Candied Bacon

I've been going through something of a breakfast crisis for quite awhile now. Typically, at this time of day, I can eat the same thing over and over and never get tired of it. 

My big issue during the school year is that breakfast has to last me ALL morning long. Once that first bell rings, I don't have a break until lunch. Somewhere around third hour, my tummy is letting me know that I might want to consider some nourishment. 

So I am trying to find something that is easy, fast and filling. Not too tall of an order, is it?

Well, I haven't found my perfect breakfast yet, but, I have stumbled across something that might just tide me over.

There are dozens of people out there recommending Candied Bacon (or Pig Candy as some like to call it) as an addition to your table. It has taken me forever to try it, but now that I have discovered this monster, there is no turning back.

Coat a slice of bacon with a thin layer of brown sugar. You don't want to over do the sugar layer; the best results seem to occur when you can just see the bacon beneath the sugar.

Place those strips onto a broiler rack. Be sure to put a layer of aluminum foil underneath this or you will never use this pan again.

 Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

This is amazing. For me. The Girl liked it all right for someone who doesn't like bacon in the first place. Jeff said it was okay. Really? I thought he would devour it. Hmm. That was just fine with me as there was more for me to snack on later.

And again later. Seriously, I dreamed about this stuff.

I think I could make this at the beginning of the week and have it for breakfast every day, as long as I didn't eat it all on Monday.

Definitely give this a try, even if you first reaction is questionable.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Candied Bacon
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 pound thinly sliced bacon
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a broiler pan with aluminum foil, and position broiler rack on top of pan. Lightly coat the rack with the vegetable oil. Add the brown sugar to a shallow dish. Press 1 side of each slice of bacon firmly into the sugar to coat well. Arrange the slices of bacon on top of the broiler rack in a single layer, sugared-side up. If there is any sugar remaining in the dish, sprinkle it on top of the bacon slices evenly. Bake until the bacon is crisp and the sugar is bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain briefly, then to a plate or serving dish to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Easy Homemade Donuts

It's Daylight Savings Time. Seriously. WHY?? I really do not adjust well to these days. I am on a schedule and I do not like to change it. And anyway, does it really serve any purpose at all? There is an old Indian saying that may or may not have been made up by my dad: "Only a White Man would cut the end off a blanket, sew it back on to the top and believe that it was longer." Kinda makes sense, don't you think?

The Boy wanted donuts for breakfast this morning and I really didn't feel like going out and getting any. Lucky for me, Carrie posted this a few days ago. I had some extra biscuits in the fridge and that just seemed like a good omen.

I had never made donuts before, so I had zero background knowledge to fall back on, which made for some interesting issues, as you will see shortly.

Get your oil heating up. If you have a fryer, you can use that. I have a specific old frying pan that I use when I require hot oil. You need a good couple inches deep, otherwise you won't be able to turn the donuts.

While you are waiting, mix up your glaze. The Boy wanted chocolate, so I added a handful of chocolate chips to 1/4 cup melted butter and 3 tablespoons of milk.

Whisk that together and mix in a cup of powdered sugar.

Open a can of refrigerated biscuits and lay out each individual biscuit. There are several directions you could go here. You could not worry about taking any dough out of the middle. I'm not positive, however, that you would technically be making donuts anymore. According to Ty Webb (you know, Caddyshack), "A flute without holes, is not a flute. A donut without a hole, is a Danish." Since we are wanting donuts, we are going to cut out the middle. You can use anything round, like the lid from a pop bottle. The problem I had with this is that I didn't have anything circular small enough for my biscuits. I dug around and found my mini cookie cutters. Star centers it shall be.

Now, Carrie said she put her stove on "5" and it took 20 minutes to heat up. You can check this by tossing a VERY SMALL DROP of water into the oil. If the water sizzles, the oil is ready. I set my stove to medium and when I checked it after about 10 minutes, it nearly caught my kitchen on fire. If you have a kitchen thermometer (I apparently do not), you want the oil to be heated to 375. Anything over that and you are going to end up something like this:

These four unfortunate donuts were added to the oil and by the time I got the last one in (approximately 2 seconds), this had happened. A kitchen thermometer is now on my shopping list.

Even if you donuts do not actually become charcoal, if your oil is too hot, you will get them nice and brown on the outside, but not quite cooked on the inside. I'm not sure which is worse.

Cook for a few seconds on one side until you see a very light brown start to creep around the edges of the donut. Then flip it over and cook for a few more seconds.

After a few tries, I ended up with some nicely browned samples.

Dip these in your glaze.

Aren't the stars cute??
Let the glaze dribble off. Ideally, I would have had waxed paper under the cooling rack, but I seem to have run out.
These were devoured. Definitely keeping this recipe. Someday I might try "real" donuts, but these are so easy I don't know if it would be worth the trouble.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Easy Biscuit Donuts

2 tubes Refrigerated Biscuits

3-5 Cups Oil for Frying

1/4 Cup Melted Butter

3 Tablespoons Milk

1/2 Cup Chocolate Chips

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

Heat the oil to 375.

Whisk butter, milk and chocolate chips until smooth. Add powdered sugar. Whisk until mixture is again smooth. Set aside.

Cut centers out of biscuits. Place in the hot oil. Brown on both sides. Place on a cooling rack or paper towel.

Cool slightly and dip in glaze.

Apple Cream Brunch Biscuits

These snow days are going to kill me.

Well, they are at least going to make me heavier. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that I've gained about 20 pounds this month. I can't help it. When I am stuck inside and it's cold, all I want to do is cook.

I decided to clean out my inbox. I have a folder dedicated to recipes that I want to try and I hadn't really looked through them in awhile. I didn't get very far. The first one I looked at was from Pillsbury. Not only did it feature some incredible looking chocolate recipes for Valentine's Day, it had links to other recipes it thought I might enjoy. It was one of these links that led me toApple Ricotta Brunch Biscuits. This is not really what I made. I didn't have ricotta cheese. I really wanted to try these, but really did not want to get out in the snow. So I substituted cream cheese for the ricotta. I also did not have almonds (I have been making a LOT of granola), so I substituted walnuts.

Mix the cream cheese, sugar and egg until it is nice and creamy.

Have The Girl mix up the walnuts and cinnamon so she doesn't eat all the cream cheese mixture.

Press a refrigerated biscuit in the bottom and up the sides of a greased muffin tin. Cut an apple into 8 wedges and peel each section. The recipe said to put an entire wedge in the muffin tin, but it also told me to use a jumbo muffin tin. I cut my wedges in half since I was using a regular sized muffin tin.

Top each apple with a generous spoonful of the cream cheese mixture.

Sprinkle with walnuts and bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Let them sit in the pan for a few minutes before using a butter knife to loosen them out.

Oh my.

I did not need to know these existed.

Everyone ate one right out of the oven (be careful, those apples get HOT!) and immediately wanted another. It says to store in the refrigerator, but mine didn't make it that far.

I would also say that while I do not have a comparison here, I don't think I would like these as a jumbo muffin as well. I think next time I will keep them the regular muffin size. I can also see substituting blueberries or peaches for the apple. Oh, or a Hershey's kiss would be divine.

Boy, I really need to go back to school.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Apple Cream Biscuits

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Cream Cheese

1 Egg

1/4 Cup sliced Walnuts

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1 Refrigerated Biscuits

1 small Apple, peeled, cut into 8 wedges (1/2 inch thick)

Heat oven to 375°F. Spray 10 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray. In small bowl, combine sugar, cream cheese and egg; beat at high speed for 1 minute.

In small bowl, combine walnuts and cinnamon; mix well. Separate dough into 8 biscuits. Press each biscuit evenly in bottom and up sides of spray-coated muffin cups. Place 1 wedge of apple in each cup. Spoon 2 rounded tablespoonfuls cheese mixture over each apple wedge; sprinkle with walnut mixture.

Bake at 375°F. for 20 to 25 minutes or until biscuits are deep golden brown and apples are crisp-tender. Remove biscuits from muffin cups; cool 15 minutes. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator.

Toffee Rolls

I made these awhile back at a time where I didn't know whether I was coming or going. I apparently threw the recipe back in the pile and forgot about them. I am stunned by this because these are heavenly. Also not so stunned because I think I ate half the batch before I told anyone else they were done.

Yeah, these are really good.

And really easy.

Have The Boy mix the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and toffee bits together while you lay out a package of refrigerated crescent rolls.

After you seal all the perforations, spread that butter mixture evenly across the top.
Roll them up and cut them into 1 inch slices.
Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.
Mix up some icing using powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and drizzle over the rolls.
Did I mention these were good?

Click here for Printable Recipe

Toffee Rolls

6 tablespoons butter, softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup Toffee Bits or almond brickle chips

2 tubes (8 ounces each) refrigerated crescent rolls

1 cup confectioners' sugar

4-1/2 teaspoons whole milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until light and fluffy. Stir in toffee bits.

Separate each tube of crescent dough into four rectangles; seal perforations. Spread evenly with butter mixture. Roll up each rectangle jelly-roll style, starting with a long side.

Cut each into six 1-in. slices; place cut side down into two greased 8-in. square baking dishes. Bake at 375° for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown.

In a small bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle over warm rolls. Yield: 4 dozen.

Homemade Granola

I love Tina's blog. She makes so many things that sound so good to me. I like granola bars, but I have never been tempted to eat granola just as a snack by itself. I can be really dumb sometimes. I have noticed lately I have been drawn to foods that are supposed to be really healthy. This just looked so good that I had to try it.

Melt the butter. I love butter. Butter makes everything better.

Once the butter melts, add in the honey and salt. Heat this until you get a foamy mixture.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oats, wheat germ, cinnamon, brown sugar and all the other stuff you want in your granola. This is where it gets fun. Like dried fruit? Add in a half a cup. Nuts? What kind? I like almonds, but you might prefer pecans. The spices can be mixed up, too. I occasionally add in a half a teaspoon of nutmeg.
Add in the butter and honey and mix well.
Spread all of that goodness into a baking pan. And bake for about 10 minutes. Watch this closely. You are going for toasted here, and there is a very fine line between toasted and burned.
Let it cool for about 10 minutes. Stir it up and let it cool completely.

Wow. I love this. I have been eating yogurt for breakfast simply as an excuse to eat granola. I eat this by the spoonful. I think my husband might be worried. If this isn't good for you, for heaven's sake, don't tell me.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Homemade Granola

3 1/2 Cups Uncooked Old Fashioned Oats

1 stick + 1 tablespoon Butter

1/2 Cup Honey

1/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 Cup Wheat Germ

1/2 Cup almond pieces

1/2 Cup Almond Slivers

1/2 - 1 Cup Dried Fruit

Melt butter in a 3 - quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the honey and salt and briefly heat with the butter until foamy and bubbly. In a separate bowl mix together the oatmeal, wheat germ, nuts, brown sugar and cinnamon sugar if adding dried fruit add them as well. Turn off the heat and add the oatmeal mixture. Stir until everything is coated. Pour the mixture onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Spread the mixture out evenly and pat down. Bake it at 375° for 10 minutes (watch carefully) It will be a golden brown color. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes using a spatula or flipper slide it under the granola to loosen it a bit so it does not stick. Let cool on the baking sheet about 30 minutes then break into pieces and store in an airtight container

Puffins

It's 6 am. I got home late last night from a cross country meet. I have to run a concession stand tonight. I have a garage sale tomorrow. AND I have a niece and nephew who spent the night last night. So what do I do??? I sit down and try to catch up on some of my blog reading. I haven't even opened Reader since August, so I have something like 500 posts I haven't read yet. Lucky for me, Bakerella is at the top in the alphabetical hierarchy and has this incredible recipe just waiting for me to try. So, let's do that instead. I haven't been late to work in quite some time...

Whisk all the dry ingredients together. Sorry about the lighting. It's still dark out :(
In a separate bowl, we need some buttermilk. Right. I don't have any. I'm kinda betting that you don't either. I'm not even sure if our grocery store HAS buttermilk. It might, we are a small, rural area with an extremely awesome grocer. I, however, have never even looked for it. Anyway, you can make your own by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (or vinegar) to a cup, then fill the cup up the rest of the way with regular milk. TADA...buttermilk.
Two tablespoons of pure maple syrup. Right. I don't have that either. I have pretend maple syrup.

Also, I think I have mentioned this before, but for the English-measurement-challenged individual, two tablespoons is equal to 1/8 of a cup. THAT is what those cups are for.
So I set my camera down on my very messy counter and happened to glance at the screen. This is what I saw. I really like this accidental picture, so I thought I would share. Do I seem a little ADD this morning? I feel like it.
Add the buttermilk to the melted butter and syrup along with one egg.
Do you know what buttermilk is? It is bad milk. Do you know what happens to good milk when you add lemon juice? It goes bad. If you prefer not to think of this, don't let your milk sit too long in the lemon juice before you add it to your batter.
But it is good, bad milk. So whisk all this together.
By now, there is probably a large drop of syrup that has collected in the bottom of your 1/8 cup. Add this in to the batter because we don't want any of that yummy syrupy goodness to go to waste.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into a greased muffin pan. I made mini muffins. I was going to make regular sized, and I am glad I didn't. The mini ones were perfect for dipping in syrup.
You can add chocolate chips if you like. I'm also thinking blueberries...but you may see this coming, I didn't have any.
Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. My kids were (oh, alright, I was) really impatient about these, but try not to peek.
Let them sit for a few minutes to rest up.
mmmmmmm.......
Dip in syrup if you so desire.
These were a huge hit. Delicious. And much less messy than pancakes. The Girl wants to make "a few hundred" for her lemonade stand tomorrow. Sigh...Bakerella has a really long name for these and asked everyone to come up with a shorter one. Somewhere in her post, she called them Puffins. I love that, so that is what I am sticking with. They just sound adorable and delicious. I think from here on, I am going to have to double the recipe. These were devoured in minutes.

Click here for Printable Recipe

Puffins
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops. Bake for 8-9 minutes.Makes 24 mini pancake muffins. Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.
Serve immediately with warmed butter if you like or even just with maple syrup.