I entered this recipe into the Pillsbury Bake-Off competition this year but unfortunately it didn’t make it to the top 100.  I do love the recipe even though there are a lot of steps.  You should try it and tell me what you think.  Does it make it into your top 100? Notice the awesome BACON BOW on top!

• 1 can Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ Refrigerated Flaky Dough Sheet 8-oz
• 4 slices of bacon
• 2 maple syrup and brown sugar sausage patties
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup frozen shredded hash browns 
• 4 Eggland’s Best Large Brown Eggs
• ¼ cup of milk
• Dash salt
• Dash pepper
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning 
• 2 Ham Slices
• ½ shredded Mexican blend cheese 
• 4 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a loaf pan with aluminum foil with extra foil exceeding the top of the loaf pan to help with removal later.  Unroll Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ Refrigerated Flaky Dough Sheet 8-oz on a cutting board.  Cut a piece of crescent recipe creation large enough to fit in the bottom of a loaf pan.  Place the loaf pan in the oven and cook for 8 minutes.  Once the crescent rolls are slightly browned, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, place 4 slices of bacon on baking sheet and place in the oven and cook for 10 minutes.  After ten minutes, add the two maple syrup and brown sugar sausage patties to the baking sheet and turn the bacon.  Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake an additional 7 minutes.  Once bacon and sausage is finished cooking, set bacon on paper towels to drain and dice sausage patties.

While meat is cooking, place 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in a medium sized frying pan on medium high heat.  Once the oil is to temperature, add the frozen hash browns and cover pan with lid.  Cook the hash browns for 7 minutes on one side and flip.  Cook an additional 7 minutes or until they are brown and crispy.  Once the hash browns are done, season with salt and set aside.

Beat 4 eggs with ¼ cup milk and season with salt, pepper and ½ tablespoon Italian seasoning.  Spray a frying pan with non-stick cooking spray and heat to medium.  Add the beaten eggs and cook slowly on medium heat stirring occasionally.  Remove the eggs and set aside.  Brown the ham slices in the same frying pan until slightly browned. 

Once all items are cooked, begin layering into loaf pan.  Place 4 slices of bacon on top of cooking crescent roll bottom.  Add 1/3 of the scrambled eggs and cover with ¼ cup shredded Mexican cheese blend.  Add ½ of the crispy, shredded hash browns and then cover with the 2 slices of ham.  Add another 1/3 of the scrambled eggs and another ¼ cup of shredded Mexican cheese blend.  Follow with diced sausage, the remaining ½ of the shredded hash browns, the remaining eggs, and then the remaining cheese.  Top finally with 2 tablespoon of parmesan cheese.   Sprinkle the remaining ½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning on the uncooked crescent rolls along with 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese.

Cut the uncooked crescent rolls into 4 strips.   Twist the strips in to a spiral.  Add the strips to the loaf pan around the outer edge.  Bake the breakfast meatloaf for 15 minutes or until the top crescent are lightly browned.  Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

After the Breakfast Meatloaf has cooled slightly, use the aluminum foil to remove the loaf from the pan and place on serving platter.

Wow! Thank you to those of you who participated in the bake sale. Not only did we sell all the goodies but some of my wonderful co-workers also made monetary donations to Hope for McKenna. The first day we made $151! To make the day even better, I had requests for more cookies.  I spent Wednesday evening making 8 dozen cookies to take to the office the following day.  I made Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Reese’s Chewy Chocolate Cookies. Only downfall was that the plastic Christmas containers were smaller than the 1st round so I could  only fit 8 to 12 cookies in each depending on the size of the cookies. I did make some cute “thank you” labels for each container. We had the potential of making about $80.  I thought it would go well because while I was baking, my friend, Beth called and her husband insisted she buy the Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies right then and there.  I hoped the rest of the items would sell well but figured whatever didn’t sell could be gifted to family and friends.

Well guess what, between sales and monetary donations made by family and friends, we made a whopping $310 overall!

At the end of the day that is quite a significant amount of donations for only two days of work.  I look forward to finding other ways of raising money for Ms. McKenna. Both my sisters, McKenna’s mom, Tracy and our older sister Danielle are working hard to try to raise money over the next year.  We have hand crafted paper products, hand-made clothing accessories and raffles ongoing.  Look for future posts on these items.

***If you know of any great fundraising ideas, please send them our way.  It is so easy to just ask, ask, ask but it is more fulfilling to give something heartfelt in return for the donations.***

Thank you again to all that support Hope for McKenna.  Hopefully, in the near future, we can spread the kindness our family and friends have shown us to another family in need. 

Thanks,

Aunt Brandy

Another wonderful, food-related page by Danielle.  She writes: Despite having just given birth two weeks earlier nothing can keep Aunt Brandy out of the kitchen. So when Maxx and Lexy came to visit, that was the perfect excuse for her to get in the kitchen and make brownies! And of course, the kids happily obliged! August 2, 2008.”

I love this scrapbooking page by Danielle.  She wrote: “Will someone please tell me what I did to piss off the cake gods? Last year, the kids’ cake was left on the radiator and melted. For Maxx’s birthday this year, they raked their fingers through the icing and for Lexy’s birthday, I put the ice cream cake in the refrigerator instead of the freezer, and it too melted into a big pile of goop.  It’s a damn good thing they still taste good.”

  16 oz packages cream cheese softened 
  8 oz stick butter softened
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
  3 tablespoons brown sugar
  3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
  1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans
  1 cup miniature semisweet chips

Beat softened cream cheese and butter until well blended.  Add brown sugar and confectioners’ sugar and blend until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla extract. Fold in miniature chocolate chips and 1 cup of the chopped pecans.

Place plastic wrap into a small bowl as a liner and add the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate in bowl for at least 3 hours. Flip out the cheese ball onto a plate and press the other 1/2 cup of chopped pecans into the sides of the cheese ball. Serve with animal crackers.

Alternate preparations include pouring caramel sauce over the top or replacing 1/2 the chocolate chips with butterscotch chips . Also goes well with sliced apples, graham crackers or vanilla wafers.

This morning I wanted something special to share with my husband, Adam, and one-year old daughter, Zoey.  I took ideas from a recipe off of the Pillsbury website that I thought looked interesting, Bacon and Eggs Breakfast Pizzas.  Of course, I made a few minor variations to the recipe because 1) I didn’t have all the ingredients and 2) I was catering to a one-year old.

I liked the fact that biscuits were used for the “crust” of the pizza.  I didn’t have any spaghetti or pizza sauce on hand so instead i purred a 1/2 can of Italian recipe tomatoes to use as the sauce.  For the meat, I used lean maple bacon and some turkey breakfast sausages.  I also cooked up some diced hash browns to golden brown.  Finally, I mixed four eggs with 2 tablespoons of milk and added some diced green onions, minced fresh basil, salt and pepper and scrambled those in a small frying pan.

To assemble, I pressed the center of the biscuits leaving the edges thicker just as the Pillsbury recipe instructed.  I then added a spoonful of the pureed tomatoes and topped it with a tablespoon of the crumbled bacon. I layered a few hash browns on top of that and a large spoonful of the scrambled eggs. I sliced the cooked sausage and added that to my pizzas like pepperoni. A sprinkling of my Italian Seasoning and then I popped them in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. 

After 15 minutes, the biscuits were brown and the flavors of the toppings had melded together.  I didn’t have any mozzarella so I shredded a little Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese blend and topped each pizza.  I added a slice of Roma tomato to each pizza and a little more cheese and put the pizza under the broiler for 4 minutes.  To finish, I topped the pizzas with fresh minced basil and the diced green onions.  A few fresh strawberries and grapes on the side and we were in business.  Zoey, Daddy and I ate every last bite.  I had made six portions (and just baked the last two Pillsbury biscuits), so I called Mike and Carol to join us.  Carol drove across the neighborhood and picked up her and Michael’s portions so they could eat at their house.  Adam even made her a café au lait for Carol’s morning coffee fix. A short while later I received a text message and a phone call from the Long’s that they loved it. Even their one-year old Ben said that Brandy’s Breakfast Pizzas were “Mmm”.

This recipe is something my mom has been making since I was a little girl.  She says she got the recipe off the back of the box.  It is really simple and delicious.  I make it whenever I have a summer picnic that I need to bring a quick dish.  It is better when it is made the night before or at least a few hours in advance so that the flavors can really permeate the dish.  Also, be sure not to leave it out too long, as it does have mayo in it.

• 8 oz shell pasta (I don’t know why but shell pasta makes this taste fabulous, no substitutes)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• 1 Roma tomato diced
• 1 cup celery finely diced
• 3 tbsp green pepper finely diced
• 3 tbsp pimentos (optional but I never use it)
• Celery leaf tops and radish rose for garnish (optional – if your entertaining)

NOW, follow these instructions very closely:

1. Cook pasta
2. Cut veggies
3. Cool pasta
4. Mix all ingredients
5. Refrigerate at least 2 hours
6. Eat it. Like It. Smile accordingly.

DON’T COMPLICATE IT! IT IS PERFECT THIS WAY. TRUST ME.

Chika-pot, chika-pot, chicka-pot-piiieee!  Yesterday, I came home from the office with the full intention of creating my own chicken pot pie recipe.  After checking the mail, I saw that I had my new Pillsbury magazine waiting for me.  Wouldn’t you know that this month the title of the magazine was Pot Pies & Casseroles.  I flipped through and realized I couldn’t make a single pot pie they had listed because I was missing one ingredient or another.  So I was back to the drawing board, or cutting board as it would have it.  Here was my yummy creation. 

I cut up one skinless, boneless chicken breast into 1”x1” bite sizes (that is all I had defrosted – two would have been better).  I salted and peppered the chicken and added it to a med-high skillet with a little vegetable oil.  I cooked the chicken for about 4 minutes and then pulled it out draining it on a paper towel.  I drained and rinsed a can of diced new potatoes and threw those in the hot skillet.  I cooked them for a minute or two to brown a little and then I added about 1 cup of frozen veggies.  For my veggies I had the carrots, peas, lima beans, green beans and corn mixture but any combination of a pea and carrot mix will work for this recipe.  I stirred those for a short minute.  Then in a bowl I whisked together one can of cream of chicken and herb soup with 1/2  cup of milk. When I thought the mixture looked thin enough, I added it to the skillet.   I returned the chicken to the skillet and added a tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley and 1 1/2 tablespoons of my Italian Seasoning (recipe on this site). I seasoned with salt and pepper. I let the mixture bubble slightly and then I divided it into 6 small ramekins.  I opened a can of Pillsbury flaky biscuits and tugged them each slightly so they would cover the majority of the ramekin. I then brushed the tops of the biscuits with a tiny bit of butter and sprinkled a little more Italian seasoning on top. I baked them in a 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. The biscuits came out high and crispy with a wonderful flavor.  I suppose you could leave all of the mixture in your skillet and put all the biscuits on top to bake and this could be a one-dish meal.  I would definitely make sure that the biscuits are cooked all the way through the sauce mixture and aren’t still raw in the middle. Also, please be sure to use a oven-safe skillet… plastic melts in a hot oven. 

I love breakfast and I love Eggs Benedict of any variety.  September 25, 2007, also my father’s birthday was a the day I created the Benedict Twins.  I scrounged through the refrigerator and collected a hodge-podge of items that would ultimately be our breakfast.  English Muffins in hand, I made two very different Eggs Benedict.  The first was Adam’s favorite.  A toasted English muffin topped with crispy bacon, a fluffy poached egg, a delicate hollandaise sauce, capers, green onions, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

The second was made just for me, with Smoked Salmon as the protein of choice. I used the same materials as before omitting the bacon and green onions and replacing them with the smoked salmon and a dollop of basil pesto that I had left over from yesterday’s diner.   I was able to finish off some “lasts” in our refrigerator while creating a delectable treat for Adam and I to share.  I clink of the glasses to toast Dad’s B-day and we ate like kings.

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To celebrate my 31st Birthday, Adam and I made Banana Nut Waffles for breakfast. Believe me, they were as delicious as they are beautiful!