a Small Bowl of Cereal Has a Big Impact

I have to admit it, before this pregnancy, I never gave much thought to my cereal intake. I kept my pantry stocked with cereal flavors my children requested (within reason, we save the really sweet stuff for special treats on vacation), and on the rare mornings I took the time to eat breakfast, I reached for one of their boxes to satisfy a breakfast cereal craving. With the exception of the type of cereals that radically change the color of the milk in the bowl, it was hard to go wrong.

But this pregnancy changed my relationship with cereal, in a way that will impact my life long after I give birth. The nausea of first trimester made skipping breakfast impossible. I simply could not make it through the morning on an empty stomach. A nice bowl of cereal with ice cold milk filled my stomach and kept me fueled for the day. I also found that when the nausea crept back in at various times of the day, dry cereal was a fantastic way to have it retreat again.

I began giving the cereals in my pantry more consideration, and I realized what an important source of daily nutrients the right cereal can be. While the Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies and Frosted Mini Wheats my kids adore have many of the vitamins and nutrients their growing bodies need, I started looking for a cereal that was better designed for a woman's needs, one that packed more fiber for example.

Increasing your fiber intake by having a bowl of cereal that has at least five grams of fiber is such an easy to positively impact your health. The Mayo Clinic points out that having a high fiber diet not only
promotes bowel health and regularity, but it can also lower blood cholesterol levels and help you lose weight. It's amazing that a quick bowl of cereal in the morning can make such a difference.

I recently received two different boxes of Kelloggs FiberPlus Antioxidants cereals to try which include
high fiber content and are rich in antioxidant vitamins C & E and was thrilled to find that they not only meet my goal of finding a more nutritious cereal, but are also delicious to boot. Kelloggs is also providing me with a stipend as compensation for sharing my thoughts with you on these cereals.

My favorite was the FiberPlus Cinnamon Oat Crunch in terms of taste and texture. It was great as an afternoon snack and with some cold milk for breakfast. I like a cereal that remains crisp even if you get distracted some early morning kiddie crankiness. One bowl has 9g of fiber which is 35% of your daily recommended fiber. I loved to combine the crunchy cinnamon cereal with slices of fresh bananas. The flavors paired beautifully and gave me an added potassium and fiber boost.

The FiberPlus Yogurt Berry Crunch was the second flavor I received, and I liked it less because I prefer to turn to fresh fruit instead of packaged fruit in my cereals. That said, the fiber content of this flavor was a little higher: 10g of fiber, so if you're a fan of fruity cereals, you should definitely try this flavor. It might be a fun cereal to try in a yogurt parfait with vanilla yogurt and sliced strawberries.

So take a look at the cereals in your pantry, especially the nutrition panel. You might be surprised by the goodness contained there, or at least inspired to make an easy change that will really impact your family's breakfast and snacking habits.

Fiber Boosting Yogurt Parfait
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Ingredients:
4 strawberries
1/2 cup of plain or vanilla yogurt
1/3 cup of Fiberplus Yogurt Berry Crunch (or other crunchy cereal of your choice)

1. In a pretty, clear glass or bowl, layer the different ingredients, beginning with the yogurt and finishing with the strawberries.
2. Serve immediately and enjoy.

Cinnamon Pear Breakfast Cake for my Weekly Coffee Klatsch

Since moving to Chicago last summer, I've made a group of friends that have quickly come to mean the world to me, a small group of women who like me, chose to leave behind careers earned with advanced degrees to be at home with their children. Smart women who read and think as much as I do, whether it's the darker meaning buried in the latest Pinkalicious children's book or an interesting New York Times article.

We get together once a week for coffee, after dropping off the kids at school, and I look forward to those mornings all week. What I love most about what we've come to call our coffee klatsch is that our conversations can and usually drift from mundane topics like our favorite supermarket to intellectual discussions prompted by the latest New Yorker article. Even surrounded by my children's artwork and toys, I reconnect with the career woman I used to be thanks to my coffee klatsch mornings.

I doubt our conversations would flow as well without the baked treats the host prepares: scones, muffins, or  coffee cakes, often hot out of the oven. With so much in common, it makes sense that we also all love to cook and share recipes. I had the ladies over on Friday, and I prepared a golden cinnamon pear cake to serve. it was the perfect breakfast treat, not too sweet with cinnamon and vanilla scented pears that just melted in the mouth.

Breakfast Pear Cake
(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen Mom's Apple Cake)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients:
5 large pears, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1 orange, juice of
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan with a removable bottom, or, if you don't have one, a simple round cake pan. 
2. Peel, quarter, and cut the pears into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
3. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. 
4. In a separate bowl, juice the orange, no need to be fancy, just squeeze it by hand, removing any pits. Whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until well incorporated.
5. Now fold in the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula. Scrape the bottom and the sides well to make sure you have no unsightly pockets of flour left.
6. Pour half of batter into your greased pan. Spread all the pears over it, gently to not crush them too much. My pears had oozed out some yummy cinnamon juice, I folded that in as well. Cover with the remaining batter and smooth out with a spatula.
7. Bake for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. You can serve this warm or cold.

Sour Cream Banana Muffins with Oatmeal Crumble

These browning beauties are an invitation to bake.

We recently signed up for an organic and local produce delivery service called TCF Organics. It's a wonderful service that delivers huge quantities of delicious produce to our front porch every Wednesday at a much lower cost than you could get them anywhere else. Like a CSA, they reserve the right to choose the freshest and tastiest produce to deliver, so we never quite know what we'll find in our cooler, but we always know that it will be good. As these things go, there's usually one item that tends to pile up and so far it's been bananas.

I woke up this morning to an alarming pile of bananas in varying shades of brown, just crying out to be turned into something delicious. I am not one of those people who greet the day with a wide smile, jumping out of bed to achieve great things. This isn't some sort of new development as a result of nocturnal disturbances by sleepwalking children. I've never been a morning person, but my husband, on the other hand, is one of those mysterious morning people who completes a day's worth of activities before I painfully open my eyes. Because of this, he is the breakfast king and I rarely make breakfast treats. But tomorrow morning, we will all be rewarded by these warm sour cream banana muffins with a sweet and crumbly topping.

The crumbly oatmeal topping is sweet with caramel overtones. You can't resist picking at it.

Sour Cream Banana Muffins with Oatmeal Crumble
Ingredients:
For the muffins:
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas
½ cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
For the topping:
1/2 cup of oatmeal (not steel cut, the quick oats kind but not the instant kind)
1/2 cup of a dark brown sugar
1/4 cup of butter, softened

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two sheets of 12-muffin tins. (adding a dusting a flour on top of your butter or other grease barrier will help your muffins pop out beautifully after cooking.)
2. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating well.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon. Add the bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Stir well.
4. Pour batter into each muffin hole, filling each 2/3 of the way up. Set aside.
5. Cream together the oatmeal, brown sugar, vanilla, and butter.
6. Scoop up a teaspoon of topping and crumble it on top of each muffin hole.
7. Bake, until a tester comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
8. Either serve warm, or cover once cooled to serve the next day for breakfast.
9. These are heavenly cut in half with a pat of salty butter on top. Also fantastic with fig preserves.

Yogurt Cake Brings Back Memories of Growing Up in France

Posing like a tourist with the kids in Paris.

Immediately after college, when career, love, and life were still somewhat up in the air, people always asked me why on earth I was living in New York. As soon as they heard I was from France, they'd ask with this envious and confused look on their face, "Why aren't you in Paris? Why would you choose to live here? I would kill to live in France." I'd try to answer them, but they were never listening, their eyes were far away, no doubt dreaming of walking on cobbled streets arm in arm with a French lover, eating baguettes.


Even though the often repeated conversation frustrated me, I understood. Why would someone who had such romantic memories of France from a vacation or a few months studying abroad want to hear about unemployment rates, cost of living, and limited opportunities? It was much more romantic and pleasant to dream of biting into a croissant than to imagine yourself not being able to afford one.

Last week, I read a memoir that captured life in Paris so honestly and vividly that I wish I'd had it in my hand to give to everyone who ever asked me why I chose to make a life in the States. Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard is the story of how she fell in love with a Frenchman and came to live in Paris. There's plenty about the markets and the amazing food you'll eat in Paris. But she also talks about how cold many apartments are in the winter and how difficult it is to make friends with French people who have had the same group of friends since high school. It's all told in a straightforward, thoroughly entertaining manner, and I alternated between laughing out loud and nodding in violent agreement throughout the book.

Elizabeth Bard met her prince in Paris and made her home there. She gave him some of her American optimism and entrepreneurial energy while adapting to making small portion meals without leftovers and a bikini-wearing mother in law. By taking France in her heart, she became a American-French hybrid, something she makes peace with through cooking. I met my prince in New York and my home here. I gave him some of my French palate and relaxed attitude towards time while adapting to strip malls and my mother in law's matzo ball soup. I too became a hybrid, a Franco-American hybrid with my own set of recipes and memories. My home is here now, and I experience France as a visitor, stuffing all the tastes of my childhood in a week or two each year. I look forward to those food-filled weeks all year. I'm a tourist in France, a tourist with a treasure trove of childhood memories.

Each chapter of Lunch in Paris closes with recipes, wonderful recipes. I made the yogurt cake the other day, a simple cake to throw together that makes a perfect breakfast or snack treat. Its moist crumbs are pure comfort, and with one bite, I transported back as a little girl with a page boy haircut home from school in Paris, having my 4-heures snack with my mom, sisters, and our many dogs.

You should make the yogurt cake your own, with whatever fruit you happen to have on hand. I used strawberry kefir drinkable yogurt to make this and it gave the cake a pleasant strawberry flavor. Next time, I'll try it with plain Greek yogurt.

Strawberry Yogurt Cake (Gateau au Yaourt) - adapted from Lunch in Paris
Ingredients:
1 cup plain or flavored yogurt
1 cup sugar
a large pinch of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/3 cups of vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 cup of sliced supermarket strawberries
optional: zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Butter a round or bundt pan thoroughly.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, salt and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
3. Add the oil in a steady stream, whisking as you pour, feeling like a kitchen rockstar. Now add the eggs one at a time, whisking to blend after each one.
4. Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Add to the yogurt mixture. Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until blended. If you're going with the lemon zest, add it in now.
5. Transfer the batter to the cake pan. Top with the strawberries. 
6. Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes. Will be golden brown and will have risen. The cake is done when a knife comes out clean.
7. This cake is delicious warm, or saved for breakfast for the next morning (or two). It's moist and keeps well. Top with a little confectioner's sugar for fun.

Special thanks to the From Left to Write book club who provided me with this wonderful memoir to read. I'm really looking forward to the Pot Luck lunch I'll be hosting next week with the other Chicago members who also read the book. If you're in the area and have an appetite for French food - let me know!

Oatmeal, My Secret Weapon on the Tennis Court

When I moved to Ohio, not knowing a soul, I turned to tennis to make friends. Through the competition and camaraderie of the traveling tennis team, I got to know my new home and dealt with the stress of moving. I  also pushed my body athletically more than I had since running track in the early years of high school. I learned quickly that a proper breakfast was no longer a luxury. A small bowl of cereal or a quick slice of toast would leave me drained and slow after forty minutes of play, not a great way to endear myself to my new teammates.

I quickly found that starting out the morning with a bowl of hot oatmeal was the key to shining on the court. A serving of traditional Quaker oats took five minutes to cook on the stovetop. I then tossed it with some fresh fruit, brown sugar, and a drizzle of milk and fueled myself powerfully for the morning. It's amazing how much of a difference eating oatmeal made. It became a little joke on the team, and other players would say, "Watch out! Vanessa's had her oatmeal today!"

I'd always seen the heart healthy symbol on the Quaker Oats box, but it took kicking up my tennis to a new level to fully appreciate the benefit my body drew from a comforting bowl of oatmeal, packed with whole grain goodness. I'm lucky not to have cholesterol problems, but my husband does so I encourage him to eat oatmeal as well for his heart health.

Heart disease is so prevalent in America, according to the American Heart Association, one in three Americans suffer from it and many are not even aware they are at risk. Quaker and a number of local supermarkets have partnered to offer free cholesterol screenings to customers who purchase 3 or more Quaker products in one visit so that you can evaluate your heart health risk. In the Chicago area, the screenings are available through March 27 at Jewel-Osco supermarkets. You can check the Quaker Power in Numbers website to see who administers the screenings in your area. don't have cholesterol problems

This post is part of a sponsored partnership between myself and Quaker Oats. I compensated for my time and writing but my opinions are my own.

Quick and Easy Oatmeal to Fuel your Day
Prep Time: 1 minute
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
3/4 cups of Traditional Quaker Oats
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of brown sugar (more or less depending on your personal preference)
Fresh fruit such as bananas, raspberries, blueberries, apples, pears, and even pineapple
Other fun optional toppings: coconut, raisins, dried cranberries and cherries, chocolate chips.

1. In a small stockpot, combine the oatmeal and water. Cook on medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Pour into a bowl. Drizzle milk and toppings on top. Stir, eat and enjoy. And get ready to rule the tennis court and your day!

Crepes for Mardi Gras

We weren't very religious growing up, but we never missed an opportunity to celebrate holidays with food. Mardi Gras was always one of my favorite holidays, because we got to have crepes for dinner. My mom would fire up the crepe pan and start flipping. She would flip until we couldn't eat any more, our bellies filled with crepes.

My mom would begin with the traditional savory crepe fillings: grated Swiss cheese, ham, and egg. To keep things simple, she didn't use buckwheat sarrasin flour for the savory crepes, and I was glad because I hated the bitter taste of galettes de sarrasin. After a few salty crepes, she would allow us to move on to sweet crepes, filled with salted butter and sugar, jams, and Nutella. My sisters and I would stumble from the table in the throes of the happiest food coma.

Crepes are my kids' favorite food, but they won't waste their time with savory crepes. They insist on going straight to the sweet stuff. So instead of a dinner time treat, they've become their favorite breakfast. But tonight, to celebrate Mardi Gras like I did as a child, I'll whip out the crepe pan and flip until they can't eat any more. It's only now that I'm a mom that I realize how much my mother must have welcomed the relative peace of our food coma.

Crepes (Makes 15-20 small crepes)
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups of milk (I always used whole or 2%, but this weekend I used skim and found the crepes to be thin and tasty)
2 tablespoons of melted salted butter

Toppings: Butter, Sugar, Jam, Nutella, Sweetened Condensed Milk and fruit

1. In a food processor, pour the flour, milk and eggs. Pulse 3-6 times until just blended. 
2. Pour into a bowl, add the melted butter and stir together. The dough should be very liquid, much looser than American pancake dough. Add more milk if it feels a little thick. You can always add a little more flour to even things out. Err on the runny side, better to have a thin crepe than a thick one.
3. Many cookbooks would tell you to rest the crepe batter for 20 minutes at this point to let the gluten in the flour relax. I sometimes do this, but often the kids are out of their minds with hunger and I just get going.
4. Heat a non-stick skillet on medium heat until hot. Pour some vegetable oil on a bunched up paper towel and grease the bottom of the pan.
5. Pour the crepe dough into the hot pan, swirling the pan around until all the batter has been spread around. Keep on swirling until no batter is moving.
6. Place pan back onto the flame. Cook the crepe until the bottom is lightly browned, peeking for doneness with a spatula. Flip the crepe either with a grandiose flick of the wrist (after loosening it with a spatula), or the old fashioned way with a spatula. Cook it for another 30 seconds to a minute and serve.
7. For butter and sugar crepes (my kids' favorite flavor), I melt the butter on top of the crepe as soon as I flip it.
8. You can serve these immediately, cooking and eating as you go, or make a big batch that you cover with plastic wrap and reheat in the microwave for 5 seconds a crepe.

A Secret Silver Dollar Pancake Recipe in Honor of National Pancake Day

Who comes up with these national holidays? Is there a little man sitting at some little desk somewhere that approves these crazy requests? Regardless of how it came to be, it turns out that today is National Pancake Day and that IHOP will be serving up free short stacks until 10PM tonight.

I love any excuse for a special occasion, so we'll be observing National Pancake Day with a little breakfast for dinner tonight, serving up our super secret silver dollar pancake recipe. I can't tell you what Manhattan restaurant serves these pancakes up for brunch, so don't even ask, but I can tell you the wait is long and the recipe is highly secret. We know someone who knows someone who scribbled the recipe in massive restaurant quantities on a piece of paper. Steve then spent months experimenting to bring down the ratios to family size so that we could stop inviting the entire neighborhood over for brunch.

The end result is amazing. These pancakes are like nothing you've ever had before. They're light as air with a touch of sweetness and tang. Completely addictive. I like to stack them up to crazy heights to watch the amber maple syrup drip down. When you top them with a pat of salted butter, all the tastes really come together.

Silver Dollar Pancakes
Serves 8 easily 
Ingredients: 
8 ounces of sugar (about 1 cup)
1 stick of melted butter
4 eggs
11 ounces of flour (about 2 1/8 cups)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of baking powder
4 cups of milk

1. In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the sugar and melted butter together.
2. Add the 4 eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl blend together the flour, salt, and baking powder
4. Add the flour mixture to butter mixture and blend until just mixed together.
5. Add 4 cups of milk, one at a time, until the mixture is fairly loose, lighter than a traditional pancake recipe, but not as liquid as heavy cream.
6. Heat a griddle on medium high heat. Pour the pancakes on carefully in silver dollar sizes. Flip them as soon as you can without breaking them apart. They will still be delicate and need to be handled with care. Turn down your heat if they are burning. Don't worry, you have plenty of batter for mess ups. The pancakes cook very quickly, only about a minute on each side.
7. Serve immediately with warm maple syrup (the real stuff!) and salted butter. Fresh squeezed orange juice is a lovely touch on the side. :)

Warm Baked Oatmeal Cake to Ease Mommy Guilt

I'm leaving my munchkins today (and my husband too) for a particularly guilt-inducing destination. I'm headed to DisneyWorld to spend three days with the contributors to TravelingMom.com and I'm leaving them all behind. The fact that all the other moms going were doing the same didn't make my children any happier. They don't care that we'll be spending most of our time in conference rooms talking social media. They hear the words DisneyWorld and they want in.

To ease my guilt, I prepared a big Oatmeal Cake. As I stirred the eggs, milk, vanilla, and sugar that make up the batter, I poured a lot of mommy love in the mix. Hopefully they'll feel their mom's love when they sit down to breakfast without me tomorrow morning in front of a steaming bowl of oatmeal cake topped with pureed peaches and smooth creme fraiche. I want each comforting bite to feel like one of my kisses.

This Oatmeal Cake is incredibly easy to whip up, and is a great choice for brunch buffets or coffee with friends. You can whip it up in less than 5 minutes by mixing all the ingredients together in the pan you will cook it in. I begged the recipe from the owner of the Country Gardens Bed and Breakfast near Lancaster, PA, and happily paid a dollar for it. I've been making it for guilt breakfasts as well as regular ones ever since. It may not make up for a missed trip to Disney, but it comes pretty close.

Baked Oatmeal Cake
Serves 8
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
4 cups of quick oats
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup of milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a tall round casserole dish, mix the eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil together by hand.
3. Add the oats, salt, baking powder and milk, mixing well.
4. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until firm in center and golden.
5. Serve warm (or reheated individually in microwave) with pureed peaches and creme fraiche or heavy cream drizzled on top.

Ebelskiver Pancakes, Little Puffs of Deliciousness

I have a few fashion loving friends who get this fiendish gleam in their eyes when they're talking clothes. To them, the names of the designers on Gilt.com actually mean something. I don't like to look like too much of a soccer mom, but I'll only get behind a fashion trend if it's comfortable (jeggings anyone?). But when it comes to cooking stores, that's when I get that dangerous glint in my eyes. Those burnished copper pots and shiny appliances are pretty much impossible to resist. I've been known to fall into a frenzy and emerge with items that are most definitely not necessities.

Last year, I fell for an ebelskiver pan. It's a nonstick pan with seven shallow rounded wells for making Norwegian pancakes. This being Williams Sonoma, it came with a very convenient ebelskiver pancake mix which we made immediately that weekend.

The pancakes were a revelation, completely validating my impulsive purchase. They were light and puffy, little sweet clouds that melted in the mouth. We filled them with Nutella and various jams. And we repeated the breakfast for the next few weekends, all with the same happy food coma joyful weekend family nap outcome.

But soon the pancake mix ran out, and the pan began to gather dust in the cabinet. It seemed foolish to trek out to Williams Sonoma to acquire another $10 jar of pancake mix. Then, thanks to the magic of Google, I learned that the ebelskiver recipe (also known as aebelskiver) is very easy and just as marvelous as the mix version.

There are some recipes that call for whipping up egg whites, but I would never take the time to do that on a Saturday morning. The recipe below is something you can easily assemble before you've had your first cup of coffee. But you'll need an Ebelskiver pan to make it, that is, if you dare to enter the dangerous realm of kitchen equipment retail.

Aebelskivers/Ebelskivers... Delicious Pancake Puffs
Yield: Makes 12 or 13 pancake puffs
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 Cup 2% milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

1. In a bowl, mix flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, beat egg to blend with milk, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons butter. Add liquids to dry ingredients and stir until just evenly moistened. Don't overstir, I can't stress this enough, or your puffs will be mini-boulders.
2. Place an aebleskiver pan over medium-low heat. When pan is hot enough to make a drop of water sizzle, brush pancake cups lightly with vegetable oil and fill each to slightly below the rim with batter.
3. In 1 to 2 minutes, thin crusts will form on bottoms of balls. Peek under with the tip of a knife to make sure. The center of the pancake will still be very wet. Pierce the crust with a slender wood skewer and gently pull shell to rotate the pancake ball until about half the cooked portion is above the cup rim and uncooked batter flows down into cup. 
4. Cook until crust on bottom of ball is again firm enough to pierce, about another minute, then rotate ball with skewer until the ridge formed as the pancake first cooked is on top. 
5. Cook, turning occasionally with skewer, until balls are evenly browned and no longer moist in the center, another 4 to 5 minutes. Check by piercing center of last pancake ball added to pan with skewer to see if it comes out clean, or by breaking the ball open slightly. If you're worried your balls are turning too brown, turn the heat down immediately. Better be safe than sorry and cook them a little longer than have them get burned.
6. Lift cooked balls from pan. Make a little hole in the middle and fill with the topping of your choice (Nutella, apple sauce, jams, lemon curd). Alternatively, you can just dip them in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar. Serve hot. 
7. Repeat to cook remaining batter.

Delicious and Easy Brunch Dishes for my Kelloggs Breakfast

Sweet and Crunchy French Toast was easy to make and delicious.

My online and offline worlds are colliding more and more frequently nowadays but I still often feel self-conscious inviting my "offline" friends into my online life. Everyone always ends up having a great time, but I still have a tough time sleeping the night before, worrying that I'm imposing on my friends and that they won't enjoy themselves. This week was no exception, if anything, my jitters were worse than ever because I'm the new kid in town.

On Monday, I invited some friends from school and some members of the Chicago Moms collaborative blog, to my house for brunch with their kids. The breakfast was sponsored by Kellogg's who sent a huge box of breakfast cereals (Corn Pops, Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, and Frosted Mini Wheats) for me to serve my guests. Kelloggs also provided me with a stipend to purchase other breakfast items and compensated me for my time.

I supplemented the cereal bar with two easy to make brunch dishes: a Wake Up Casserole of eggs, cheese, and Canadian bacon and a Sweet and Crunchy French Toast platter. I got both recipes from the Kellogg's website and tweaked them a little. Both were delicious and instant additions to my brunch repertoire.

The purpose of the breakfast wasn't just to eat cereal and homemade dishes made with cereals, there was some actual work involved for my guests, which is what made me a nervous hostess. The event included a 30-minute discussion with the Kellogg's marketing team about breakfast challenges via Skype.

Turns out that I had no cause for worry. My friends were excited to pepper the Kellogg's team with questions about the sugar content of cereals, nutrition, new products and Kellogg's philanthropic initiatives. We ended up having a spirited and interesting discussion about the difficulties of keeping our kids fed, happy, and healthy. It was almost a group therapy session at times as we all admitted to occasionally giving our kids dry cereal as they walked to school just to get some breakfast in them, and realized as a group that dry cereal was actually a nutritious choice. After the call, more than one of my friends thanked me for the opportunity to talk directly to the Kellogg's team and get their questions and concerns answered.

Once the Skype connection closed, our breakfast went back to normal. We ate, drank some more coffee, and gossiped a little more while the girls played dress up and the boys played the Wii. Then, one by
one, my guests took their leave, saying they'd had a wonderful time, and asking for these recipes.


Sweet and Crunchy French Toast Casserole
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours
Servings: 8

Ingredients
8 1-inch-thick slices firm-textured, honey wheat bread (about 16 oz. total)
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated fat-free milk
7 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups Kellogg's Frosted Flakes® cereal
2 tablespoons butter, melted
3 cups fresh raspberries, blueberries, or sliced strawberries
1 cup maple syrup, warmed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Arrange bread in single overlapping layers in 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish.
3. In medium bowl whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Evenly pour over bread slices. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours. Use spatula to turn bread slices once.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 375°F for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in small bowl combine KELLOGG'S FROSTED FLAKES cereal and butter. Evenly sprinkle over casserole. Bake, uncovered, at 375°F about 20 minutes more or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes.
5. Cut into 8 rectangles. Transfer to serving plates. Sprinkle with berries. Serve with syrup.

These light and cheesy casseroles tasted like a delicate souffle.

Wake Up Casserole
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 9 hours
Servings: 6

Ingredients
3 cups cubed dry French bread (3 oz.)
2 cups Kellogg's® Rice Krispies cereal
1 1/2 cups shredded Provolone or cheddar cheese (6 oz.), divided
1 cup diced Canadian-style bacon, diced
2 cups milk
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons chopped bottled roasted red sweet pepper
2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, toss together bread cubes, 1 cup KELLOGG'S Rice Krispies cereal, 1 cup cheese, and Canadian bacon. Divide among six 10-ounce individual casseroles or place all of the mixture in one 2-quart rectangular baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk milk, eggs, roasted red pepper, and mustard. Pour over bread mixture in casseroles or baking dish. Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours.
3. Toss remaining 1 cup cereal with melted butter, crushing slightly; sprinkle cereal mixture and remaining cheese atop egg mixture. Bake at 350ºF, uncovered, 25 to 30 minutes for individual casseroles (40 minutes for 2-quart baking dish) or until evenly puffed and a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

All Hail the Breakfast King! Steve's Light and Sweet Pancakes

Chefdruck's Tasty Tuesday

When Steve and I first started dating, we tried to out-woo each other with elaborate meals. I opened with mushroom encrusted flounder, and he countered with apricot chicken. We quickly moved on to cooking elaborate feasts together once we moved in together. Working together in the kitchen side by side became an important part of our relationship, the thing that relaxed us at the end of a long day.

But then we had kids and spending long hours slaving over meals together became a romantic impossibility. If both of us focused on the reduction sauce instead of the kids, they would trash the house or drown in the toilet.

Over the years we drifted into a pattern. I took charge of dinner and Steve became the breakfast king. It doesn't hurt that he's the morning person in our marriage, a role I will happily bequest to him. When I stumble out of bed on my sleep-in morning (I get Saturdays, he gets Sundays), he greets me with eggs over easy with the slightest crunchy exterior and the perfect runny middle, crispy bacon slices, and his special pancakes.

He worked on this pancake recipe for months, tweaking the sugar, trying mixing heavy cream with milk, and increasing the lemon before we voted on them as a family and deemed them perfect. The kids love them rolled up to dip in maple syrup. I like them silver dollar size, stacked up high with a little pat of salty butter on top to melt under hot maple syrup. (the real kind, not Aunt Jemima)

I'm sure once you've had them you'll join me in saying, "All hail the breakfast king!"

Steve's Light and Sweet Pancakes
3 ½ cups of Milk (we use 2%)
11 oz Flour
2 TBSPs Baking Powder
¼ tsp Salt
4 Eggs
¼ TBSP Lemon Juice
1 stick Butter (softened)
8 oz Sugar

Mix sugar and butter in mixer. Mix until very smooth.
Add eggs. Keep mixing until smooth.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking powder. Add this to butter mixture in mixer.
When fully mixed, add milk SLOWLY.
Lastly, add lemon juice.

Nutella Filled Ebelskivers

In France, afternoon snack is called "le gouter." At 4:00, French kids and their parents stream into boulangeries everywhere and buy croissants, pains au chocolat, or chaussons au pommes to regain some energy after school. As a kid, my favorite gouter wasn't actually any of these delicious butter filled pastries. What really got me excited was a big chunk of warm baguette with some Nutella spread. Most boulangeries sold Nutella in little single serve packages with a little plastic spoon for just that purpose. I always agonized over whether to spoon the Nutella directly into my mouth or to have it on the bread. I usually compromised by licking the container clean.

Not only have I not outgrown my Nutella addiction, I've also passed it onto my kids. They're big fans of the straight from the spoon method. A friend recently shared an amazing link with me to this awesome site maintained by some lucky blogging expats who suffer through life in Italy. These ladies, united in their love for Nutella, created a blog and a holiday to celebrate their devotion. It's called World Nutella Day. There are literally hundreds of recipes devoted to Nutella. I think I'm going to be busy.

For father's day, I gave Steve a filled pancake pan. He is the undisputed breakfast king in our house, always on the prowl for new breakfast gadgets. He was thrilled with his fluffy little pancakes. I asked him what was inside but he refused to answer. He just held one out to me and said, "Try one."

I bit, and warm gooey nutella flooded my mouth. Heaven. Pure heaven.

I know it's kind of obnoxious to share a recipe that requires a special pan like this, but the fun factor was so high, I just had to do it.

This weekend, we're going to try to fill them with jam. I can't wait to bite into a warm pancake filled with cherry jam.

Filled Pancakes (Recipe adapted from Williams Sonoma)
Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Jar of Nutella (or any type of jam)

Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions:

1) In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, granulated sugar and salt.

2) In a small bowl, lightly whisk together the egg yolks and buttermilk. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy.

3) In another bowl, using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter in two additions.

4) Put 1/2 tsp. butter in each well of a filled-pancake pan. Place over medium heat and heat until the butter begins to bubble. Pour 1 Tbs. batter into each well and cook until the bottoms are golden brown and crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Put 2 loaded tablespoons of Nutella in the center of each pancake and top with 1 Tbs. batter. Using 2 wooden skewers, flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crispy, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter and fillings.

Dust the pancakes with confectioners' sugar. Makes about 40.