Smashed Muffin

Raise your hand if you enjoy having breakfast for dinner. 🙌🥞🙌 I made the “Cardamom Pancakes” from Ham El-Waylly’s new cookbook “Hello, Home Cooking.” The recipe instructs that they be served with “unlimited maple syrup.” I obliged with less guilt thanks to Lakanto‘s sugar free maple flavored syrup. It was a match made in sweet dinner for breakfast heaven!



[Image Description: High angle close up view of a plate with a short stack of cardamom pancakes topped with room temperature (and slowly melting) butter and maple syrup alternative.]

What a treat! A recent experiment with Japanese-style soufflé cheesecake was a success. A cross between cheesecake and sponge cake, this crustless beauty is minimally sweet with a glistening glaze of apricot preserves on top. It was a delight!



[Image Description: 1/High angle view of triangular slices of soufflé cheesecake with apricot glaze on a green depression glass dessert plate. 2/View from above of triangular slices of Japanese-style soufflé cheesecake with a bright orange apricot glaze on top.]

It’s the perfect day to to an extra special breakfast. I made Vanilla French Toast with Cranberry Sauce. It was the right call.

[Image Description: 1/Aerial view of a plate of french toast with maple syrup and cranberry sauce. 2/High angle view of a plate of French toast piled high and a saucepan of cranberry sauce with orange peel resting on a stovetop.]

This cranberry-walnut bread is giving me life during the winter (temps more registering springtime, but the “feels like” is still chilly) blues. I snagged the recipe from a library haul find - “The Lake Michigan Cottage Cookbook: Door County Cherry Pie, Sheboygan Bratwurst, Traverse City Trout, and 115 More Regional Favorites.”

[Image Description: 1/High angle view of the cooked and cooled quick bread loaf in the winter afternoon sunshine resting on a bamboo cutting board ready for slicing. 2/View from above of a couple of cross-section slices of the cranberry walnut bread on a plate.]

Turkey time may have come and gone, but here’s to hoping you had a sweet Thanksgiving. As we enter the final month of the year, don’t forget to find space for the joy! These colorful and cute gobblers certainly provided some joy at a couple of holiday celebrations last week. 🦃

[Image Description: Both images are high angle views of flower shaped turkey sugar cookies (with red, orange and yellow icing feathers) lined up in pastry boxes.]