Christmas In Your Kitchen - Breakfast

With the combination of a weekend bookending the Christmas holidays this year and Christmas morning itself being an occasion when you can indulge at breakfast, there are lots of opportunities coming up to enjoy breakfast treats from your kitchen. If you can find the time, start with fresh orange juice...with maybe a little Champagne added to make a mimosa.

If you have the time, one of my favorites is for DeeDee's awesome Sticky Buns, fragrant with cinnamon and brown sugar and rich with cream. You would be hard pressed to find a better Sticky Bun recipe if you like your buns sticky and rich.

An easier version is one made with frozen bread dough. It combines the flavors of spices, nuts and dried fruits with the ease of having the dough already made. Once filled, rolled, cut and baked, no one will be the wiser and your house will smell wonderful!

For the family that loves to sit down to crisp, hot waffles, we have a holiday version; Gingerbread Waffles. I like 'em with apple slices that I cook with a little cinnamon and a sprinkle of sugar, but they taste fine with butter and maple syrup, too. These do have yeast for leavening, but you start the batter the night before, which makes the time before those glorious waffles are on the table pretty short.

French Toast is another traditional breakfast treat, and one that Sweetie just loves. This version also includes a recipe for the apples I mentioned above, with the added twist of maple syrup for sweetening instead of sugar.

Do you love the flavors of Greece? Then you might enjoy this Greek Omelet for Christmas breakfast. Spinach, feta and pine nuts join Greek yogurt and eggs for this hearty dish.

That should give you a few ideas for breakfasts. Do you have traditional recipes for the holidays for breakfast, too.?

Greek Omelet for Breakfast

This morning seemed like a good one to try out a recipe that I had been thinking about. I wanted to see if i could combine some Greek flavors in an omelet.

First I toasted a tablespoon of pine nuts in a small dry cast iron skillet. A few sprigs of fresh oregano from the garden were washed and minced. A couple of tablespoons of feta cheese were crumbled. About 1/4 cup of spinach was chopped, steamed and then squeezed dry in paper towels. Some of that delicious Stonyfield farms plain Oikos Greek style yogurt was ready for topping the omelet. I used three eggs worth of egg substitute, but three eggs, lightly scrambled in a bowl would work, too.

This made an absolutely delicious breakfast omelet! It was light and fluffy and full of savory goodness. the yogurt tied it all together.

This also made the perfect dish to enter into the "O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness" event and contest. Since I lost a dear niece to ovarian cancer a few years ago I know how terrible this disease is. There are no obvious warning signs so it is often not diagnosed until very late. We miss J so much!

Be sure to visit Michelle at Bleeding Espresso to learn more about this event, but you can also go to the bottom of this post. Even if you are not interested in entering the event, remember that this is a silent killer. The end of the post also has the symptoms and a way to support Ovarian Cancer Research.

Greek Omelet
serves 1

1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 teaspoon butter or olive oil
3 eggs, lightly scrambled, or equivalent amount of egg substitute
1/4 cup chopped, steamed spinach, squeezed dry in a towel or paper towels
1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced, or 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon feta cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste
Stonyfield Farms plain Greek style Oikos yogurt

In a dry small cast iron skillet over high heat, toast the pine nuts until lightly browned in places, stirring often. Set aside.

In hot skillet, melt the butter or heat the oil. Add the eggs and let sit for a half minute, then with a fork move the cooked eggs into the center of the pan, letting the uncooked eggs flow to the outer edges. Add the spinach, oregano and feta cheese to the pan, salt and pepper to taste, then cover and cook for another 20 seconds. Uncover, use fork to fold omelet in half and slide it onto a plate. The eggs should be golden brown.

Garnish with a couple of tablespoons of the Oikos yogurt and then sprinkle with the pine nuts. Serve at once while hot.

CONTEST RULES
O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O Foods Contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;
2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);
3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle).

OR

TWO: If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:
One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.
———
From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).

There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.

In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.

When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at our page through FirstGiving!

Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.