Muffins & Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanted to make something for breakfast. No, not really. I wanted to eat freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, but that seemed an inappropriate thing to do with Scrappy around. To set a better example, I made oatmeal muffins with cinnamon streusel topping.

Then I made chocolate chip cookies. (You can tell these were from the last of hte batter because there are no chocolate chips visible.) I didn't give the oven enough time to cool down after the muffins. This batch is a lot crunchier than the previous round.

Breakfast Pizza and a Toasty Lunch

We're a pretty nerdy bunch, but this week I took it to a whole new level.

"Geography Club" sounded like a good idea to me after I printed a blank map of North America and appeared to be the only person in my house who could identify Greenland. I put the map near the phone where Scrappy likes to hang out, but I didn't really think it was helping her as much as I thought it might have helped me back in 4th grade. I had colored in the states that we get phone calls from. So, if she knows that Arizona and Ohio come up all the time on Caller ID, then she should be able to pick one of them out from the dozen that are colored, right?

Then Luis's website got a hit from Rome, and for some reason that really set things off for me. In the past, we've had "band practice" and "drawing club," and now Scrappy wanted me to teach her how to sew, but I want her to learn to prepare food... A whole integrated curriculum came to mind. Italy. Geography Club could start with Italy and all the other things Scrappy and LV like to do on weekends would fit right in: art, music, food, fashion...

I prepared a Power Point presentation, but only got as far as loading it up with history. (I like history.) There weren't really any great ideas for Italian breakfasts that I could find in the short search that I did. Scrambled egg pizzas kept coming up. I never have yeast and I didn't want to go buy dough, so I made one gigantic biscuit instead to use as the crust. It didn't cross my mind until much later that this would be the equivalent to eating a dozen biscuits. Perhaps I should have cut the recipe in half... (Those are red peppers.)

For lunch, I wanted to melt cheese on a tostada. I chose the toaster oven instead of the microwave. I chose wrong.

Roast Chicken, Muffins, Mini Quiche

My parents came to visit. I made a chicken.

I also made mini quiche (much better when I didn't haphazardly add salt) and...

muffins for Sunday morning. (I was up *real* early on Saturday.) The muffins are oatmeal-cranberry-pecan. Because that's what was around...

Buttermilk Pancakes

When Imagine That! was about to hit theaters, LV received a press package of ketchup, mustard, chocolate syrup, and pancake mix. We shrugged our shoulders (until we saw the movie), put the items in the cabinet, and never really considered using them. But for weeks now I've been looking in the cabinet for things to make. Finally, one morning I woke up and started making pancakes with the mix. And what a nice mix it was!

Ham and Eggs

What better dinner to make with your leftover ham than breakfast?

Christmas

I've seen that commercial for Pillsbury cinnamon rolls a million times. When I saw they were two for $5, I had to get them. I think I was the only one who was excited, though.

Last night I made the crust. Even though I've seen on a dozen TV shows that you should use something to weigh down the crust, I skipped that step. And didn't bake the crust long enough. And so even though I thought the quiche was delicious (I had been up since 6 (there's more of that broccoli from last night, too)), Scrappy had a hard time cutting it.

Having conquered first big cuts of beef and then big cuts of chicken, I felt ready to move on to a new challenge. Giant cuts of ham were on sale for the holiday, so we bought a shank portion the size of my head. I scored it, made a glaze, and overall was pretty happy with my first attempt at a ham. I think we'll still be eating it in February.

Time to Eat

When LV saw this on the counter, he wanted to eat it that night. Luckily, he didn't. Thanksgiving morning, I fired up the oven to warm the coffee cake. The house didn't really fill with the scent of cinnamon, but that was some good cake.

Coffee Cake

For some reason, there's one Thanksgiving that stands out in my memory as a really good Thanksgiving. (My guess is the economy was really good that year.) It was a Thanksgiving that started with the house smelling like cinnamon because my mom made the coffee cake that I think her mom used to make. I actually don't remember that coffee cake tasting so great, but it was a really great start to a fun day.

So, I was inspired (to say the least) to make the coffee cake I saw in Good Housekeeping. Of course, I changed it up a little, using almonds instead of pecans because that's what was in the cabinet, but the rest was all the same. Including sour cream, which I believe was the part of my mom's recipe that I thought was strange way back in the day.

Baked Friday

Trying to get away from cookies, I made muffins today. Oatmeal, raisins, walnuts and some other stuff that sounded like it would make for a good breakfast treat...

Breakfast for Dinner

When we went grocery shopping that afternoon, the idea of breakfast sandwiches for dinner struck me as a great idea. Two bites into my sandwich, I didn't think they were such a great idea anymore. Two or three years ago, my dentist pushed me into getting an inlay to replace a porcelain filling. The dentist before him had said I should get a silver filling--porcelain doesn't last, she said. But I grew up with my mom always showing me how horrible her mouth looked with so many silver fillings. Being vain, I chose porcelain, which, like the first dentist warned, didn't last. The second dentist swore inlay was better. Being uninformed, I went with the inlay. (Though, seeing as my insurance didn't want to cover it, I should have asked more questions.) Two bites into my sandwich, I heard a horrible crunch. What I thought was a white fleck of fat actually turned out to be a chunk of bone. Sweet. That inlay was no match for it.

Pancakes

I don't remember making a pancake on a Sunday... Maybe this is mislabeled? I thought I made a pancake for dinner on a night LV was closing Hamptons. Perhaps I made more pancakes that weekend. One of my few cravings I had...

Blueberry Muffins

I think I made these with the bag of frozen blueberries. They sounded like a really good idea for breakfast.

Happy Birthday

Wednesdays are not our day to have dinner with Scrappy, so I suggested they run out and get donuts. (Also, I really wanted to start the day with a doughnut or two.)

For dinner, LV and I went out. I had no idea he wanted to go there for the burgers when there were so many other things on the menu that I had no idea how to pronounce. If this had been last year's birthday, I wouldn't have cared about the dinner menu nearly as much as the beer menu. I can't wait to go back next spring.

French Toast

I was so excited to turn the leftover loaf of white bread into French Toast. Instead of guessing what the egg mixture should be, I looked up the recipe. It sounded like too many eggs... I don't like to soak the bread, so I was left with the equivalent of three beaten eggs. I scrabbled them. Cinnamon and vanilla seasoned scrambled eggs are weird. And watery. Luckily, the toast was good.

Eggs

Ever since I had to make a big breakfast before a day of shooting last week, I've been on a kick with making eggs for breakfast. LV wanted to get in on that, so this is his pre-work breakfast.

Then we had more eggs for dinner. They were going to expire soon, we didn't have any rice, and I was tired of pasta. Hence, a gigantic omelet for the three of us. (Although really I shouldn't be eating omelets...)

Cranberry Pecan Scones and Chicken Salad

After compiling a list of my favorite 2008 food pictures, I was motivated to make scones again. The last time I made them they were so perfect. This time they were not. The dough is supposed to be shaped into an 8-inch round and then sliced into wedges. This is not a wedge. My ingredients (and then my dough) grew too warm because I was distracted while baking. So I ended up making lumps of dough. (It was way too stick to handle.) They taste good. And they make a much better breakfast than the cookies I've been eating.

For dinner, I topped baby spinach with loads of red ingredients--red onions, strawberries, grape tomatoes,...--and freshly grilled chicken. Because I'd already spent the morning baking scones, I didn't feel like baking any biscuits to go with the salad. That was okay, though. It left Scrappy plenty of room for her "favorite" chocolate cookies.

Macaroni & Leftovers

First we had leftover kiwis and leftover strawberries over pancakes. (It's been a really long time since we've made pancakes.)

Then I made macaroni & cheese to go with all the leftover meats we had in the fridge--a package of hotdogs that weren't opened during the week Scrappy had off of school, leftover steak, and leftover pork. LV had steak and hotdogs. It had to be better than my pork.

This should be LV's post

Armed with a new skillet and leftover rolls, LV made bacon and egg sandwiches for breakfast. Mmm...

Breakfast for Dinner

Unsure of what to do for dinner and lacking the desire to go to the supermarket, we made breakfast for dinner. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, and turkey ham. I should have waited until we added syrup to take the photo--that always looks better.

Strawberries! Part 1

The problem with buying a quart of strawberries at the local grocery store is that not could there be one heinously mushy and moldy berry hidden in the center of the package, but also that you have to use them all almost immediately so that they don't become heinously mushy and moldy.

We had already finished the chocolate chip muffins, so I made strawberry muffins. Then I finished off four of them. Almost immediately.