Next up is the recipe that my sweet sister, Sloane, made. It’s one of my favorites!

A few of the other guests brought recipes that have already been featured here on the blog… for instance, Peggy made THIS great salad that I wrote about back in September 2009.  And Peggy’s fabulous sister, Terrie, made a beautiful platter of roasted asparagus that was generously topped with crumbled goat cheese, crispy bacon, and lemon.  Regretfully, I didn’t get a picture of either Terrie’s asparagus or Peggy’s salad, (you can go to the link above to see the salad).  But thankfully I did snap a lovely picture of gorgeous Peggy!

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Here is the first of four brunch dishes that I’d like to share with you from our New Year’s Eve Brunch. Since I wasn’t the one cooking any of these, there will only be one picture… no preparation photos. And in some cases, as with this one, I even forgot to take the picture myself and had to ask the creator of the dish to email me the photo taken from the leftovers they brought back home – thanks for this one, Mary!  Oh, one more thing – This is my 800th Post! Wow 800!

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I am completely “committing to the chai” with this French toast. It goes without saying that this is delicious served with the Vanilla Chai Tea Hot Toddy for a perfect fall brunch. Enjoy!

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Cookies for breakfast?  Sure, why not?  These particular cookies are packed with healthy stuff – dried fruit, almonds, cereal… and…. bacon. OK, not healthy bacon, but yummy breakfast-time bacon. Plus they aren’t too sweet, just right.  Great to eat if you have no time in the morning. Pop them in the freezer and just grab one or two on your way out the door and you have breakfast!

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I’ve scrolled through all 1,577 of the comments left on this site and found that well over 30 of them are from my darling daughter, Marissa, saying something like this – “Send me some!”  “Save some for me.”  “Make that for me when I come home!”  and most recently, “I’ve decided I’m going to comment on every post of something I want, asking you to send it to me, until you actually do send me something.”  

What’s a mother to do? My girl used to live in Tucson, so it was easy to plan a quick trip and just drive down to stay overnight and cook for her and her darling roommates. But now she lives about 750 miles away in San Francisco.  And although I would love nothing more than to hop on a plane every few weeks and spend time in that gorgeous city with my gorgeous girl, that isn’t very practical or even possible.

So I’ve made muffins.  Muffins to freeze and ship to her.  Marissa, please share them with your new darling roommates and rest assured, they are made with enormous amounts of love. xoxo

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These are some super good pancakes, so airy and fluffy. Sour cream is the secret. And they are the perfect vehicle for the delicious rhubarb-strawberry compote recipe I gave you yesterday. Make any morning extra special by whipping up a batch of these!

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I love to go on vacation but what I love, even more, is coming home. Isn’t everyone like that? Dave and I had another lovely week up in the North Woods of Wisconsin with our BFF’s Jeff and Jen and their 3 boys; Travis, Blake, and Jack. They (as in the 6 of them, not me) love swimming in the lake, boating, fishing, water skiing, tanning, hiking in the woods, and being outdoors. I love staying inside their gorgeous log-cabin home, cooking and relaxing. They can have all that sun, water, nature, and mosquitoes! Even though I do everything in my power to avoid those blood-sucking devils, they find me. Oh well, it’s worth it to live in the beauty of the pines and be with the people I love. Another thing I love is making meals with Jen. She’s a great cook and she and I are totally in tune with each other in the kitchen. Can’t wait until next year…

While we were out of town, we missed a big happening in “the Valley of the Sun” – and I’m not talking about the All-Star Game. We missed the “now famous haboob” that occurred here on July 5th! I have a link for you to watch it – as I did – from the comfort of my laptop. This time-lapse video is Amazing!

And here is a picture of a damp paper towel that I used to wipe off the center island kitchen counter … mind you, my house was completely and professionally cleaned by Gabby, my “twice-a-month house cleaner” earlier that very same day – July 5th! And no other living creature has been in the house since. This is a small sampling of the dirt that came in through our closed and locked windows and doors when the massive wall of dirt rolled over our defenseless little house!

Disgusting! On to better and more appetizing things…

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Yesterday it was red velvet waffles, today we have banana waffles. The red velvet just about hopped out of the waffle iron themselves, the banana waffles stick a little bit because of the fresh banana in the batter, so be patient while getting them out of the iron. Just pry them a bit with a fork and they will come out in one piece. And if you waffle iron doesn’t have a light to indicate that the waffle is cooked through and ready to remove, just wait until the steam stops, that is another way (the old fashioned way) to let you know it is ready.

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Happy Birthday to my handsome, talented, kind, caring, loving, and wonderful son, Connor! I am so proud to be your mom and I absolutely adore you! (this sweet picture was taken last month at my Dad’s 80th birthday party by Sloane’s friend, professional photographer Robert Westerman.)

I woke up early to make Connor his birthday breakfast and thought, “My baby is no longer a teenager, I feel so old!”  But then I realized that I really don’t feel old at all! That is just something people say and then for some stupid reason you automatically say it to yourself.  What I actually feel is happy and proud to have raised two cute and innocent little children into such amazing adults – that doesn’t make me feel old – it makes me feel privileged and lucky.

Instead of the traditional homemade birthday dinner of his choice, Connor requested a birthday breakfast, specifically, waffles.  So I made two waffle varieties and served them with bacon, melon, and juice. Waffle #1 is red velvet, the recipe is below. Waffle #2 -banana waffles – will be posted tomorrow.

Before we get to the recipe, I want to share some “waffle tips” with you. This applies to waffles of all flavors, not just red velvet, and banana.

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I’m gearing up for a demonstration cooking class in the garden next weekend.  In that garden spirit, I made myself a delicious breakfast gazpacho drink this morning, what a way to get the day started!

I hope you’ll come out to see me at Berridge Nurseries (4647 E. Camelback in Phoenix) next Saturday, April 16th, at noon.

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