I Lub You Breakfast

Laela loves to help me make breakfast.  One of our favorite things to do is break out the cookie cutters, and make fun shapes out of eggs, pancakes, and french toast.  Last Tuesday was Kyle's first morning back in America from his business trip, and since it was Valentine's Day and he wanted American food, I decided to make eggs in a basket with heart cookie cutters.  I used the heart cut-outs to make vanilla french toast. 

This is much easier than it looks.  The trick is toasting the bread before you use the cookie cutter!

I Lub You Eggs in a Basket

Serves 4, or 1 very hungry Daddy, and two moderately hungry gals.

You'll need:

• 4 large eggs
• 4 pieces of toasted whole wheat or multigrain bread (we are a white bread free home.)
• Butter or margarine
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cookie cutter of the shape of your choice.

Instructions:

• Toast the bread.
• Heat a large skillet to medium heat. 
• Spray it well with cooking spray.
• Use the cookie cutter to cut out a shape out of the center of the bread.
• Set the cutout aside.
• Spread butter on both sides of the bread that has the cut-out in it.
• Place it in the heated skillet.
• Crack your egg as closely to the pan as possible.
• Drop the egg (stay close to the pan so that you stay within the cut-out shape!) into the cut-out.
• Cook for about 1 1/2 minutes to 2 minutes per side.
• Serve!

Vanilla French Toast Cut-Outs

You'll need:

• The leftover cut-outs from the eggs in a basket
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup milk

Instructions:

• Whisk the egg, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, and milk together in a medium bowl.
• Heat a medium sized skillet to medium heat.
• Spray well with cooking spray.
• Dip the cutouts in the mixture (Unless your bread is stale, don't soak the bread in it, or the cut-outs will fall apart.)
• Place the cut-outs in the skillet.  Cook for 2-3 minutes per side, depending on how crispy you want your toasts to be (I like mine really crispy, so I leave mine on longer, whereas Kyle likes his a bit soppy, so I only cook his for about 2 minutes per side.  Sometimes less if the pan got extra hot.)
• Serve with powdered sugar or maple syrup.

Enjoy!!

**This recipe can also be made with regular toast.  Just use 1 cup of milk and 4 slices of toast instead of 4 cutouts.

A Savory Holiday Breakfast Bake

My friend Cathleen asked me about a savory breakfast bake, so I thought I'd share one of my favorites from a few months ago, with a more savory twist.

A Deliciously Easy Savory Breakfast Bake

Ingredients:

• (1/2) loaf of French bread (leftover Italian bread would be fine too)
• (1 1/2) cups of shredded Cheddar cheese
• (1/2) cup shredded Gruyere cheese
• (1/4) cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• (6-12) eggs (depending on your number of guests, I usually do 2 to 3 eggs per person, depending on what type's of eaters you're baking this for)
• (1)tsp thyme leaves, chopped rosemary and thyme (the world won't end if you use a bit more than this.)
• (6-12 Tablespoons) milk (about 1Tb of milk per egg. It's not an exact science; you really don't need to bust out the measuring spoons, just guestimate and I can assure you, the bake will turn out great.
• Sausage (I prefer Whole Foods Sage Pork Sausage that you get at the meat counter.)
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
• Spray the inside of a 13x9 cake pan with cooking spray.
• Heat a medium skillet on the stovetop at medium heat with a small glug of olive oil.
• If using uncased sausage (I prefer it to sausage in a casing), pull your sausage apart into chunks and add to the hot pan.
• Cook about 1-2 minutes per side, just so that each side is nicely browned. Keep in mind that it will continue to cook in the bake, so don't overcook it.
• When done, place in the cake pan. (I used a 13x9 pan.)
• Slice your bread.
• Place the sliced bread in your cake pan.
• Whisk your eggs, milk, herbs, salt, and pepper in a bowl until well beaten.
• Pour the mixture into the pan over the bread. Make sure it's spread throughout the pan.
• Place in the hot oven for 15 minutes, or until the bake looks golden and firm.
• Sprinkle the cheese over the bake and cook for 5 more minutes. I prefer my bread and cheese a little gooey and crunchy, so I tend to leave it in a few minutes longer. If you don't like your bread or cheese that dark, take it out when it's just melted.

*You can prepare this to be cooked the following morning the night before. Just be sure to put it in a safe spot in your fridge, and to wrap it well with saran wrap, otherwise you'll have a mess (anyone who's seen the Family Stone knows just what I mean)! Just let it sit out for about 10-15 minutes to get closer to room temperature prior to baking.

Enjoy!!

A Very Merry Breakfast Bake

I don't know about you, but the smell of gingerbread cooking in our house is one of my favorite smells.  It reminds me of all things holiday and cozy.  Since I'd made some gingerbread the other day, I thought it'd be fun to try making a traditional breakfast bake using the gingerbread. 

The result was pretty amazing.  I think I'm going to have to make this the night before Christmas, and put it in to bake while we open presents!

Gingerbread Breakfast Bake
serves 4-6, or 3.5 very hungry people

You'll need:

• 5 slices of gingerbread (You want them to be about 2 in thick.)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk (I used whole milk for this recipe)
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp sugar

Instructions:

• In a medium sized bowl, beat your eggs, cinnamon, heavy cream, milk, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, and sugar together until well mixed.
• Spray some Pam or non-stick baking spray into an 8x8 square cake pan (I used a glass pyrex pan).  If you choose to double the recipe, use a 9x11 cake pan.
• Place the slices of gingerbread in the pan.
• Pour the mixture over the gingerbread.
• Let soak for at least 10 minutes.  I like to let this sit for longer, but no worries if you're in a rush.  You can also let is soak overnight and bake it in the morning.  Just let it sit out for ten minutes or so before you bake it (it's better for it to be closer to room temperature before baking.)
• Preheat your oven to 350-degrees. 
• Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the bake looks like a solid custard, and the bread is slightly golden on the sides of the pan.  (If it still feels soppy when you touch the top of it, it's not ready.  The inside should be a bit custardy, while the outside is lightly toasted.)
• Shake a bit of powdered sugar on top.
• Serve!

Happiness and Breakfast Sandwiches.

The days are long, but the years are short.

I just finished reading Gretchen Rubin's "Happiness Project."  I figured that I'd enjoy it since I enjoy her blog so much, that I should give the book a go.

How often have you thought about happiness?  Unhappiness?  What makes you happy?

Almost every morning since Laela was born, I have woken up our household with the good morning song.  It's silly, the lyrics often change, but it's our little ritual that gets our day started right (even if we're all grumbalinas, are sick, and in need of a BIG coffee.)  It usually gets a giggle or a twirl out of our daughter, and Kyle usually gets a little smile on his face before he grudgingly gets out of bed.  We sing songs and snuggle- how could the start to the day get any better than that?

I love my family.  It makes me happier than anything on the planet.  We just had our two year wedding anniversary, and since we were away for the weekend looking for an apartment in Greenville, we spent the day as a family- and it was perfect.

My point with all this happiness talk, is that life is busy.  There's a lot of hustle and bustle and insanity packed into every day- and it's not going anywhere- so appreciate that each day has these really special, remarkable moments that you'll miss if you don't take the ten seconds to appreciate them.

Ironically, this week's subject of focus on Gretchen's blog is "set aside a specific time for something that's important to you."  I almost never do that (which is why my blog has gone a bit to the wayside lately.)  I, like a lot of other parents, are busy focusing on running a household, taking care of a little one, etc.

That said, here's a super fast, super delicious, easy (and easy going) breakfast:

Breakfast Sandwich:
makes 1 sandwich
takes about 5 min.

You'll need:

• 1 egg (2 if you're super hungry)
• 1 big slice of tomato
• 1 slice cheese (I used American, Kyle prefers cheddar)
• Whole wheat English muffin
• Salt and Pepper
• Cooking spray

Directions:

• Heat your skillet to medium heat.
• Spray with cooking spray.
• Put English muffin in the toaster (I like mine super crispy, but make it however you like it)
• Crack egg(s) into skillet.
• Depending on how runny you want your egg, cook it for about 2 minutes on one side and 1 minute on the other (this should make a reasonably runny egg without any clear egg white).  Cook longer if you want a firmer yolk.
• Sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper on the egg if desired.
• You can do the cheese 2 ways.  You can just slap the piece of cheese on there while the egg finishes cooking on the raw side, or you can wait and put it on the egg after the egg has been put on the english muffin.
• After your egg and cheese are on the muffin, slice a piece of tomato, put it on the egg, close up the sandwich, and chow down!

*optional additions:

• I LOVE hot sauce, so instead of salt and pepper, I dump a lot of hot sauce on my sandwich.
• Kyle really likes chipolte hot sauce on his- with NO tomato, and extra bacon, ham, or whatever meat we have on hand.
• I've made this with salsa, chorizo and avocado.  Delicious!
• Laela likes hers with lots of ketchup.
• For make ahead meat, you can make your bacon/sausage/ham/whatever blows your hair back days before and just reheat it in the skillet with the egg(s) or in the microwave.

Nigella's Caramel Croissant Pudding

I don't know about you, but I absolutely love breakfast.  When I came across this Nigella's Express recipe with stale croissants, caramel and custard, well, I have to say I swooned.  While I'm not normally a sweets person, especially not for breakfast, I love caramel, and I just knew Kyle and Laela would really enjoy it.  After all, does Nigella ever share bad recipes?  I think not.

I'm going to warn you.  This is one seriously decadent breakfast, and I'm pretty sure it's in NO way healthy.  But it's totally worth the indulgence.

Nigella's Caramel Croissant Pudding

Ingredients:

• 2 stale croissants
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons bourbon
• 2 eggs, beaten

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 350- degrees.
• Tear the croissants into pieces and put ina  small gratin dish; I use a cast-iron oval one with a capacity of about 2 cups for this.
• Put the sugar and water into a saucepan, and swirl around to help desolve teh sugar before putting the saucepan on the burner over medium high heat.
• Carmelize the sugar and water mixture by letting it bubble away until it al turns a deep amber color; this will take 3-5 minutes.  Keep looking, but don't be too timid.
• Turn the heat down to low and add the cream- ignoring all spluttering- and, whisking, the mnilk and bourbon.  Any solid toffee that forms in the pan will dissolve easily if you keep whisking over low heat.  Take off the heat, and still whisking, add the beaten eggs.  Pour the caramel bourbon custard over the croissants and leave to steep for 10 minutes if the croissants are very stale.
• Place in preheated oven for 20 minutes and prepare to swoon.

Nigella says this serves 2 greedy people, but I think it could serve 4 with a salad, since it's so rich.

And no, I didn't get any pictures of this one.  It disappeared faster than I could get the camera!

Pumpkin Muffins for my Pumpkin

Remember when you were in college and you woke up the next day feeling like the world was kind of moving in slow motion, and all you wanted was coffee, some more sleep, and for everyone to just stop yelling?  Yeah, that was our house last week.  We were all moving around one another like a bunch of hungover college kids, 24/7.  Just when we thought the sickness induced hangover was finally done, our kid woke up with almost 103-degree fever on Thursday morning, giving me the biggest heart attack I've had since bringing Laela home from the hospital when she was born.

After a few sleepless nights of calming our sick baby and making sure she was breathing when she was sleeping (in case you didn't know, paranoia sets in after you don't get a certain amount of sleep- and when your baby feels hotter than your hot blooded spouse), I decided I needed some therapy..er, I mean I wanted to bake.

Laela LOVES pumpkin anything- ravioli, smoothies, cream sauce, bread, muffins, breakfast bars, pie, custard- if it's pumpkin, she'll eat/drink it.  After purusing our pantry, I discovered that I had all the ingredients for this awesome pumpkin muffin recipe by Bethenny Frankel.

Kyle kind of grimaced when he saw that the ingredients were healthy, but then he and Laela proceeded to devour them everyday for breakfast until there weren't any left!

I made a few modifications (I made some without cranberries or nuts because Kyle won't eat either in baked goods.  I also made some with chopped pecans because they're what I had on hand.)

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Ingredients:
•3 cups oat flour

•2 cups raw sugar

•2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

•¼ cup vegetable oil

•1 egg

•1 ½ cups canned pumpkin (puree not pie filling)

•½ cup water

•1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

•1 teaspoon baking soda

•1 teaspoon salt

•1 teaspoon cinnamon

•½ teaspoon nutmeg

•½ teaspoon cloves

•1 teaspoon vanilla

•1 ½ cups dried cranberries

•¼ cup unsalted walnuts

•24 muffin cups

Instructions:
 
1.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine raw sugar, vanilla, melted butter, oil, eggs, pumpkin and water. Beat for 90 seconds, or until well mixed.

2.  Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices, stirring until no streaks remain.

3.  Combine flour mixture and pumpkin mixture. Stir in nuts and cranberries; stirring only until all ingredients are mixed.

4.  Cover batter and allow to set at room temperature for 60 minutes.

5.  Preheat oven to 350°F.

6.  Place muffin cups in muffin holders and fill 2/3 of the way full.

7.  Bake for 40-45 minutes or until muffins tops spring back when lightly touched.

8.  If the muffins will be frozen, allow to cool for 1 hour, then tightly wrap in plastic wrap; store in freezer zipper bags.

9.  To reheat, wrap loosely in foil and bake for 5-10 minutes at 350°F. Or they may be reheated in the microwave wrapped loosely in a damp paper towel.

On Bethenny's website she said that this yielded 12 muffins, but I found that it made 24 normal sized muffins.

Laela really enjoyed hers with a side of vanilla yogurt to dip it in!

Cheese Souffle Julia Child Style

On a cold wintery morning, there's not much better than a crispy cheese-topped, ooey-gooey, eggily delicious souffle.  There's something so special about the smells of nutmeg, cheese, and cayenne pepper wafting through the house.  It's so tempting to open the oven to get a peak at the home of the comforting smell, but at the same time, there is something exciting about not being able to see it until it is truly and absolutely done.

I'm not going to lie to you, this recipe is not for the impatient or faint of heart.  With many of my recipes, I have found ways to make the recipe more accessable and less time consuming.  Unfortunately, this is not one of those recipes, but I do promise you, it is not as difficult as it looks, and it is totally worth it.

Here is Julia Child's Cheese Souffle recipe, also known as Souffle Au Fromage:

serves 4

The souffle base sauce:

Ingredients:

A 6-cup souffle mold (a 3 1/2 inch high, 6 cup mold)

1 tsp butter

1 Tb grated Swiss or Parmesan Cheese

3 Tb butter
A 2 1/2-quart saucepan
3 Tb flour
A wooden spatula or spoon
1 cup boiling milk
A wire whip
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
A pinch of cayenne pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

4 egg yolks

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Measure out all your ingredients.  Butter inside of souffle mold and sprinkle with cheese.
• Melt the butter in the saucepan.  Stir in the flour with a wooden spatula or spoon and cook over moderate heat until butter and flour foam together for 2 minutes without browning.  Remove from heat; when mixture has stopped bubbling, pour in all the boiling milk at once.  Beat vigorously with a wire whip until blended.  Beat in the seasonings.  Return over moderately high heat and boil, stirring with the wire whip, for 1 minute.  Sauce will be very thick.
• Remove from heat.  Immediately start to separate the eggs.  Drop the white into the egg white bowl, and the yolk into the center of the hot sauce.  Beat the yolk into the sauce with the wire whip.  Continue in the same manner with the rest of the eggs.  Correct seasoning.
• *May be prepared ahead to this point.  Dot top of sauce with butter.  Heat to tepid before continuing.

For the egg whites and cheese

Ingredients:
5 egg whites
A pinch of salt
Coursely grated Swiss, or Swiss and Parmesan Cheese- 3/4 to 1 cup (3 to 4 ounces) depending on its strength

Directions:

• Add an extra egg white to the ones in the bowl and beat with the salt until stiff.  Stir a big spoonful (about one quarter of the egg whites) into the sauce.  Stir in all the rest of the egg whites.  Be careful not to over fold. (It's better to not have the sauce and the whites totally mixed together than to flatten the whites).

Baking: 

• Turn the souffle mixture into the prepared mold, which should be almost three quarters full.  Tap bottom of mold lightly on the table, and smooth the surface of the souffle with the flat of a knife.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
• Set on a rack in middle level of preheated 400-degree oven and immediately turn heat down to 375. (Do not open door for 20 minutes.)  In 25 to 30 minutes the souffle will have puffed about 2 inches over the rim of the mold, and the top will be nicely browned.  Bake 4 to 5 minutes more to firm it up, then serve at once.

*This recipe is from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle, pgs 163-165

Take the plunge!  It's one of the most delicious things you'll ever eat, and it is truly worth the effort.

A Super Easy Breakfast Bake

I don't know if I've ever made it clear just how much I love breakfast.  It's an absolute favorite in my house for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything in between!  After years of loathing eggs, it feels totally new and exciting to me to make the simplest of things with them...especially this deliciously easy egg, bread and cheesy gooey goodness.

Ingredients:

• (1/2) loaf of French bread (leftover Italian bread would be fine too)
• (1 1/2) cups of shredded Cheddar cheese
• (6-12) eggs (depending on your number of guests, I usually do 2 to 3 eggs per person, depending on what type's of eaters you're baking this for)
• (6-12 Tablespoons) milk (about 1Tb of milk per egg.  It's not an exact science; you really don't need to bust out the measuring spoons, just guestimate and I can assure you, the bake will turn out great.
• salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Slice your bread.
• Place the sliced bread in your cake pan. (I used a 13x9 pan).
• Whisk your eggs, milk, salt, and pepper in a bowl until well beaten.
• Pour the mixture into the pan over the bread.  Make sure it's spread throughout the pan.
• Place in the hot oven for 15 minutes, or until the bake looks golden and firm. 
• Sprinkle the cheese over the bake and cook for 5 more minutes.  I prefer my bread and cheese a little gooey and crunchy, so I tend to leave it in a few minutes longer.  If you don't like your bread or cheese that dark, take it out when it's just melted.
• Enjoy!

This is also great to make ahead of time.  You can mix the eggs, add them to the bread in the pan, wrap it up and refrigerate until you're ready to bake the next morning.  Just let the pan sit out for ten to fifteen minutes before you bake it, so that it doesn't need extra time in the oven.

To Poach, or Be Poached...

Growing up, I loathed eggs.  The only person who could get me to eat them was my Grandma Edna.  I'll never really know what the heck she did to those eggs, but they didn't really taste like eggs, and I loved their salty goodness. (I suspect that they were soft boiled and covered in cheese, but who really knows?  I was five.)

I don't think I really got to a point where I could stand eggs until I was in high school.  I tried eggs benedict and thought it was the bees knees of breakfasts.  Ever since then, I've been an egg fan.  

Today class, we're going to talk about my favorite kind of egg, and in many people's opinions, the healthiest way to eat an egg, the poached egg.  It doesn't involve any fat, grease, cream, milk, or butter.

I found a great video of Gordon Ramsey poaching an egg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbAQgJF3d7E

Once you get used to poaching eggs, you'll be able to get it done super fast.  Bring the pot of water to a soft boil.

• Gently drop your egg in.  
• Keep the water moving so that the egg doesn't stick to the bottom, or lose all of its white.  If you drop the egg in from too high up, you're liable to lose some of the egg white. 
• Don't do too many eggs at a time, because they can stick together and the shape of the poached egg will get messed up.

It's may not look perfect the first few times you do it, but I promise you, it is easier than it looks, and it will taste delicious.

This is what it should look like close up.  You should be able to pick it up with your hands without popping it (unless you're squeezing it pretty hard).

Good luck poaching!

Hangover with a Splash of Flavor

Is this a fancy breakfast?  No.  Is it easy?  Yes.  Will it cure your hangover?  Probably. 

There's two things I made to "woo" my husband that got him hooked..one was hangover breakfast, and the other was the anniversary chicken recipe I shared with you guys a while back.  Hangover breakfast isn't rocket science people.  You make some French Toast (you can go fancy with this, but if you're feeling up for fancy breakfast after a night of boozing, then you're a better woman than me). 

How do you make French Toast, might you ask?  Beat two eggs with 2 Tbs milk.  You can add more milk if you want to, I do it by eye.  Add a capful of vanilla extract (or almond extract if you're out of vanilla), a few good shakes of cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice if you don't have any cinnamon), and a dash of sugar to the eggs and milk mixture.  Whisk the mixture really well (but not so well that it'll give you the spins!)  Heat your skillet to medium, spray it with cooking spray or grease it with some butter.  Dip bread slices one by one into the mixture, shake off any excess, and toss that sucker on the heated skillet.  Depending on how crispy you like your french toast, do one and a half minutes per side for soft French Toast, and two or two and a a half minutes per side for crispy French Toast.

Now let's talk eggs.  Here are some simple scrabled eggs that made Kyle able to function.

To make scrambled eggs for 2.5 people (and considering Kyle eats twice as many as me), I beat five eggs with about 5 Tbs of milk.  We only drink skim in our house (with the exception of the baby), but use whatever you have at hand.  Beat the eggs and milk together, add a sprinkle of salt and pepper and pour into a greased medium-hot pan.  The trick to these eggs is to keep moving them around as they cook.  That way they get really fluffy, instead of that weird fried egg texture that a lot of scrambled egg recipes have.  And be sure to remember, trying to cook them on higher heat will do nothing but make some awful rubber eggs!  Now, once your eggs are good and fluffy, and seem like they're about done, get a few slices of really good cheese- cheddar and American are my favorites, remove the pan from heat, and cover the eggs in cheese.  Once you've covered your eggs in cheese, put a lid on them for 2 minutes and leave them alone.  Don't open the lid to check on them, just keep a lid on it.  When you uncover the pan, you'll have deliciously gooey, yummy eggs that will line your belly in warm happy goodness.

Mmmm...potatoes.  You really can't go wrong with potatoes. Get your cast iron skillet piping hot, then turn it down to medium high heat.  Pour a 1/2 inch of olive oil, bacon grease, or whatever kind of oil blows your hair back into the pan.  Cut your potato into little cubes (or if you're too tired, just roughly chop it).  Throw in some Tony Chachera's Cajun seasoning, or some Mixed Up Salt, stir, and just leave the potatoes alone for 2 minutes with the lid on.  After 2 minutes are up, keep the potatoes moving in the pan.  If you feel they're getting to dry for you, add a splash of water, put the lid back on for 2 minutes.  Stir the potatoes.  Now this is where personal preference comes in.  Kyle likes his potatoes almost burnt, so I leave them on for a bit so that they get that yummy crunchy, almost overcooked texture.  If you like your potatoes soft, just keep an eye on them, and when you think they're done, give them a taste!  When your potatoes are done, sprinkle a little cheese on them, and whalah!  You've got cheesy hangover potatoes.

Okay, so for the most important part of any greasy hangover breakfast...BACON!!!  Sigh, I swear, I could be Homer and dip it in butter.  MMMMM..okay, maybe I don't want to dip it in butter, but I do love me some bacon, hungover or not.  Unfortunately, no one in my house likes bacon the same way (Kyle likes his barely cooked, Laela likes it kind of crispy, and I like mine almost burnt), so I had to come up with a solution that could save me some time, keep me from having to do a million dishes, and have the bacon come out in a way that we'd all be happy.  Where did I turn to do this you might ask?  My fabulous friend, the oven.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (parchment and wax paper are not a good fill in for this one guys, so please don't waste your time trying.)  When the oven is hot, place as much bacon that will fit on the sheet without touching (if bacon touches, it melds to itself, and that can make a greasy hot mess if you want to flip your bacon.)  Pop it in the oven, and just keep an eye on it to see how chewy looking you might want it, or how crispy you may desire it to be. If you like your bacon really crispy like I do, you may want to flip your bacon so that it gets evenly crispy on both sides.  Just keep an eye on it, and always remember, if you can smell whatever's in the oven, it's darn close to finished.

If you've finished reading this and you're finding yourself wondering how to get this all done at once, you should attempt it in this order:
Bacon, potatoes, eggs, French toast.

Yes, I know this blog is about Mommies and babies, but let's be real people, some days you go out on date night, or for a night out with your friends, and you wake up the next day wishing your Mommy was there to make you breakfast.  Unfortunately (and fortunately!) for you, you're a grown up with responsibilities, so get your butts in gear, fill up the sippy cups, give the kids some pots and pans and wooden spoons to play with while you cook and make your family some breakfast!  I promise, you'll feel at least 90% better.