Trying New Things is Always in Style

Of the fourteen different 100 Days of Real Food mini challenges, I have been looking forward to this past week’s the longest.

Week Six: Try a minimum of two new whole foods that you’ve never had before.

This challenge was the perfect opportunity to take whole foods I pass by in the supermarket and think, “I wonder what that tastes like,” or “I wonder how that is cooked” and to actually explore and find those answers for myself.

I scheduled this challenge for almost halfway through all of the challenges because though it is exciting, having to cook and/or eat two completely new-to-you items each week is quite a commitment, not only in grocery shopping, but also in meal preparation.

I started out simple by choosing items I didn’t necessarily have to cook. I also stuck to one food group: fruits.

My first week’s choices:

Papaya

Star fruit

Kumato tomatoes

I decided that the items I will choose as I continue this challenge are going to be whole foods that I have never purchased and/or prepared at home. I say that because chances are some of these items I choose I may have actually tasted once before or had as an ingredient in something ordered at a restaurant.

I chose these three fruits out of a simple process of elimination. It was towards the end of the week and I hadn’t fulfilled the challenge yet. I knew I wanted to try star fruit after watching a Chopped episode where contestants were given star fruit in one of their baskets. Unlike the Chopped chefs, we ate ours raw and didn’t get too fancy by making it an ingredient in a meal. Then I saw the papaya and thought it was possible I had tasted it before, but couldn’t recall. Either way, I had never actually sliced, diced, or served one in my house. The Kumato tomatoes were my last choice after Hubby pointed to Elephant Garlic and suggested I try it. In case you have never seen Elephant Garlic…it is monstrous! I wasn’t ready to figure out why it was so huge nor did I want to try to find a recipe in which I could use such massive amounts of garlic. The Kumato tomatoes were right next to the garlic, so I suppose Hubby thought I was being rather cheeky in choosing them over the garlic. But the truth is, I’ve always looked at Kumato tomatoes and thought they were interesting, and in the same breath, a little strange. Brownish green tomatoes? Doesn’t green usually mean not-yet-ripe, and brown mean mushy-and-old? How could they possibly be tasty?

I served all our new-to-us whole foods for breakfast. We had funny eggs on our snow day and I thought that star fruit would make a perfect side.

I’m not sure how I feel about star fruit. For starters, it is pretty expensive. Only one cost $1.99 at Acme (of course, Acme doesn’t always have the cheapest prices). I liked the texture, it had a crunchy sweetness, but something about the flavor wasn’t my favorite. I didn’t hate it, but I’d rather spend half the money on a juicy orange.

I cut up the papaya and Kumato tomatoes for Saturday’s breakfast. Not even remembering that Hubby has a love for tomatoes and eggs I decided I would make a quick breakfast sandwich with the Kumato tomatoes as the star. I scrambled a few eggs with mozzarella cheese and some sliced pork roll—umm, yumm!—and served them on whole-wheat English muffins with two slices of tomato on top.

It was such a thrown together, quickie of a breakfast that I didn’t think Hubby would even mention it. But immediately he told me what a delicious and wonderful meal it had been, reminding me of how much he loves tomatoes and eggs—which, of course, I had forgotten. The papaya wasn’t as thrilling as I had expected— in fact it was pretty flavorless. Though the caviar-like seeds inside intrigued me and made me want to learn more about the papaya fruit.

What I especially love about this challenge was that instead of limiting what I could eat, it gave me the push to try out new and different food options. I’m going to branch out to new meats and grains eventually. This week I’ve purchased beets and tomatillos (apparently I’m on a tomato kick) as my two new whole foods.

I’m terrified of beets…so we’ll see how this goes.

Recipe #60 and 61: Breakfast Burritos and Linguine with Clam Sauce

Recipe: Breakfast Burritos
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr
Ease: 3
Taste: 4
Leftover Value: Did not save leftovers
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain!

On Christmas Eve morning, only six recipes remained in my recipe challenge. To say I had high hopes in completing on Christmas Day is an understatement. I managed to trick myself into believing I was Super Woman until around 3:00 pm when I decided I would have to be content with finishing the day after Christmas.

Jonathan wanted to see the new Annie movie, so Joel and Mallory graciously agreed to go with us bright and early* to see it.

*Bright and early as in 10:00 am.

PW's Breakfast Burritos were the natural choice to make for them for breakfast considering the 12 eggs it uses would have been a complete waste to make for only Hubby and myself.

Even with using frozen hash brown potatoes (which PW allows you to do, promise!), this recipe still took a solid hour to make. This is mostly due to the process of assembling the burritos, rather than chopping as was my issue with Migas. By the time I finished wrapping each burrito, I was a burrito wrapping pro.

The taste of the burritos was just okay. It wasn't something that I would ever request someone to make for me, or something I would ever desperately crave enough to make it again myself. It does, however, work as a nice on the go breakfast, considering that each of my movie companions ate theirs as we headed out to the theater.

While I will more than likely never make them again, I will say this, if you are the kind of person who orders the breakfast burrito at McDonald's, this might be an at-home healthier solution for you.

Recipe: Linguine with Clam Sauce
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 30 min
Ease: 3
Taste: 9
Leftover Value: No leftovers!
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

We had about an hour and a half to kill before heading to my parents' house to start our Christmas Eve festivities. While I had hoped to make PW's Potato Skins, Chocolate Cake and Linguine with Clam Sauce, I gave in to my human limitations and decided that I could only make one.

I had been on the fence* about the Linguine with Clam Sauce from the first time I saw it in the book. I have never had clams before, and the description of how Marlboro Man (PW's husband) reacted to this meal when she first made it for him hurt more than helped my preset opinion.

Note: There were actually only a few recipes in the book I felt this way about. More about that in the final summation!

Knowing this might not be a recipe I would love, and also knowing it might not be a recipe Hubby would even be slightly interested in, I made it as a light lunch. My brother, Joel, and his wife, Mallory, will pretty much eat anything I cook--they aren't picky at all, and they flatter me with praise, so it's nice to have them around.

Frying the clams was the worst part of this recipe. My entire kitchen smelled like a seafood market.

After the clams and garlic fried for a little together, a white wine cream sauce is created. This cream sauce is so divine it made me completely forget about whether or not I liked clams.*

Note: I think I do, but I'm still not sure.

I plan to make this substituting chicken for the clams, and occasionally, without any meat at all!

Mallory, who loves clams, said that when she makes this (because she loved it so much) she will use half the amount of noodles so that there will be more clams per serving. She's certainly right. If you want a lot of clams per bite, the recipe calls for too much pasta for this to happen.

My favorite part of this recipe was that from start to finish it took less than a half hour. My second favorite part was that within another half hour the pan was empty because the entire meal had been devoured.

Recipe #57: Migas

One of my New Year's goals for this blog is to blog better.

I know it sounds like a cliche goal, but both of my blogs began because of my passion for writing. This blog simply mixes that passion with another: my love of food and everything food related.

However, I find that sometimes I fall into the blogger mentality of just trying to get SOMETHING posted that I'm not always putting out writing that is of the quality that I want to represent.

No longer.

That said, hold on to your butts for the final five posts of my Pioneer Woman Cooks recipe challenge and then the final summation.

Recipe: Migas

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hr

Ease: 3

Taste: 5

Leftover Value: 4

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer

I like this recipe. 

I know, great way to start off better blogging, right?

Yet, it must be stated.

You must understand that I really, truly did like this recipe before I go any further because, unfortunately, for as much as I like this recipe, I also dislike it.

At breakfast time, I am not ordinarily coherent enough to be giddy with excitement over a meal that has more than three steps. 

There are several, as in more than two or three, vegetables that require dicing for this breakfast.

Then, if all the dicing weren't enough, there are eggs to be mixed and corn tortillas to be fried and then cut into strips.

While dicing and frying aren't quite so complicated, (and I fried the tortillas in the same pan I eventually made the migas in--so there wasn't a too-many-pans issue) it is all very time consuming.

For breakfast.

Early in the morning.

With a cranky chef who would rather be still ducked under the covers than getting to work chopping, dicing, and frying.

Naturally, the veggies need time to soften a little.*

*Right here, right now, I'm going to rat myself out.  There are no red peppers in this dish.  There are supposed to be.  The rule was no substitutions, but red peppers make my heart throb and pound in my chest--and not in a swoon! type of way.  So, I used extra green pepper.

Here is the even more time consuming part of this dish:

After spending all that time dicing, after frying the tortillas, after waiting for it all to cook together, the eggs are poured over it all, gently mixed, and left alone to set.

I'm the type of person that stands over a pot of water as if my presence will make the water boil faster. 

That said, by this point, I couldn't contain myself and had to help the eggs along a little bit by mixing them a little and raising the heat a tad.

I made these on Christmas Eve Eve and Hubby had work to get to so I may have been a little anxious and served the eggs a little too soon.

They weren't horribly runny, but they could have gone a little longer.

The cheese, which is added at the very end, adds a nice punch of flavor to the mixture.  The dollop of sour cream was absolutely necessary and I'm not too proud to say that I added another heaping scoop to my bowl after I snapped this picture.

All in all, this was a fun way to experience eggs. I was afraid the jalapeno would be overpowering, but it added an interesting little kick to the eggs without too much heat. Hubby ate his eggs with the sour cream and hot sauce.

My only note would be to make these on a morning where you have a healthy hour to spend on breakfast.

Recipe #12: Huevos Hyacinth

Recipe: Huevos Hyacinth

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 15 minutes

Ease: 1

Taste: 4

Leftover Value: No leftovers--will probably not keep well

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain

Apparently, I've been trying to speed my way through the breakfast section of The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  Sorry.  Hopefully you aren't tired of hearing about breakfast.

My favorite meal.

Ever.

I'm not one who likes to switch up my breakfast choices.  My favorite breakfast has always included some kind of carb that can be covered in syrup and butter (pancakes, french toast, waffles), eggs--scrambled or over easy, and bacon.

All that will make me one happy gal.

So these unusual breakfasts like the following one and breakfast bowls have been difficult for me to accept.

The ease of these made me want to love them.

They are as simple as a buttered ramekin,

With a piece of ham,

And a splash of picante sauce (or a few tomatoes),

A cracked egg,

And a hefty sprinkling of cheese.

Hubby was excited about these because of the picante sauce.  As he sat down to eat it he said, "I love eggs and salsa".  I suppose it takes cooking your way through a cookbook to learn more details about your husband, aka, man of mystery.

The ramekins are to be placed in the broiler section of the oven for 2 to 4 minutes which, as with the breakfast bowls, seemed a little on the short side to me.

And it was.  Though the cheese was beginning to brown, the eggs were still runny enough for Rocky to slurp them down, and I'm just not into that.

Hubby suggested I turn the broiler down to Low (PW doesn't indicate whether the broiler should be on High or Low).  After another four minutes they were edible.

The combination didn't speak to me.  Perhaps because it was thin deli ham that she uses instead of chunks of ham steak.  I liked the ease of this dish, but again, it needs some adjustments to become something I want to make again and again.*

*Just to be sure that I wasn't crazy, I even made these a second time during the week for Hubby for breakfast.  He seemed to like them, but still I wasn't in love.

Recipe #10 and #11: Potatoes and Pancakes

Recipe: Basic Breakfast Potatoes
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 1 hr 25 minutes
Ease: 2
Taste: 7
Leftover Value: No leftovers
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain

Recipe: Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 15 minutes
Ease: 1
Taste: 8
Leftover Value: No leftovers
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer

Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorites but I try to reserve it for days where I have absolutely no idea what to make for dinner.  And though it is a loved dinner choice, it is not the simplest.

Alright, it's simple in the fact that everything basically revolves around the frying pan, but it's one of those things where everything needs to happen at once.  By the time the bacon is done frying, the eggs should be set, the pancakes should be flipped, and the potatoes just about finished frying.

I need my food to be hot when I put it on my plate, so I've taken to making breakfast in shifts and putting the finished parts into a warming buffet tray so that my head isn't spinning at trying to handle five different elements at once.

I started this particular breakfast-for-dinner with the basic breakfast potatoes.  PW starts them off by having them bake in the oven for 45 minutes.  At first I thought this was an awesome idea because I assumed it meant less time in the skillet.

Don't you hate when you're so impatient to chop up hot potatoes that the skin tears off?

No?  Just me? 

Alright, I'll keep working on the patience issue.

So, the whole baking-ahead-of-time thing didn't make much of a difference.  I still found that to get the perfect crispiness to these potatoes, they had to sit in the skillet for a good half hour.  

I've been able to obtain the same crispiness with potatoes I chopped and sent directly to the pan without having baked first.

The one thing I liked about these potatoes was the onion.  Diced onions are fried in a little oil before the potatoes go in.  PW says that you can take them out and add them after the potatoes have fried a little or keep them in.  She says, "...I happen to like the onions to get all dark and burny, so I'm going to leave them,"  At first I thought she was crazy, but I decided to do it too.  Now I totally get what dark and burny means.  It means tasty.

They were good, but the baking wasted time that I don't have.  This is why I rated them Down the Drain.*

*In looking for the recipe link, I noticed that PW has several other potato recipes on her blog, so I'm assuming she has perfected these since the publishing of her first book.

Now the pancakes.

These pancakes are ridiculously easy.  The batter can be whipped up in under a minute.

The problem is that more than half of the batter consists of sour cream.

I'm going to give you a minute to process that.

The timing for when to flip the pancakes was all off--as you can see by what appears to be two pancakes at the back of my pan.  No, that is really one pancakes that didn't flip properly because 1 to 1 1/2 minutes was no where near long enough for the pancakes to set.

PW says that the batter should make 12 pancakes (one pancakes using 1/4 cup of batter).  My batter produced only seven pancakes, another thing that made my skin crawl because that meant that there was approx 2.75489 tablespoons of sour cream in each pancake.  Yikes!

I really did enjoy these pancakes though.  But before I tell you why, let me tell you the last reason I hated them.  

Look at the above picture.

The two pancakes look decent, right?  Nice rounds shape, inviting golden color spread across, and what appears to be an average thickness.  

Wrong.  On the thickness part at least.

After sitting for a few minutes, these pancakes flatten out like a....err, well, pancake.  But flatter.  

My beef with this is that it makes me want to eat more.  But I know what is in these pancakes!  Gobs and gobs of fattening sour cream!

Alright, now that I got that off my chest, let me tell you how wonderful these pancakes are.  Only a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla is mixed in, but it shines through in every bite.  Despite their wicked thinness, the pancakes are moist--perhaps sour cream has something to do with that--and sweet enough that they almost, almost, don't need a fountain of syrup poured over them.

I really can't wrap my head around using sour cream as the key ingredient though.  So these pancakes will be reserved only for special occasions.

Recipe #6: Egg-In-The-Hole

Recipe: Egg-In-The-Hole
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 5 minutes
Ease: 3
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: Never, ever, any leftovers
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

I have been eating eggs-in-the-hole since I was eight or nine-years-old.  Gram would make them for me for breakfast, lunch, or an afternoon snack--they are so good, honestly, it doesn't matter what time of day you have them.

Only Gram didn't call them egg-in-the-hole.  At first, she called them 'Moonstruck Eggs' because in the movie Moonstruck someone is making them and that inspired Gram to want to make them.  But I guess that name didn't make too much sense to a child, so we began calling them 'Funny Eggs'.

Apparently we aren't the only ones to give this item whatever name we thought suited it.  Pioneer Woman lists off over ten different names given to this delicious way to cook an egg including: frog-in-a-hole and private eyes.  Interesting.

I'll stick with calling them funny eggs, though moonstruck egg does have a classy sound to it.

Being that I've been making funny eggs for as long as I have been cooking, I thought it was rather silly to actually follow a recipe.  But since it was in the book, it was part of the challenge, and I had to do it.

And I'm so glad I did.

I realized, in my recent times of making funny eggs, that I have grown rather impatient with this less than ten-minute meal.  I've wanted to rush through getting my bread perfectly crisp and my eggs still runny, and tried to speed up the process by doing everything from raising the heat to frying the bread first.

But the answer my friends is this: butter.

I know, you didn't want to hear it, but it's the truth.  Butter simply makes everything better.  See, in my impatience, I had also grown a little health conscious and was trying to use a tablespoon or less of butter in making my funny eggs.

Pioneer Woman ruined that by using 3-4 tablespoons per egg and wowing my taste buds at the same time.

We never used fancy biscuit cutters to make our hole.  A knife works just fine.

Of second importance is timing.  We start by heating 2-3 tablespoons* of butter in a skillet, then placing the bread into the skillet to soak up some of the butter.

After a minute--a whole entire minute---the egg is then cracked in the center.  She doesn't warn of this, but I've had enough experience with messing up my eggs to know that you need to make sure you crack lightly and carefully break away the shell as to not break the yoke.

*I opted for two.

Season with salt and pepper!  Yet another thing that I would ordinarily hurry past.  

Why do we insist on living flavorless lives when just a little salt and pepper can change everything?  That is what I asked myself again and again after making this recipe.

Flipping the egg/bread over is as tricky as making sure to crack the egg properly.  If you wait a full minute, the egg should be set enough that this can be done without breaking it.

Oh, and before you do this, Pioneer Woman suggests throwing another tablespoon of butter in, 'just for kicks'.

Here are the three elements you want to remember when making funny eggs.  They are what I've learned from following Pioneer Woman's recipe: butter, timing, and a large pan.

I always tried getting by using a small skillet and while it works, a larger one does the job better.

Concerning the butter, when I made my second funny egg I could use far less without compromising the flavor.*

*There was still plenty (butter) left in the pan.

Hello, gorgeous.

If you don't like your eggs runny, I seriously don't know what is wrong with you.

I'm just kidding.  If you don't like your eggs runny, just let the egg cook longer in the pan on both sides.

But runny is where it's at.

Finally, that little square or circle of bread that you kept in the pan and fried in the butter, it is sacred.  Use it to sop up the egg yoke, or just stuff it in your mouth and enjoy the buttery goodness.

Recipe #4: Breakfast Bowls

Recipe: Breakfast Bowls

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hr 30 min--if nothing is prepped before hand

Ease: 6

Taste: 6

Leftover Value: No leftovers!

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer, but changes must be made

I love the idea of these breakfast bowls.  They seem so simplistic.  They are everything wonderful about breakfast wrapped up in a tiny little dish.

Only, I didn't have quite the same sentiment as I made them.  It isn't Pioneer Woman's fault though.  I should have known just by glancing the recipe over that prep would be king.  Yet I refused to submit to such a ruler.

Don't be like me.

I could have made life so much easier by frying my sausages and my bacon, shredding my cheeses, and dicing my tomatoes and onions the night before.  But did I?

Of course not.  

I figured the smartest place to start would be with the potatoes which layer the bottom of the bowls.  I started at attempting to make them the way Pioneer Woman makes her Basic Breakfast Potatoes (also in The Pioneer Woman Cooks) as a way to kill two birds with one stones, but failed miserably at frying them perfectly.  Since the breakfast bowls only call for baked potatoes fried with onions, I decided they would still work to finish this recipe that I had only just started.

The process of simply frying bacon and crumbling sausage when balanced with attempting to chop and slice ninety-two* other ingredients wore me out.

But eventually I had my prep bowls in order and was ready to assemble the breakfast bowls.

*Perhaps, I exaggerate.

Here is the essence of the breakfast bowl:

Bottom---potato/onion mixture---sausage---bacon---Monterey Jack cheese---

egg mixture---tomato/green onion/basil mixture---Top

It all sounds so wonderful, doesn't it?  The thought of double meats...that's what really did it for me.

I really want some of the cute oven safe bowls Pioneer Woman has pictured in the book, because my basic ramekins just weren't cutting it.

Pioneer Woman tells us to place the ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.  

Apparently, her cute little oven safe bowls must be made of much thinner material than the average ramekin causing her time estimate to be absolutely horrible.  

I took our yummy breakfast bowls out, expecting perfection, and the eggs weren't fully cooked.

You can slightly see in the above picture a little wet in the bottom left corner.  Yes, that should be fluffy egg at this point.  I made sure to include King Kong on my coffee mug so you could imagine what my face looked like as I realized we had to wait longer for our food to be done.  

I was confused because the recipe said: "It's better for the eggs to come out of the oven slightly runny, as they'll continue to set after they're removed from the oven."

See, to me, that means that I want to favor runny eggs.  So I assumed, since I didn't have browned eggs as she warns against, that my breakfast bowls were ready to go.

They so were not.

Our breakfast companions, Joel and Mallory, first tried the bowls.  Mallory was so hungry that I'm pretty sure she was willing to eat the eggs on the runnier side, but both Hubby and Joel shoved their bowls back at me for a longer cooking time, leaving Mallory to jump on the bandwagon.

Joel often takes a GQ appraoch to life.

But I love when I catch shots like this one...

Two things I would immediately change about this recipe.

1. I would raise the temperature to 350 degrees from the start. 

2. Hot sauce.  Enough said.

Thanksgiving Delights: Part One

I've been in charge of Thanksgiving breakfast since I've been married.  It is one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving other than the turkey, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, the after dinner dessert, the family time...okay, let me rephrase, it's my favorite part of Thanksgiving morning.

Other than the parade.

Usually I send out a family email blast to let everyone know breakfast is still on and that they don't need to bring anything because I'm crazy enough to attempt to make 12 completely different desserts within the two days before Thanksgiving.

In case you're wondering about the dessert part, this post should explain everything: Thanksgiving breakfast

This year I found inspiration in summer party invitations I saw on clearance at Target.  The invitation was a two-tone ice pop (with stick and all) and on the back was where the details of the party were to be written.  I loved this, but couldn't see using ice pops for a Thanksgiving dessert breakfast.

After a little thought, the pumpkin pie invitation was born:

I always try to switch up the menu a little bit.  Last year was the year of the mini desserts.  Mini desserts are great because guests are always afraid to be the person who takes the first slice of pie or cake.

The tough item to make mini was pumpkin pies.  Pumpkin pie should take only about 30 minutes (at most) of prep time.  Shorter even if you are using canned pumpkin and a pre-made crust.  But me, I'm married to my better than pumpkin pie recipe which uses fresh butternut squash instead of canned pumpkin.  Making this into mini pumpkin pies took collectively about 3 hours of my time.

It was so worth it.

What helped the process move along smoothly was this pancake pen I bought ahead of time:

I am absolutely in love with this item.  The pumpkin pie mixture for this recipe is extremely liquefied.  Knowing this before hand, I figured a pancake pen would make life so much easier.

Boy am I happy when I'm right.

Some of the other items on my menu were:

Just like, in fact better than, Starbucks petite vanilla bean scones.  While scones are typically a little more on the dry side, the icing on these trap the moisture in and each bite is moist with vanilla bean deliciousness.

My sister-in-law, Kristina, helped me pick this one out:

Baked French Toast.  Oh-my-goodness.  While I know this isn't really a dessert, I wanted to have a somewhat breakfast item to offer.

That's what I said to my sister-in-law as we discussed and decided on Baked French Toast to fulfill that desire of mine.  The truth was I wanted to make cranberry butter, and I figured this would be the perfect thing to put it on.

It was.  It most certainly was.

Look for the recipe for cranberry butter in one of the upcoming posts.

I love cheesecake brownies, it is my go to treat at Starbucks these days.  I thought I would concoct my own cheesecake pumpkin bar.  As Thanksgiving day got closer, and my body got run down with an unwelcome seasonal cold, I hadn't yet settled on what I would be doing to make my cheesecake pumpkin bar come to life.  That's when a coworker told me about these:

Please don't judge me when I say this, Paula Deen should be sainted.

There.  I said it, and I meant it.

I love her almost as much as I love the butter she uses in all of her recipes.

These Pumpkin Gooey Bars were just as good as the pumpkin cheesecake bars I was dreaming up.  The cake crust on the bottom gave a great balance to the sweet creamy pumpkin mixture on top.  They were yummy cold or even warmed up for about 15 seconds in the microwave.  Either way, top it with a little cool whip and you've got pumpkin heaven in bar form.

About a week before Thanksgiving, I realized I had no chocolate on my breakfast menu.

No chocolate.  No a lick, drib drab, ounce, drip drop, or even an iota of chocolate on the menu.

For shame, I know.

I looked through my clipped recipes that I have yet to make and found these glorious masterpieces:

Smores brownies.  Oh yes.

I've made another version of smores brownies before and was highly disappointed.  While they were decent brownies, they were hardly worthy of being considered smores brownies.

These most certainly were.  They were the one item on my breakfast table that I didn't have any left overs of.  Now that has to say something about them!

Go here for the recipe: Inside Out Smores Brownies

It seems this was the year of last minute additions.  I am typically not into fruit desserts.  Cherries, however, I have a soft spot for.  When I saw these mini cherry pecan pies in an ad for Lucky Leaf Cherry Pie Filling, I knew I had to make them....if I could find the time.

They were mini, which made them even more necessary to add to my breakfast table.  They took a little longer to bake than the recipe said, otherwise they were perfect.

For the recipe go here: Cherry Pecan Pies

I've saved three recipes to give you a blow by blow, step by step, look at.  Up first will be Cranberry Butter.  

You won't want to miss it.