Your Invited To Spring Brunch!

You're invited to a Spring Brunch. Cyndy made Baked Eggs in Ham Cups, Carol made a wonderful Amish White Bread and I brought an Iced Chocolate Latte. Bring your juiciest gossip and let's eat and laugh!!

Cyndy Made:

Baked Eggs in Ham Cups

I love breakfast. It's my favorite meal of the day. The end product of this dish is creamy soft eggs with the flavor of the ham, pesto, and mozzarella.

This recipe comes together quickly. I used Black Forest Ham, it must of been a tad too thick...it kept wanting to pop out of the muffin tin. I got them into place and put the pesto, eggs, cheese and tomato into the ham cups, then dusted them lightly with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. They smelled wonderful while baking...the anticipation drove me nuts! I wasn't disappointed, they were fabulous! The taste is absolutely wonderful. I had never added pesto to my eggs before. Is it any wonder I love the recipes of Gale Gand?? She's amazing!

Baked Eggs in Ham Cups

Gale Gand

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon unsalted butter, for the tins

4 (1/16-inch thick) round ham slices (the largest you can find at the deli)

1 teaspoon pesto, homemade (she gives a recipe in the book) or store-bought

8 large eggs

8 (3/4-inch) cubes fresh mozzarella {I used 2 mini balls of fresh mozz in each side of the cup)

4 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Butter 4 compartments of a metal muffin tin. Fold each ham slice into quarters; insert the point end in a buttered muffin cup, and let it open -- it will have a ruffled look. Place 1/4 teaspoon pesto in the bottom of each ham cup, then carefully crack 2 eggs into each cup. ("Sometimes I crack my eggs into a pitcher with a pour spout or into a small paper cup and pour them into the ham cup from there," Gale writes.) Tuck 2 mozzarella cubes and 2 cherry tomato halves into each cup on top of the eggs, and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. (Remember that the ham and pesto both lend saltiness to the dish.) Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the egg white looks set but the yolk is still a bit runny. Remove the ham cups from the muffin tin and serve them in small bowls or lined up on a platter.

Serves 4.

"Gale Gand's Brunch! 100 Fantastic Recipes for the Weekend's Best Meal" by Gale Gand with Christie Matheson (Clarkson Potter, 2009)

Carol Made:

Amish White Bread

I love making homemade bread...no, really...I mean it when I say I LOVE making homemade bread. It's one of my favorite things make....and there's NOTHING that smells better than bread baking. It makes me smile just thinking about it.

My Italian grandmother that lived with us when I was growing up made the BEST rolls I've ever tasted....I have the recipe and of course I can't duplicate them no matter what I do...she had a "gift" for baking...anything she touched came out perfect. Not me......some days I think I got the "curse"!

Back to bread......when the price of bread started skyrocketing this past winter, I decided the time had come to start making my own. I figured it out and it really was cheaper to make bread rather than buy it-especially when I got the flour and other supplies on sale.

The next step was to find a recipe I really liked....didn't want to get discouraged with the whole business before I started!

This recipe comes from allrecipes... I read the reviews there and knew I HAD to try it.

I wasn't sorry AT ALL----this is one of THE BEST white breads I've ever tasted. It's sweet, but not overly sweet (more on that in a minute) and so nice and soft...and it's an easy loaf of bread to make too!

Some people use their KitchenAid dough hook to knead the dough in the mixer...not me....I'm a "knead the dough by hand" kind of girl. There's something therapeutic-at least to me-about kneading bread.....it calms me down. Yes, I can definitely release some stress if that's built up too...the bread dough gets a darned good workout, along with my arms! Besides...I like to "feel" how much flour is needed in the dough-I've gotten to be able to tell that by the way the dough works for me. I can't get that in a mixer or bread machine. Do I have a bread machine? Yes. Do I use the bread machine? No. BUT I don't want to get rid of it because I just KNOW when I do, that I'll be kicking myself for it because the PERFECT bread machine recipe will fall in my lap. Murphy's Law you know...I need to outsmart Murphy...whoever HE IS?!

OK-back to the Amish White Bread....homemade bread can tend to dry out faster than one bought in the store. SO when time I made this bread last week, I substituted warm milk for half of the water amount.....I think it kept the bread softer for a few more days-Bob even said it didn't want to break as quickly as the last one I made. Also-my husband decided he wanted a "not as sweet" (what IS wrong with that man???) bread for his sandwiches, so I cut the sugar amount in half. People that reviewed this bread on allrecipes said they did that with good results. It worked great too-the bread is still a little sweet but not too sweet.

Oh-and for toast? This is SO good....and French Toast? Even better!

This recipe is in my "keepers" file for sure....I make it whenever the urge to make bread strikes-or there isn't any more bread in the freezer, perish the thought.

I'm working at perfecting a 100% Whole Wheat Bread that's nice and soft...I'm almost there!

AMISH WHITE BREAD

(Source: allrecipes.com)

• 2 c. warm water (110 degrees) (for a softer bread, use 1 c. water and 1 c. warm milk)
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2/3 c. sugar (use 1/3 c. sugar for a less sweet bread)
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. active dry yeast

6 c. bread flour (I find I use a little less-probably closer to 5 1/4-5 1/2 c., but I always measure the 6 c. out and mix in what I can with the Kitchen Aid, then knead in the rest by hand)

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water (if you're using milk in this bread, dissolve the sugar in 1 c. warm water), then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam. If using milk in the bread, stir the 1 c. of warm milk in now. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour, one cup at a time. Knead until smooth (you can knead this bread in the Kitchen Aid...I don't...I mix in enough flour with the Kitchen Aid until it's a consistency that I can knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough-about 5 1/4-5 1/2 c. total).

Place dough in well oiled bowl; turn to coat top. Let rise about 1 hour.

Punch dough down, knead a few times. Divide dough in half.

Shape into loaves and place into 2 greased 9x5-inch loaf pans. Allow to rise 30 minutes or until dough has risen about 1" above pans.

Bake @ 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from pans immediately. I brush the top of the loaves with a little melted butter right after I take them out of the pans so that the crust stays nice and soft.

Bunny Made:

Iced Chocolate Latte

What would a Spring Brunch be without a nice cool drink to sip on? I've got an easy one, after all we don't want to spend tons of time in the kitchen , we wanna sit and talk to friends!

Iced Chocolate Latte fits the bill. If you want to take it up a notch, put a splash of coffee liquor in the latte! All you need for this is brewed coffee, you're suppose to brew it twice but Carol suggested using a teaspoon of instant coffee instead so that's what I did. Coffee, sugar, chocolate syrup, milk and ice cubes and your on your way to having a refreshing summer drink. Sit back and enjoy!!

Iced Chocolate Latte

That's My Home

A tall glass filled with ice

4- 5 ounces of double brewed coffee ( I brewed the coffee once, then stirred in 1 tsp of instant coffee)

2 Tbls sugar

A good squirt of chocolate syrup

1/4 - 1/2 cup of whole milk ( as much or as little as you like)

Whipped Cream (option)

Cinnamon (option)

Instructions:

Brew the coffee, then brew again or use the instant coffee. Add the sugar, syrup and milk to the coffee, stir well. Pour over the ice and add Whipped Cream and Cinnamon if you like to decorate.