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Bread Breakfast Featured

Aunt Suzi’s Banana Bread

Banana Bread from www.jasonscooking.com
Temperature325°Time1 hour 30 mins

Banana Bread from www.jasonscooking.com

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Sometimes I like the idea of bananas better than actually eating bananas so we have a lot of brown bananas in the freezer.  The best part about all of those bananas in the freezer is that sometimes Michael will turn them into the most amazing banana bread in the world.  This recipe came from his Aunt Suzi and whenever I bring it to work, everyone goes bananas for it!

Seriously…this bread is bananas.  B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

I couldn’t resist…

The RecipeRecipe
Aunt Suzi's Banana Bread
 
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The world's most amazing banana bread. Seriously. Try it.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 2 Super Ripe Bananas, mashed
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1¾ Cup Flour
  • 1½ Cup Sugar
  • 1 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1½ tsp Salt
  • 1 Cup Walnuts (optional)
  • ½ Cup Oil
  • ¼ Cup plus 1 Tbsp Buttermilk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 325°
  2. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan. We've found that glass works the best.
  3. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix to combine.
  4. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until top is a deep brown and split and a toothpick comes out clean.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

Michael says his secret is that he doesn’t put the nuts in it but I’ll leave that up to you.  This bread is great plain or with butter or cream cheese.

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer
  • Don’t throw away your brown bananas.  Throw them in the freezer and then thaw them out when you’re ready to make this tasty treat.  The best part is they have their own wrapper!
  • This bread freezes really well after it’s cooked and doesn’t take long at all to thaw so you have a sweet treat on hand whenever you want one.
Fun FactsFun Facts
  • Bananas are naturally radioactive.
  • There are approximately 1000 different types of banana plants.
Categories
Bread Breakfast Featured

Buttermilk Biscuits

Temperature450°Time25 mins

breakfast_biscuits_062314

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I love breakfast more than any other meal.  Breakfast has the best meats, the best breads, and sometimes dessert is incorporated right into the meal.  I’ll take a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit over a club sandwich any day of the week!

Growing up in the south, biscuits were a pretty regular sight on the table – whether breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper.  The difference between lunch/supper and dinner is that dinner is fancier and was more likely to feature all the good stuff that southern food is known for, AKA biscuits.

Nanny (my mom’s mom) taught me the basics of biscuits but she never measured so I couldn’t turn out reliable biscuits like she did.  My goal this year was to “get good at biscuits” so I picked up a book called Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking and a bag of flour and went to work and here’s what I came up with…

The RecipeRecipe
Buttermilk Biscuits
 
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Tender and flaky buttermilk biscuits will make people think that you are a southern grandmother.
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 3 Cups Flour
  • 4 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 Tbsp Sugar
  • 5 Tbsp Butter
  • 3 Tbsp Vegetable Shortening
  • 1⅓ Cup Buttermilk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450°
  2. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl
  3. Cut in cold butter and shortening with a fork, your fingers, or a pastry cutter until you get pea sized chunks of flour/butter/shortening
  4. Pour in buttermilk and mix to combine. The mixture will be clumpy kind of like dry cookie dough.
  5. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and bring together into a dough - being careful not to overwork the dough.
  6. Pat dough out into a rectangle that is about ½ an inch thick and cut into biscuits. I cut them into squares because I didn't want to get out the biscuit cutters and reform the dough but you can cut rounds if you'd like.
  7. Place on greased sheet pan and put into the oven for 12 - 15 minutes. Watch them at the end and pull them out when they are golden brown and delicious.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks
Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Biscuits are super easy to make and freeze really well.  Get the hang of it and you’ll never buy a bag of frozen biscuits again!

  • Place uncooked biscuits in a single layer in the freezer so they’re not touching.
  • Once the biscuits have frozen, place them in a freezer bag for up to 6 months.
  • Cook biscuits directly from frozen at 375° on a greased pan for 20 – 25 minutes or until they’re golden brown and delicious.
Fun FactsFun Facts
  • A biscuit refers to a cookie in the United Kingdom and Canada.
  • White flour, commonly used to bake biscuits, is almost instantly metabolized into sugar. Biscuits will quickly spike your blood-sugar level.
Categories
Breakfast Featured

Homemade Breakfast Sausage Patties

Tasty breakfast sausage...
Temperature400°Time25 mins

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I’m going to show my hand in the controversial bacon vs. sausage debate and align with Team Sausage.  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and, while all of the breakfast meats are delicious, sausage is my favorite.  Don’t get me wrong, I love bacon – I just love sausage a wee bit more.  There’s nothing quite like a spicy/sweet sausage patty inside a light and fluffy buttermilk biscuit to get your day started off right.

The RecipeRecipe
Homemade Breakfast Sausage Patties
 
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Making your own breakfast sausage is super easy and you probably have most if not all of the spices you need in your cabinet right now!
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Cuisine: Southern
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 1 - 1.5 lb Ground Pork
  • 1 tsp Kosher Salt
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper
  • ½ tsp Dried Sage
  • ½ tsp Dried Thyme
  • 1 Tbs Brown Sugar
  • ¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • ½ tsp Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 Tbs Mustard Powder
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400°
  2. Combine all ingredients in a big bowl until it's one big mixture - think meatloaf.
  3. Divide mixture into 8 equal portions (mine are about 2.5 oz each) and form into patties
  4. Place patties on a sheet pan and cook for 10 minutes, flip the patties and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
  5. Test for doneness and enjoy!
  6. You can also cook these on the stove top in skillet.
Tips and TricksTips and Tricks

Here are some things you may not know about sausage:

  • It’s incredibly easy to make at home.
  • You can cook it in the oven!

I had no idea you could cook sausage in the oven!  I’ve been cooking it on the stove top like a schlub for years.  Like bacon, sausage in the oven is super easy and way less messy than cooking it on the stove top.  Give it a shot and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Feed the FreezerFeed the Freezer

Sausage patties freeze beautifully and can be cooked from frozen on the stove top or in the oven.

  • Place uncooked sausage patties not touching in a single layer in the freezer until they are solid.  Once solid, transfer them to a freezer bag and keep them for up to 6 months.
  • When ready to cook, remove the number of patties you need from the freezer and cook in a cast-iron skillet directly from the freezer until they are no longer pink in the center (about 5-6 minutes per side).

You can also freeze cooked sausage patties and reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop for a quick and mess-free breakfast!

Fun FactsFun Facts
  • 83% of sausages are made from pork.
  • Sausages were called bangers during the Second World War because they contained so much water they exploded when fried.