Corned Beef Hash with Eggs ~ page 312

Let me tell you--this is a hearty, delicious breakfast any man will love! It also makes a wonderful Sunday night supper.  You do have to do one thing first though--you need to have a meal of corned beef in order to have leftover meat for Corned Beef Hash.  So I made a pot of corned beef and cabbage for dinner one night, then a few days later I made this recipe.

This is my leftover piece of corned beef that I cube along with a few potatoes. I prefer using red potatoes with their skins in this recipe, but I only had russet potatoes on hand, and really, they worked just fine.

Make your cubes pretty small--about 1/2- inch or less.

Mix it up, and it is already looking really good! Now it just needs to simmer with some spices...

You can poach your eggs right in the hash while it is cooking, but I prefer to use poaching cups I have in order to have better control of how my egg cooks. You can also just add a fried egg on top your hash. Any way you make it, this is a tasty and delicious dish that just makes you feel cozy.

Corned Beef Hash with Eggs ~ page 312

I made my mom's Forgotten Short ribs (which you need to make if you haven't!!) a couple days before and had enough leftovers for this recipe. So I didn't use corned beef, I used cooked boneless short ribs. Oh, my was it yummy! It was a super fast dinner to throw together. The kids and husband both gobbled it up. I whipped up my Belgium waffles from our cookbook and some bacon for a very filling meal. Just don't overcook your eggs like I did....a runny center is what you want. I had mine perfect, but had to cover them another 10 minutes until I could get Adam and the girls to the table, so they steamed a bit longer sitting there, but were still delicious. --Carissa

Pumpkin Spice Bread ~ page 325

Nothing says Fall to me more than pumpkin bread! I just love the smell, and taste of it! Below is Evelyn as usual helping with the baking...it is like she can hear me turn the oven on from across the house.....then she comes running with her stool to help.
A bowl with a spout makes pouring the batter super easy and mess free.
I wanted several loaves to give away...so I made 5 smaller ones. Cook them less if you do this. I think I took 10-15 minutes off the total baking time.
Yum!!! Can't wait to toast the leftovers for breakfast. --Carissa

Cinnamon Rolls ~ page 293

Here they are, hot from the oven and oozing with a buttery cinnamon filling. Oh yes, these are very good. I always have a little pan of the ends and extras that are up for grabs right out of the oven when they are warm, yeasty, and good all by themselves.

Evelyn was around for the out-of-the oven tasting...yes, these yummy rolls will make you smile.

So here is how they are made: After the dough has risen once, it is rolled out, ready for its hidden topping.

A slathering of soft butter goes on first.

Brown sugar and cinnamon are spread on--I like to use dark brown sugar for the slight molasses flavor it has. Then I add some stuff for my hubby, 'cause this is how he likes cinnamon rolls--with pecans and raisins wrapped up inside.

Roll up tightly from the long side.

Turn the seam side down and you are ready to cut. We highly recommend that you use dental floss to cut the rolls with--it works SO much better than a knife will.

After you place the rolls in their pans, pat the tops down till they are all even, then cover with plastic wrap to rise.

This yeast bread is only lightly sweetened, which is why you can splurge on the wonderful cream cheese icing. Make the icing up and keep it in your fridge to have ready when you serve these. I like the icing so much, that after I smother the warm rolls in it, I put a container of extra icing on the table just in case I come across a bite that doesn't have enough of this creamy white delight on it! It is that good.

These cinnamon rolls freeze nicely. I usually put the whole batch in the freezer and just take out a few at a time. Simply thaw, then warm in a 325 degree oven about 8 to 10 minutes. The cream cheese icing will keep for a month or more in the fridge.

Remember, you must guard these while they cool if you want to get them into the freezer...   ~Janice

Banana Pineapple Muffins ~ page 306

Like I said in a previous post, I am currently cleaning out my freezer. I have to do that every year so I can tell what is really in there. In all my reorganizing of the frozen food I found bags and bags of frozen bananas. Everytime a banana gets brown spots on it..I peel it and toss it in a freezer bag and into the freezer it goes. The other day I found enough to make several batches of these muffins. I make most of my muffins in a mini muffin pan that way you can eat 3 without feeling guilty, and they fit so nicely in my kid's school lunch bags.

Evelyn insists on helping whenever she knows I am baking. She just learned how to crack an egg, which thrills her to no end.

Cinnamon-Sugar Dipped Blueberry Muffins ~ page 295

I bought some blueberries the other day. I was so excited about eating them on my morning cereal, but they weren't very sweet, so I thought the best thing to do with these berries is to put them in some muffins where the sweet muffin could hide a little of the tartness. It worked great. These have sour cream in them which gives them a luxurious taste, and adds a richness that tastes like it came from a little coffee shop somewhere.
Can you tell my muffin tin has been used 1oo's of times? It is old, but it still produces perfect muffins unlike the new expensive ones I tried buying a couple years ago. Wish I knew what brand this one was. It was a wedding gift I think.
Above is the melted butter that you dip the baked muffins in, then the cinnamon sugar afterwards. This leaves an almost crunchy crust on top, very yummy. The cookbook doesn't say exact amounts...I'll blame that on my mother since it is her recipe. :)

I used 1/4 cup of butter melted, then 1/2 cup white sugar mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Luckily I hid these in my freezer already or I would have eaten several for breakfast! --Carissa

Sausage-Cheddar Quiche ~ page 301

Like the recipe says...this is a great recipe for guys! It is loaded with meat! This isn't a delicate egg quiche with a sprinkling of sausage through out. I didn't use spicy sausage like the recipe calls for since I had two kids eating it, but that would have been yummy too.
Above is the quiche before the egg mixture, and below is right out of the oven.
If I was making it for a group of ladies I would probably take out 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sausage to make it a little lighter. Either way I think it is delicious! My kids gobbled it up, the 3 year old even had 3 helpings! I used my mom's pie crust recipe on page 265, it was so easy.

Chocolate Chip Muffins ~ page 310

Oh so yummy! If I was gonna open up a Bed and Breakfast, this is the muffin I would serve in the mornings. They are like little bite size coffee-cakes. I made mine in a mini muffin tin, so I have lots of these little guys.
The brown sugar that you sprinkle on top adds a nice little crunch, but be careful not to get to sloppy in sprinkling the sugar on the tops, I got alot on the actual muffin tin and it caramelized and took lots of scrubbing to get off! I'll blame me being hurried on the screaming newborn I had in the other room while I was making these. Oh, and I used mini chips since I made mini muffins...the mini chips would be nice in the big muffins also, that way you get a little more chocolate in each bite. I'm getting hungry just looking at these pictures of the muffins, you gotta try these. --Carissa

Cinnamon Yogurt Muffins ~ page 311

These were a yummy treat on a very rainy morning this morning. I made them in a mini muffin tin so I could get smaller portions for kiddos. Lillian did my measuring....yes that is a headband with pink butterfly wings attached!

Then it was Evelyn's turn to sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top! We had some VERY cinnamon-y muffins by the time she was done with them!

They puffed up quite a bit even though they were mini muffins, so they felt bigger! The batter for these was a little thicker than I was used to using, at first I thought Lillian must have measured the yogurt wrong...which is a strong possibility, but it came out just fine in the end. YUM! ~Carissa

Healthy Peanut Butter Pancakes ~ page 319

These healthy pancakes were eaten so fast this morning, I barely got a picture of them! Here is Elias and Evelyn eating their pancakes and dipping them into applesauce.

When mixing up the dry ingredients, I used ground flax seed instead of the wheat germ called for.  The peanut butter is kind of lumpy to mix into the batter, but the taste is hearty and kids love it.

And why am I feeding breakfast to 4 grandchildren? Because Carissa had her third baby girl in the middle of the night! Little Sylvia Ann made a fast entrance into the world (or as Lillian says, she finally came down to earth!) and is happily hanging out with her mommy in the hospital, while Grandmother and Grandpops are taking care of a boatload of kids on the home-front!

Easy Sneezy Peaches ~ page 253

I made Easy Sneezy Peaches about a week ago...they were fabulous! But 16 peach halves is alot for 2 people to eat in a weeks time. This morning I was making pancakes and noticed I was about out of syrup. Then a great idea hit me....those peaches in the fridge would make a great topping! So I sliced them, added a sprinkle of cinnamon and then simmered them on the stove to thicken the sauce. Oh my! The topping took the pancakes to the next level. I think I will always do this when I make those peaches. You really do have to try it! I just had to share! --Carissa

Pumpkin Muffins ~ page 324

My house smells like the holidays this morning! YUM! From the picture it looks like a boring brown muffin, but these really are heavenly! I love how well these plump up. For these muffins the cookbook says 12-15 minutes...but they really took more like 18-20 minutes...the muffin cups are pretty full with batter. I used to have a baking business and I did daily deliveries to law firms with muffins and cookies. I made the recipes so often that I never really wrote my baking times down, I just went on how they looked. So when it came time to type them up for the cookbook I was racking my brain to get all the baking times down on paper, that is why a few of the baking times have been slightly off. I'll let you know of any other corrections as I find them. --Carissa

Cranberry Orange Scones ~ page 315

My mom was coming in town and I wanted to to a little baking ahead for breakfast. So I made scones which freeze beautifully. To keep them from drying out in the cooking and freezing stages, I baked them stuck together. Check out the photo below. I patted out the circle of dough on a parchment lined baking sheet, then scored or cut the scones but didn't pull them apart. I left them together, and baked them a few minutes less than what the recipe states. Then once cooled, I wrapped the whole scone "disk" in foil and stuck that in a large freezer bag till my parents came in town.

Below is to show you how much they puff up after baking...

Then after thawing at room temperature overnight, I cut the scones apart and separated them on a baking sheet and baked at 350 for about 7-8 minutes. This allowed the tops and sides to crisp up a bit, but still left the middle soft. I made the recipe sweet enough that you don't really need jelly, but we did pass a little homemade jelly around the table that my sister in law made me and it was a very nice addition. If I was making these fresh and not freezing them, I would go ahead and separate the triangles for baking instead of keeping them in a disk shape. I just like a little crust on them or they get too much like coffee cake. But who am I to tell you how to do it. It tastes good either way! --Carissa