It doesn't get much better than this.  Remember the strawberry stuffed french toast?  Well, blueberry stuffed french toast is WAY better, even though the picture is not. (I also tweeked the recipe a bit).

3 eggs
½ cup milk
4 oz cream cheese
½ tsp vanilla
½  cup confectioners sugar
8 slices bread  - use whatever you have on hand  - I used whole grain white
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
2 TBL sugar
Butter for cooking
Topping of choice…I used maple syrup and confectioners’ sugar

In a shallow bowl whisk together eggs and milk. 
In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, confectioners sugar & vanilla.
In another small bowl combine blueberries and sugar.
Spread cream cheese mix on  4 slices of bread, top with a single layer of blueberries.  Top with remaining 4 slices of bread.
 Melt butter on griddle over med-low heat.  Dip the sandwiches in the egg mixture for a few seconds on each side.  Cook sandwiches until golden brown, 2-3 minutes per side. 

Top with more blueberries and maple syrup!

When a few bubbles appear on top of the pancakes, turn them over and cook briefly...about 45-60 more seconds.

A few years ago when I had a plethora of blueberries on hand so I did a search on the internet for a great muffin recipe.  This is the one I found, To Die For Blueberry Muffins, and it has been in my recipe box every since.  They look better in person than they do in this picture...and the muffin tops are 'to die for'!

I can't help it, since I bought that new cookbook; I am on a Paula Deen kick.  This was good, but it could have been better, & I will tell you why.  The strawberries I had were a little tart.  So next time I will kick it up a notch (I know, I'm no Emeril) by sweetening the strawberries, or the cream cheese, or maybe both.  I'm not sure yet.  Anyway, even though I think I could improve on this, the kids still ate it (Hubby is out of town) and I thought it was pretty good.

I really should have taken the picture from a different angle, you know, so you could see the 'stuffed' part of the French toast.  Oh well, maybe next time, once I improve on it. 

TJ's Cream Cheese and Strawberry-Stuffed French Toast
Adapted from, The Deen Family Cookbook

3 eggs
½ cup milk
4 oz cream cheese
8 slices bread  - use whatever you have on hand  - I used whole grain white
Fresh sliced strawberries
Butter for cooking (it’s not Paula Deen without butter!)
Topping of choice…I used Maple syrup and confectioners’ sugar

1. In a shallow bowl whisk together eggs and milk.  Spread the cream cheese on 4 slices of bread, top the cream cheese with a single layer of strawberries.  Top with remaining 4 slices of bread.

2. Melt butter on griddle over med-low heat.  Dip the sandwiches in the egg mixture for a few seconds on each side.  Cook sandwiches until golden brown, 2-3 minutes per side. 

****Next time I will add a little sugar to the strawberries….maybe a tablespoon  & I will add a little confectioners sugar to the cream cheese…

I was sitting here Thursday night thinking about making a coffee cake for Hubby's office.  I always make the same ol' coffee cake. Don't get me wrong, it is good and all, but just a standard coffee cake.  I wanted something with a swirl, so I started searching the internet when I ran across this one.  Now, I have been a fan of the Smitten Kitchen for a while now, so when I saw this recipe on her website, I knew it would be good.  I've adapted it just a bit, as I did not have rhubarb in the house. I couldn't decide on which fruit to put in this cake, blueberry or raspberry, so I just made one of each.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter an 8x8 pan.

For the filling:
12 ounces frozen blueberries, or raspberries, or any type of fruit you would like.  Fresh fruit would most likely taste better, but I only had banana’s on hand, and that did not sound very good to me.
1/8 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
½ tsp ground ginger

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp salt
1 ¾ cup flour
10 TBL melted butter

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

For the cake:
1/3 cup + 2 TBL  sour cream
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
6 TBL softened butter cut into small pieces

In small bowl combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla.

Using your mixer, combine flour sugar, baking soda, baking powder & salt.  Add butter, and about 1/4th of the sour cream mixture, mix on medium speed until flour is moistened.  Add remaining sour cream, increase mixer speed a little, mix until well combined. 

Pour ½ the batter into your prepared pan.  Add fruit mixture, dollop remaining batter over fruit mixture, it does not have to be even.  Top evenly with crumb topping.  (You may need to break apart crumb topping with your fingers)

Bake for 50-55 minutes.

OK, so the picture isn't that great, and the recipe is very simple, but the roll is delicious!! On Christmas morning we do not sit at the table for breakfast, we eat this on the go, on paper plates while opening gifts!

Sausage Roll

1 (16oz) package Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage
1 can Pillsbury pizza dough
Italian seasoning
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
¼ cup Parmesan cheese

Fry sausage in skillet till all pink is gone (I do this the night before)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll pizza dough & roll out as large as your cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with as much Italian seasoning as you would like.  I like to have a nice coating all over my dough.  Bake for about 5 – 7 minutes, take out of the oven.  Spread sausage all over the top of the dough; add mozzarella cheese then parmesan cheese.  Roll up jelly style.  Put back in oven and cook for 10 more minutes or until top is a nice shade of brown.  

I have a confession to make.  I have always made cinnamon rolls  (OH GOD, I hate to admit it) from a can.  So a few months back when I wrote that girl wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast, lunch and dinner on her birthday, and then my friend L ask for the recipe, I didn't have the heart to tell her to go to the store, buy a can of Grands Cinnamon Rolls, pop open the can, follow the directions and voila, there  you go!  Notice how I spelled voila correctly? Anyway even before L unintentionally guilted me into searching for that perfect cinnamon roll recipe it was already a thought in my head.  The only thing that was holding me back was the amount of time they took.  I mean you have to wait and wait and wait.  I love to cook, but the one thing I do not like about cooking is when you have to wait for a recipe to do something. For example, I used to buy sugar cookie dough from the store becaue I did not like the fact that you have to put it in the fridge for 1 hour before you roll them out.  For chocolate mouse, you have to put the chocolate mixture in the fridge before you can fold in the whipped cream - oh that used to irrateate me.  Not to forget about good ol' crème brulèe, you cook it, thput it in the fridge for hours before you can torch the top, now I do it all the time.   I figured if I could come to terms with all these items, I could wait a few hours for dough to rise - right?  Well I am glad I did. I found the perfect recipe for cinnamon rolls, well it is actually 3 recipes put together and then I still changed a few more things about it. So, here you go, my perfect Christmas Eve Cinnamon Rolls!  But, you will have to wait... just kidding... here you go..

Dough***
2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup sugar, PLUS 1 tsp
1 cup warm milk (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup butter –melted PLUS extra to coat bowl
2 eggs slightly beaten
7 cups flour plus extra for rolling on

***I do not add salt because I use salted butter.  If you use unsalted butter, add about 1 tsp salt

Filling***
1 ½ cup butter divided, ¾ cup melted, ¾ cup room temp
1 ¾ cup brown sugar plus 4 tbl
3 tbl cinnamon (the best you can find)
1 ½ cups chopped pecans (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
 
Cream Cheese Frosting***
4 oz cream cheese
¼ cup butter
½ tsp vanilla
½ tbl milk
1 ½ cup powdered sugar (sifted to ensure no lumps)


Directions***

In a small bowl mix together warm water, yeast, and 1 tsp sugar and set aside. In a large mixing bowl (Preferably the one that connects to your Kitchen Aide mixer – you can do this by hand, but I would not recommend it, this recipe take too long already!) mix milk, 2/3 cup sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs, stir well then add your yeast mixture.  Add ½ the flour and beat until smooth, add the rest of the flour ½ cups at a time until well incorporated.  Dough will be sticky.  Change the paddle on your Kitchen Aide to the dough hook (if you don’t have a dough hook, you can kneed on floured surface for 5-10 min), and let your KA do the kneading for you, for about 7 minutes. The dough will creep up on your hook, so stay close by to help it down.  Place in a well buttered glass bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size for about 1 ½ hours (ughh!!)  When doubled, punch down dough with your fist, this part is fun,  but then you have to let it rest for another 5 minutes!

After you wait the 5 minutes, roll dough out on a floured surface, I don't know dimentions very well, just roll until it is big and about 1/4 or maybe 1/8 of an inch in thickness. I don't know, just roll.  This was not big enough....

but this was....

I forgot to mention, roll it into a rectangle.

Now for the filling directions....

Spread dough with ¾ cup melted butter. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over buttered dough (like in the picture above).  Sprinkle with pecans and raisins if desired.  I did ½ with nuts and raisins and ½ without.

Roll up jelly style, like in the picture above.  Cut into 20-24 slices.  Coat the bottom of two, 9x13 pans with remaining butter.  Sprinkle 2 TBL (for each pan - 4 TBL total) brown sugar on top of butter. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in pans. 

Then put them in a warm spot and  WAIT another 45 minutes or so for them to double in size - again.  Ughh!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 25-30 minutes until rolls are nicely browned, cool rolls slightly before you frost.

Here they are just coming out of the oven.

Frosting - cream together cream cheese and butter.  Add vanilla and milk until incorporated.  Add powdered sugar ½  cup at a time.

Frost slightly cooled rolls.

So, was all that waiting worth it (all 2 hours and 45 minutes of it)?  YOU BET!!  These were AWESOME!  They are VERY sweet and gooey.  If you don't like them as sweet and gooey cut back on the brown sugar mix and cut back on the butter, however, I would not suggest it.   The only thing I am going to do differently next time will be to do everything through letting the cinnamon rolls rise in the 9x13 pans, then I will stick them in fridge overnight, so I can just pop them in the oven the morning of.  When I try this I will let you know how it works.  I think it should be fine though.  

The original recipe is here.  This was good, but next time I will do it a little differently.  First off I would add ham, maybe a little mushroom, chop the zucchini more or maybe even puree it, (for the kids) and add a little salt and pepper.  I know it wouldn't be a "vegetable" frittata anymore, but it would be good! 

Recipe:

8 slightly beaten eggs
1 TBL fresh basil or 1 tsp dried
2 TBL olive oil
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
½ cup chopped zucchini
¾ cup chopped cherry tomatoes
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

In a medium bowl combine eggs and basil; set aside.  Heat oil in a large broiler proof skillet; add corn, and zucchini.  Cook and stir for 3 minutes; add tomatoes.  Cook uncovered over medium heat about 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender, stir occasionally. 

Pour egg mixture over vegetables in skillet.  Cook over medium heat.  As mixture sets, run a spatula around edge of skillet, lifting egg mixture so uncooked portion follows underneath. Continue cooking and lifting edges until egg mixture is almost set, surface will be moist, sprinkle with cheese. 

Place under broiler 4-5 inches from heat.  Broil 1-2 minutes or until top is just set and cheese is melted.

My kids love this!  I think I got this recipe from Family Fun magazine many moons ago.

Recipe….

Whole wheat bun.
Spread peanut butter on the bottom of the bun. 
Slice a banana in half horizontal; put it on top of the peanut butter, put a little jelly on top of the banana, you know, so it will look like ketchup.  (You can leave it off if you would like in fact my kids like it better without the jelly, I just did it here for the picture.)

That’s it. Enjoy.