, and I think they'll go over well.  Or if I can find a nice avocado, I may make these Avocado and Goat Cheese Crostini.    Either way I'll let you know. 
 So what did I finally make?   Well, I was going to make this soup, I thought I had all the ingredients in the pantry, but I didn't have any black beans so I was going to sub some pinto beans and then I managed to dump all the corn out onto the floor, so there went that idea.   I'm going to  make it soon, now that it has finally cooled down here.

But...  We had some leftover roast beef from the other night and I got some lovely Swiss Chard in my organic veggie basket this week, and I thought I could use some of that in these Cheddar Beef Pastries.  And I was right.   Sarah did say these were freezer friendly as well.   And if you know me, I made these appetizer size.   I've got another potluck to attend in a couple of weeks, and I thought they would be perfect as little snack type appetizers, so I guess I'll be making them again.     I only made a half recipe though, cause I had a single sheet of pastry in the freezer and my other packages were buried in the chest freezer, and I do mean buried.
BTW, they were delicious, even if the cheese escaped. sigh. 

Recipe:  Beef Cheddar Pastries   Preheat oven to 400 degrees
1 Tbsp butter
2 cubes frozen Caramelized Onions or 1 small onion chopped.
2 stalks Red Chard, finely chopped ( I saved the tops for another day)
1 carrot, finely chopped
1/4 c turkey broth (I had some from Turkey Day)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 oz cooked beef roast, diced small
salt and pepper, to taste
1 pkg frozen puff pastry, defrosted
2 oz sliced Cojack cheddar cheese (I like the combo of Monterey Jack cheese and Colby)
1 egg
1 tsp water

Take the puff pastry out of the freezer and place in the fridge overnight or on the counter for an hour to thaw. Chop up the vegetables and the meat, then in a skillet, melt the butter and add onion and carrot.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft.  Then add the Chard, continuing to stir a little, just until softened.  Add the garlic, sauteeing until fragrant.  If the onion starts to brown, add broth in small amounts to continue to cook the carrots and chard. You want to keep  moisture to a minimum.  Take off of the heat and add the chopped beef and stir, set aside to cool a little. 

On a well floured pastry sheet, roll out puff pastry to a 9x15" rectangle.  (Original instructions were to cut into 3 rectangles approx 9x15".  On one half of the pastry, place a slice of cheese.  Top with 1/6 of the beef mixture, leaving a border of pastry.)  I cut the pastry into three strips and then cut each strip into fourths.  I wanted to make a nice little hand pie, by putting a little of the filling into the middle of the square, then folding the opposite corner over the filling to make a triangle.

I brushed egg onto the edges of the pastry square before putting the filling into the middle.  Then press together and seal the edges together with a fork. Place on a parchment covered baking sheet, (I used my reusable parchment sheet here)

Brush the egg glaze on top of the pastries and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until golden.

If you're going to freeze them, place on a parchment or wax paper covered baking sheet and freeze until firm and then place in a plastic bag. 
I ate some and then froze the rest.   I didn't need to eat them all at once, but I could have.

I'm going to be making these again, I think they're brilliant for taking to a potluck or ?

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