BREAKFAST SAUSAGE

 

   

Ingredients

1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper 
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes

1 pound of ground pork
 
 

In a small, bowl, combine the salt, ground black pepper, brown sugar, and crushed red pepper. Mix well.

Place the pork in a large bowl and add the mixed spices to it. Mix well with your hands and form into patties. I usually make 8 patties with a pound of meat. Allow to chill for an hour or more in the refrigerator. 

 Saute the patties in a large skillet over medium high heat for 5 minutes per side. Make sure the pork is cooked thoroughly (internal temperature of 160).

MANGO BREAD

4 cups of flour

4 cups of sugar

5 teaspoons of cinnamon

4 teaspoons of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

 2 1/4 cups of oil

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons vanilla

7 eggs

4 cups of fresh diced mango

1 cups of walnuts or pecans

1 cup of coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil then flour your bread pans.

Stir the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

In your mixer bowl, mix the oil, lemon juice, vanilla, and eggs. Gradually add the dry ingredients from the first bowl. Then fold in the mango, nuts, and coconut.

I use three rather large bread pans when I make this recipe. I usually bake them for at least an hour and then I use a cake tester to test doneness. You may have to adjust your time if the loaves are not completely baked in the middle. Feel free to use smaller loaf pans or min-loaf pans, but you'll have to adjust the baking times.

Freezes well.

 

SPINACH DIP IN A BREAD BOWL

1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry 1 container (16 oz.) sour cream 1 cup mayonnaise 1 package Knorr Vegetable recipe mix (And yes . . . you do NEED Knorr) 1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped Mix all ingredients together. Allow to sit in refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving. To make a bread bowl - buy any round loaf of bread. I use to special order a round rye. Now I just buy whatever is available, usually whole wheat. Whatever is your preference.  Take a serrated bread knife and cut out center of bread. Be careful so you do not cut through bottom of loaf. Brush the inside of the cut loaf with melted butter and put in 300 degree oven until it reaches the desired crispness you want. While the loaf is in the oven, you can either rip or cut the center of the bread into pieces for dipping. **I also use celery, carrots, and tortilla chips for dippers.

CREAMSICLE MIMOSAS

We make them every year during the holidays and at the Annual Bike Week Brunch to rave reviews every time. Even by people who don't like champagne. As you can see we drink the cheap crapola.

2 1/2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup sugar
1 bottle sparkling wine or Champagne (use sparkling fruit juice or sparkling cider if you wish)
Strawberries, for garnish

Directions

Put orange juice, half-and-half, and sugar into a blender and process until the sugar has dissolved, about 30 seconds. Pour this mixture into a shallow pan and freeze until hard, 4 hours or overnight.

Remove the frozen orange mixture from the freezer and let it sit to soften slightly, about 10 minutes. With a scoop or tablespoon, scrape out a small scoop and put it into a Champagne glass. Slowly fill the glass with Champagne and serve garnished with strawberries.

Look below. And then you can smash the glasses with no remorse.

APPLE CRISP

A simple, uncomplicated crisp. I use a mix of apples.

4 medium tart cooking apples, sliced (4 cups)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats

1/3 cup butter , softened

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 375ºF. Spray bottom and sides of 8-inch square pan with no stick baking spray.

Spread apples in pan. In medium bowl, stir remaining ingredients until well mixed; sprinkle over apples.

Bake about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender when pierced with a fork.

Makes 6 servings.

BLACK BOTTOM CUPCAKES

My grandmother always made these for me. This recipe will yield about 30 cupcakes. The cupcakes also freeze well, so you don't have to eat them all at one time. But good luck trying to get them to the freezer.

Filling

8 ounces of cream cheese
1/3 cup of sugar
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon of salt
6 ounces of chocolate chips

Cupcakes

2 1/4 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
3/4 teaspoons of salt
1 1/2 cups of water
1/3 cup of oil, plus 2 tablespoons of oil
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, and salt until smooth. Add chocolate chips. Set aside.

Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Add water, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth.

Fill paper muffin cups 1/3 full with cupcake batter. Top each with a heaping teaspoon of cream cheese mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes.

LIME BARS

I just made these to take to a party at Marilyn's. I use the same recipe for my lemon bars - I just add fresh lemon juice rather than lime.

Crust:

2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

16 tablespoons of butter, melted

To prepare crust combine flour and sugar. Add butter and mix well. Press into 12x15 baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Filling:

4 eggs
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 cups of sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder

To prepare filling, beat eggs with fork. add lime juice and mix well.

Combine dry ingredients and add to egg mixture. Beat. Pour over crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into squares  and serve. These cookies freeze well.

Baked Pecan French Toast

Ingredients

• 1 loaf ciabatta bread (I use Publix)
• Butter for pan
• 8 large eggs
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Dash salt
• Praline Topping, recipe follows

Directions

Slice bread into approximately 20 slices, about 1-inch thick each. Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. (I had to use two 13x9 pans.)

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a beater. (The original recipe said to do this with a rotary beater or a whisk, but I used the workhorse KitchendAid stand mixer I have and that worked out well.I used the low settings.) Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 45 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. (Don't forget to get the praline mixture out of the refrigerator at least thirty minutes before you plan to put the bread in your oven. It spreads much easier at room temperature. Let's just say that's a lesson learned.)

Praline Topping:

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Spread over bread as directed above.

(This recipe was adapted from a recipe by Paula Deen.)

Brunch Cakes

I hate bundt pans. I can't tell you the last time was that I managed to get a cake out of a bundt pan successfully. I made a Coffee Swirl Cake for the "booze and breakfast" or "brunch". I can use about 2/3 of the cake since the rest of it either stuck to the pan or broke away from the bottom of the cake. It's good and I'll eat it. I just can't use it for presentation, dammit.

Betty Crocker's Coffee Swirl Cake

1/4 cup instant coffee granules or crystals

1 tablespoon hot water

3 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups butter or margarine, softened

2 3/4 cups sugar

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 12-cup fluted tube cake pan or 10-inch angel food (tube) cake pan with shortening; lightly flour. In small bowl, mix coffee and hot water; cool 10 minutes.

In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat butter, sugar and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat in flour mixture, milk and sour cream on low speed until blended.

Remove 1 cup of the batter; stir into cooled coffee. Pour remaining batter into pan. Drop coffee batter by about 12 tablespoonfuls onto batter in pan. Cut through batters with knife for marbled design.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in pan on wire rack; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool at least 1 hour 30 minutes. Serve warm or cool.

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I had better luck with the Buttermilk- Lime Tea Bread. That at least came out of the pan. Next time though, I'll double the lemon/sugar syrup.

Betty Crocker's Buttermilk- Lime Tea Bread

Oh, I'm too lazy to type this recipe right now.

Bike Week Brunch?

I'm kinda thinking about having a Bike Week brunch. I can't afford it and I should just relax, but for some reason I really want to have people over for brunch, of all things. I checked out the foodnetwork.com site and the first thing I saw was their section on brunches. I found so many brunch drink recipes. I can't wait to try them. I also picked up a magazine on brunch foods last night at Publix. Yep, I wanna do a brunch. It's such a biker thing, don'cha think?

I would have it on the first Saturday of Bike Week, but Ricky won't be here yet. My second choice would be on the second Saturday of Bike Week but that is the same day as the party I'm not going to. If I have it on that day, all sorts of accusations will be made. I don't feel like dealing with the bullshit. The first Sunday sounds like the day, but it is far from perfect since Marvin won't be here yet. But depending on how it goes, maybe I'll have TWO. Marvin could come to the second one. Notice how this started out as one brunch and now already I'm having two. I'm like a deranged tattooed Martha Stewart.

But anyhoo . . . check out some of these recipes . . .

Bloody Mary Flank Steaks

Grapefruit Margarita

Orange Cream Mimosa

Melon Juice with Champagne (or Prosecco)

Spicy Citrus Bloody Mary

Champagne Lemonade

Peach Ginger Bellini

My breakfast this morning

I couldn't finish it, of course. I can't eat two eggs. One egg just didn't seem like enough but two eggs was just too much. I did eat all the bacon and cheese though. The Publix biscuit was pretty good.

Strawberry Daiquiri Punch

Quite easy and everyone is usually impressed.

6 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened strawberries (I've never used frozen for this recipe, but if you decide to, thaw the berries AFTER measuring)
1 (6 oz) limeade frozen concentrate
3/4 cup light rum or unsweetened pineapple juice (I've used both, depending on the crowd I'm serving. And it holds up well no matter which you choose)
1 (16 oz.) bottle lemon-lime soda, chilled

Place strawberries, half to start, in a blender. Blend until smooth. Place rest of berries in blender and blend. Stir in rum and limeade concentrate. Pour into ice mold. (I use a fancy bundt cake pan.) Freeze.

When ready, place ice ring in punch bowl. Add soda.