Blueberry Danish

I had purchased a box of puff pastry with no real plans on how to use it. With an HOA board meeting coming up (yes, I'm one of those crazy people who served on an HOA board), I wanted to bring something to share with my fellow board members. I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try because I love cheese Danish and adding blueberry and almond could only make it better! They turned out really great. I really should make these again soon...

Croissant Breakfast Bake

I recently spent the weekend in Asheville, North Carolina with nine ladies from the Alpha Omega Alumni Chapter. We had our first ever Alumni Retreat. It went so well and we had a fantastic time! We stayed in a cabin which allowed us to cook a few of our meals. 

For breakfast, I made a variety of muffins, but I also wanted something savory. I searched Pinterest and was originally going to make an egg casserole. Then I stumbled upon a recipe using croissants. Automatic winner! It was easy to make and everyone loved it! The original recipe is from Just a Pinch Recipes.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

A couple months ago we got some free peanut butter from the USDA food giveaway on our base. I was inspired to make a breakfast item using the free peanut butter. Since I very much enjoy the peanut butter and chocolate combination, I thought muffins would be a good vehicle for those two flavors. I found a recipe on Pinterest and really, really enjoyed the finished product. The recipe is from Chocolate, Chocolate and More. I found that I thought they tasted better after each day. They are best served warm so the chocolate chips are a little melted inside.

 Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup vegetable oil (although I think we used coconut oil)
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare muffin pan (spray cups or insert cupcake liners)

Stir together flour, salt, baking powder and chocolate chips in large bowl.

Combine milk, eggs, sugar, peanut butter and oil in a separate bowl; combine ingredients until just moistened. Do not over beat.

Fill muffin tins. Top with a few chocolate chips (optional). Bake for 14 minutes.

K's Breakfast Casserole

I am a baker. That means I love following recipes...to a T. Cooking, where you make stuff up as you go along, is not my thing. However, I'm finding that the more I cook the more comfortable I am taking some liberties with recipes. Is that a sign of being a grown-up?

I recently hosted a Coffee & Coloring social for some friends. I wanted to offer a food item. At first I was thinking almond poppy seed bread or some other sweet item. But someone else offered to bring banana bread. Then I thought breakfast casserole! So many recipes included hash browns or potatoes which I didn't have in the house. I finally found one that was potato-less. I decided to alter it a little and it came out delicious!

K's Breakfast Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup (ish) salsa
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
6 large eggs
Splash of milk (it was around 1-2 Tablespoons)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown meat in skillet with salsa. (I used a peach salsa which is yum, yum, yum! I also love salsa with pineapple in it.) Drain fat and let cool.

Mix cheese, eggs,  milk, salt and pepper. Stir in meat mixture. Pour into 9 inch baking dish or pie plate. Bake for 45-55 minutes.

Aloha! Fill up

I am a picky eater; so I may not love to eat everything, but I love to eat! Whenever I have travel research to do a large part of that is spent on researching where to eat. My philosophy is that I may never visit this place again. I want to make the most out of my eating experiences. I do not want to waste my time and money on a sub-par meal.

We visited Oahu, the most populated of Hawaii's islands. It is home to Pearl Harbor, Honolulu and the North Shore. Needless to say, there are a ton of restaurants. I utilized both the list of places visited on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and Tripadvisor to guide me. We ate at some delicious spots while in Hawaii. I did not take pictures of everything, but below are some of the things we enjoyed on our trip.

Charles' plate at the Poke (pronounced like pokey) Stop. He really enjoyed the variety. Before ordering, he was able to sample several of their pokes. They make a ton of different flavor combinations.

My breakfast at the Poke Stop was not as satisfying as I was expecting. I ordered banana pancakes with the haupia sauce on top. I thought the pancakes came with candied macadamia nuts inside, but none were to be found. The haupia sauce did not have much flavor and there was soooo much of it. I would order something different if we ever go again.

While on the island, we visited the Dole Plantation and enjoyed the iconic Dole Whip (with pineapples). It was refreshing and delicious.

Everyone probably imagines a luau when you think about visiting Hawaii. That is a pretty standard touristy thing to do and, of course, I wanted to experience it. Our hotel, the Hale Koa, had their own luau. It was so convenient to our stay. The food was delicious! It included chicken, pork, fish (which Charles ate for me), fried banana, sweet potato, rice, pineapple and a couple appetizers.

One morning of our trip was spent on a Breakfast Whale Watch cruise. Our breakfast included scramble eggs, poi rolls, Kona coffee, pineapple, watermelon, muffins and probably some other items that I am forgetting. It was actually really delicious and a nice scenic place to enjoy a meal. Unfortunately, we did not spot any whales.

Even though I do not like beer, I love visiting breweries and pubs. Honolulu Beerworks had excellent reviews, so I wanted to check it out. Charles ordered a beer flight and I had a pint of hard cider. Our food was so yummy! We enjoyed a pretzel and beer cheese appetizer. I had the mac & cheese and Charles had their special of the night--some kind of crostini with local ingredients. The mac & cheese had a crunchy topping that was amazing! I would want to eat here all the time if I lived in Honolulu.

From my research, there are several places to get delicious pancakes in Honolulu. We chose Eggs 'n Things. It was right around the corner from our hotel. Charles ordered these blueberry pancakes and a plantation tea (tea mixed with pineapple juice). The pancakes were delicious. I had plate envy.

My Eggs 'n Things dish, while yummy looking, was a little lacking. I could not quite put my finger on what it was missing, but the flavors just were not exactly what I was hoping for. My Mocha Kona coffee drink was delicious, though.

A surprisingly delicious food find was at the Pacific Aviation Museum's cafe. On our first day in Hawaii, we visited Pearl Harbor and the other WWII sites. We got up really early to make sure to get tickets to the Arizona Memorial and thus didn't really eat breakfast. We had a snack from the food stand at Pearl Harbor, but by the time we got to the Pacific Aviation Museum, I was feeling a little off. Cafe to the rescue! Charles ordered the pineapple and Spam fried rice and I had Kalua pork. Yum, yum, yum!

On our last night in Hawaii, we enjoyed our dinner from one of the restaurants at the Hale Koa. I had to order a Mai Tai! It's just something you do in Hawaii. I can't remember what Charles' drink was called, but it came with a back scratcher. Isn't that funny?

Christmas Traditions

The holidays are full of traditions. I thought I would share a few of mine...

- Decorate... I don't know if this really counts as a tradition since most people do it. But you cannot have the Christmas holiday without decorations. Some of my favorite decorations are my two German houses. I grew up with these types of houses from when we lived in Germany. My mom's collection seemed to grow each time my Dad went to Germany on a business trip. Then a couple years ago when my brother-in-law lived in Germany, he gave me one of the houses. It was the best ever!

- Christmas breakfast... growing up it was either sticky buns or coffee cake. And then at some point we added quiche. When Charles and I got married, our Christmas breakfast tradition became chocolate french toast. Yum, yum, yum! And when we visit my in-laws, we enjoy waffles!

- Christmas pajamas... I don't remember when this started, but it was one year when I was a kid. We begged my parents every year to let us open a present on Christmas Eve. Thus the Christmas pajamas started. The nice thing about that is you have new pajamas to wear on Christmas morning.

My 2012 Christmas pajamas...I love the sheep!

- Christmas Eve service... I love the Christmas Eve service at my parents' church. The church is large and they have the traditional choir and orchestra. Normally that is not my cup of tea at church, but on Christmas Eve nothing is better. They always pass out candles that we light towards the end of the service. The lights in the sanctuary are turned down and everything is illuminated by the individual candles. It is kind of magical.

- Watching movies... we would usually get a movie for Christmas. After all the presents were opened and the wrapping paper mounds disposed of we sit around and watch one of the new movies we received. It's a nice way to spend time together on Christmas and enjoy your new presents.

I just love Christmas! There are so many fun traditions that families can have this time of year.

Scrambled Egg Cups

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently made some Scrambled Egg Cups for the networking event I helped host at work. I wanted to have something to offer for those people who do not like sweet foods in the morning. They turned out quite yummy!

Here's the recipe: (from: Semi-Homemade Mom)

Ingredients:
12 eggs
6 slices of bacon (I was lazy and used bacon bits)
3 tablespoons milk (or half and half)
1/2 cup shredded cheese (the original recipe calls for cheddar. I used an Italian mix)
salt and pepper to taste (now that I think about it, I think I forgot these...oops!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk together eggs and milk. Add in bacon, cheese and salt and pepper.

Pour into muffin tin (12 count).

You can sprinkle some extra cheese on top, if you want.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

In the original recipe, she did not use any cupcake liners. If you are planning on doing that, you'll probably want to spray the tin with cooking spray. I used cupcake liners for an easier cleanup.

Bananas Foster French Toast

Once, back in college, my school cafeteria had some culinary students making things. One station had bananas foster. It was so delicious! Charles and I made it once since then, but we didn't get it quite right. For some reason lately I've been thinking about making it again. We finally bought some Rum and had a bunch of bananas, so I was going to make some for dessert, but then I remembered that we did not have any vanilla ice cream to enjoy it with.

The next morning, I wondered if there was a recipe for Bananas Foster French Toast. Thanks to Pinterest (yes, I'm obsessed just like everyone else), I found a great recipe! I was going to take a picture of my delicious breakfast, but the camera battery was dead. But it was definitely worth sharing. Here's the picture from Pinterest and a link to the recipe.

Source: I added a tablespoon or so of rum in mine. Yes, it was for breakfast, but the alcohol cooks out. And it's not bananas foster without it.

Chocolate French Toast

I discovered this recipe a few years ago and fell in love. Chocolate French Toast has been our Christmas breakfast tradition since Charles and I have been married. It's so easy and so yummy!

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
1 oz chocolate, chopped (you can use semi-sweet, dark or milk chocolate...whatever you like best)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
bread
2 Tablespoons butter

Place milk and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave until chocolate is soft, about one minute. Stir to combine and let cool.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, vanilla and chocolate mixture.

On skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Proceed to make French toast as usual.

We love to serve this with fresh strawberries and powdered sugar!

Banana Bread French Toast

I had a few bananas saved in the freezer and Charles wanted me to make banana bread. A week or so after he asked me, I finally made it. Banana bread is simple and easy to make. As if banana bread isn't amazing on its own, I made banana bread French toast! I had it at a restaurant outside of San Antonio in October and I've had a recipe for it sitting on my computer for a while now. 

Here's how you can make it, too!

Ingredients:
1 loaf of Banana bread (I used the Betty Crocker recipe, but feel free to use whatever recipe you would like)
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (I didn't have any, so we just used milk and some sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk the ingredients together. Slice the banana bread. Heat a skillet on medium high. You can butter the skillet. I didn't and it didn't make that much of a difference. Dip the slices in the mixture so they are fully coated. Place on skillet and cook until each side is golden brown.

The banana bread French toast on the griddle

The finished product with some powdered sugar...just like the pros.

Later this week, I'm going to share my no-sew cushions for my kitchen chairs. Super easy project!