Egg Nog Hot Cereal-Helen Horton

During the holidays, I love to have some egg nog on hand.  The nog I buy at the store is way to rich to drink straight up so I always mix it with some skim milk, almost one to one.  It has plenty of flavor and it is much more drinkable. 

One of my favorite ways to enjoy undiluted nog is drizzled on hot cereal.  I love Cream of Wheat and Oatmeal cooked from the regular oats but even quick will due (the kind that comes in little single serve packets is good only in a pinch).  Audrey introduced me to a multi-grain hot cereal that has become my favorite.  It is 10 Grain Hot Cereal made by Red Mill.  It is delicious.  Yesterday we had a hearty bowl of 10 Grain with a little dark brown sugar and some nog drizzled over all.  It is simple, easy to make and tastes like a holiday breakfast feast. 

And speaking of adding nog, one of my favorite beverages is Postum and during the holiday season, I love to add a little nog to it for rich hot goodness along with some homemade Christmas Butter Cookies.  Unfortunately, Postum has been discontinued.  I am still stewing about the fact that when Kraft Foods discontinued it in October 2007, they didn’t even care enough about their loyal customers to warn them.  As Postum has a very long shelf life, I would have bought a couple of cases and stowed them in a vault somewhere to use for the next 2 decades.  Anyway, I miss Postum, with a slosh of egg nog, the most during the holidays.  Does anyone have a recommendation on a Postum substitute?

Note: Did you know that Postum was created by the Post Cereal Co as an alternative ‘no caffeine’ alternative to coffee, hence the name.

Pico de Gallo Taco Salad-Helen Horton

I love fresh Pico de Gallo and enjoy it on lots of foods-most any kind of mexican dish, scrambled eggs, baked potatoes, beans (open a can of pinto, kidney, or black beans, rinse, heat, then top with a generous helping of Pico de Gallo).  One of my favorite ways to serve Pico de Gallo is on Taco Salad.  Serve the ingredients buffet style so guests can build their own salad with tortilla chips, taco seasoned ground meat (I like ground turkey), chopped lettuce, grated cheese and Pico de Gallo.  This strategy combines the splashy flavors of fresh taco salad in a one stop bowl so it has a complex but balanced flavor rather than serving diced tomatoes plain.  Please put a liberal serving of Pico de Gallo all over as the crown and let the morsels drip down into the salad.  I like to serve this salad with a bit of Ranch Dressing squirted over in zig zags but purists tell me it’s just got to be sour cream.  Maybe have both available.

3 parts finely diced tomatoes without juice

1 part finely diced green peppers

1 part finely diced red onions

Some minced jalapeno or other pepper with heat (use the amount you like, mild, medium, hot)

A bit of chopped cilantro, to taste

1-2 freshly squeezed limes

Combine together and serve.  My Pico de Gallo never comes out exactly the same because I really just start chopping and see where it takes me, tasting as I go (so fun) and it is figure friendly.  I have used red bell peppers which makes it a little sweeter.

We had Taco Salad on Sunday for dinner with Jowy and made it Pico de Gallo style.

Maple Butter-Helen Horton

6 T. butter, softened

3 T. maple syrup

Mix together until blended.  Serve on hot homemade bread, biscuits, rolls, etc. 

Yesterday morning I unpacked my wheat grinder and wanted to make some homemade honey wheat bread.  My bosch was already unpacked so I ground some wheat and put on a batch while I was watching conference.  I was planning to make honey butter because I was having some friends over later in the day and thought that would be a nice touch.  When I was looking for the recipe I ran into this recipe that I had saved but never made.  I decided to try it and just love the touch of maple.  Reminds my of the many trips to Vermont which is maple syrup country.  It is so easy, enjoy.

German Pancakes-Helen Horton

I served this for breakfast when Dad and Mom came up last weekend to Victor.  It sure was fun having them visit.  Mom took a copy of the recipe and thought it would be nice to share on the blog.

2-3 T butter or marg

6 eggs

1 c milk

1 c flour

Pinch salt

Pre heat oven at 425.  Put butter in 9X13 while preheating to melt.  Add remaining ingredients to a blender and whirl until well mixed.  (Or you can beat it by hand or with a hand mixer.)  Take pan out of oven and make sure butter covers the bottom and sides of pan.  Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25 minutes.  Will puff up and then sink.  Cut into large squares and serve with butter, syrup and jam as desired. 

I got this recipe from Kathy Charles, a lady in my ward in Plattsburgh, NY .  It is great because you don’t have to tend pancakes since you put this in the oven.  While it is baking you can cut up some fruit or do bacon, etc. and set the table.  Nice for company.   PS  The original recipe called for 6 T of butter but it is not necessary.

Whole Wheat House-Jonathan and David

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whole-wheat House Ingredients:

2 Pieces of Toast Mini-wheat cereal

Peanut butter [or almond butter]

Cheerios

Directions:

Use one piece of toast for the house, cutting out the windows and door. To raise the roof, cut the second piece into a triangle and shingle it with the mini-wheat cereal held in place with peanut butter. A small rectangle of toast, cut to fit against the roofline, makes an ideal chimney, especially with a puff of Cheerios smoke. For siding, spead the whole house with peanut butter, scratching in some shingles with a toothpick or fork. Makes 1.

Maple Bacon-Helen Horton

1 lb thick sliced bacon

1/3 c brown sugar

Preheat oven to 425.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Lay bacon on paper and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for 10 minutes and drain off the fat.  Then bake for 6-7 more minutes until crisp.  Serve.

Sunrise Yogurt Surprise-Jen Medeiros

1 sml. container Yoplait yogurt (any flavor you like)

1 ripe banana, sliced

3-4 T. Quaker granola cereal (or your favorite granola mix)

1-2 T. raisins, dried

cranberries or dried blueberries (your choice)

1-2 ripe strawberries, sliced

½ T. honey

½ T. almonds, sliced

Pour yogurt in small bowl with seal tight lid. Place sliced bananas evenly on top of yogurt. Pour granola over bananas and spread out evenly. Drizzle honey over granola. Add remaining fruit on top of granola and honey (strawberries, raisins, cranberries and/or blueberries). Top with almonds & seal tight. Chill in refrigerator a few hours or overnight. Start your day off knowing you did your body good!  Serves 1

Four Cheese Quiche with Red Pepper-Jen Medeiros

9” or 10” pie crust, prebaked for 5 minutes at 375

            4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled

            3 oz. Swiss cheese, grated

            4 oz. brie cheese, broken in small bits

            1 ½ c. heavy cream

            3 eggs

            1/8 t. nutmeg

            Salt and pepper to taste

            ¼ c. cream cheese

            1 lge. red bell pepper

            2 T. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375. Mix swiss and brie cheeses together and set aside. In blender or food processor, blend well cream, eggs, nutmeg, salt, pepper and cream cheese. Slice bell peppers into rounds, removing seeds and membrane and sauté in butter until soft. Remove from heat.

Sprinkle Swiss and brie mixture on crust. Top with sautéed pepper rings. Pour custard over peppers. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for 20-25 minutes longer or until inserted knife comes out clean.  Serves 6-8

Helen’s Eggs Benedict-Helen Horton

8 eggs, whipped and scrambled in larger pieces (don’t stir but lift and turn)

8 english muffins, toasted

8 slices of ham or canadian bacon

Cheddar cheese sauce-recipe below

Build by putting 2 english muffin halves on a plate, add a slice of ham and some eggs.  Pour cheese sauce generously over all. 

Cheese Sauce:

4 T butter or marg

4 T flour

2 c milk

2 c grated cheese, cheddar or whatever you have

Lawry’s seasoned salt

Pepper

In a sauce pan, melt butter then add flour and stir for a minute or so to cook off raw flour taste.  Pull off the heat and very slowly at first, add the milk until thoroughly combined.  Use a whisk to ensure there are no lumps.  Put back on the heat and stir constantly until it boils and thickens.  Add the cheese, salt and pepper to taste. 

Our family had Eggs Benedict twice a year on conference morning for many years.  We would all help make it and eat while watching Music and the Spoken Word before the first session began.  It was something that always made conference weekend special and another reason to look forward to it.

This is a favorite breakfast menu of Brig’s.

Breakfast Dutch Babies-Kristy Scherman

Ingredients:

1 c. flour

1 c. milk

4 eggs

1 t. vanilla butter

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix flour, milk, eggs and vanilla in a blender. In a large glass pan add ½ stick butter. Heat pan with butter until completely melted and sizzling (it needs to be very hot, but do not burn). Remove hot buttered pan from oven and place batter in the pan. Immediately replace pan in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Make sure that there is enough room above the pan for the dutch babies to rise quite nicely. Cut into thick slices for individual serving. Serve with fresh fruit, maple syrup, and powdered sugar just like you would with waffles or pancakes

Mini Omlettes – Debbie Horton

5 large eggs

¼ C milk

½ tsp. salt

dash of pepper

shredded cheese to taste

2 T each:  diced green pepper; diced tomatoes; cooked, crumbled bacon or cooked, diced ham.

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat 6 cups in a muffin tray with nonstick spray.

 Mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper in medium bowl.  Pour the egg mixture evenly into the muffin cups.  Distribute the cheese and toppings on top of the egg mixture.  Bake for 25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.  Makes 6 mini omelettes.

 Debbie Horton

 I obtained this recipe from the April 2007 Friend magazine.  It seems like I am always looking for good and easy breakfast items.  These omelettes are very yummy and I don’t have to stay in the kitchen and watch them every minute.  Lately, Emily has been doing a lot of the breakfast cooking (what a blessing!) and we have these often.  They are especially easy when you have grated cheese and bacon bits on hand.