Christmas Morning

We had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas Day at our apartment together this year. Before beginning the excitement of present opening, we made a couple of yummy breakfast items – a Scandinavian Oven Pancake (which has now become our own little Christmas morning breakfast tradition) and a Breakfast Casserole (one of my family’s traditional Christmas morning treats). Both were super easy and quick to make… the oven pancake just involved blending a few basic ingredients together, and the casserole just required some layering – then we popped both in the oven while we opened our stocking gifts. The casserole consisted of crescent rolls, egg, sausage, and cheese. The oven pancake has a light, soufflé-like texture and a simple, sweet taste that makes it hard to not eat the whole thing in one sitting. These photos show it just after coming out of the oven when it’s puffed up as big as can be…. it settles after a few minutes. Merry Christmas!

Lemon Cranberry Muffins

I told myself (and James) that I was going to make these muffins for about a month – and finally I did! The combination of the tart cranberries (I used fresh but you could also use frozen) with the lemon (zest and juice were used) was perfect. The batter was quite sticky which made getting it into the muffin tins a bit tricky, but luckily they came out just fine – and most importantly, tasting great. I sprinkled a little sugar on top right before popping them in the oven which gives just the right amount of sweetness to each bite. A yummy, festive, winter treat!

Rye Spaetzle Gratin with Cabbage & Caraway

Spaetzle, an interesting little dumpling dish, is a popular dish in Germany and other European areas. Turns out it’s not so hard to make (says James) and delicious (group consensus)! This recipe called for spaetzle (a dumpling created from egg and in this case, rye flour, then pushed through a colander to create the little dumplin’ shapes), mixed with cabbage, caraway seeds, and melted Swiss cheese on top. It was such a great flavor combination that we don’t really taste all that often – though we decided this meal was worthy of regular dinner rotation status. The baked broccoli was also a great side accompaniment.