Author Archives: metamegan

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Bread Pudding

IMG_0586I was inspired to make bread pudding for Fancy Breakfast Friday because my friend Laura has been sending me recipes from her beloved bed and breakfast cookbook.  Dave was going to be out of town, and since he doesn’t like bread pudding, the timing seemed perfect.  But then I started thinking of the homemade pop tarts, chocolate babka, a batch of delicious cookies from a cookbook I received for Christmas, madeleines from the same cookbook, and a batch of brownies, and I thought maybe I had used enough butter to last a lifetime.  It was really time to switch to something more savory for breakfast.

Then I ended up at Cured and they had some gorgeous french bread that just screamed to me, “make me into bread pudding please.  Oh la la.”  It was meant to be.

I wanted to go with a basic recipe and I turned to the wisdom of dear old Betty Crocker.  I used this recipe here.  Where she calls for 6 slices of soft white bread, I used 8 ounces of french bread, plus two whole wheat hamburger buns that were lurking about in my pantry.  I added the buns because the whole mixture seemed a little too wet.

I mixed everything the night before and put in the fridge and then cooked it in the morning.

I served the bread pudding with vanilla yogurt.  It was good.

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Fancy Breakfast Friday: Chocolate Babka


If you read Food and Wine, or look at the cover in line at thegrocery store, this chocolate babka will look familiar.  Or maybe it will look a little flatter than it should be.  Regardless – find the recipe here.  I suggest buying the magazine though because their website is a pain.  I veered from the recipe in two places – where it said “let it rise for two hours until doubled in size” I instead let it rise for the amount of time it takes to put kids to bed and watch an episode of The Making of  Murderer.  That is about 90 minutes, and in that time it rose somewhere between “not at all” and 10%.   But it was 10 pm and I wantedto bake it before I went to bed so into the oven it went.  Hence the slightly rectangular shape instead of the  beautiful squares you see on Food and Wine.  I did the glaze in the morning and this is where I made another change.  I was out of butter after the almost 3 sticks used in the dough and filling.  (I accidentally ate just a salad for lunch a few weeks ago and I have been in a baking frenzy ever since.)  So I thought, “ugh! Another stick and a half of butter and 12 ounces of chocolate!”  So I used four ounces of cream and four ounces of chocolate (or maybe 6 and 6) for a ganache.  I went to bed thinking the loaves were pretty enough without the glaze but in the morning I could see the glaze was necessary. 

As I was waiting for kids to get up, I did a little research into the history of chocolate babka, because 100 % of my knowledge was from The Seinfeld episode where the bakery runs out of chocolate babka and Jerry and Elanie are forced to get a lesser babka: cinnamon.  So I rewatched the clip and then looked up choclate babka on wikipedia (I didn’t say my research was very thorough or extension) and I learned it is an Eastern European (I kinda got that from the name) holiday celebration cake.  So where did I get that it was appropriate for breakfast on a  Friday?  Fancy Breakfast Friday has officially gone off the rails.

Lucky for me, we had plans to stay with friends at their condo in the  mountains, and you make yourself welcome with a chocolate babka.  (I threw in quiche for good measure.)  The babka was a hit, with Jack requesting it for his birthday, which as we know is the highest praise that can be given.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Bespoke hand glazed oven pastries* aka Homemade Pop Tarts


I was in line at the grocery store the other day and I saw a magazine with homemade pop tarts on the cover, and I knew what my next Fancy Breakfast Friday was going to be.  Pop tarts were something my mom never ever ever bought when we were growing up.  She did buy toaster strudel once, so I’m not sure what she had against pop tarts.  If I had to guess, I would say that she thought pop tarts were gross, or possible too expensive.  When I grew up, got a job, and became hungry and bored one time, I got pop tarts out of the vending machine.  They were OK.  For the calories, I would take a candy bar any day, so that was that.  I’m pretty sure my kids have never had pop tarts either, because they are the kind of thing I would eat if they were in the house, and then feel like it wasn’t worth it.  However, for some reason the homemaede pop tarts called to me.  I decided just to make them, and not use a recipe, just totally wing it.  I made a pie crust, and rolled it out thin and chilled it for an hour.  (OK fine I used a pie crust recipe – this one here, I chose water, not milk for the liquid.)  Then I cut out rectangles of approximately matching sizes, I wanted to make 12 so everyone could have 3… so I had to make them smaller and smaller as I went along. I brushed the bottom with an egg wash and added the filling.  Strawberry jelly for the strawberry ones and brown sugar and cinnamon for the others.  I put the tops on and used a fork to seal the edges.  The tops were brushed with egg wash and then I baked them at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  Once they were cool, I made a frosting of powdered sugar, a little milk, vanilla and brown sugar.  Once I had frosted all the pop tarts with brown sugar filling, I added strawberry quick to the frosting for the strawberry pop tarts.  It took about an hour for the frosting to set, so this was a “make it the night before” recipe.  For breakfast I warmed them up in a 350 oven for 5 minutes.  Served with bacon and eggs.  They were described as “good” and “buttery and sweet.”  Not the highest praise I have ever received, but they were fun to make!

* I was going to just go with homemade pop tarts for the title but Dr. Mark had better ideas when he saw the pic on Instagram.   Now he wins a hand delivered fancy breakfast Friday pastry from this week.  Offer valid for all readers who invite us to stay at their ski condo.

Monday Madness: A simple shopping trip

Here is something to laugh about on a Monday – Jack and I had a crazy trip to Target that I have been meaning to talk about.  This took place in the week between Jack’s birthday and a Bar Mitzvah that Luke attended.  I spent the better part of a week shopping for dress clothes for Luke, by myself, buying and returning and comparing prices.  I went to two Targets, Nordstrom Rack, Macys, and the J Crew outlet.  What I found were suits that were either heinous or really expensive.  I bought some dress shirts, and ties and shopped for dress shoes.  Dress shoes in Luke’s size don’t exist.  Kids sizes stop about a half size below his size, and adult shoes start a half size up.  Dave had to finally take Luke to get fancy tennis shoes when we ran out of ideas.  He ended up in a suit we borrowed as a costume two years ago, and dress tennis shoes (vans) and a shirt and tie he already had.  He looked great, and I had a stack of stuff to return.

Jack, meanwhile, had birthday money burning a hole in his pocket and a “mommy’s mistake” present to return.  He was also very jealous of Luke’s dress tennis shoes.  And I agreed that he could use a new pair of shoes.  So off we went to Nordstrom rack to return a dress shirt and dig through the piles of kids shoes.  As I parked I said, “Ooooooh no. I forgot my wallet.  Oh well, let’s go in anyway and see if there is anything worth coming back for.  Otherwise, we should go home and then go straight to target.  Plus, maybe I can return this shirt without my wallet.”  Jack was THRILLED.  Who doesnt love window shopping for shoes?  But then a miraculous thing happened.  We found a great pair of shoes that were the exact price of the shirt I was returning.  Even exchange, two errands done, easey peasey lemon squeezy.

But before we could go to target I did need my wallet so we headed home, and on the way, I noticed that I did have my wallet.  After essentially a giant trip around the block we were back at Target returning the build your own catapult set I had bought Jack, not noticing the “age 14 and up” on it.  Target asked if their was anything wrong with it I said, “No.. I just didn’t notice the age suggestion.  Plus my husband has a masters degree in engineering and he found this very frustrating and hard to follow so…”

Jack and I were finally in the toy aisle when I noticed that I didn’t have my purse and Jack had left his birthday money in the car.  (We had gotten distracted trying to use the puncture the airbag/cut off the seatbelt/crack the windshield/set up a flair/multi tool my mom bought me after she thought I was going to drive in to the creek.  Click here for that story. We were trying to use the tool to get the zip tie off the shoes.  It didn’t work.)

Back out to the car, and back to the toy aisle.  Jack picked out a giant box of giant star wars figures and we paid and left and went home.  When I opened the trunk and handed the box to Jack was surpised to see a target shopping basket.  How did that get there?  Dave and Luke were laughing – the toy Jack got was way too big for the shopping basket, so what was a carrying in it?   I had to said, “I guess just my purse.”

Next time I went to Target, I returned the basket, despite Jack’s fear that I would be arrested for theft on my way into to store.  This all took place before I started my Christmas shopping, so I think you can understand why people are still receiving gifts from me into the middle of January.  

Fancy Breakfast Friday: A New Pancake Recipe


I bought the cookbook, Breakfast: Recipes to Wake Up For with some of my Christmas/Birthday Amazon money and the first thing I made was the pancake recipe.  These pancakes rely more on eggs than bking soda/baking power – so they are a little thinner and a little eggier.  It also has a ton more vanilla than most recipes I have used.  If I had to put these on the spectrum between pancake and crepe, they’d be just 10% off the middle towards the pancake side.  They were a hit.  I might play around with substitutin some of the flour for whole wheat next time though.  We’ll see.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: The Force Awakens Edition

We went to Steamboat Springs for New Years eve, and I knew that the motel continental breakfast wasn’t for everyone.  I mean, the boys love a good toaster waffle, and I secretly love taking a break from making breakfast, but a continental breakfast can only take you so far.  When you are headed up to snowboard for hours in sub-zero temps you need a little something extra.  So I made banana bread to take with us.  I mostly follow this Cooking Light recipe – sub full fat vanilla yogurt for lowfat yogurt, and since the yogurt is sweetened, I put in 75% of the sugar.  It’s so good.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Happy New Year!

I’m vacationing for New Years and I decided that I don’t want to leave my fancy camera in various parking lots at 10 or fewer degrees while I shred the mountain on my snowboard.  (I use the term shred loosely.)  So I don’t have access to the photos I took on Christmas morning of the fabulous breakfast that I made.  (Reminder, #FBF is one week delayed.) Earlier in the week though, I did make this gingerbread dutch baby.  It was pretty, but nothing to write a blog post about.

For Christmas morning, I made the same scones I make every year.  I make the scones ahead of time and freeze them, then they go straight in the oven at 375 and cook until browned and perfect.   So yummy.  Click here for the recipe.  

I also made a fritatta.  On Christmas eve I microwaved some spinach (my recipe calls for “all the spinach that is about to go bad in your fridge.)  I also sliced some onions and shredded some chedder cheese.  In the morning, I sauteed the onions in olive oil, while I whisked about 6-8 eggs.  I whisked in the cheese, spinach and some leftover choppped bacon.  Once the skillet was heated up and the onions were softening, I poured the egg mixture in.  i left the eggs on top of the stove until they no longer wiggled when I shook the pan, and the scones were done.  Then I put them in the hot oven with the broiler on low.  Presents were on the verge of being opened so I had to keep a close eye on everything.  Scones, frittata, sausages, and bacon were served with milk, juice, coffee, and presents.

Happy New Year Everyone!  Here’s to some delicious breakfasts in 2016!

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Gingerbread Waffles

 Merry Christmas everybody!  Fancy Breakfast Friday is always a week behind so while you are reading this I am probably preparing the ultimate Fancy Breakfast Friday Christmas Breakfast.  (Spoiler alert: I try to take it easy on Christmas morning.)   But as Christmas approached, I had to dig out the Martha Stewart Gingerbread Waffle recipe.  Its not to late to eat these this year, but be sure they are on the menu for next year for sure.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Frittata and Cinnamon Rolls

I have to say I nailed the spinach and zucchini fritatta that I made for Fancy Breakfast Friday. These are from the book Feed Zone Portables: A Cookbook of on the Go Food for Athletes.  The recipe warns that they may be hard to get out of the muffin tins, which was a massive understatement.  These were good, according to everyone but Jack, but if I need an on the go fritatta, next time I would make one in the cast iron skillet and then cut them into smaller slices.  Because that muffin tin wasn’t going to clean itself.

But look how yummy they looked – hot out of the oven.


I forgot that Jack hates fritatta, but fortunately I also made pumpkin rolls.  Luke brought the recipe home from school because someone made them for their how-to speech.  The recipe calls for half a cup of pumpkin which I happened to have.  These were delish.

Monday, Monday

Over the past several months I made the smooth transition from over achieving IT person to overachieving mom.   I knew I had hit my quota (in Luke’s eyes) as a field trip chaperone (stories for other times), but when I heard the 7th graders were going to see “He Named Me Malala”…well, I wanted to go.  I asked if it was OK and Luke shrugged.  I know that was a subtle way of saying “no thank you”, but I took it to me, “sure, chaperone another trip, Mother!”  So I checked the box and never heard another word.

As the movie day approached I thought, “Maybe they don’t need me?  Or maybe Luke unchecked thebox himself?  I guess I should show up, because what if they are counting on me?  But what if they don’t need me?  What to do?”

In the end I decided I would rather be the weirdo who wasn’t supposed to be there, than the horrible person who didn’t show up when she was being counted on to keep track of 9 kids.  But what time?  And where?

I just went into the school at the beginning of the day and explained my situation.  “Hi, i signed up to chaperone the trip to the movie, but then I never heard anything so I don’t know if they need me or what….”  They said I could stay for the all school assembly or come back in an hour when they were supposed to leave for the movie.  I chose to go home and put dinner in the crock pot.

An hour later I showed up again in the office and said my spiel.  They still weren’t sure what was going on, and they sent me over to where the 7th graders were gathered.  I asked a couple people if they had heard back afer they volunteered and they said yes, they had to fill out a bunch of paperwork.  But, as a frequent volunteer I had already done that.   So now what?  I kept making polite conversation with people until I ran into someone who had the list of volunteers, instructions, and she was waiting on the check for the tickets.  That combination of info would lead a normal person to assume that I was talking to a teacher, but, well.  I told her my story and she showed me the list of chaperones.  I was not on the list.  But then I made it weirder and more awkward.

I thought she looked familar so I said, “Did you chaperone the trip to the art museum?” She said no.  I said, “Oh, you remind me a little of a mom I met on that field trip.”  And she said, “OH!  I’m not a mom! I’m a teacher!”  And I thought, “DUH”  I said, “Oh, what do you teach?”  And she said she’s a math teacher.  And then, instead of slowly fading into a locker I said, “OH!  That’s why you look familiar! You’re Luke’s math teacher!”  (Parents of younger kids, FYI it’s totally normal not to know what your middle school kid’s teachers look like.  Especially if you go to a wedding instead of conferences.  BUT I did go to parents night, so that’s why I had a vague idea of what Luke’s math teacher looked like.)  She said Luke had the best handwriting.  

Then I decided enough was enough, I embarrassed myself in front of Luke’s teacher and I was like some sort of chaperone groupie trying to get on the bus.  So I told anyone who was listening that I was going to leave since they didn’t need me.  I stopped in the office to tell them too, and they said, “Oh no!  Stay!  We just bought you a ticket, the more the merrier!!!!”  

Then I had to go back to the people I had just left and say, “actually… I am going.”

But I didn’t have to face my fear of not having a list of kids to watch, because no one was in charge of anyone, and there wasn’t even enough room on the bus.  Fortunately for my extra-chaperone-anxiety they were more than one seat short.  Another mom offered to driver herself and I said “Take me with you!” and we fled.

I did have to put my shushing skills to work because we were in the lobby for a loooong time.  And why was that? Because the movie was corrupted.  Instead of seeing “He Called Me Malala” we saw “The Good Dinosaur.”

I had actually spent 10 minutes complaining to Dave about a podcast that devoted 15 minutes to discussing how bad The Good Dinosaur was. Why talk for 15 minutes about a movie the podcast didn’t recommend?  ANd I wasn’t ever going to see it, the kids hadn’t even mentioned it.  Little did I know I would sacrifice my dignity and half a day to see The Good Dinosaur.  I will say that it was better than I thought it was going to be.