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Holiday dinners are all fine and well, but my favorite mealtimes during this season are the breakfasts. I love getting up late and lingering around the kitchen table in my pajamas, eating leftovers and special breakfast dishes.
And so this year I thought I would add another morning entree to my holiday cooking repertoire: Blueberry Breakfast Skillet (isn't it pretty?).
Do you remember when I stocked up on blueberries this past summer and froze them in cup-size portions? I reasoned that someday, in the midst of cold winter weather, I would want to eat some of those delightful summer berries. And I was right.
While the blueberries defrosted in my cast iron skillet amidst sugar, cinnamon, and some tapioca, I whipped up the crust in my handy food processor. God bless the person who invented the food processor! They make dough-making a cinch.
And here it is, all ready to be rolled out. This buttery pastry is definitely on the sticky side, so make sure you have flour close at hand if you decide to make this dish. I had to start the rolling step over more than once before I got it right...
Transferring it to the blueberry-filled-skillet was also a bit of a challenge. The recipe recommends the aid of a rimless baking sheet, but I didn't have the patience for that. My transfer motto? Move quick. Very, very quick.
And here, friends, is the result. Hot and bubbly from the oven, it is sure to impress your overnight guests or hungry kiddos on Christmas morning. 
To make this blueberry skillet breakfast for yourself and family this holiday season, click here for the free recipe from Sunset Magazine!
Note: I did make a few modifications to the recipe: I used half shortening and half butter in the pastry crust, blueberries instead of huckleberry, and I added a cap-ful of almond extract to the filling.
And, to be unabashedly self promoting, those lovely napkins you see beside the skillet are from my Winter Napkins pattern... I'm just saying...
Enjoy!
Smelling these wonderful homemade chocolate chip cookies makes me forget (a little) that I'm in "class" on a Saturday. Mrs. Marple's Fine Living class, that is. It's the last "food" day of the 28-day course, and personally I think we're ending on a good note with these cookies.
The point of the today's lesson, which piggybacks from yesterday's talk about doubling recipes, is that being prepared to host is part of living well. 
While I was eating cookie dough from the spoon, Mrs. Marple encouraged us to not just consider the personal benefits of premade food (like better health, more time and financial savings), but to also think about how it might help us care for others.
Because who, I ask, wouldn't feel cared for with homemade chocolate chip cookies? No one, I dare say. And so I decided to make a batch and freeze the dough for later.
Which is, incidentally, a very easy thing to do. Just dump the dough on wax paper and roll it into a log. Then freeze. No advanced astro-physics degrees required.
And then when one of my friend pops over after having a very bad day, I can pop some of the dough into the oven and have fresh cookies for her in minutes. Guaranteed to improve her mood.
Aside from cookies, Mrs. Marple also reminded us that there might likely come a time when one of those premade frozen entrees we had stashed away for the future could come in handy for a neighbor who just had a baby or a friend who was ill. It makes the good intentions that we all have that much easier to follow through on.
I have to say that that Mrs. Marple is pretty smart.
Previous Days at the Institute:
Day 5: Getting AheadDay 3: Starting in the KitchenDay 2: the Secret to Fine Living
"Now that's a lot of food," my husband said to me last night, commenting about the large stock pot full of beefy noodle casserole filling, and probably wondering if there was some kind of dinner party I hadn't warned him of, or perhaps a global disaster I was prophetically preparing for.
"I know." I said. "Good thing we aren't eating all of this tonight."
I then explained to him that earlier in the day, at Mrs. Marple's, we had talked about the efficiency of doubling recipes and freezing half for later. She encouraged us to pick a recipe from our meal plan and get two of everything we need for it at the store.
So I chose this beef & cheese noodle bake and stocked up on the supplies.
While I was getting things started with the onion and garlic (don't all good things seem to start with onion and garlic?), I was thinking about how it is true that cooking a double recipe is really the same amount of work as cooking a single one. 
I considered that by adding a little extra planning, I would get to enjoy this meal sometime in the future with hardly any work at all. (**note: slightly undercook pasta that you intend to freeze so it won't get too mushy @ defrost time.) 
This is the first time trying this recipe, so I was curious to see how it would turn out.
I had good first impressions with the flavor and smell, and definitely could appreciate the added veggies (designed, I think, to appeal to kids and adults alike).
I've learned from freezing things in the past, though, that not everything defrosts well. Like cheese sauce, for instance. So I decided to stop short of making the sauce and prepped & measured the cheddar instead. I'll just whip up the sauce in minutes when we eat this dish again.
I divided the casserole filling and stored half of it away in a gallon freezer bag.
Then I just stapled the cheese right to the filling. I don't want them getting separated in the freezer and end up with a cheddar-less casserole down the road.
After quickly writing a label (sometimes I even write cooking instructions like "bake at 350 for an hour" on top, too), it was ready for the freezer.
We have a small deep freezer in the garage which helps tremendously when I want to store away food for the future. But Mrs. Marple reminded us that even a well-organized refrigerator freezer could hold at least a few pre-made meals.
She encouraged us to try to pick a recipe a week to double and then freeze. It would be nice, I thought, for those nights when I don't feel like cooking anything. Sorta like takeout, only from my freezer.
Tomorrow she is going to talk about some of the other benefits of having pre-made meals, so I'm looking forward to that. And yes--I know it's a Saturday, so if you can't make it, that's alright. I'll take good notes and you can catch up next week.
Have a good weekend!
Previous Related Posts:
Cooking Mania, and why it's helping me be more intentional
My Feet Hurt, and other tales from my cooking extravaganza
Cooking Extravaganza: the Details
Have I mentioned that I was a bit of a school nerd growing up? As in I always did my homework and never missed an assignment? And was a tiny bit obsessed with getting A's? 
So naturally when Mrs. Marple instructed us to start in the kitchen on our quest for fine living, I took her seriously. True to form, I wanted to impress her with my scholarly diligence.
So I made chicken parmesan for dinner.
First I chopped up these lovely tomatoes, home grown from my friend who felt sorry for me after reading my "runt" post last week (thanks Sharry!), for the sauce.
And I blended them in my handy little hand chopper. It's probably one of my favorite appliances. But that's not surprising because I think smaller versions of big things (like food processors) are always adorable.
I like a little flavor and texture in my sauce, so I sauteed some onion and garlic....
And then added the tomato, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. On occasion I've also been known to thrown in a little chipotle for heat, but my little tryst with heartburn of late shut that idea down immediately.
Chicken parmesan is breaded, so I dutifully dredged my chicken breasts in egg and then seasoned bread crumbs. Then I cooked them in 1 tbs. of butter in the skillet until done, giving them a nice, crispy brown coat.
The final ta-da is to dump the cooked pasta (I used about 1/3 of a spaghetti package) into an oven-proof skillet, place the cooked chicken on top, sprinkle (or dump, as in my case) the parmesan cheese, and then pour the sauce over the whole thing. I broiled mine for 5 minutes or so until the cheese melted and everything looked all bubbly and delicious.
Then I served it with salad greens tossed in vinaigrette.
Of course cooking dinner wasn't exactly the point of Mrs. Marple's lesson. What she wants is a menu plan. So, again true to form, I did that too. I'll let you copy mine if you want--just email me at shillberry@stephaniehillberry.com for the pdf. Mrs. Marple probably won't notice.
She also gave us a hint about the next assignment--something about doubling up recipes to make life easier. I guess we'll learn more about that tomorrow.
Hope you have a great day!
Previous Days at the Institute:
Day 1: Acceptance
Day 2: the Secret to Fine Living
Day 3: Starting in the Kitchen
