BFD - December

I wish I could say that our BFD meals were carefully planned menus. They aren't. They are more like a smorgasbord. Truth be told, our BFD menus are comprised of whatever sounds good at the time. December was no exception. I used to do BFD once a week, but I fell into the rut of always making French toast or pancakes.  I decided to do BFD once a month so that I could put a little thought into it and try out new recipes. This month's BFD:


Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting
Sausage and Egg Casserole
Four Fruit Compote
Store Bought Hash Browns (for the kids)

It really is worth it to make your own cinnamon rolls. They are cheap and easy to make and your house will smell so good while they are baking. The hard part is waiting for the dough to rise – twice.  You need to find something to do during that 2 hour time frame. Even rolling out the dough is not that big of a deal. If you have a stand mixer, then you have no excuse not to give it a try. If you don't have a stand mixer, then you might have an excuse. The recipe's instructions are for a bread machine, but you can mix the dough in a stand mixer with a dough hook for about 7 minutes. Cover and let rise for an hour. Instead of the ¾ teaspoon of cinnamon called for in this recipe, I used at least 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon. Then I sprinkled about a handful of brown sugar over the cinnamon mixture and rolled up the dough. I also added 1 Tablespoon of cream cheese to the frosting for the heck of it. If you are tempted to bake these on a cookie sheet, don't. They will turn out hard and crunchy. These rolls are best baked in two round cake pans or a 9x13 glass baking pan.

The beauty of this sausage and egg casserole is that you can assemble the ingredients the night before. Then when you're ready, add the flour mixture and bake.  I assembled it in the morning and let it sit in the fridge until it was time to bake. I used ground pork sausage, but I think I'll try crumbled bacon the next time. I think you could also forgo the meat altogether and add some olives and use up that zucchini that's lurking in the fridge. I didn't use Monterey Jack cheese because I think its too plain. So, I bought a bag of shredded Tillamook “Mexican” blend cheese, which is really just Pepper Jack and Cheddar cheese.

The fruit compote was pretty good. I was skeptical because truth be told I prefer just fresh fruit, but I wanted to try something new. I spooned the compote into individual glasses (yes, they are mini martini glasses) and topped off each serving with Zoi Honey Greek yogurt. Holy Toledo, this yogurt is so good that I may never go back to regular yogurt. For all of my Washington-Idaho-Nevada-California-Oregon friends, I got this at Winco. This yogurt has the smooth thick consistency of sour cream. Double yum! Well, 2010 BFDs are over and I have 2011 stretching before me. Hard to believe this year is over already. Merry Christmas!