3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

Food

Day 83/365: Egg and Sausage Breakfast Casserole

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Day 83: Breakfast Egg Casserole
Day 83: Breakfast Egg Casserole

I don’t know why I procrastinate in posting to my 365 Blog, I really do take pictures everyday. But, I seem to wait until the end of the week and post everything at once and try and catch up. This leaves me with an empty blog for several days and my statistics crash and burn.  Since I’m goal oriented and like to challenge myself the decrease in viewing numbers is not a pretty site.  So now I’m going to spread out the posts to just once a day and do a better job of twitter updates and lets see how that works.

Today is another recipe. I had teenage boys over for an Xbox Black Ops party last weekend, which means they stayed up until 4 am, something like that. It also means they slept until almost noon. To help wake them up I prepared an breakfast egg and sausage casserole. Not only is this is easy to make, but it’s a great way to use stale Italian/French bread and there are so many variations that you can create your own variety every time.

I used a silicon pan, just got this last year, haven’t decided whether I like them or not. I’m a traditionalist and silicon cookware doesn’t have the rigidity of metal. But there are benefits, as I learned from the Shakin N’ Bakin blog, silicon bakeware doesn’t need to be greased or oiled and it cools down quickly after being taken out of the oven. It’s also not supposed to stain, but mine did. I do have a few other pieces I’m going to try out. I’ll let you know how I like them.

Egg and Sausage Breakfast CasseroleRecipe

Ingredients

  • Sausage (ground, link, or patties, ham can also be used)
  • Bread (I used Italian, but stale bread works best)
  • 1 cup cheese
  • 8 Large Eggs
  • 1/2 Cup Milk
  • Dried Mustard
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Onions (other veggies can be added, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms)
  • Sweet Basil (optional, I like sweet basil on everything)

Directions

Cube the bread and place in the bottom of a casserole dish, layer the sausage pieces, cheese, and vegetables, until ingredients are gone. Sprinkle each layer with salt, pepper, dried mustard, and sweet basil.  Scramble the eggs and milk in a bowl. Slowly pour over the layered ingredients making sure to soak the pieces of bread. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for approximately 25 minutes or until the eggs are set.

Photoshop Notes: general layers and resizing, brightened and added slight contrast. Biggest edit was cleaning my stove on the computer. Thought it was clean, but had grease splatters from cooking the sausage, so I cloned out the spots.

Day 75/365: Raspberry Brownie Dessert

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Raspberry Brownie Delight

There is nothing better than church dinners. Especially the desserts! The day before Valentines Day, the combined youth groups of Trinity Lutheran Church and Immanuel Lutheran Church held a spaghetti dinner fundraiser. I was lucky enough to find this chocolate brownie with whipped cream and fresh raspberries sitting on the table.

There is a commandment,”Do not covet..” Let’s say I had covetous eyes scoping out my dessert. It was as good as it looks. No, it was even better.

Ingredients:

  • Brownie Mix
  • Whipped cream (Cool Whip)
  • Fresh raspberries

Directions: Prepare brownie mix according to directions, bake on round pizza pan. When cool cut brownies in pizza style triangles. Just before serving top with whipped cream and raspberries.

So easy and yet so good.

Photoshop CS2 Notes: Added standard adjustment layers color, contrast, saturation, and a minor smart sharpen. Then I touched up and erased the stray whipped cream on the brownie that was distracting. Tried using the shadow and highlights tool to bring out the texture in the whipped cream, but it didn’t make too much of a difference.

Day 63/365: Hot Chocolate Recipe

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Day 63: Hot Chocolate

There is nothing better than hot chocolate on a cold winter day. Ok, hot chocolate with Reddi-Whip, that makes it better. Tell you a little secret, I will often sneak a squirt of it right on my fingers, but I always get caught, last week by my son. All I could do was give him a guilty look and a smirk.

Anyhow, back to the hot chocolate. My kids like Ovaltine, and I normally have it in the cabinet. But, this year I was given two bags of instant milk. I thought, what in the world am I going to do with all this powdered milk? So I put it in the freezer until I could think of something. It didn’t take long. As Christmas approached and I was thinking of what I could make as gifts an idea came to me.

Hot Chocolate mix! Perfect. Not only did I have lots of powdered milk, but I had three tins of Herseys cocoa.  Every Christmas I buy a new container for holiday baking, totally forgetting I had some from last year. Perfect! I looked on my favorite recipe site Allrecipes.com and found the recipe below. It was a hit in my gift bags.

Ingredients

  • 10 cups powdered milk
  • 1 3/4  cup powdered non-dairy creamer (you can use the flavored kind for a different twist)
  • 4 3/4 cup powdered confectioners sugar
  • 1 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

In a large mixing bowl, combine milk powder, confectioner’s sugar, cocoa powder and creamer. Stir thoroughly.

For one serving place 1/3 cup cocoa mixture in a coffee cup or mug, add 3/4 cup boiling water (or milk for a richer taste). Stir to dissolve.

Although the recipe doesn’t call for it I would definitely sift the mixture. Almost all the ingredients have little itty bitty tiny chunks that don’t dissolve well and will sometimes give the final product “texture”.

Day 61/365: Easy Apple Muffin Recipe

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My Kids Titled me the Muffin Queen.

It is this easy muffin recipe that helped me earn that title with my family.

Easy apple muffin recipe
Day 61: Apple Muffins

Blueberry, Apple, or Chocolate Chip muffins, I can crank them out in 30 minutes whenever anyone wants a snack.  Here are some apple muffins and the very easy recipe that my daughter brought home from her Elmwood-Murdock high school foods class.

Apple Muffin Tea Pairing

Now, you can’t just eat a muffin without something to drink. This fresh apple muffin recipe is a perfect pairing to my Apple Cider Tea

But before baking your fresh apple muffins recipe, make sure you have the following ingredients. and supplies. When I sold muffins at our local farmers market , I loved using the wrapping papers below.

Stainless Steel Metal Measuring Cups and Spoons by Cooking Gods with Bonus Magnetic Chart. 12 Piece Stackable Metric Cup and Spoon SetStainless Steel Metal Measuring Cups and Spoons by Cooking Gods with Bonus Magnetic Chart. 12 Piece Stackable Metric Cup and Spoon SetRachael Ray Oven Lovin' Non-Stick 12-Cup Muffin and Cupcake Pan, OrangeRachael Ray Oven Lovin’ Non-Stick 12-Cup Muffin and Cupcake Pan, OrangeBob's Red Mill Super-Fine Gluten Free Almond Flour, 3 PoundBob’s Red Mill Super-Fine Gluten Free Almond Flour, 3 PoundHoffmaster 611120 Tulip Cup Cupcake Wrapper/Baking Cup, 2Hoffmaster 611120 Tulip Cup Cupcake Wrapper/Baking Cup, 2

Ingredients for Easy Apple Muffins

  • 3/4 cup Milk
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup apples
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg

Cinnamon Crumble Muffin Topping

  • 1 TBSP flour
  • 2 TBSP sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 TBSP butter

Easy Apple Muffin Directions

This is my Basic muffin recipe that you can customize to any flavor. For step 4 add in “special” ingredients of your choice. Such as blueberries or chocolate chips. 

I use a large liquid measuring cup and this is easy.

  1. Fill measuring cup with 3/4 cup milk. Add oil to the 1 cup line, add egg and mix.
  2. In a small mixing bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  3. Form a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Quickly mix with a fork about 20 seconds.  Batter will be lumpy.
  4. Add in the apples and gently mix them into the batter.
  5. Scoop into lined, or greased, muffin tins about 3/4ths full
  6. Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl with a fork. It will be crumbly. Sprinkle on muffins.

Bake at 400F for 15-18 minutes.

Depending on the size of your muffin tins or muffin wrappers, this easy apple muffin recipe makes 6-9 muffins.

 

Day 59/365: Mandarin Oranges

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Mandarin Ornages
Day 59: I love Mandarin Oranges

Yes, I love Mandarin Oranges. I would pick up a can at our local convenience store CD Express, in Elmwood, and eat them as a snack. Cheaper and healthier than chips don’t you think? The problem lately is the store no longer stocks them. But every time I stop in I walk down the aisle and look at the empty space where they used to be.

Before Christmas this past year we stopped in and and lamented the fact that I couldn’t get me Maradarin Orange fix.  She said she would get me some for Christmas. I smiled and said “OK!”

You read that right 6 lbs 9 oz of Mandarin OrangesWell,  Christmas came this year I received about five cans, or about 7 lbs total. Not only did Jen put four small cans under the tree but I got a HUGE six pound bulk size can as a joke. Hey, have your laugh,…I’m eating Mandarin Oranges.

At first I thought I was going to have to find recipes to use them all, but no, better my daughter and I we will have them gone within the week.

But, if you ever find yourself looking for things to do with Mandarin Oranges here are a few hints.

Chocolate Dipped Mandarin Oranges With Sea Salt

Spinach Salad With Mandrin Oranges

Bittersweet Chocolate Tart With Mandarin Oranges

Jamaican Jerk Chicken with Mandarin Chicken Salad

Pork With Mandarin Oranges