Morning Foods – Page 9 – Rosemary and the Goat

Sweet Cheese Puffs

I love making sweet miniatures and these are sweetious!

There is nothing that makes me feel better on a gloomy day than to get in the kitchen and start baking. We have had a couple of days like that lately that made me want to do just that. I’m off the 21 day diet challenge that I did with my daughter so I actually tasted one of these before taking them to Garden Club last week.

Several years ago I was looking for a cookbook on miniature desserts and came across Flo Braker’s “Sweet Miniatures” and I ordered it from my local library. I always do that with new cookbooks and then I usually just copy out the recipes I want and then return the book. Your library can get any book you request, it may just take a few weeks to receive it from another branch or even state, but you will eventually get it. After flipping through Sweet Miniatures, I knew I needed that book. So I ordered it off the Internet and when it arrived it did not have all the pictures that the library’s hardback version had. So, I got the book back from the library, copied the pictures from each page and taped them into my new book. NOW, I had a book filled with wonderful pictures of baked sweets.

March 8, 2011 By Sherry

Bread/ Morning Foods/ Sauces/ Scones

Chocolate Cherry Scones

Chocolate and Cherries a perfect match!

Once upon a time I wanted to open a tea room but I gave up on that idea and realized I could still do the same types of foods that I loved to make for parties I catered. I love doing baby showers, and showers of all sorts because it gives me a chance to try new scone recipes and all sorts of finger sandwiches and little foods. Check out the Baby Button Cookies I made for a shower a few weeks ago. They were delicious and oh, so cute.

I love scones that are buttery, flaky and filled with either lemon curd or Devonshire cream. I usually make a mock Devonshire cream for parties and on occasion will buy the real thing from the grocery even though it is about $5-$6 a jar. I get very disappoint when I have a scone that is nothing more than a biscuit with a little sugar added in and not really a scone at all.

February 28, 2011 By Sherry

Morning Foods

Shirred Eggs with Kale

What the heck are shirred egg anyway?

In case you are wondering what shirred egg are, well, they are eggs baked in either cream or butter (or both) in a small ramekin until the whites are firm and the yolks are runny.

Ever wonder what it would be like to go out and gather your own fresh eggs every morning. I remember as a kid going to my grandfather’s sister’s house where my mother and grandmother would buy their fresh milk, butter and eggs and my sister and I would go out into the hen house and gather a few eggs. I don’t remember lifting the chickens up and I’m sure we would have just shooed them off their nest to get to the eggs.

When we were back home a few weeks ago, a friend was telling me about her granddaughter, Hannah’s, interest in raising chickens. She has names for all her chickens and she actually sells their eggs to local residents. I checked out her website and it was so cute and I think you might enjoy visiting her site at https://hannahshappyhens.com. Here is her old site that has some cute pictures of her chickens. https://hannahshappyhens.blogspot.com Way to go Hannah.

January 31, 2011 By Sherry

Desserts/ Morning Foods/ Side dish

Macadamia Nut Pineapple Casserole

No I haven’t been to Hawaii

But I have a friend on her way there and I hope she will bring back pictures of pineapple fields and macadamia nut trees and maybe of she and her husband doing the hula on the beach.

I love finding a recipe that can be served for brunch, lunch or with dinner and this is such a recipe. I received this recipe back in the 70’s from a friend in our church group and even though I don’t make it often, it has remained one of my favorites.

My sister and I put together two cookbooks of our favorite recipes, one called Double Delight (we are twins) and the other Two Peas In A Pod. In our first book if we both had a recipe we liked and we couldn’t agree which one to put in, we would do both versions, each one of us thinking “ours” was the best. Her pineapple dish had pineapple chunks, Colby cheese and did not have the bread cubes. My recipe takes on more of a bread pudding consistency.

This recipe is delicious with brunch or goes great with a pork roast or baked ham or even a Caribbean themed party. It is very easy to throw together.

January 7, 2011 By Sherry

Bread/ Breads/Biscuits/ Morning Foods

Chocolate Gravy with Homemade Biscuits

My first thought on this recipe was YUCK! But wait until you try it!

I would like to say that I had chocolate gravy growing up, but I didn’t. My mother made wonderful milk gravy or sausage gravy which is milk gravy with crumbled pork sausage added. We had red-eye gravy with our country ham, we had roast beef gravy with our roast, but no chocolate gravy. Chocolate gravy is a southern thing and I grew up in extreme southeast Missouri and we always considered ourselves Southerners, but I guess we weren’t southern enough to have ever tasted chocolate gravy.

Now that Christmas is over and everyone is tired of cooking, this simple recipe is just what you need for your last indulgence before the new year rolls around and you go on a diet and give up sweets (me). Have this for New Year Eve breakfast, then store the recipe away until you need another breakfast chocolate fix.

What is gravy anyway but some kind of stock or broth thickened to pour over some type of food we have prepared. So, why not a sweet gravy that will satisfy some of us that crave chocolate in the morning.

This gravy can be used on biscuits, scones, pancakes or waffles. When we were in Brugge back in September we had to try a Belgium waffle and they poured chocolate all over it. It was the richest, gooiest, most delicious thing I have ever put in my mouth. I love chocolate in any form, so why shouldn’t I give this recipe a try.

December 26, 2010 By Sherry

Bread/ Morning Foods/ Scones

Almond Coconut Chocolate Scones

I love scones and this Glueten-free recipe does not disappoint.

Somewhere around Mardi Gras this year, my daughter Alexis challenged me to go Grain-free and gluten free until Easter. I did really well adapting recipes using almond flour and as I always like a challenge, I ordered a 5-lb. bag of almond meal online and set about trying crackers and scone recipes from Elana Amsterdam’s book “Almond Free Gluten free cookbook”.

I started with Elana’s Chocolate Chip Scone and added sliced, crushed toasted almonds and some unsweetened coconut to the mixture. These are so easy and healthy you just feel like “hey, I can have that second one if I want”. Although, I don’t have to eat Gluten-free, it was fun trying different things with the almond flour. The cheese crackers and these scones I will definitely keep making even though our challenge has ended.

If you ate way tooooo much to eat over the Thanksgiving holidays, try making these little scones for a sweet treat and not feel guilty afterwards.

November 28, 2010 By Sherry

Bread/ Morning Foods

Pumpkin Muffins with Chocolate Chips

A can of pumpkin met a bag of chocolate chips and fell in love.

I love seeing pumpkins growing in a field and it always reminds me of school field trips with my kids when they were in kindergarten and everyone got to pick out a pumpkin to take home for carving.

Pumpkin pie has never been one of my favorite fall desserts. Seems like I always make one at Thanksgiving and 3/4 of the pie is still left by the time we are throwing out left overs. I do love pumpkin bread and pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce and when I found this recipe for the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins years ago, my initial thoughts were that chocolate and pumpkin was a weird combination. But, I was wrong, and found out they are delicious together.

I hope you will pick up a pumpkin or even a can of pumpkin and do something exciting with it this weekend.

Another strange pumpkin recipe I ran across years ago from a little restaurant in Mendocina, CA is a Pumpkin Tomato Soup. If you love tomato soup, you will really enjoy this version that has pumpkin added. The pumpkin adds a little sweetness and cuts some of the acidity of the tomatoes. Topped with some creme fraiche and it is a great little soup to have in the fall. If you decide to try the soup, don’t make the mistake I did once and buy pumpkin PIE FILLING instead of canned pumpkin.

Back to the muffins. They freeze beautifully, so you can make these before thanksgiving and have them ready when your company comes for the holidays. A few seconds in the microwave and you have melting chocolate chips and pumpkin ready to be devoured by your guests.

October 22, 2010 By Sherry

Bread/ Morning Foods

Banana Rum Muffins

Tipsy Banana muffins make a great little breakfast bread.

I’m always looking for a muffin to do for breakfast and brunches (for myself or someone I’m catering for) that isn’t overly sweet. If a muffin gets too sweet it seems more like a cupcake than a muffin. A muffin is typically a quick bread recipe that you portion it out into muffin cups whereas a cupcake is a cake batter make into individual portions.

I use to cater a lot of business breakfasts and this was one of the muffin recipes I frequently used. I normally use a dark rum but on this day someone had drank all my dark rum and I had to use an orange flavored. It was good but I like the dark or even light rum better than flavored rum.

September 26, 2010 By Sherry

Dessert/ Morning Foods/ Salads

Frozen Fruit Salad

A treat anytime of the year.

I love fruit and this recipe pleases anytime of the year. It’s great for brunch, dessert, or snack anytime of the day and I think I’m going to go have one right now.

Back in the early 70’s we moved to Ft. Madison, Iowa. We were living in Louisville, KY at the time and I remember people telling us we were moving to the “Florida of Iowa” area of the state. How wrong that statement turned out to be. We had 100 days of snow cover one year and if it wasn’t for joining the Welcome Wagon club and church functions I would have gone crazy. When I first heard doctors on TV talk about “cabin fever” I didn’t know what they were taking about. But, when you are huddled in a house with three kids all day trying to stay warm and keep them entertained, then you catch on quickly. (We weren’t really huddled in the house staying room, but it was too cold for the kids to go out and play.) My daughter use to ride her trike in the basement because it was too cold to go outside. We had lots of Easter egg hunts inside because of the weather.

This Frozen Fruit Salad recipe was one that we did at a Welcome Wagon brunch one year. I have never forgotten it. When my kids were younger I use to make this and have in the freezer for snacks. About 15 seconds in the microwave and a few chops, you have a nice slushy snack for anytime of the day.

September 8, 2010 By Sherry

Egg Dishes/ Morning Foods

Souffled Cheddar Egg Nest

Great way to start the day. So elegant looking but easy to make.

This souffled egg cup was topped with a jalapeno creme fraiche.

I have said before that breakfast has always been my least favorite meal of the day. If I have to scramble eggs, I will turn them into migas (scrambled eggs with onion, jalapeno, tomato, cheese and at the end you throw in a handful of crunched up tortilla chips.). If my husband wants a fried egg I usually talk him into Toad In A Hole (bread with hole cut out, buttered, grilled and you drop a cracked egg in the hole and continue cooking). If I want a extra special boiled egg, I will make Scotch Eggs (peeled boiled egg, surround in pork sausage, brushed with egg and dipped in bread crumbs and fried). Well this egg dish is no ordinary egg either. It looks hard to make but very easy and will delight your weekend guests or do it just for your family.

I first saw this recipe at Sugarlaws blog and I think she got the idea from Eating-SF. Who ever made it first, thank you. I love this recipe. I have added a few extra things. For a garnish I did use some jalapeno lime cream fraiche that I had made the night before to go with some fish tacos. On some of the cups I added fried bacon to the bottom of the cups before adding the whites. I like the surprise at the bottom of the dish. I also sprinkled a little bacon on top of some when they came out of the oven. A side of toast would be great to dip in the egg yolks that are still runny when you take them out of the oven.

September 4, 2010 By Sherry

Bread/ Morning Foods/ Muffins

Raspberry Cheesecake Muffins

If you like cheesecake, you will love these Raspberry Cheesecake Muffins.

This was another one of those Betty Crocker days because by the time I was finished baking, I had flour all over me and my kitchen. I should have been packing for our trip tomorrow) but instead I’m de-stressing and baking. We leave on a 8 day cruise that starts in Amsterdam and ends in Barcelona and then we have 9 days to explore Barcelona, Seville and Madrid. I sure hope I come back with some new recipes ideas to blog about.

I use raspberry preserves with the seeds. I think the preserves with the seeds for some reason have more color than the seedless preserves which are usually kind of brownish.

So I found some great raspberries on sale this week. I get so excited to find raspberries on sale. Anything less than $3.00 a carton is a steal in my book. My only problem is I will buy them and they will sit in the refrigerator and start getting moldy before I think to use them. Not so with these berries. I bought a couple of packages and the first ones I used to make my Raspberry Nutella Gelato and then I remembered this Raspberry Cheesecake Muffin recipe that I have been holding on to for years and decided to give it a try.

The original recipe did not have the fresh raspberries in the batter and just called for the raspberry preserves. BUT, how could any recipe not be improved by adding fresh raspberries.

Today was one of those Texas HOT days where I just didn’t want to get out of the house. I really didn’t even want to walk to my garage to my extra refrigerator (I have two in my garage) to fetch some butter and eggs. But, I braved the heat just so I could make these muffins. I think my husband appreciated the effort since I always put the baked goods in the freezer and he can grab something on the way out to his golf game.

The cheesecake topping is fantastic on these muffins. The batter is somewhat thick since there is no milk in the recipe but there is plenty of butter and sour cream to make this a delicious treat.

August 31, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Dessert/ Morning Foods

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Who doesn’t like peanut butter, strawberries and chocolate!

Almost everyone has enjoyed chocolate covered strawberries, BUT have you had peanut butter filled, chocolate dipped strawberries?

I first had these at little berries at a tea room in Plains, Georgia. We were at one of Magnolia and Ivy’s tea rooms having an Alice In Wonderland tea party and along with all the other delectable goodies, these strawberries were the hit of the dessert tray.

I’ve done chocolate covered strawberries for years. I have also filled them with a lemon curd filling (stand them up on their bottoms, no chocolate) and also filled them with a chocolate mousse and dipped the edges in coconut. All these are delicious, but the peanut butter filled ones are my favorite.

Try these for your next party, shower, lady’s luncheon or just because. I know you will enjoy them. You may want to let your guests know that they have peanut butter inside just in case anyone is allergic to peanut butter.

July 6, 2010 By Sherry

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