Bacon and Egg Muffins

Well.  If we're gonna have a muffin focus here, far be it from us Ruses to not be involved.

Actually, Josh saw a picture of some bacon and egg muffins in my BH&G magazine, and felt a desperate need to try them.  We tore the page out, and he waved it in my face for about 2 weeks before I made the time one morning to try them...  Only the original recipe is a cornmeal based muffin.  That doesn't fly with half of us, so I used a different recipe, and sort of made up something similar.  

I chose to use my "Melt in Your Mouth Muffin Mix" minus the spices and with less sugar, if you want the gory details.

We loved these!  Mmmm, breakfast in a muffin shape.  It's pretty much your scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancake all in one.  And for those of us to whom eggs give shivers, I'm on your team, and these were not too eggy or gross.  Some kids complained that they didn't notice the eggs.  That's my kind of scrambled egg - the one you don't notice!  So before we forget  how we made these...

4 eggs, divided

2 T water

4 slices of bacon cut in thirds, plus extra crumbled, if you want it.  We wanted it. :  )

1 3/4 c flour

1/2 c shredded cheese

1/4 c sugar

2 t baking powder

1/2 a t salt

1 c milk

1/3-1/2 c oil

butter

syrup

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Cook bacon.  Beat eggs with water, cook until just set, in a frying pan with bacon grease or butter. In mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Toss with cheese and bacon crumbles (if you're adding those).  Mix milk, last egg, and oil (this is top secret, but we used bacon grease). Gently stir wet into dry ingredients, adding scrambled eggs about half way into the mixing.  Grease muffin pan, BGH used bacon grease, so we did too - it worked great.  Divide batter between cups, lay a strip of bacon on top of each.  Bake at 350 12-18 minutes, or until tops spring back when touched.  Serve with butter and syrup.

Makes a mere 12. : )

Waffles, anyone?

Banana Waffles
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
3 beaten eggs
3 Tbs oil
1 cup mashed ripe banana

Stir together dry ingredients, then mix in wet. Beat until smooth. Using about a half cup of batter for each waffle, cook in waffle iron until golden brown. Voila!!

Sour milk and rotten bananas never tasted better!

And then if you want to step it up just a bit, add some chocolate syrup. YUM!!! We actually just ate them plain with butter (the bananas make them slightly sweet on their own), but Titus and I each had a "dessert" waffle with the chocolate ;).

Now, this is totally unrelated to waffles. Since I had my camera in the kitchen though, I wanted to show you all my new kitchen gadget... a toaster oven! I am excited to (hopefully?) reduce my big oven usage (and kitchen heating!!) with this thing. I do need some more pans though, this one is big in toaster oven land, but still doesn't accomodate handles on pans!

Our New Favorite Smoothie!

Strawberry Orange Smoothies 12 whole frozen strawberries
2 cups orange juice
1 cup milk
12 ice cubes
1/4 cup sugar (optional)
2 tsp vanilla

Throw all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. There ya have it! This is actually only a half batch, but it fills up my blender. You can portion it out into individual serving sizes and freeze in quart size bags. Just get it out and let thaw until slushy and enjoy!

I thought my pictures were looking kinda puny compared to Becky's... so I sneaked outside, peering both ways hoping nobody would be walking past or peeking out their windows. I felt totally idiotic! So I don't know if I'll do the "smoothie on the sidewalk" look very often :D. It just feels weird in the city! So stay tuned for more puny-looking pictures from me!!

Oh yes... I got the recipe from Once a Month Mom based on Heavenly Homemaker's recommendation!

Pumpkin Pie Granola

I found some granola tips on the internet a while back. I am not really fond of granola (gasp!), but my kids and James love the stuff.
If I were going to eat granola it
a) MUST be chunky,
b) needs a unique flavor,
c) may not have tiny seeds in it,
d) must be chunky.

I prefer granola that looks like you made a batch of too crumbly oatmeal cookies. One of the recipes I was studying suggested using fruit puree as part of the liquids. It was reputed to make the granola chunkier, provide part of the sweetness, and adds fruity flavor. So she suggested fruits you would associate with granola, specifically apple, pear or peaches. Pumpkin was not on the list. But I liked the idea, and only had pumpkin, so use what you have, right? Throw in cinnamon and ginger, and you have pumpkin pie!!! OK, so some of you hate pumpkin pie. It's not that pumpkiny. You might not even notice if someone didn't tell you.

I should probably halve the quantities for the batch I did, shouldn't I? I got almost 2 full Sam's Club Parmesan cheese containers full. I hope I can remember this. Here goes:

4 c quick oats
4 c rolled oats
2 c rice crispies
2 T cinnamon
1 T ginger
1/4 c butter, coconut oil, etc.
1 c sugar
1/4-1/2 c honey
1/2 15 oz can pumpkin
1 T vanilla
1 t salt
coconut
nuts
dried fruit

In a big bowl combine oats, rice cereal, and spices. Melt butter and combine with sugar, honey, pumpkin, vanilla, and salt. Stir into dry ingredients. It's going to be easiest to do it the way Mom taught us, and just use your hands. I let a kid or two mix the dry stuff but when it gets to adding the wet, that's sticky,tempting, and I want to be assured of having some left in the bowl to actually bake. So that's a "mom job", no two ways about it. Now to get chunky granola either gently squeeze handfuls and load them onto the pans, or (and I'm definitely trying this one next time) press it into your pans. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Stir, or to best maintain chunkiness, use a spatula to gently flip/rearrange the granola. As you do so this is the time to add in any nuts and/or coconut you want. Bake for another 15-30 minutes. Check for doneness. This is sort of a touchy point because you don't want to burn it, but it won't totally crisp up until it is completely cool. When cooled add in any dried fruits you want (I didn't use any this time, it has pumpkin in it!), store in a sealed container/bag.

French Blueberry Donut Muffins

How's that for a name? This recipe came with my stoneware muffin pans. It has been our favorite blueberry muffin recipe for quite a few years now. It is SO good!

I went to scrounge the recipe out a while ago and couldn't find it. OK, I do have 2 recipe cabinets, and they are both fullish. So I made them from memory (and forgot the butter, of all things!) and got by. Sort of. I repeated the whole search/memory process a second time (except for the butter dealy), and decided that this was nuts. I tore both cabinets apart, went through every paper (major ordeal) and found lots of long-lost good recipes that I have posted here lately, but NO MUFFINS.

I held down my panic. Everything is available on the internet, right? Um, no. French Blueberry Donut Muffins are...not? I guess?

In my distress I did what any reasonable person does in time of tragedy-

talked to my Mother.

You wanna hear the miracle part of the story? Well, the very next day, Mom was going through her recipe box and dropped it on the floor (and into the kitchen sink = wet recipe cards = not so good). There, in the midst of disaster she found my recipe! In Rachel's handwriting! Yea for Rae! Yea for Mom's clumsy moment! : )

So here it is (and yes I know that the butter and sugar in these pretty much qualify these for cupcakehood):

1 1/2 c flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1/3 c melted butter
1 c blueberries

Mix dry ingredients, toss with blueberries. Mix wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and stir until just combined. (Batter is very stiff/thick. Don't panic, it's all right.) Spoon into greased muffin pans, bake at 400 degrees for 12-20 minutes depending on size.
Makes 4 giant muffins, 8-12 regulars, or a slew of minis. : ) Mmmm, now I want one.

Cinnamon Rolls

These are the Ruse family favorites. Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls are wonderful, but these are our favorite! We always serve them for birthday breakfasts. We like to stick a birthday candle in one for the birthday person while we sing to them. : )

1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup instant vanilla pudding mix (if I don't have any, I leave it out)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast

FILLING:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

FROSTING:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In bread machine pan, place first nine ingredients in order suggested by manufacture. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons water or flour if needed). When cycle is completed, turn dough onto lightly floured surface.

Roll into a 17-in. x 10-in. rectangle. Spread with butter; sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up, jelly-roll style, starting from a long side; pinch seam to seal. Cut into 21 slices.

Place 12 slices, cut side down, in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan and nine rolls in a 9-in. square baking pan. Cover; let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks for 5 minutes.

In a bowl, beat frosting ingredients. Remove to wire racks to cool. Frost warm rolls. Store in refrigerator.
Yield: 21 rolls*.
This comes from Taste of Home.

Sometime I do these bigger and sometime I do mini ones. Yum!

Layered Spinach Supreme

Ok I don't have a pic of this yet because I didn't make it just this morning but it is a easy and tasty breakfast dish for those of you that are wanting something that will be quick.

1 Cup Baking mix
1/4 milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 PKG (10oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
4-8oz Monterey Jack cheese cut into 1/2 cubes
1 Carton (12 oz) creamed cottage cheese
1/2 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 eggs

Heat oven to 375*. Grease rectangular baking dish 9x12. Mix baking mix, milk, 2 eggs, and onion. Spread evenly in dish. Mix remaining ingredients. Spoon evenly over batter in dish. Bake until set about 30-40 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

To round out the breakfast you can also serve apple wedges with
Apple dip
8 oz cream cheese
3/4 cup brown sugar
1stp vanilla

Pumpkins snack muffins

This is a fall favorite at our house!

2 1/2 cups flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 3/4 cup solid pack pumpkin
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 cups chopped nuts (optional)
2 cups butterscotch morsels, divided (optional)

Mix all ingredients except for 1 cup walnuts and 1 cup morsels. Spoon mixture into muffin tins, top with 1 TBSP of nut/morsel mixture. Bake at 350* for 20-23 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool. yeilds 18 muffins

The reason I state that the nuts and morsels are optional is because Matthew is not fond of everything having "chunks of chocolate" in them. When I brought them down for his breakfast this morning he was delighted that I had forgotten to buy the morsels and had chosen not to include the nuts. They are delishes no matter how you bake them! Enjoy!!!

Baked French Toast

Computers are weird, you know? Anyway, this is another breakfast casserole that our family loves. Whoever thought up the "crisp" topping was a genius! It is pretty basic, you don't really need a recipe, but it's nice to have a jumping off point. I pull out this kind of recipe when I need to use up bread. You know, it's going to mold in a day or two, or it's stale and there is NO WAY you are making a sandwich out of it, or you find that you appear to suddenly be starting a collection of odd pieces of bread. This is step one for getting rid of the stuff, before the feed-it-to-the-chickens step. (Chicken sure are handy!)
This "recipe" is easily cut in half, or otherwise doctored. But DON'T leave the topping off! It's SO good- buttery, crispy yum!

10-15 slices bread, or the equivalent in buns, etc
6-8 eggs
2 1/2 c milk
1/2 c sugar
2 T. vanilla

Have a nearby kid or two tear your bread and throw it into a buttered 9x13 pan. Mix together the eggs, milk, and sugar, and pour over the bread. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Topping:
1/2 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c cold butter

Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter. Sprinkle over bread stuff just before baking. Bake at 350 degrees for45-60 minutes. You can serve this with butter, syrup, fruit, or any combination of the afore mentioned items. I sorta threw together a caramely syrup with butter, brown sugar and milk, but it was pure whim and guess work so your on your own with that one! We had this with eggs and sausages to balance out the sugar, and it made a very happy crowd of Ruseters.
The End.

There. Does that satisfy you Anna? Getting all picky about there actually being a recipe of some sort...
I can explain that whole thing in 2 words: Computer glitch.

Parfait!

We had parfaits for breakfast this morning! There really isn't a recipe, but it looked so pretty in my mini trifle bowls that I thought I'd make y'all jealous of the deliciousness. Basically, I grabbed my whole strawberries out of the freezer, sliced some up in the bottom of the bowl, plopped on a layer of vanilla yogurt, repeated both steps, and then threw some granola on top. You can use any type of fruits you want though and it'll be good. Mmmm!! Titus loved it and Alex is saving his for lunch due to the frozen strawberries giving him freeze brain and him not having time to eat slowly because he was already late for work :). Poor fella was stuck with just a banana for breakfast instead :(. Oh well. Anyways, even though the pictures didn't turn out that great I thought I should show you another one that doesn't make it look quite so huge :) Yum yum!!

English Muffins

These are easy. And SO SO SOOOO much better than bought ones! If you don't like English Muffins, I would be astounded if you didn't like these. None of that weird tangy taste Mom was saying that most of the kids in our family hated so much. My kids love to eat these fresh off the griddle, but to me English muffins should be toasted. Ahhh. A small piece of heaven on earth.


1 c milk, or 1 c warm water and 1/4 c powdered milk
2 T butter
1 egg
1/2 t salt
2 t sugar
3 c flour
1 1/2 t yeast

Place ingredients in bread machine in order listed. Run dough cycle.
Sprinkle counter top with flour, roll out dough 1/2 inch thick. This is where I usually "mess up". I tend to leave it a bit thicker than a 1/2 inch, and them my muffins end up 6 inches thick, and it's kind of difficult to cook them all the way through. So, go with a half inch. And no, this is not so picky that you need to get out a ruler!
Cut out rounds with a cookie cutter, or a can or whatever. Last time I used a large-mouth canning jar ring, and they were the perfect size (in my opinion). Some people use a tuna can, but NOT IN MY HOUSE! Haha! You can gently wad the scraps up and keep cutting until the dough is all used.
Lay on cookie sheets, or just on the already floured counter to rise for 20-30 minutes.
Heat a dry griddle (I go for high), or frying pan over medium low heat. Cook the muffins for 5-7 minutes on each side. They should be a beautiful golden brown on each side. You can fork one open to make sure that they aren't gooey. If they are, drop the heat.
These are great fresh, next day, or even next, next day and freeze beautifully. They even make good Christmas gifts if, for instance, your in-laws do a food exchange as gifts. Make them ahead, freeze them, bring them along. No last minute/day of, work It's an extra bonus if your sis-in-law is giving out homemade jams at the same time. (Nice timing, Jeanna!) YUM!

Breakfast Supper with the Burrells!

Spinach Quiche:
1/3 cup mayo
1/2 cup milk
5 eggs, beaten
8oz shredded cheddar cheese
1 10oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 9" unbaked pie shell

Preheat oven to 400*. Saute spinach and onions in a little butter or bacon grease on the stove. In a large bowl, whisk together mayo and milk until smooth. Whisk in eggs. Make several layers in the pie plate of spinach mixture and cheese. Pour egg mixture over it all. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove cover and bake 10-15 minutes longer or until top is golden brown and filling is set.

Mmmm, this turned out great! I used Fannie Farmer's tart pastry recipe for the crust:

1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 pound cold butter, in smalll pieces
1 egg yolk
2 Tbs. ice water

I just mixed the flour, butter and salt in my food processor first, then added the egg yolk. That made it almost too moist, so I omited the water. Then smooshed it out by hand into my pie plate. Mmmm! It turned out great- one of those somewhat dry, crumby, buttery-flavored crusts.

We had this with fried potatoes and pineapple chunks, and Alex and Titus both agreed that it was a really good breakfast supper :).

Breakfast Casserole

We bring this to the church camping breakfast potluck every year. I like it because it is pretty much a complete breakfast in one dish, and more importantly, nobody else brings it. We don't want a bunch of duplicates! You can go easy with this recipe, or you can go more homemade/cheap. I like cheap (and homemade, now that I think of it) so, I do a "more from scratch" version. For the camping trip, I make it in advance and freeze it, so I know that works well.
We have been on a weekly "breakfast supper" kick, so this is what we did this week. We had this casserole, Easy Pumpkin Muffins, and this:

I love fresh fruit in the spring! Regretfully, I share a table with 7 other people who also like fresh fruit.

You need (original version):

scramble and cook 12 eggs
one 10 oz. pkg "Little Smokies"
2 lbs. hash browns (fried)
1/2 lb. velveeta (sliced or grated)
1/2 lb. grated cheddar cheese
Directions:
Quarter smokies and put half in bottom of 9 x 13 greased pan. Next, put half of the cooked hash browns over that. Then, put all the eggs on top of the hash browns. Put half of both kinds of cheese on top of the eggs. Repeat layers-smokies, hash browns, and both cheeses as you did above.

If refrigerated overnight, bake at 350 for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hrs. If baking immediately after preparation, bake for just 30 min. at 350 or until desired "crispness" on top layer.

I often do bulk sausage instead of/along with the links. It's cheaper, you know. And I usually fry my own potatoes (cheaper, healthier fats, doesn't take much more time), but I have yet to make my own sausage or cheese. Sorry. Oh, before forget, I thaw the frozen casserole in the fridge before baking. It doesn't thaw fast.
MMmmmm! Good stuff.

Cinnamon Rolls!

Okey dokey, y'all... I highly recommend Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe! I made it for a yard sale/bake sale fundraiser last Saturday and everybody loved them!!! :) Click here for the recipe complete with step by step pictures. I only made a half batch... but next time maybe I'll do a whole one and freeze them! MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm, boy are they good!!!
P.S. Sorry... maybe I'll actually type out the recipe later when I have time... but not right now!!!

cabin food

Hi there ladies! I just got back from another week at the cabin. This time it was with my cousin Jake and his family. We had such a good time together!

Ok so here is a really yummy muffin recipe. I love to have a breakfast bar and this is one that is always a big hit...

Brown Sugar Muffins

1/3 cup butter or margarine- softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup Wheaties (I use bran flakes off brand)
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla Extract
1-1/4 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

bake at 400* for 13-15 minutes. Let cool for five min. before removing from greased muffin pan...makes 1 dozen.

Ok well that is all for now. The girls really love this muffin and it is a good way to sneak in some extra grains :)

Love, Sara