Strawberry Bread

Strawberry Bread

2 cups fresh strawberries
3 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans

This is wonderful hot or cold, for breakfast or a dessert. Great for the spring!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.

Slice strawberries, and place in medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and set aside while preparing bread mixture.
Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in large bowl: mix well. Blend oil and eggs into strawberries. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, blending until dry ingredients are just moistened. Stir in pecans. Divide batter into pans.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn loaves out, and cool completely.

Easy Fruit Cobbler

I needed a quick recipe, and it had to match the ingredients I had on hand...this filled the bill. It's from Southernfood.about.com, and they consider it a 'dump cake'. I did it with canned cherries, but can see that any fruit would be good:

4 ounces butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup milk
dash of salt
1 can fruit pie filling

Melt butter in an 8x8x2 inch baking dish. Mis all ingredients except fruit in a medium bowl. (No mixer is required). Pour the batter over the butter. Pour filling over the top. Bake at 350 degrees 45-60 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. I added some powdered sugar on top. Serves 8

There, didn't I say simple? This is a great 'have the ingredients on hand' cobbler, and it is fast and easy (are you noticing a theme to my posts???). It would be a great breakfast/brunch sweet instead of muffins. One note: I didn't bake it for the full 45 minutes, since it browned up about 38-40 minutes. I would set the timer for about 35 minutes and check it. I did put a piece of foil over the top and let it bake a couple of extra minutes when I noticed the edges browing a lot. This is a very good recipe to try with kids. It's hard to mess up something this simple.

Breakfast: Stuffed Croissant French Toast with Compote

This recipe was on a blog I frequent, and sounds yummy...I can't vouch for it (yet) but will add a note when I try it out. How could this be bad???

Stuffed Croissant French Toast~
We have wonderful strawberries in Oregon, and my hubby loves a nice breakfast on our weekends~ Breakfast is so fun, easy, and a nice time to really get your day started off right~This is what we are having Saturday, to get the day going~ tweak it as you may, I always do~

Strawberry Compote:
1 1/4 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 sugar (or what you use)
1 tsp brandy
1/4 cup orange zest

French Toast:
4 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 tbsp brandy
1tbsp brown sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
6 croissants
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese

Additional Ingredients:
confectioner's sugar, butter, real Vermont maple syrup (your favorite)

SERVES 6
For Strawberry compote:
Mix together strawberries, sugar,brandy and orange zest and let sit for 30 minutes to mingle flavors~
For the French Toast:
In a meduim bowl, slightly beat the eggs. Add cream, brandy, brown sugar, vanilla, and beat well. Slice the croissant in half, lengthwise. Soak croissant in egg mixture. Melt butter on a hot griddle and place croissant on griddle, cut side down, and cook until brown (4-5 minutes) then flip. make sure it is done all the way through, then immediately move to plate and spread about 2 teaspoons of mascarpone cheese on the bottom half of each croissant.
Top with the other half of the croissant and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and serve with Compote for dipping, butter and maple syrup on the side if desired~
Enjoy~

Update: I made this with my grandson and it was a real hit. Not for the diet crowd, but a good special occasion breakfast!

Casserole: Breakfast: Spicy Sausage Casserole

Need a breakfast for guests and don't want to get up at 5 AM to make it? Here's a great breakfast casserole that will fill the bill:

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups seasoned croutons (in a pinch, stuffing mix works too)
1 pound spicy pork sausage
4 eggs (can use up to 6)
2 1/4 cups milk
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach - thawed, drained and squeezed dry (I have also made this without spinach)
1 (4.5 ounce) can mushrooms, drained and chopped (I use fresh mushrooms, onions and garlic, sauteed with the sausage as it cooks)
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
2 sprigs fresh parsley, for garnish

DIRECTIONS
Spread croutons on bottom of greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Crumble sausage into medium skillet. Cook over medium heat until browned, stirring occasionally. Drain off any drippings. Spread sausage over croutons.
In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until well blended. Stir in soup, spinach, mushrooms, cheeses and mustard. Pour egg mixture over sausage and croutons. Refrigerate overnight.
The next morning, preheat oven to 325 degrees F .
Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until set and lightly browned on top. Garnish with parsley sprigs and serve hot.

Yield: 10 to 12 servings
PREP TIME 25 Min
COOK TIME 55 Min
READY IN 1 Hr 20 Min

This recipe can be made with egg substitute, skim milk and turkey sausage if you prefer to keep it lighter.