Breakfast Pie

For Christmas, I wanted to make a nice and easy casserole dish for Steve and I to enjoy. I have been finding a lot of good recipes on All Recipes lately, and this one is no exception! It is almost like my quiche recipe, except with potatoes in it. The other added bonus, I had every ingredient in the house already! I love it when that works out.

I was also able to use the "Delay, Bake & Hold" function on the oven so we could have breakfast ready for us when we came home from Christmas morning mass with the Griffiths side of the family.

8 strips of bacon

1/4 cup crushed cornflakes

5 eggs lightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup small curd cottage cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 green onion, sliced (next time, I might add another stalk or two for more flavor)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2 1/2 cups frozen cubed hash brown potatoes

1. Cook the bacon as you normally would. Reserve around 2 Tbsp drippings. (Steve and I love cooking it in our oven since that is what all the Food Network chefs do. :) ), crumble or cut into small pieces.
2. Pour the bacon drippings into a small bowl with the crushed cornflakes.
3. Combine the eggs, milk, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese, onion, salt and pepper until blended.
4. Stir in hash browns.
5. Pour into a greased 9 inch pie plate.
6. Sprinkle with cut up bacon and cornflake/dripping mixture.
7. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, remove from the fridge and set out for 30 minutes before baking.

Preheat oven to 325.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Work has been so insanely busy for me lately, that I have not had enough time to cook and bake as much as I was hoping to this month. So, Friday night, I sat down and looked for some fall recipes to make this weekend since we didn't have a whole lot going on for a change.

Steve and I love to go out to breakfast on the weekend. Last weekend, we went to a place our friends Lisa and Joe recommended in Ferndale (we also call Ferndale the "Breakfast Capital of Michigan"), Club Bart. I was dead set on getting pumpkin pancakes, but decided on an omelette instead. It was delightful. The place looks like a total hole in the wall dive bar, but the breakfast menu was impressive. If you are ever in the neighborhood, go check it out (Elizabeth and Paul...next time you are in town, we will go out to brunch there!). But I digress...

So, I really wanted to make pumpkin pancakes this weekend to make up for not getting them last weekend. I found this recipe on All Recipes and loved it! Full of pumpkin flavor and easy to make.

This made enough for Steve and I to have 4 pancakes each (not overly huge, maybe around 4" across) and we had batter left over for next weekend. I hope it stays good in the fridge!

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons vinegar

In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. (I used my hand mixer to mix it up well.

Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, all spice, cinnamon, ginger and salt. (as I am typing this, I realized I forgot baking powder...whoops. It still turned out OK for us!)

Stir into the liquid ingredients just enough to combine. (Used the hand mixer again)

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium to high heat. We have one of those fancy electric skillets, so I had the temperature at 375 if you have one of those. Pour or scoop batter onto heated griddle, using appx. 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown both sides and serve hot.

I sprinkled them with a little bit of powdered sugar per Steve's request for "presentation". :)

Basic Yummy Quiche

My mother-in-law gave us this recipe at one of our showers so I decided to make it this past weekend.  We had a big day of yard work planned (specifically, cleaning up tons of helicopters from our front yard), so I wanted a big breakfast to "power us up" for the day ahead.  My girlfriends had gotten me a bunch of baking things, including a quiche/tart pan and I was excited to put it to use!

This was so easy and yummy!  It is even great leftover!  This recipe is meant to be a base.  You can add whatever meats, veggies, etc. in it that you want...I just wouldn't add more than 2 otherwise it might not fit in the pan!

1 pre-made pie crust (my mother-in-law uses the ones already in a dish, you can also put the crust in a pie pan if you do not have a quiche pan)

1 Tablespoon butter, softened

12 bacon slices (I used more like 9) or 1 cup of ham chopped up

1 small can of mushrooms (can also use onions, green peppers, whatever you wish to taste)

4 eggs

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup half and half

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup cubed swiss cheese

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (you can use cubed too)

Preheat oven to 425.

Spread crust out into pan.  Spread the softened butter onto the crust and put in the refrigerator to chill.

If you are using bacon, fry up the bacon, drain and crumble.  Set aside.  

Mix together the eggs, cream, salt and nutmeg with a wire whisk.  Stir in cheese and other desired ingredients (mushrooms, onions, etc.).

Remove pie crust from fridge and spread out the bacon on the chilled crust.  Pour egg mixture on top of that.

Bake 15 minutes at 425.  Turn oven down to 350 and bake for 35 minutes.  When a knife comes out clean in the center, it is done.  Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Ham and Cheese Breakfast Casserole

I wanted to make an easy breakfast dish that I could just throw in the oven for Steve and his friend Joe on Sunday.  I knew they were basically going to be doing "dude things" all day and might be feeling a little rough on Sunday.  I made it Saturday night and threw it in the oven on Sunday.  This was so easy and yummy!  I think it would also be very easy to cut in half as well.  

18 slices white bread, cubed (I used more like 13)

8 oz. cooked ham, cubed (I bought the small pre-cut cubes)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 1/2 cups diced swiss cheese

6 eggs

3 1/2 cups milk

1/2 teaspoon onion powder (I left out because we didn't have it)

2 cups crushed, cornflakes cereal

1/2 cup butter, melted

Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.  Line the bottom of the dish with half the bread cubes.  Sprinkle with the ham, cheddar cheese and swiss cheese.  Then top with remaining bread cubes.

In a bowl, beat together the eggs, milk and onion powder.  Pour evenly over the bread.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a small bowl, blend the crushed cornflakes and melted butter.  Spread evenly over the casserole.

Bake 40 minutes in the pre-heated oven or until bubbly and golden brown.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.