It isn’t often that I post pictures taken from my mobile phone as the photos accompanying recipes, but I forgot to bring my Canon with my over the New Year’s long weekend up in the woods. I did want to share this amazing — and crazy-easy — recipe for Blueberry Croissant French Toast Casserole though, and without photos just wouldn’t do. I love this recipe and the best part about it is that you actually make it the evening before so as your drinking your first cup of coffee in the morning, you have nothing to do but wait for the blueberry goodness to arrive. This turned out to be perfect on New Year’s Day morning as I was still feeling effects of the bubbly the night before. Even if you aren’t hungover, what’s better than having your breakfast ready in 25 minutes with minimal effort.
OK, it’s almost New Year’s Eve and someone invites you to a party. You need a quick and easy thing to bring along. Voila! This dip! Bacon. Cheese and more cheese. A little bit of salsa. And did I mention the bacon. Dip in crackers or tortilla chips. Serve Warm if you can, but also works at room temperature. Enjoy!
Here we are at the end of 2018, and I am baking again. The change of one year to the next always makes me think of “Lucky Foods” to ring in the new year. The US South has black eyed peas, Eastern Europeans have pickled herring. In Italy and I believe Spain, you eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight. In Germany, there are lots of traditions as well, but I am going with something that implies luck, though not necessarily New Year’s. You see, in English, we have the expression “Lucky Devil” (as in, “You’re such a luck devil for winning the lottery!”). In German, a similar expression is to be a “Glücksschwein” (lucky pig) or “Glückspilz” (lucky mushroom). I had found these cute little cookie cutters at the Christmas Markets in Munich a few weeks ago, so decided to make Glückspilz Spitzbuben (Lucky Mushroom Linzer Cookies) — mainly because I thought that words Glückspilz and Spitzbuben would be funny to say (can’t you tell that I am a linguist by profession?). Filled with apricot and raspberry jam, and sure to bring luck in 2019!
Every year for Christmas, I try to make a torte — aka a fancy cake. It’s really the only time of the year that I make a true cake as I am more of a pie or cupcake kind of person. So this year, I went with a little fancy and a little rustic with this Gingerbread Cake with Maple-Mascarpone Whipped Cream and Rosemary, decorated with gingerbread snowmen. The flavor was terrific though the cake ended up a bit dense. The Maple-Mascarpone Whipped Cream was fantastic … I’m going to have to find some excuse to make it for something else!