Chocolate Sunrise Surprise

No way!!!! 8:30 am on a Saturday morning and the kids aren't upstairs begging us to make breakfast yet!  Uh Ohhhhh!!! I vaguely recall hearing cupboards and jars and other random things being opened and sounds like they were happily working together on something.  8:45 am a smiling daughter comes up and then a smiling proud son.  "We made breakfast for you Mom and Dad!"  How could we not get up and go try it.  Luckily I was first so I could do the small taste.  A plastic bowl full of chocolate something. "Dad, we didn't put eggs in it like the last time so it's good." That explains the slime consistency a couple weeks ago of a similar mixture.  I had to leave the room before Mom had her big spoonful.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! from the kitchen as she tasted it.

Ingredients that we know of:  Mustard, Chocolate Quick powder, Hershey's chocolate syrup, Grated Orange peel, freshly juiced Orange juice, 8 drips of Cholula hot sauce, water, vinegar (not sure what kind or how many kinds), maple syrup, instant apple cider pack.

Chilaquiles Recipe

La Fe Tortillaria makes great Chilaquiles, but I really fell in love with them in La Jolla at a taco shop across the road from where I worked years ago.  The ones from La Fe make a great quick breakfast meal where I know they will make them for me.  The ones in La Jolla didn't even have any meat and were the cheapest thing on the menu but a huge portion and sooooooooo good.  Some friends from Mexico laugh at me when I say these are one of my favorite things and lots of taco dives kind of laugh at me when I ask if they make them because they are what people just make at home usually from leftovers.  This recipe post  is more of a summary of what can go in Chilaquiles that I have enjoyed from many different people and places.

German Pancakes Recipe a.k.a. Oven Pancakes

Use a cake pan, casserole pan, or pie tin.  They are good with syrup and powdered sugar or canned or fresh fruit.  This is the recipe we use but probably the same as everyone else too.  On a trip to England years ago, almost the same thing was served smaller as a bread with dinner.  Dessert to one is a dinner roll to another.

Cheese Strata Recipe

This is the in-laws Christmas Day and New Years Day and special day recipe that most of the married into the family and almost all of the born into the family love.  It can be made ahead of time and frozen to bake later or baked and frozen to reheat later.  Butter amounts can be increased or decreased and the corner pieces are always the best.

Crepe Recipe

A blender and a pan and just a few ingredients make a crepe that can be filled with anything main dish or dessert.  This is moms recipe that we've used forever.

Waffles Recipe - a big batch

Waffles are great!  So many years soy free has made a necessity of making a big batch for freezing.  Waffles at stores and even at restaurants usually have at least the soy lecithin from the nonstick spray they use on the waffle iron. Here's the recipe we've used for years.  It makes a lot.

Ikea Apple Cake Inspired Recipe Wannabee with Italian tilt

I love the Swedish Apple Cake or Applekaka that used to be a staple at Ikea's restaurant.  Trying to find a duplicate for this recipe is a challenge because there are so many versions of this in Sweden and they just don't turn out the same.  So this recipe is inspired by Ikea and our Swedish roots but a Wannabee because it just isn't the same.  The Italian tilt is because the browned sugar topping and lower profile are more reminiscent of an Italian apple torte. Our favorite way to make this is in a big 12 inch round cake pan and we can polish it off between 4 or 5 of us for breakfast because we love it so much.  A more practical and less caloric way we make it is in two round layer cake pans.  We then eat one of them for 4 or 5 of us and freeze the 2nd one in a gallon Ziploc for a different day.       

OK UPDATE DECEMBER 2011.... Just was at Ikea in San Diego and what used to be a wonderful cake of beautifully sliced apples that was amazing is now a cake of apple chunks that look mooshed and pressed together with goop so they can be mass produced cheaply and sold frozen.  I sooooooooo miss the old Apple Cake they used to have.  So I now love this posted recipe so much more that I don't think I'll ever want to even try to put the new IKEA Slop of an apple cake in my mouth again.  SOOOOOOOO SAD that the good stuff is gone.

UPDATE APRIL 2015.... Tried it again at IKEA last week and now it is almost completely some sort of congealed cornstarch or hardened mush filler that isn't even goop consistency any more. I miss the Applekaka of the past but am thankful for the recipe I have and am hopeful to find a real one again some day in Sweden or somewhere here in the states.

Devilled Eggs Recipe "Doubled Eggs"

How to boil eggs and what to do with them after dying them for Easter from the mouth of a preschooler.

Orange Rolls and Swedish Tea Rings

There is way too much to say about Orange Rolls and Swedish Tea Rings.  I just don't have the time right now.  BUT, I keep forgetting to post this handout Suzanne did years ago that works for both.  She makes amazing orange rolls and her hints are from experience.  This year we did our traditional Tea Rings but didn't have time for separate orange rolls so we used double the orange roll filling and used it to make a couple of the tea rings and it was so much easier than making individual rolls and cleaning out all the muffin tins, that I thnk we may do the orange roll Swedish tea ring hibrid from now on,(or at least if I'm making them alone.)

For a pretty good Almond Filling I put 2 cups of white sugar, 1 cup of almonds, 2 teaspoons of almond extract and 1 cup of melted butter in the Cuisinart until it basically becomes almond paste.

For Swedish Tea Rings, I also frost them when cooled with an almond frosting and then sprinkle sliced almonds over the top if I have them.  Blackberry, Raspberry, or Boysenberry Jam with butter for a filling with or without sliced almonds mixed works well for filling too.  Let them rise about 30 minutes or more after shaping them.

FREEZING: I used to make these with cinnamon, orange zest, or almond paste and freeze after cutting the dough wrapped in plastic wrap and then in gallon ziplocks.  They were easy to thaw and bake leaving out overnight.  Instead of detailing the process, here is a similar to same process that I used to to and it has pictures. Freezing cinnamon roll dough to bake later

Banana Bread - Not My Favorite

YUCK!!!! Just pulled out a frozen pack of ripe bananas from the freezer looking for chicken.  NO! Banana Bread is not my favorite and I only occassionaly tolerate it but my family likes it so here is the recipe we've used.  If you're making it for me, please add nuts and NEVER add chocolate chips.  Something about chocolate chips in banana bread makes my stomach turn when I bite into it and I've heard the same from some others when its been served at church potlucks too.  OK now that I've offended every person that loves the chocolate chips in it and has given it to us as gifts or served it to us, there are enough people in our family that like it that way that it is always eaten and enjoyed. 

Please mash, smash, pulverize the banana enough so it doesn't have chunks of slime throughout.  I think the chunks of slime bit is what has turned me off from banana bread in general.  Its the surprise in a bite I just don't want to find.  Kind of like the instant slime rehydration of seaweed in California Roll sushi that makes me stay away but not to the slime factor of Sea Urchin in sushi.

5th Day of Christmas, Pumpkin Ginger Bread

This is one of our favorites!  Basically Pumkin Bread with crystalized ginger throughout it.  Besides baking in long loaf pans, it works great as muffins and is great to make a batch and pull out of the freezer when you need it.

Orange Julius Similar Recipe (without the egg)

I don't know how Dad and Mom used to afford these as a treat for us when they would take us to the juice place but Dad liked them enough to have this override stopping at Baskin Robbins at times.  I used to like the strawberry ones.  I'm pretty sure we would put whole eggs in them too when we would make them at home, but NO THANKS for me on that extra ingredient.