Who would have thought I would find a little French flair in the Midwest?  This fun twist on French toast comes to us from Harbour Ridge Inn located in Osage Beach,  Missouri.   The innkeeper, Sue,  likes to cook with wine and liquors ... and I couldn't agree with her more!  I mean, is there really ever a better morning than one served with Grand Marnier or Chambord?  Well, let me rephrase that.  Drinking it straight up would be a rude awakening.  Coffee is my preferred sin.  But either of these liquors baked into some yummy custard goodness where you get just a hint of citrus or raspberry flavor is a great way to add a smile to your lips when you start the day.

And actually, it's not far off from what was the original recipe for French toast in the 1600's.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary,  back then it was made with day old bread, wine, orange juice and sugar.  Mmm.

So let us begin ...

BAKED CINNAMON FRENCH TOAST

from the Inn at Harbour Ridge, Osage Beach MO

(Serves 6 or more)

12 slices cinnamon swirl or cinnamon raisin bread (Pepperidge Farm)

1/4 cup butter or margarine

9 eggs

1 quart milk, whole milk preferred

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract

1 TBS Grand Marnier or Chambord

Warmed preserves to compliment liquor

1) Grease 13 by 9 by 2 baking dish.  Then add six slices of bread.

2) Butter remaining bread and place with butter side up over bread in pan.

3) In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and add milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla.  Mix well and pour over bread. Let stand overnight.

4) Place the dish of French toast in a larger baking pan to form a water bath. Pour boiling water into larger pan to a depth of 1".  Bake, uncovered at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

5) Serve with preserves, whipped cream and your favorite coffee.

###

During busy weeks, sometimes my breakfast is fast and on the go.  I'll tear open a highly processed carbohydrate in a foil wrapper, and, if I plan well,  it will at least accompany an apple or banana.

But this is a much better way to enjoy fruit in the morning. It's kind of like a smoothie, except this is meant for a leisurely morning savored slowly, seated at a breakfast table and sipped with a spoon instead of a straw.

At the Bloomsbury Inn, this is the first course in a three part breakfast.  Yes, their morning includes an appetizer, entree and dessert.  Isn't that divine?  Though this is the first course, it could certainly be dessert for me.

Kathleen, Innkeeper at the Bloomsbury, said that she finds it to be a challenge to find new, exciting, unique fruit options.  (I need to send her a link to my hot pink fruit breakfast!  That one wasn't just unique, it was funky!) Her cold fruit soup recipe is definitely a fun and different way of adding fruit to your morning meal.

Let's get started with cooking.  Or in this case, I should say mixing.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with how simple this is to put together.

Notice that I picked "fat free" yogurt, "light" whipped cream and "lite" peaches and placed them right next to the "heavy" whipping cream.

Ha!

The recipe Kathleen gave me leaves the option open for choosing the fruit.  From berries to mango and even honeydew.  But I decided to have a peachy morning since it's the state fruit for South Carolina.

Unfortunately, peaches are not in season at the moment, so I used canned.  But you better believe I'm going to try this recipe again in the spring with some fresh peaches.

Next the sugar ... or how my Carolina relatives would say ... "shugah."

Next, a couple of dollops of yogurt.  The recipe calls for 6 ounces.  I had a big 'ole tub of it ... but figured that 6 ounces was equivalent to about 6 spoonfuls.  If you use vanilla bean yogurt, the extract is optional and probably not necessary unless you want a stronger vanilla flavor.

A dash of cinnamon.

Blend. Chill.

Serve and enjoy!

Bloomsbury Cold Fruit Soup

from the Bloomsbury Inn, Camden South Carolina

Total preparation time: 15 minutes, plus chilling time
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

2 cups fruit (peach, cantaloupe, honeydew, mango…any one of these works well…fresh is better, but canned or frozen will work when well drained)

½ cup sugar (sugar to taste depending upon natural sweetness of fruit)

1  (6 oz) vanilla bean yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract if you use plain yogurt (extract flavor based upon fruit:  vanilla, cinnamon, rum)

¼ cup heavy cream (add cream to determine consistency desired)

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

If you are using fresh fruit, carefully clean, peal, and place in the blender.  Add all remaining ingredient and blend until smooth. Chill for at least 8 hours.  Garish with whipping cream, candied/sweet-flavored nuts, fresh mint or whole fruit slices.  Serve very cold.

###

I'm so glad I finished all of my holiday shopping ... ah em ... I wouldn't say "early" ... but at least it's now Christmas Eve and I'm able to spend the day relaxing at home, baking and getting ready for family and friends tomorrow.

This recipe is perfect for enjoying with a cup of hot chocolate and warming up on a cold day.  And, oddly enough, it actually comes from a bed & breakfast in the warm tropical island of Key West, the Grand Guest House.  If you'd like to warm up even more on this cold winter morning, transport yourself to Key West with these two awesome videos by Vanessa ... Grand Guest House Video, and Scott's Sunset ...

On with the bread!

I love to bake.  It's one thing I actually do pretty well.  It also gives me a chance to use my clay baking stoneware which makes me feel more down to earth/natural/eco-friendly in a really weird way.  Especially since the only organic thing I used in this recipe was Cinnamon.  But I digress.  Must have too much Baileys in my hot chocolate this morning.

Here's what you'll need to make a Spiced Apple Walnut Bread ...

Let the butter soften to room temperature and then slice up to make for easy blending.

Add the flour ...

Some cinnamon ... well ... actually ... A  LOT of cinnamon ...

"Mt" Cinnamon ... they don't call it "spiced" bread for nothin!

Little free plug for Arm & Hammer.  Really ... do they have any competition?

Must be nice.  Don't notice any other baking soda's at the grocery store.

Pinch of salt.

Tangent: Now, when I made the breakfast pizza, I asked my boyfriend to pick up a wad of pizza dough from our local pizzeria and he looked at me like I had two heads.  A couple of nights ago, I asked him to put a dollop of sour cream on my chili and, again, he looked at me like I had two heads.

A pinch, a dollop and a wad are all perfectly acceptable units of measure to me.

Pour in the applesauce ...

"Technically" the directions say to pulse this all in a food processor.  My food processor is only big enough to make a small bowl of pesto ... definitely not big enough for bread dough!  Don't know how that changes things.  Maybe it wont rise or be as fluffy.  Still tasted pretty darn good though.

Blend ... breathe in the scent of cinnamon and apples ... Mmm ...

Scrape the bowl to make sure you get all the chunky bits ...

Add the walnuts ...

Blend again ...

Lick the beater, the spoon, the spatula, the bowl, your fingers ...

Dress up your bread pan with some oil, flour and sugar.  A bit more than a pinch, more like a dollop.  Except sugar really doesn't dollop ... so it's more like a large sprinkling.  Again, an acceptable unit of measure.

Another free plug for Dixie Crystals.  See ... this is why I usually pour out all the ingredients in dishes first!  But I was feeling a little lazy today.

Tangent: I had a cat named Dixie Crystals once.  A pretty white Siamese with blue eyes.  I was working in marketing for agriculture at the time and had a meeting with some sugar farmers.  She was a little kitten they had on the farm that jumped in my lap at the meeting, so they thought I should take her home.  My apartment at the time didn't allow me to keep her, so my parents adopted her.  After climbing curtains, bookcases, tv stands, and human legs ... she's been re-named Punky.  I shall start my own brand of sugar one day with a cool cat logo and call it Punky in her honor.

On with the bread ...

Make sure your pan is well sugared ... it creates nice sweet crispy bits on the crust.

Once your bread pan/stone is nice and sugared-up, fill it with your batter and bake at 375 for an hour.

Yes, that is a polka-dot apron and knee-high striped socks that you see on the left.  I guess I was just having a "Punky" kind of a day ... not normal for me at all.  I'm usually more of a conservative kinda gal.

Mmm ... warm, butter-meltin, spiced applesauce walnut bread.

Spiced Applesauce Nut Bread

from the Grand Guest House, Key West

Ingredients

1/2 cup safflower oil OR 1 stick unsalted butter

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 1/4  cups applesauce

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

4 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup walnuts

Directions

1) Place rack in center of the oven and preheat to 375.  Grease and sugar 6 1/4 cup (1.5 L) loaf pan.

2) Process all ingredients in food processor for 5 seconds.  Scrape work bowl and pulse to combine 1 or two times.  Do not over process.

3) Transfer to prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes.  Leave in pan for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

###

Flour ... Butter ... Eggs ... Milk ... Sugar ... Oh, how I love thee.  Let me count the ways ...

It never ceases to amaze me how many different things can be baked from just tweaking a combination of the above ingredients.  I'll have to have a marathon-list-making post of all the different creations.

For this morning, I'm going to make a traditional chilly-morning-gooey-cozy-comfort-food favorite ... cinnamon rolls.  I have to confess, I usually make these by popping open a cylinder can with a certain giggly dough boy gracing the label.  The orange icing was my favorite.  Artificial ... yes, I know.  But quick and easy.

This recipe is not a quick one.  But it is easy.  Nothing artificial here.  And they taste soooo much better with the added ingredients of time and love.

There are a lot of different variations of recipes for cinnamon rolls, but this one in particular comes from Anchor Inn on the Lake in Branson.

Here's what you'll need ...

The magnificent 5 ... flour, sugar, milk, butter, eggs ... with cinnamon, brown sugar and yeast.  I know, yeast is the only one that doesn't sound yummy.  It makes them big and soft and gooey though.

Add the yeast to a mixing bowl with just a little bit of water, about a 1/2 cup.  As the yeast dissolved into the water, you may need to mix it up just a bit to make sure there are no big clumps of yeast.

Scald the mild and melt the butter into it.  Do NOT boil.  This is on low to medium heat.

Break the egg into a separate bowl and beat with a whisk.  Sounds a little like punishment for the egg, doesn't it?

My friend Jim gave me another reason/need to break the egg into a separate dish ... it is so that you don't ruin your whole recipe in case the egg is bad.  Luckily I've never encountered a bad egg.

Add the eggs to the milk/butter mixture and mix.  Then add the milk/butter/egg mixture to the yeast absorbed in water and mix.  Then add the flour and white sugar to the wet mixture and lightly mix with a spoon, just so that all the flour/sugar is wet.  Cover with a towel and put it in a warm place (I place it on top of my heating oven) to let the dough rise for an hour.

In the recipe, Dee suggests turning the dough out onto a floured surface and kneading for 5 minutes, THEN setting it aside to rise.  I followed this instruction making my first batch of cinnamon rolls, and the dough never rose.  But I'm pretty sure that had a lot to do with the fact that it was a hot humid sticky sauna outside that day.  Even in my second batch, it did rise, but it didn't double in size.  As much satisfaction as I would have received from punching down the dough, I didn't want to fight mother nature.

Plop the dough out onto a floured surface.  (I probably have a little too much flour there!) Also flour your hands up pretty good, work into a ball and then roll it into a rectangular shape.

Spread on melted butter ... about  3/4 of a stick, and sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Roll into a tight roll and pinch the edge together at the end.  Some cinnamon sugar gooeyness might ooze out.  That's okay.

Then slice into 1 inch think rolls and place onto a greased/floured cookie sheet or baking dish.

Mm

Next batch, I think I'm going to try adding the orange glaze from The Old Hen  Bed & Breakfast.  Then I'll have the full homemade version of my dough boy childhood favorite.

Try leaving a batch of these for Santa instead of cookies ... I'm sure he/she will be pleased!

Cinnamon Rolls

from Anchor Inn on the Lake

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Water

1 tbsp Active Dry Yeast

1 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Butter

1 tsp Salt

1 Egg

4 1/2 Cups Flour

1 Cup Sugar

Filling

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1 tbsp Cinnamon

2 tbsp Butter

Directions

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 Cup warm water in a large mixing bowl.

Scald mild and melt butter in it.  Add sugar and salt to milk mixture.  Let cool to 120 degrees and add beaten egg to milk mixture.

Add mild mixture to yeast and mix well, then add flour.  Let dough rise until double.

Punch down dough and roll out into 9x13 rectangle

Spread butter or margarine across rolled out dough

Cover with brown sugar and cinnamon

Roll up dough lengthwise into tight roll.

Slice dough into 1 inch slices

Place slices cut side up on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

###

At the end of Thanksgiving weekend, I hold onto the last little bits of fall before the holidays kick in.  It always seems that Christmas comes too early.  Even though Winter doesn't "officially" begin until December 21st ... snowflakes already grace store windows as garland.

So, in my last little ode to fall, I went on a little day trip with fellow Innkeepers Jim & Ana with the Mount Dora Historic Inn to a local corn maze.  A maize maze.  I thought getting lost in 6 acres of corn would be a great way to get outdoors, enjoy the weather and walk off all the tasty holiday indulgences.

It sounded quite easy, like kids play that we adults were just entertaining ourselves with.  Perhaps the gps in my car has made me too confident in my wayfinding skills, but that all changed when the stalks were 2 feet over our heads and every corner and twisted turn looked the same.  We really did get lost.  Good conversation with friends was the only thing that kept me from screaming out in a claustrophobic fit.  We got to talking about jobs we had before innkeeping and becoming serial entrepreneurs.  One of my first jobs was working in marketing for an agricultural association, so being ear-deep in corn (hehe) shouldn't have been so out of place for me.  One of the stories I shared with them was the time I was introduced to red-eye gravy.  It's a country thing, I guess.  Bacon grease and black coffee.  To be honest, I never actually tasted it.  I love bacon ... on my plate.  I love coffee ... in my cup.  But bacon and coffee mixed together.  Ew. I wrinkle my nose at the thought.  Perhaps I should be more open minded.  It is breakfast, after all.

Jim took this as a "challenge."  Picture an Einstein-mad-scientist-type, crazy hair, tongue sticking out with a wild look in his eye, groovy 70's music blaring, things bubbling, steam rising.   Now, picture that scientist in a chef's coat  and replace the lab with a kitchen ... except with clean cut hair ... but his tongue still sticking out.  Yeah.  That's Jim.  He loves experimenting a creating new things.  Especially when it comes to baking.  And I had just given him an idea.  A bacon and coffee infused dish.  Since were were lost in the middle of a corn field, I threw in the added ingredient of corn.  Poof.  Bam.  The idea was born.  A savory corn cupcake with bacon and coffee.  I didn't know whether to be intrigued or grossed out.

My first experience with a savory cupcake was in Oklahoma.  Yup.  Not some culinary capitol like Chicago or NYC.  The heartland.  Oklahoma.  So the fact that this idea was born in the middle of a farm shouldn't have surprised me at all.

The cupcake place we found in Oklahoma City was an adorable little cottage with the most perfect little cupcakes I'd ever seen.  They had red velvet, chocolate and classic vanilla.  They also had green tea cupcakes and a savory egg-y breakfast cupcake.  They were delish, so I unwrinkled my nose and accepted the bacon-coffee-corn-cupcake challenge.  It was a bake-off between me and Jim.  And I have to tell you in advance, his cupcake won!

The stars of this show ...

Do you hear the StarWars-like music?  Duuuuuun ... Dooooooon ... Da-DOOOOOON.  Bom Bom Bom Bom Bom Bom.

Corn ... check.

Bacon ... check.

Coffee ... hmm ...

Recently Marx Foods offered to send some free salt samples to food bloggers.  I sent in my info and got a little box of all kind of chef-y sounding flavors of salt.  Things I would never in a million years find at my local grocer.  My homesick NYC neighbors squealed in delight  that they could order gourmet-to-go direct to their doorstep as flavorful reminders of home.  I was just excited and inspired to try something new.

One of those flavors happened to be ... espresso salt.

Using espresso salt in a breakfast recipe may be uncreative or cliche ... but I'm a breakfast girl so that's the first place my mind will go.  I think my neighbors used it to season their steaks.  Yum.

On with the bake-off.

First, REAL bacon bits ...

Then, fresh white sweet corn from our local farm.  Did you know that corn has one "silk" hair per kernel?

Yup.  I learned that in the corn maze.

Also learned that it kinda looks like blonde barbie doll hair.

Or nose hair.  See ... this is why I'm no chef-y.  I get distracted and play with my food.

My mom says when I was a kid I used to call this "corn on the NOB" instead of "corn on the cob" because of the little corn nobs stuck into the ends.  Again ... playing with my food.

Hmm. Perhaps I should have pulled out a bigger cutting board?  Ya think?  Naaaah ... would of spoiled the fun.

This little bow saw knife made me feel like I was playing a violin ... again ... playing with my food.

CORN!

Fresh.  Uncooked.  Do not try to adjust the color on your screen.  This is not yellow corn ... but sweet white corn.

Mix together the dry ingredients (full list and recipe at the bottom of the post)

Now... I have a question for you.

I looked it up.

My photographer friend Jim looked it up.

We Googled it.

Still ... no answer ... on the history ... of what in the heck is a "Clabber" girl ... as opposed to just the name of some baking powder.  Looks like there'd be some historical story to it, but we couldn't find it.  If you know ... PLEASE TELL US!

Add your wet ingredients to a separate bowl ...

Oops.  I lied.  One "dry" ingredient goes into this "wet" bowl.  Sugar.

Some eggs.  Some Buttah'.  Some sour cream.  Jim added a lot of creamy things to this recipe.  Gives it a moist cake texture.  No classic cornbread here.

A spoonful of bacon grease.

A cap full of vanilla.

Blend.

Pour into dry ingredient bowl and "mix" ... not too much ... or they'll be tough.

Add the corn last.

Dollop into your cupcake/muffin pan.  This is where I went wrong.  I always use paper cups for easy servings and even easier clean up.  But these suckers stick to the paper like glue, so I would grease your cupcake/muffin tin and skip the paper.

Sprinkle with bacon bits and espresso salt to taste.  A sort of "red eye gravy" topping.  They're both SALTY SALTY SALTY ... but it contrasts nicely with the sweet and creamy cupcake.

Then bake!

This is also where Jim's cupcakes beat mine.  He made 6 big poofy ones.  Like a cupcake should look.  I made 12 ... so they came out kinda teeny.

And voila.  A savory corn red eye gravy cupcake.  It was EXCELLENT hot with eggs over easy.  However, I didn't like it cold.  This is not a cupcake to keep in a pastry display for everyone to grab on the go at room temperature.  This is an eat it hot and fresh for breakfast in the morning kind of meal.  A little weird, I do admit.  But it was fun to make!

Savory Corn Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup cake flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

8 strips bacon, cooked, crisp & crumbled

1 1/2 cup corn

1 cup buttermilk

8 oz sour cream

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 stick of butter, melted

2 large eggs

1/4 lemon, juiced

1 tbsp bacon grease

1 capful vanilla extract

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 360 degrees.  Yes, that is 360, not 350.  Grease muffin pan.

2) Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt

3) Cream together eggs & sugar, then add bacon grease, butter, buttermilk, softened cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla and lemon juice.

4) Add to flour mixture along with corn and fold together until well blended.  Do not whisk.  Do not overmix.

5) Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins and sprinkle with espresso salt and crumbled bacon.

6) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

7) Serve with eggs and enjoy!

###

I love everything and anything orange.  It's my favorite color.  My favorite flavor.  My favorite scent.  I love it so much so that I can even be found popping up in an orange juice commercial for about 3 seconds.  If you see an ad for Florida's Orange Juice, don't blink, you'll see me!

So, when I opened up Pioneer Woman's new cookbook and found Marmalade Muffins, I nearly fell off the bar stool in my kitchen I was so excited.  Pairing my favorite flavor with a sweet morning breakfast treat ... now THAT's a happy moment.  Pioneer Woman is pretty much a household name in any food bloggie's world, but for those of you that have not yet had the delightful opportunity, click here for an introduction.  PW is one of the first blogs I ever read (if not THE first blog) and I always find her writing makes me smile.  I had the awesome opportunity to meet her live and in person at the BlogHer Food party in San Fran during our recent trip to the west coast.  Her new cookbook was a gift to attendees and between BlogHer and driving through Napa my waistline has grown at least an inch since that trip.  Good thing I've got  marathon training to slim it down again!

What was I saying before that long tangent and reminiscing about San Fran?  Ah ha!  Back to the orange muffins ... I was all ready to make them that very instant until I read an ingredient that I never keep in the house ... buttermilk.  I had a bad experience with it as a child.  When I was a little girl, I used to love drinking my grandmother's coffee cream.   She would keep it in a little tin creamer jar in the refrigerator and I would always sneak in a sip or two off the refreshing cold spout.  That is ... until she discovered what I was doing and realized my little 4 year old lips had inadvertently graced every single cup of coffee poured in the house!  Then she started putting the little tin creamer just out of my reach.  I thought I had outsmarted her once when I found what I thought was cream, but then took a big swig of buttermilk.  BLAAAAH!   After that, until I out grew my cream addiction, I only drank cream from the individual plastic thimble-sized versions in restaurants.

So, needless to say, buttermilk has never been a staple item in my refrigerator.  Now, Ree includes instructions for how to "make" buttermilk, or a substitute if you don't have it.  But I thought it was time I made amends.  Besides, I needed to get some fresh oranges.

Florida navel oranges are what's in season, and if you've never had a navel orange allow me to introduce you.

Some have "innies"

Some have "outties"

(And this one has a honker of one for sure.)

And that's why they call them "navel."

You'll notice that they're a little blemished.  Florida oranges usually are.  But what they lack in exterior skin perfection on the outside compared to their California cousins, they more than make up for inside with juicy sweetness.

While my grandmother was over at my house teaching me how to make Rhubarb Jam, we made a batch of these muffins too.

Here we go, starting with blending together the butter and sugar.  Nearly all of  PW's recipes have butter in them.  Quite frankly, I don't know how she stays so fit and trim.  But she does  live on a ranch and has 4 kids to raise ... so I imagine there is a lot of calorie burning opportunities there.

Now, just because they're described as "mini" muffins doesn't mean I had to pull out such a small bowl.  I probably just pulled it out of the cabinet because it was orange.  Sheesh. Have to transfer to something larger.  My grandmother is shaking her head giggling at me at this point and mouthing off some thing in French I can't understand.  :oP

We mixed together the dry ingredients ...

Added the buttermilk and other wet ingredients ...

Zested up some navels ...

And WOOOOOOW.

I've never worked with batter so "fluffy" before.  It's light and whipped and soft and creamy.  I'll have to try buttermilk in place of regular milk in some other recipes now too!

My grandmother couldn't help taking a taste ... caught orange handed!

Now, since PW made mini muffins, I thought I'd try out a new iron pan that my mom gave me over a YEAR ago!  Now so new, huh?

They look delish, but my grandmother shook her head and said, "Rachelle, there is too much in those."  I thought, how could a tablespoon of batter possibly be "too much?"  She was right though.  They sort of exploded into a gigantic pancake completely covering the pan and dripping over onto the bottom of my stove.  Thank goodness I had a cookie sheet there to catch the drippings!

So, we poured another batch in regular muffin cups and THOSE turned out delish!

Drizzled on top is a quick and easy topping of orange juice and brown sugar.  Next time though, I think I'll try this  citrus glaze that I used on scones before.  After all, you can never have enough orange!

In case you were wondering if you've ever seen me blip across your tube in an OJ commercial ... here's photographic evidence!  Just please don't associate me with flu season.  LOL!

This is me with Dave.  And yes, he's a real live bonafide Florida citrus grower.  SERIOUSLY!

And there's me.  In my orange shirt.  Told you I love the color.  But if I ever dye my hair carrot red/orange please tie me up and smack me silly.

Here's the scoop for PW's Marmalade Muffins!  I cant' wait to try the other comfort food yummies she has in her book. Yum!

Marmalade Muffin's from Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients

2 oranges

2 sticks of butter, sorftened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Directions

1) Grate the zest from both oranges.

2) Mix the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until creamy.

3) Crack in the eggs and mix until well combined.

4) Sift and add your flour into the bowl and stir together using as few strokes as possible so the muffins aren't tough.

5) In a small cup or bowl, combine the buttermilk and baking soda.

6) Add the buttermilk mixture to the muffin batter and mix until just combined.

7) Add the zest and mix until combined.

8) Grease 24 mini muffin tins (or 12 regular muffin tins) and fill 2/3's full with muffin batter.

9) Make for 12 to 17 minutes until golden brown.

10) While muffins are baking, prepare the glaze.  Juice the 2 oranges and add to the brown sugar in a medium bowl.  Stir until combined but don't worry about dissolving the sugar completely so that it will give it a grainy texture.

11) Drizzle the glaze over the muffins as soon as they're done.

Oooh and Aaaah.

###

My grandmother's sister ... my great aunt ... came down to visit us from New Hampshire recently.  She still lives in the little teeny town they grew up in called Berlin.  And it seems everyone  there is teeny tiny too as my grandmother and great aunts are all under 5 feet tall. (Is this beginning to sound like Whoo-ville?) I'm glad that gene skipped me ... even if it was by just a few inches!   Berlin is close enough to Canada that they all speak a very slang version of French.  My grandmother spoke more French than English when I was born which is how I ended up as a "Rachelle" instead of "Rachel"  and she swears up and down that I used to speak French fluently ... when I was 3 years old. Well, a 3 year old's French vocabulary is about what I still have today. With a few added essentials, of course,  such as "fromage" and "vin" and "Bordeaux."

Having these two ladies in town was a hoot, and a little like Driving Miss Daisey.  I loved spending time with them and hearing about their stories of "the good ole days" which, ironically, were partially during the Great Depression.  The most fun they had was sneaking out on a Friday night to attend a USO dance and my grandmother's most prized possession were a pair of roller skates that her sister and brother-in-law gave her as a gift.  Life was simple and much slower back then and everything they ate was grown in their yard and cooked from scratch.  As wonderful as "garden to table" dinner sounds, I realize that there is a lot we take for granted.  Big super grocery stores packed with every possible ingredient imaginable and having recipe books with full color photos or my laptop on my kitchen counter with access to food photos and recipes from around the world.  I realized this when Ma Tante Yvonne gave me her recipe for Rhubarb Jelly handwritten on a 3x5 index card.  I think I'll frame it.

Rhubarb looks sort of like big red celery to me.  Except, tart and sweet.  It grew in their backyard in New Hampshire like a weed.  Ma Tante Yvonne was telling us over tea how  ticked she was that "Mon Oncle" Willy had just cleared out all the rhubarb in his backyard.  It was the house they all grew up in, so I think she felt like he just wrecked her old garden.

A French woman is not one you want to tick off.

And so, she gave me her simple recipe for rhubarb jelly so that I'd post it to the world.

When I was looking at the index card, I had to scratch my head and wonder if  two of these ingredients were available during the depression?  Jello and canned pineapple?   I guess when you're in your 80's, the 1920's through the 1940's all seem like they were yesterday.  Pre-jello and post-jello.  So I Googled it and learned ...  Jell-O is older than dirt.  I stand/sit corrected.  It's been around since the 1800's and became "Jell-O" in 1902.

Well okay then!  Let's make some depression-era Rhubarb Jelly!

First ... the rhubarb.

I couldn't find it fresh where I live, so we bought a bag of frozen rhubarb.  Because it is frozen, it's going to be holding a lot of unnecessary water.  So, we thawed it out on some paper towels.

My grandmother's hands have made this jam for 70 years now.  Wow.

So here are the basic ingredients you'll need ... rhubarb, pineapple, sugar and jello.

You can't really taste the pineapple after it's cooked in with everything else, so I imagine they added this for the acidity.

Throw everything (except for the jello) into a large pot on low to medium heat and let it cook slowly, for about 1/2 hour.

Stir periodically while it's cooking.

This is my grandmother ... she's concentrating ...

After about 10 minutes, it will look like this ...

Then add one packet of jello, stir, and let it sit for another 5 minutes.

Add to a mason jar or other storage container and pop it in the refrigerator so the jello can do it's trick.

And there you have it.  Rhubarb jelly.  I love it on English muffins or toast.  Mmm.

Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients

4 cups or 2 lbs of rhubarb (cut in small pieces)

1 8oz can crushed pineapple

3 cups of sugar

1 small 4 oz package of strawberry jello

Directions

1) Cook at moderately low heat until reaching boiling point. Stir while it is cooking (20 minutes or more)

2) Add small 4 oz package of jello.

3) Mix well, jar and then refrigerate.

4) One batch makes 4 small jars or 2 large jars.

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We recently enjoyed a whirlwind weekend in San Francisco. It's a lot to see in only four days, but I'm really happy that we squeezed in drive out to Napa Valley where we met with the innkeepers at the Glass Mountain Inn, a gorgeous inn located in St. Helena.  My friend Vanessa and I were talking about what surprised us most about Napa Valley.  And that was ... well ... it was so brown!  It is Fall.  And I guess we both had visions of vineyards like the movie A Walk In The Clouds with rolling green hills full of vines and picturesque as-far-as-the-eye-can-see panoramic mountain vistas.  But we're both optimistic happy girls.  So rather than focusing on the quick feeling of disappointment from an unfulfilled expectation, we focused on the glass being half full ... with wine!  And wine is something that California does really really well.

After driving through the valley, the town of St. Helena was a sweet surprise.  It was green.  The town was reminiscent of a movie set ... only more real and organic.  And the road to Glass Mountain Inn was uphill, winding, and every turn had another view of a sparkly vineyard.  Yay!  And I do mean "sparkly" in the literal sense of the word.  The vines have little metallic tags that I suppose are there to scare away birds.  But I like to think of them as vine bling.  After all, something as magnificent as a pinot noir should come from something that sparkles.

So what's with all this wine talk on a breakfast blog?  I digress.  To find out how the Glass Mountain Inn got it's name and take a look at the Man Cave that gave Brian Pinot envy watch the fun little video we made. (Click here) And for a sample of our our San Francisco weekend  itinerary click here.

Alrighty.  On to the good stuff!  How about a little Grand Marnier with your breakfast?

What I love about this recipe is how easy it is to make ... but it tastes oh-so-good and is easy to fancy schmancy it up.  I've already made it now half a dozen times this month when we had friends or guests over for breakfast (or dessert!)  The ingredients are simple and easy to remember if you're running quickly through the grocery story to pick up a handful of things.   All you need is some croissants, sugar, milk, eggs, Grand Marnier, and berries and powdered sugar for garnish.

Spray your ramekins with some non-stick spray and tear your croissants into bite sized pieces, filling each ramekin as you go.  Place the ramekins on a cookie sheet or some other edged pan to catch anything that spills.

Next, mix your other ingredients in a large bowl (excluding berries and powdered sugar)

The Grand Marnier has an interesting effect to the milk.  Start bubbling and making all sorts of fun swirls.  This sparked my curiosity to find out what in the heck was the cause of this little chemistry experiment. I Googled it and found 3 possible answers.

1) "I'd say that when you add the milk-coffee mix to alcohol the concentrated alcohol must be able to denature the milk proteins initially (similar to acid in cheese making but a different mechanism - hydrophobicity), alcohol added to coffee/milk must not ever be concentrated enough to do this." Uh-oh!

2) Then someone said it was "curdling" ... but then wouldn't we have a bunch of cheesey White Russians served in bars?  Baileys and milk don't seem to have the same effect.

3) Then I found this random strange video "milk to alcohol" where someone turned milk into alcohol.  It's really bizarre.  With a train going by several times in the background sound, someone adds sugar, yeast and milk together in a cup and pours it from one cup to another. After awhile it turns orange and then a cat comes up to drink the milk.  WEIRD!

I'm totally off subject now.  Damn internet and it's endless supply of useless trivia.  Back to the recipe ...

Whisk everything together ...

And pour on top of croissants.  Soak em good.

Let them ist for at least 15 minutes so the bread can soak up all the liquidy egg mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.  Mine took just a tad longer since I put them on a baking stone.  That think absorbs heat like nobody's business.

After they've cooled for about 5 minutes, take a knife around the edge to loosen them up and then turn over onto a plate.

Mmm.

Garnish with raspberries and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Take a bite.  Pause.  Make Mmm noises.  Enjoy!

Whole recipe from Julie at Glass Mountain Inn is listed below.

Julie's Croissant Bread Pudding

Glass Mountain Inn

St. Helena, CA

(yields 8 servings)

Ingredients

8 store bought croissants, torn into medium-sized pieces

8 whole large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

2 Tbsp Grand Marnier liquor

1 Tbsp superfine sugar

Powdered sugar and fresh raspberries, blueberries and/or blackberries for garnish

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Generously spray 8 ramekins with vegetable oil.  Add one torn croissant to each ramekin.

2) Whisk eggs, milk, sugar and liquor in a bowl.  Pour egg mixture into each ramekin, making sure there is enough liquid to soak bread.  Let ramekins sit for 15 to 20 minutes to allow bread to soak up egg mixture.  Place ramekins on parchment covered baking sheet, preferably a jelly roll pan with sides to avoid sliding.

3) Place ramekins in preheated 400 degree oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden and puffed.  Using an offset spatula, gently turn out each bread pudding on a serving plate.  Top with powdered sugar and fresh berries.  Chicken-apple sausage or bacon is a perfect accompaniment to this dish.

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Last week I caught up with my long time friend and college buddy, Eric.  In college we had a PR writing class at the godawful hour of 7 am.  Which, to actually get a wake-up coffee and a parking space on campus at UCF meant I had to be leaving my house dressed, ready, backpack stuffed with all the necessities by 6:00 am.  What was I thinking when I signed up for that?  I'll tell you what I was thinking ... I need this class to graduate and it was the only time it was offered!  At least the professor was cool.  But every once in awhile he'd painfully wake up our sleepy morning brain with some sort of stressful/deadline/writing type of drill.  Writing early in the morning is my typical routine ... I just don't usually push myself to perfection in under an hour.  It takes a least a  2nd pot of coffee before I can go back and edit.  It seems so crazy long ago now.  Back when my cell phone was huge and all email was dominated by aol.  We were at the top of our class.  And now here we are ... I'm obsessed with breakfast and Eric is wondering why YouBentMyWookie.

Eric always had some good treats baked up.  So when he told me he had a recipe for Marshmallow I begged him to share!   He had  me asking ... WTF is actually IN a marshmallow?  You mean they're not magically produced by Willy Wonka?  There are ingredients I can buy at the store to make these?  Awesome!

He suggested instead that I do a themed Halloween breakfast in full costume.

Aaaah. No.

So ... in lieu of dressing up like Chewbacca and baking wookie cookies ... I tried some marshmallow instead.  And they're unbelievably easy!  The timing was perfect since we finally got our Fall cold spell here in Florida.  Hot chocolate and marshmallows is a great morning or afternoon treat and we like to have Smores in the backyard fire pit with our guests.  Yum.

I'll walk you through it step-by-step with photos and post the full recipe at the end.

Here's what you'll need to get your fire-roasting-smore-making-hot-chocolate-dipping marshmallow on.

Some non-stick spray for the dish/pan.  A cup of light corn syrup.  A cup of sugar.  (Been to see your dentist lately?) A half cup of water.  Gelatin. Vanilla.   And cornstarch and powdered sugar to get the sticky suckers off your fingers.

Pour 3 packets of unflavored gelatin in a bowl followed by a 1/2 cup of water.  Let it sit while it magically turn into jello-like mini pearls while you make the sugar mixture.

It will start soaking up the water and grow.

This is what it will look like after about 10 minutes.

While your gelatin is expanding ... pour 1/2 cup of water, sugar and corn syrup in a small sauce pan on MEDIUM heat.

Stir briefly with wooden spoon and then let it come to a boil.

Approximately 7 to 8 minutes.

You want the mixture to reach 240 degrees ... and then immediately remove from the stove.  Sounds precise and scientific, huh?  I know, I told you this would be easy, so here is where I confess ...

I'm not a candy maker. Not. At. All.  I do love sugar, if that counts. So I didn't have a candy thermometer.  I used a meat thermometer instead.  Buwhahahah!  I told my mom that over the phone ... and she said I was lucky it didn't blow up in my hand.  I was careful though!  I really watched the time on the clock to follow Eric's instructions of "7 to 8 minutes."  At about 4 minutes, it was at 180 degrees.  A 7 minutes it went immediately to 220 degrees ... which is the max on my thermometer ... so I guessed that meant it was ready and removed it from the heat.

(now my mom has a candy thermometer in the mail to me this week)

CAREFULLY and slowly pour it into a large bowl on top of your gelatin.

You can use a big fancy schmancy mixer or just a hand mixer.  Either will work just fine.

Mix for 12 minutes.

Yes, I said 12 minutes.

At about 5 minutes I got all impatient and pouty ... thinking ... this isn't working.  It's clear and bubbly.  I must have not let it boil long enough.  Pout. Cross arms. Tap foot.  Pout some more.

Since I still had 6 or 7 minutes to wait while the marshmallow becomes marshmallow, it was a good time to distract myself by preparing the pan.

Spray your pan with a non-stick cooking spray.  I got smart and started doing this over the sink after my friend Jim did a knee-slide across my kitchen floor.  Yeah.  Pam mist on the floor could equal a disaster.  Or as it did for us, one heck of a belly laugh.  I'm just sayin.

Anyway, after lightly spraying with a non-stick spray, sprinkle with equal parts corn starch and powdered sugar and then cover with plastic wrap.

Press TIGHTLY across the edges.  Otherwise your going to have one fun mess to clean up.  Also, if you didn't have one on before, now is a good time to sport an apron.

Shake it.  Shake it until the entire surface is covered in white.

Pour the excess into a bowl for later use.

Ah!  What's this?  While I was distracted by shakin sugar the marshmallow is ...

becoming  ...

MARSHMALLOW!  At this exact moment I ran around the house shouting, "I MADE MARSHMALLOW" the same way Tom Hanks yelled "I made fire" in Cast Away.  After it being yellow/clear/bubbly for so long I was really "wowed."

The recipe calls for a tsp of vanilla.  But Eric said to be liberal with the vanilla so I added 2 tsp. Is doubling it going overboard?  Naaaaah!

Make sure the vanilla is good and mixed.

Looks like vampire fangs, doesn't it?

Pour into your prepared pan and smooth out with a spatula.

Now's a good time to lick the bowl.  If you've got some nutella and banana on hand, you could even make a marshmallow sandwhich.  Mmm.

Cover and let the marshmallow sit overnight to harden. Or, if you make these in the morning they should be ready by the evening for S'mores.

Take a knife around the edge of the pan to help lift out the marshmallow.

It will feel a little "spring loaded" so rather than thinking of slicing, think more of separating it from the side.

It should be fairly easy to lift out if you did a good job sugar shaking.

Place onto a cutting board and sprinkle with the left over powdered sugar/corn starch mixture you used to coat the pan.

Now here comes the fun part.  Slicing marshmallow.  It's a little like trying to nail jello to the wall.

I remembered that Eric suggested using a pizza cutter so I switched and that helped a bunch!

Once you have your marshmallow squares, roll them around in bowl with the powdered sugar/corn starch mix.  This will keep them from sticking to your fingers ... the plate ... the wall ... pretty much anything they come into contact with.

And there you have it ... MARSHMALLOWS!  Enjoy in your hot chocolate, S'mores, or just on there own.

Thanks Eric!

Marshmallow

Ingredients

3 packages unflavored gelatin

1 cup of ice cold water, divided

12 ounces granulated sugar (1 1/2 cups)

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

Nonstick spray

Directions

1) Place the gelatin into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water.

2) In a small saucepan, combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and the salt. Place over medium heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes.  Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the panand continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees, approximately 7 to 8 minutes.  Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.

3) Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture.  Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high.  Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm (approximately 12 10 15 minutes).  Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping.

4) While the mixture is whipping, prepare the pan.  Combine confectiners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.  Lightly spray 13 x 9 inch baking pan with a nonstick cooking spray.  Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture, cover with plastic wrap, and mover around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan.  Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.

5) When marshmallow is ready, pour into the prepared pan, spread evenly with the spatula, and dust the top with some of the remaining sugar adn cornstarch mixture to lightly cover.  Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours or overnight.

6) Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inc squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture.  Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining sugar mixture, using additional if necessary.  Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

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Considering it is still hotter than a fresh biscuit here in Florida, and I needed an instant way to cool off.

As much as I'd like to have a hot cup of coffee or cocoa outside on my deck, that usually only happens inside with the air cranked up.  These simple little drinks are much better for Florida fall weather.  Or summer.  Or spring.  What the heck, Florida really only has one season, right?

I actually dreamed up this recipe one morning when we had some friends over and I took a look in my fridge to see what kind of cool late-morning smoothie I could whip up to calm the sweat on our brow from an outdoor photo shoot.

Here's what you'll need ... very simple ... a bag of frozen peaches ... whole milk or cream (cream makes it more rich) ... vanilla ... and mint.

You could choose to use fresh peaches ... if so ... add about 2 cups of ice.

Real simple.  Throw it all into a blender ...

About a cup of milk ...

A cap full of vanilla ...

And then blend.

If you want it to be more sweet, you could add a 1/2 Cup of sugar.

If you want it to be more relaxing, you could add some champagne.

(I actually did in our second batch!)

But just as-is you'll find it  is light and refreshing.

Relax. Refresh. Recharge.  Repeat.

These are kind of rich with the milk or cream, so I would suggest serving in a smaller glass than a standard 18 ounce smoothie.

Peaches & Cream Morning Smoothie

Ingredients

1 bag of frozen peaches

1 Cup whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

mint to garnish

Optional:

1/2 Cup sugar

1 Cup champagne

Directions

Add ingredients to blender and mix well.  Serve chilled.  Makes approx. 6 servings.

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