Eggs in a Basket

I'm usually not a huge breakfast fan, but who doesn't love lazily waking up on a Sunday morning and beginning the day with a delicious brunch? For my Sunday Brunch I decided to cook Eggs in a Basket (also known as bird's nest, eggs in a hole etc.) This is a recipe I had always heard about but never imagined attempting. That was until one of my friends told me just how delicious it was and how easy to make. It was so easy, she said, that she often made this for herself for breakfast during her busy morning schedule! 

First you start by cutting the hole out of the bread. You can basically use any kind of bread, but I opted for peasant bread because I love the texture. Remember to save the piece you cut out! It turns into one of the most heavenly things I've ever tasted.



Then you melt butter in your pan and fry the piece of bread and the hole for about a minute before adding the egg, along with a little salt and pepper. You will eventually flip the entire piece of toast with the egg once it is mostly set.

Rosemary made it taste even better!

I like my eggs runny, so I let it cook on the other side for a only little longer before sliding it on to the plate. The hole, which you fry along with the toast, ends up being perfectly toasted and extremely buttery, an excellent accent with a sprig of grapes. Overall, a delicious brunch! 

For this easy recipe, just follow the link here.

Apple Cider Doughnuts

It's finally autumn! While I'm sad to be leaving behind those hazy summer days, there's something about autumn weather that makes me think of apples, warm colors and new beginnings. What celebrates that more than apple cider doughnuts?

The doughnuts before they were fried. 

Making the actual dough was seriously simple. It was the repetitive rolling and chilling and cutting that took so long. I bought a circular cookie cutter instead of a doughnut cutter and cut the holes out by hand.  

The doughnuts after they were fried. They rose a lot while they cooked.

I'm usually terrified of frying foods, but this was surprisingly easy. Once the oil or shortening is heated up, everything cooks relatively quickly. In fact I burned a few because I didn't turn them in time.

The delicious glaze!

The recipe gives you two options for topping; an apple cider glaze and cinnamon sugar. I opted to try both. I've never tried a glaze for this kind of doughnut, but I prefered it. I usually have them with the cinnamon sugar.

Cinnamon sugar--the usual. 

All in all, the doughnuts didn't turn out quite as light and fluffy as I expected, but I still had a lot of fun trying! Thanks again to smitten kitchen for the recipe.

I'm Back!

I know I've been missing for the summer months, but now that it's fall and I'm finally back home, I'm getting back into the kitchen! I was at my camp this past summer, working as a Counselors Aide to kids, sleeping in platform tents in the woods. While I had the best summer of my life, I did miss the opportunity to work in my kitchen. 

From Savy Cafe 

Keep an eye out for updates! 

Happy Birthday Mama!

For my Mom's birthday, I wanted to bake her a special cake, one I had never made before. So I searched and searched every website I could think of until I ran across smitten kitchen's recipe for the best birthday cake.

The recipe called for a classic yellow cake (and I must add this yellow cake recipe has become a new staple in my kitchen) with a chocolate frosting that was made with sour cream, instead of butter.

It wasn't typical of chocolate frosting that I have made before. The chocolate taste was mild, and it had a slightly sour aftertaste (from the sour cream, I think). It wasn't what I expected, but was still pretty good, especially the day after. I would opt for a different frosting next time, but I'm glad I tried this one.

Happy First Birthday!

I didn't update on the actual day, but Easter was officially my first year anniversary of this blog! Hard to believe it's been an entire year since my first blog post, but I'm still definitely looking forward to improving my skills even further.

Instead of doing an Easter themed post (I was rather busy on the actual day this year), I decided to celebrate spatula's birthday with simple, fun cupcakes. I usually prefer the classic vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting, which is why I chose to make these.

The colorful sprinkles against the white frosting are gorgeous, and add a festive touch to the cupcake.

Key Lime Bars

This post is way overdue, but here it finally is.

The theme for cooking club on Monday was Martha Stewart. I could not have been more excited about this, but I still struggled to find a recipe I really wanted to try, since I haven't baked anything new in awhile. But finally, I found the recipe for Key Lime Bars, and I was eager to get back in the kitchen again.

These bars were fairly simple, and had the perfect tart lime flavor that I love. 

Poached Eggs

So I'll admit, I didn't actually make these. In fact, my brother (who came home for spring break this weekend) was the one who did. I've only ever tried to poach eggs once before, and let me tell you, it was not successful. So congrats to my brother for getting it on the first try. I did, however, style the plate with black pepper and basil. 

He looked up the instructions online and found the very helpful article How to Poach an Egg. I didn't actually get to taste them because I had to leave for an appointment, but I was told by my family that they were fantastic.