Journey Into Deliciousness

Hash Brown Quiche

Grade: A

Time it takes: 1 hour and 5 minutes (10 minutes prep, 55 minutes baking) - but don't forget to take your hash browns out of the freezer to thaw before you get started

Yield: 9" quiche

Source: recipe courtesy of Paule Deen via foodnetwork.com (Hash Brown Quiche)

This was one of the other bits I had wanted to make for Christmas breakfast but couldn't muster the energy to accomplish. But, since I had the ingredients on hand anyway, I made it a couple days after Christmas - when I was feeling much more alive.

I've made this quiche before so I already knew it was tasty. I like the salty flavour of the ham and the egg and cheese combo, plus the hash brown crust is the best. I've had quiches before where there is so much packed into it that it loses the egg taste, I prefer a few add-ins so that you can still tell there is egg going on. But, you can always play around with the ingredients based on what you have on hand. Keeping the structure of the recipe but changing up the embellishments. Different cheese, different meat, throw in a veggie for good measure. Plus a quiche is something you can serve to guests because it always looks so nice, and it doesn't have you slaving in the kitchen the whole time.

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Egg Nog French Toast

Grade: A

Time it takes: 20 minutes

Yield: Serves 4

Source: Adapted from both The Curvy Carrot - a food blog (Baked Eggnog French Toast) and Pinch My Salt - a food blog (Spiked Egg nog French Toast)

This was made for Christmas breakfast. I had higher aspirations for breakfast that morning, but sickness brought me low and I had to content myself with just making french toast. It is a good thing this french toast was seasonally delicious and quick and easy to make. I had plans to make the baked version from The Curvy Carrot, but I never got around to soaking the bread in the egg nog over night. Instead I combined ideas from two recipes for a quicker more immediate version on Christmas morning. I'd grab that last bottle of egg nog before it is all gone, and take a few minutes in the kitchen to have a sweet and scrumptious breakfast.

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Biscuits and Gravy

Grade: B

Time it takes: 35-40 minutes

Yield: Serves 2-4, depending on your level of gravy intake because the gravy lasted 3 servings

Source: Pink Parsley - a food blog (biscuits and gravy)

Biscuits and gravy is not a dish I've had often, or really ever...maybe a bite once or twice...in my life. I'm not entirely sure why. They sound delicious, but I've just never ordered them or made them.

I have quiet a few food blogs bookmarked that I check in with about once a week, and this biscuits and gravy recipe popped up on Pink Parsley's blog. It instantly sounded like a great idea to make biscuits and gravy. I can't for the life of me think why it took so long for me to finally get around to making them. I dangled the prospect in front of Chris' nose and he was excited enough about it to remind me almost daily that I should make the recipe.

I've never made regular ol' biscuits before nor have I ever successfully made gravy. Maybe that is why it took me so long to make these, I was afraid of failing miserably at gravy making. Well, I started by accidentally leaving the biscuits in for a good 4 or 5 extra minutes because the oven timer beeped while I was man handling sausage and then I forgot about them completely, so the bottoms ended up being hard. The tops were delicious though, so not a total loss. It took me a super long time to get the gravy smooth as well, but it tasted fantastic. My only problem overall was that the dish was too light on the gravy for the amount of sausage. It was more like sausage and biscuits with a bit of gravy. So, next time more gravy and less sausage would be perfection...and also not leaving the biscuits in for an extra 5 minutes would probably help as well.

No complaints about the taste in this household. They were gone faster than the flashiest of flashes - hard biscuit bottoms and all.

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Breakfast Braid

Grade: A

Time it takes: 50 minutes (30 minutes prep, 15 minutes baking, 5 minutes to stand)

Yield: Serves 4-6

Source: Elizabeth's Edible Experience - a food blog (Braidy Brunch)

This was such a big hit in this house. A perfect breakfast for the weekend - unless you are a morning person, and I am not. It is not overly complicated, it doesn't take all morning, and it looks fun.There isn't anything much to the braiding process, just taking your ends and laying them over the filling - no pinching or complicated twisting or precise folding techniques required. I used a third of my regular pizza dough recipe, and it was a little thin (making the braid a little flimsy - it may not have looked spectacular but it tasted just the same) so next time I will use a half. If you don't want to make dough, or you don't have the time, just use some refrigerated premade dough from the store.

And, you can really tailor it to your own tastes or preferences on a given day. Start with some scrambled eggs and add whatever meats, veggies, or cheeses you want. The chicken sausage I used was absolutely perfect in this. The combination of jack cheese and mozzarella gave it a nice spice; I omitted the jalapenos, but if you like it hot you could certainly chop some up and toss them on top with the cheese. Chris suggested I make one of these every other day, so he was a fan.

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Scotch Egg

Grade: B

Time it takes: 1 hour and 35 minutes, plus overnight (40 minutes prep, 55 minutes cooking)

Yield: 8 Scotch eggs

Source: inspired by Rose & Crown Pub at Epcot, recipe from allrecipes.com

When Chris and I went to Epcot after we got married with our friends, we ate at the Rose & Crown Pub in the United Kingdom pavilion. Somebody at the table ordered a Scotch Egg for an appetizer. We tried a bite and it was pretty amazing. Before I found a recipe, I was pretty baffled as to how it was even cooked...it is an egg wrapped in sausage, how do they even DO that?! Magical fairies and trolls perhaps.

My friend Atty thought it would be fun to join up and host a themed dinner party - and British night was decided on. So, I decided to make Scotch eggs and Shepherd's Pie (recipe to follow) as my contribution. We also had beer fondue, poutine, carrots and English trifle - it took us 7 hours to eat our way through it all!

I enjoyed the Scotch eggs. They were not as hard to make as I thought they would be, always a nice surprise. It was mentioned somewhere over at allrecipes.com that their family makes Scotch eggs as a Christmas morning tradition, and I think I might have to adopt that because they would be the perfect addition to Christmas breakfast. The only thing I need to add to the recipe is something to dip them in that isn't mustard, because mustard is not my thing.

*Update: I whipped up a few more scotch eggs because I forgot to take a finished picture of the first batch. So, I tried one with ketchup, mayonnaise mixed with mustard, and maple syrup. The ketchup was pretty gross, and I definitely dislike mustard even with mayonnaise, but the maple syrup was a good dip. I bet if I actually liked mustard though that that would be the way to go, because it goes with both the sausage and the hard boiled egg. The hard boiled egg with maple syrup was a bit odd.

I also hard boiled the eggs the same day. I put them in an ice water bath after they were done cooking, peeled what I needed and then placed the eggs back in the ice water for a few minutes. It worked just fine if you don't want to hard boil the eggs in advance or get a spur of the moment Scotch egg craving.

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Pancakes

 

Grade: A

Time it takes: 8-30 minutes (The prep time is minimal and the rest depends on how many and what size pancakes you make)

Yield: 4-5 dollar sized pancakes

Source: My grandma =) She adapted it from an old falling apart cookbook of which I do not know the name.

This recipe for pancakes is what I grew up with. It was the first recipe I ever made on my own - which failed miserably when I mixed up teaspoon with tablespoon for the salt. It's the first recipe I ever knew by heart. It gets made all the time and is delicious. My grandma would make this recipe and pour it into a mickey mouse shaped shaper (shaper? I'm not entirely sure what its official name is...) when I was growing up, so my pancakes were pretty kickass.

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