Nectarine Dried Cherry Crisp

The temperature has plummeted! I have officially rotated my wardrobe, moving pants to the front of the shelf and releasing my plethora of coats from their vacuum bagged prison. The pups is loving this reprieve from the heat, being able to once again join us on our shorter runs and roll in the dewy morning grass. But she isn't the only one...ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens!

Pineapple Upside-Down Greek Yogurt Pancakes

Let's talk cake....for breakfast.

Caesar Asparagus Toast with Poached Egg

There are three things I will never turn down:  artisan bread, high quality dark chocolate and a farm fresh egg.  Regardless of time, place or hunger level, I am powerless to turn away from their temptation.  Recently I've sworn off mass manufactured bread, opting to make my own whole wheat loaves at home (which I will share once the recipe is perfected) so artisan bread is currently in ample supply.  And as chance would have it, the hubs and I happened to get our hands on some hours old eggs last week.  Needless to say, I've been eating eggs and toast like it's going out of style.  And with all the gorgeous asparagus at the market, this Caesar Asparagus Toast has been replayed throughout the week like the theme song from Titanic at a 1997 prom.

Bacon Pesto Waffles

Sweet or savory?  Welcome to the recurring conversation of weekends in our household.  After a morning-breath kiss and the ruling on who has the worse bed head that particular day, this question always arises.  Should breakfast be sweet or savory?  (First world problems, right?)  Perhaps my favorite breakfast bread is waffles which are reserved for sweet days in most households.  And by most I mean "not our".  I absolutely love a savory waffle.  Keep that maple syrup and pass the pesto.  And perhaps some bacon while you're at it.

Sausage & Sweet Potato Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich

This breakfast is brought to you by crazy delicious biscuits.  Fricking awesome biscuits that were so good at Thanksgiving, they made a second appearance at Christmas dinner and have booked a spot at New Year's, too.  Biscuits so good that they could not be confined to the dinner table, transitioning to breakfast with the simple additions of egg, turkey sausage and cheese.  Oh yes....I love me a breakfast sandwich, but especially when made with these delicious sweet potato rosemary biscuits.

Papa's Little Pigs

Nothing sticks with you quite like a childhood favorite.  Perhaps that's why I've alluded to this recipe so many, many times before.  To me, there is nothing in the world quite like this breakfast.  As soon as that first bite passes my lips, I'm immediately transported back to a breakfast table containing the 5 year-old version of myself in feety pajamas, sitting across from my braces-clad brothers with my volleyball popple at my side.  And of course, my dad at the head of the table.  Because this was his signature breakfast - Little Pigs.  Aptly named, considering the squeals of delight that erupted from us kids whenever he donned an apron in the morning.

Single Serving Coffee Cake

I have a pretty big crush on coffee cake.  A warm, tender pastry topped with sweet, cinnamon-y streusel is pretty tough to refuse straight out of bed, particularly when served along side a piping hot mug of coffee (Thanksgiving blend, a-hem!).  Keep your donuts, your fritters and your bavarian cremes...just give me a nice chunk of cake, please and thank you.  But the key word in that sentence is "piece", as in just enough for one, maybe two servings.  Which is why this single serving recipe is so darn perfect.

Pumpkin Butter French Toast w/ Pecans & Vermont Maple Syrup

If you've visited the hubs and I here for breakfast before, you know that I am not a maple syrup gal.  Morning after morning, I have adamantly opposed maple syrup, always opting for honey or agave nectar on top of my bready morning delights.  But thanks to the hubs, the state of Vermont and the residency program in Burlington for their delicious souvenirs, I get to sing a different tune today!  I'm embracing maple for the first time ever...and on one of my absolute favorite seasonal breakfasts in Pumpkin Butter French Toast.

Pumpkin Macadamia Muffins

Nothing says good morning quite like a freshly baked muffin.  They're just so perky and cheerful, the perfect companion to a steaming mug of coffee on a cool fall morning.  Or around 10:30.  Or maybe 2:45.  Let's just say good morning all day long to this muffin, because it's so darn tasty you'll be eating it around the clock.  I speak from personal experience, folks.  

Puyallup Fair Scones

September is the month where harvest festivals, hay rides and state fairs abound.  As temperatures relax and cool evenings sneak up on us, you throw an extra blanket on your bed and are finally able to wear all your cute coats into work again.  Thank goodness.  I love the crispness of fall - the apples, the weather, the crunchy orange leaves - all of these things make it my very favorite season.  Growing up, the September event I looked forward to more than anything was the Puyallup Fair, now the Washington State Fair.  (Everyone stop and try to pronounce "Puyallup"....very good!)  My grandparents lived about two blocks from the fairgrounds, and every year we were there like freckles on a red-head (I'm allowed to say that cuz I'm a ginger).  Three things were required every year:  a thorough perusal of Hobby Hall, at least an hour in the stables staring longingly at all the horses, and Fisher's Scones.  Ahhhh....the scones.

Chocolate Chip Oven Pancakes with Mixed Berry Compote

If pancakes have a downside, it is definitely that they ostracize the chef.  So unfair.  The cook spends their time flipping and flap-jacking while the family sits around the table chattering away like happy chipmunks.  Sure, you can hear the conversation but it's a few rounds of batter in the pan before you can join the bunch.  You can attempt valiant effort of making all the pancakes in advance, but this always leaves someone with the sad, droopy pancakes at the bottom of the pile, steamed to death by their doughy counterparts.  This is why oven pancakes are fabulous.  Baked up at once, served at once and eaten all at once.  It's the pancake of lonely chefs.

Chocolate Hazelnut Misto

The best part of waking up is coffee in your cup.  You may have heard that tune with some alternative lyrics, but to this Western Washingtonian there one coffee that reigns supreme over all the others, and of it I will forever sing.  Nothing beats sipping a steaming beverage out of a mermaid cup while walking on the water's edge...unless it's a lazy Saturday morning in your pajamas.  We sometimes will truck down to our local shop in our sweats and roll back with coffee in hand, but more often I like to make this tasty little homemade concoction.  That way I avoid the "compliments" on my piggy pajamas and odd stares at bed head.  

Eggy in a Pesto Hole

Eggy in the Basket.  Toad in the Hole.  Egg Toast.  Call it what you will, this little egg and bread combo is a breakfast classic.  It instantly whisks me back to childhood memories of sitting on on my knees at a tall kitchen stool, peeping over the kitchen counter and helping punch holes into slices of bread.  Care Bears pajamas included.  Well, here the kiddy classic grows up a little bit into a slightly more debonaire delight.

Croque Houmous

There are times in your life that call for comfort food.  Soup feeds a cold, flat coke settles and upset stomach and soft potatoes soothe a sore throat.  But when the hubs woke up this morning with a vicious inflamed lymph node, I was at an utter loss as to an appropriate comfort food.  All I knew what that it had to be  cheesy, hot and have some sort of sauce smeared on top.  Then it came to me....grilled cheese.  But not just any grilled cheese - his all time favorite grilled cheese.  Because sometimes cheese between two toasted slices of bread just isn't enough.  There are times when covering that deliciousness with a béchamel sauce is just what the doctor ordered.  That's me, the lower-case doctor....ya know, not in medical school to become a real Doctor.

Breakfast Polenta

The first question of the weekend is simple:  Sweet or Savory?  You wake up Saturday morning, stretch, pet the pooch/pussycat/parakeet/pet, and immediately begin thinking what kind of breakfast is going to help your weekend start off on the right side of the bed.  It's the most important meal of the day and an equally important question.  Sometimes a little something sweet hits the spot - tender french toast, sweet cinnamon rolls, scones with fresh jam.  But other days you may crave something savory - rich bacon, salty cheddar, soft poached eggs.  We usually tend to split up our weekends with one sweet, one savory (girl vs. guy....guess who's who?!)  And if it's a savory day, we often go with Breakfast Polenta.

Cinco De Mayo Baked Breakfast Peppers

Feliz Cinco de Mayo, todo el mundo!  (And thanks for your assist on that one, Google translate.)  I absolutely love this holiday.  I don't really need an excuse to eat Mexican food, but will take advantage of one when it comes strolling by every year.  We've been embracing the Mexi-spirit all weekend by sipping La Palomas and noshing on Chopped Guacamole.  But I would have to say that breakfast is my favorite time of day to head south of the border.  Nothing quite wakes you up like a side of spicy salsa with your eggs.  So in honor of today, we're sharing our Baked Breakfast Peppers with a Cinco de Mayo twist.

Slender Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Whenever the hubs wants a sweet breakfast treat, he requests cinnamon roll pancakes.  They are his absolute favorite.  When I first made the original version from Recipe Girl, he though he had died and gone to breakfast heaven.  Deliciously sweet and fluffy pancakes topped with cream cheese frosting...what's not to love?!  Um....how about the half stick of butter?  Yeah...not so much.  As he began requesting them more and more, I began slowly but surely slimming them down.  The end result is this delicious Slender Cinnamon Roll Pancake recipe.  It has the great flavor of the original recipe, but with a third of the fat and almost half the calories.

Single Serving Honey Baked Oatmeal

Do you ever have those days where you wake up and just don't want to take off your pajamas?  A morning where you feel tempted to call in sick, snuggle up in a blanket and watch trashy tv on the couch?  Yeah, me too.  Unfortunately, I am a card-carrying member of the working-class society, which means when these mornings occur outside the weekend, I must resist.  It's mornings like these that I go for my Honey Baked Oatmeal.  If you have to get out of a cozy bed, this is the perfect breakfast to keep you warm and snuggly...on the inside.

Individual Crustless Tomato Quiche

The past two weeks have been a delicious spree of baking my favorite Easter dishes, trying new recipes and indulging in old favorites.  Basically, it was a test to see exactly how much food our fridge could hold (it passed, but barely).  So now it's slowly shedding all that leftover weight...into us.  But it's ok because a) it's delicious and b) we tend to have healthy foods lying around (with a few notable exceptions).  One such leftover were fat free refried beans from chilaquiles one morning.  So I decided to bust out one of my favorite savory egg dishes and serve it up with a little Mexican flair.

Baked Breakfast Peppers

I am a huge fan of edible food vessels.  Whatever you're eating, they always take it up a notch.  Just think about soup out of a bread bowl...chicken salad out of a lettuce cup...ice cream out of a waffle cone (classic!).  They take a dish from delicious to delightful.  One of my all-time favorite food vessels is bell peppers.  Usually they are filled with some sort of savory, dinner-time stuffing, such as Roasted Pesto Barley Stuffed Peppers or Mexi-Stuffed Peppers with Cilantro Sour Cream.  But why not fill them with breakfast?  All the delicious flavors of a baked egg dish stuffed into a sweet and tender pepper...yes, please!