Bacon and Gruyere Popovers

Bacon and Gruyere Popovers 

My husband LOVES popovers.  After seeing some featured in an Austin restaurant on a food television show, we made reservations and tried theirs.  They were delicious, and he ordered a popover pan for me.  It only makes 6 at a time, so it isn't an easy quick breakfast or side dish for the masses.  My mom gave me a popover recipe around the same time, and I have modified it over the years.  This is the result....

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs, room temperature or warmed in a bowl of warm water
• 2 T. melted butter
• 1 1/4 C milk, warmed
• 1 C flour OR 1 C gluten free flour & 1/4 t. xanthan gum
• 1/2 t. salt
• Gruyere, cut into small chunks. (Shredded cheese doesn't create the cheesy pockets in the popovers.)  I use about a teaspoon of cubes in each popover, but use as much or as little as you like.
• Thick-cut Bacon, cooked and crumbled into chunks
• Ground pepper as desired

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Grease popover pan
3. Whisk butter, milk, eggs, salt, pepper, and *xanthan gum (if using)
4. Gradually sift and whisk flour into the batter until smooth.
5. Place chunks of Gruyere in the bottom of each popover tin.
6. Pour batter into each popover tin until 2/3-3/4 full.
7. Add bacon to the top of each tin.
8. Bake for 25 minutes at 400.
9. Reduce heat to 350, and continue to bake for 15 minutes until deep brown.
10. Remove from oven.
11. If you don't want your beautiful popovers to collapse, simply use a sharp paring knife and pierce the bottom of the hot popovers to allow steam to escape and place them on a cooling rack. Do not let them cool in the pan, they'll lose their shape.
12. Enjoy!

Copycat Starbucks Egg Bites

My husband came home raving about the Sous Vide Starbucks Gruyere Egg Bites, and he asked if I could recreate them based on his description.  Let me just say that I have made A LOT of egg bites in the past 3 weeks to find the best way to make fluffy Gruyere & Bacon Egg Bites for easy grab-and-go breakfast.  Yes, I even made a "Green Eggs and Ham" version. 

While we have a Sous Vide, trying to recreate the egg bites using other recipes I found didn't produce the results we were looking for.  I also tried pressure cooking them, but they came out much more dense than we wanted.  

So noting all that didn't work, I've finally come up with a recipe that we love.  I have used Gruyere and sharp white cheddar, arugula, spinach, and kale.  We LOVE adding my pickled cowhorn peppers and blending them into the mixture for some extra kick, too.

Enjoy!

Copycat Starbucks Gruyere &  Bacon Egg Bites

Printable Recipe

By Dawn at LearningAsISew.blogspot.com

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs - yolks & whites separated

• 1/4 C Heavy whipping cream

• 1+ C  grated  Gruyere cheese (or hard cheese of your preference)

• 1/2 C cottage cheese

• 2 C fresh greens of choice, chop for about 1 C (spinach, kale, arugula, etc.)

• 4-6 slices of thin cut bacon, cooked, and chopped

• Tabasco - to taste (optional)

• Peppers (optional)

• Salt & Pepper as desired

Directions:

1. If using the Instant Pot and Silicone Egg Bite Mold, add 1 C of water to the pot, cover with glass lid, and set to saute.  If using the Egg Poaching pan, add water to the bottom reservoir, cover with the lid only, and place over low heat on the stove.

2. Spray the molds (silicone or for the egg poaching pan) with cooking spray.

3. Place egg whites and heavy whipping cream in a blender or whip with an immersion blender until very frothy. (2-3 minutes)

   
   
   

4. Add cheeses (reserve a bit of the grated Gruyere to top the egg bites after they cook) and Tabasco or other hot sauce as desired and blend until smooth and uniform.  (I wouldn't recommend salsa, because it will make it runny.)

   
   

5. Add yolks, and blend.

   
6. If you choose to add pickled or fresh peppers, you can add them now and blend again, or you can just stir them in according to your preference.

7. If you want "Green Eggs & Ham," add the spinach and blend thoroughly.   If you want "regular" egg bites, you can add greens and pulse very briefly to mix them in.

   

8. Add most of the chopped bacon and stir.

9. Place remaining bits of bacon in the bottom of molds.  (If you need to reserve some for a second batch based on the size of your molds, then set some aside.)

   

10. Pour EQUAL amounts into each mold.  I would recommend filling them about 3/4 of the way, because they will "inflate" like a soufflé before shrinking, and if they get too big, they can break and fall into the water below.

    

11. If using the Instant Pot, use the metal trivet with handles to lower the mold into the I.P. and recover with the glass lid.  Do not seal and set for pressure.  If using the Egg Poaching pan, add the tray layer with the egg poaching molds, recover with the lid, and turn heat to medium.

12. Set a timer for 8 minutes.  Do not uncover while they cook.  If you have a glass lid, you will see them puff up and "dome" as they cook.  If they aren't fully domed, continue to cook for another minute or two.

13. Carefully remove molds and use a small knife to loosen the egg bites from the sides of the molds and turn onto a clean surface.

14. Top with remaining shredded cheese and a slice of pepper if you desire. (You can broil them at this point to brown the cheese, but I just let the residual heat melt the cheese.)

    

15. Refrigerate or freeze, and reheat when ready to eat!  

    

Elf on the Shelf Welcome Breakfast: Gingerbread

Our Elf returned and brought a slew of activities to entertain the kids through the weekend.
Gingerbread pancakes were kept simple, but the kids can add eyes, smiles, and buttons with fruit or chocolate chips. I will have to share my new recipe, because they were truly delish! Chocolate  milk turned the milk bottles into little gingerbread people.  Custom gingerbread cookie people resembled each child and were saved for after lunch.
Kraft wrapping paper made perfect placemats with a checklist of activities.  An envelope of gingerbread coloring (and educational) pages was at each place setting.
Thankful ornaments have become a family tradition at the welcome breakfast.  Paper gingerbread ornaments and ceramic gingerbread ornaments were additional craft activities.  Read more here.
A cardboard playhouse was assembled inside out so that it could be colored to resemble a life size gingerbread house.
The gingerbread house bar included a few types of cereal that work well as "bricks" and "shingles."  Sugar cones were stacked to create Christmas trees of different heights for outside of the gingerbread houses. Of course, standard candy pieces were also included.
The reindeer food bar was a quick easy activity that I always seem to forget to do until Christmas Eve.  This year, we were on top of it!

I have had some readers contact me with issues with Dropbox.  so in an effort to make things easier, we have created a Store where you can pay $5 for ALL of our Elf on the Shelf printable downloads to date, and they will be available to you instantly!  Merry Christmas!  Hopefully that saves you some time in trying to find and download each of the printables. 

Check out our other Elf on the Shelf ideas and printables here!

 

Gingerbread or Snowman Milk Bottles

In preparation for our Gingerbread-themed Welcome Breakfast for our Elf on the Shelf, I've been crafting a bit.  I painted these Starbucks Frappuccino bottles with Enamel paint and baked them for 30 minutes at 350 as directed to set the paint.  I added another row of white "rick-rack" at the bottom of each of the bottles, too.  When they are filled with chocolate milk, they look even more like Gingerbread people!

They were super easy to make, and I think they'll be an adorable accent to the table next Friday morning.

 

Recipe: My Favorite Blueberry Muffins

My kids often ask for these on the weekends, and they are so yummy fresh out of the oven.  Recently, I started making them as mini-muffins and taking them camping with us.  I serve them with some fruit the last morning that we're there so that as we're packing up, there are no additional dishes to wash; they're so easy to grab and go!  I know that it's not traditional "camp food," but by the time we've been camping for 4 days, easy with no clean up sounds perfect to me. 

 

My Favorite Blueberry Muffins

12 T (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp.                   

1 ½ C sugar

3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature                                  

1 ½ t pure vanilla extract

8 oz (about 1 cup) sour cream                                    
1/4 C milk
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour                                            
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda                                                        
1/2 t kosher salt
1 pint fresh blueberries, picked through for stems

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place 16 paper liners in muffin pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed.

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.

Elf on the Shelf: Welcome Breakfast / Goodbye Breakfast

Whether you do a "Welcome Breakfast" when your Elf arrives, a surprise breakfast during his time with you, a "Goodbye Breakfast" the morning he leaves, or you just want a fun Christmas themed breakfast, this post has something for you!

The spread...

TABLE

Honestly, I had ordered a super cute red and white chevron fabric for a runner or placemats for the table, but it didn't arrive in time, so I used a gold tablecloth that I had on hand along with some red and white poly napkins.  You could use festive paper napkins as well.

CHAIRS

The chairs are adorned with Santa hat chair covers from the dollar store.  They had to be worked to get over the tops of my wide chairs, but it was fine.

HOT AIR BALLOONS for the Elves

The hot air balloons for the elves (my sister and her family were staying wit us Thanksgiving night, so we had both elves arrive at my house the morning after Thanksgiving) were made with Chinese paper lanterns, solo cups, my free PRINTABLES, curling ribbon, peppermint ornaments, and mini-tree Christmas "lights."

ORNAMENT CHANDELIER

The ornament chandelier is made with 75 shatterproof ornaments and red satin cord.  I don't actually recommend making one.  It was a pain in my - yeah.  A royal pain.

CENTERPIECE

The centerpiece is a collection of "trees."  I had all of the silver and white ones, and they are displayed on my entryway table through the holidays, but I picked up a few red ones to go with the theme, and I used them on the table for the morning.  (I later moved them to my entryway table when breakfast was over.)

PLATES

I have a huge stack of glass plates.  I bought them 10+ years ago when we were having a huge reception at our home.  I figured they would match anything, and when we had a large number of guests, they would be perfect.  I use them ALL the time.  They worked great for this, because I used red chargers, my free PRINTABLES, and the glass plates.  It dressed up the printables even a little more than the clear plastic plates would have.  (Even though, those would certainly work as well.)

ORNAMENT CRAFT

I placed the Gratitude Ornament PRINTABLE under the chargers, and I used DIY cupcake stands to hold red and white cupcake liners with the clear acrylic ornaments.  This will absolutely become an annual tradition!  Ages 4-14 willingly participated in this craft, and it was great to take some time to remember what is really important.  I only wish I had purchased enough for the adults to each make one as well.

HOT CHOCOLATE with SANTA MARSHMALLOWS

White coffee mugs each held a large marshmallow with a Santa hat drawn on with Wilton Food Writers in anticipation of hot chocolate.  Red and white paper straws were at the ready, as well.

FAVORS

I picked up a box of shatterproof "candy" ornaments, and I wrote each child's name on the side of it to add to their annual ornaments as a remembrance of the breakfast fun.

REINDEER PANCAKES

Lastly, we made a reindeer pancake breakfast with bacon, chocolate chips, and strawberries!  

Do you do a Welcome Breakfast?  What are your traditions?

Check out our other Elf on the Shelf Ideas and Free Printables here!  Please feel free to pin, link, and share, but link to our blog posts and not directly to the printables.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

I have been intending to make pumpkin muffins for about 3 days now.  This morning, I was determined to make them despite the madness in our home today (1 kid is sick, 1 has homecoming, the sheetrock/paint guys are coming to make some repairs, etc.)  I also decided to attempt these as an eggless recipe (replace each egg with 1 packet of plain gelatin and 2 Tablespoons of warm water.)  The muffins were amazing, BUT with the eggless option, they stuck to the wrappers (both silicone and paper) and created a "crust" almost where they touched the wrappers.  So, unless you MUST make them egg-free for allergy purposes, I would recommend using the eggs.  Next time, I will probably make the cream cheese portion egg-free and then split the muffin batter to do 1/2 with eggs and 1/2 without.
My little guy with the allergies was VERY anxious to have these out of the oven and in his mouth.  He ate 2 whole muffins, and I think he'll probably ask to eat them for lunch!  Happy 14 months, little man (and princess, too.)

 

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients:

Cream Cheese Topping
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons brown sugar
Streusel Topping
4 1/2 tablespoons white whole wheat flour*
5 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons chopped pecans
Muffins
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin
1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 muffin cups, or use paper liners.
To make the filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until smooth, then set aside.
For the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.
For the muffin batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add eggs, pumpkin, olive oil and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.
Place pumpkin mixture in muffin cups about 1/2 full. Then add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture right in the middle of the batter. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
Bake at 375 degrees F (195 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

Wide Awake: Eyeballs for breakfast

So, I told you that I had a fun idea for breakfast this Halloween "season."  Here it is.  Each pair of eyeballs is made from 1 boiled egg, 2 slices of green olive, and some ketchup that was applied with a toothpick.  I don't think I'd eat the olives in the same bite as the egg, but the rest of it actually works.  My 5-year-old boy thought these were SO cool.  He gets to say he's "eating eyeballs for breakfast." Such a boy thing....If you have fun breakfast or lunch ideas, please feel free to share!  A blog reader sent me some links to some very cool sandwich ideas that I'll share soon. (Yes, I'm aware that the lighting in this picture is awful.  I attempted to fix it, but it didn't seem to help. If I have any photographer readers, I'm open to pointers!)