Birthday Brunch

Disclosure: The above photos contain images that some viewers may find offensive. I apologize in advance for the morning hair, wrinkles and blemishes not covered by make-up.

I told you, we partied all weekend! Labor Day morning (aka, my birthday) we kicked off the day with a brunch. The kids were so cute hiding out that morning making me cards. My daughter helped mix the waffles, my husband made the sausage, Grammy made the eggs, and I tried out a new muffin recipe. After breakfast, I opened my gifts. I was so blessed this year to receive clothes, a new purse, new books, gift cards, money to put towards some new crafty stuff...fun fun fun!

The next time you have an easy, carefree morning with nowhere to go and no place to be...try out these recipes - No birthday necessary.

Banana - Chocolate Chip Waffles

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups milk (I used skim, but buttermilk is the best)
3/4 cups vegetable oil
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips

Combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar) in a bowl, "sift" with a wire whisk.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the milk and oil, whisk again. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour the egg mixture into the well. Stir well with a wooden spoon. Add the mashed bananas and stir again. Fold in the chocolate chips. Cook in a preheated waffle iron until golden. Makes about 20 waffles.

My waffle iron only makes 2 at a time (a total pain in the butt, so if anyone needs a Christmas idea...hint hint), and nobody wants to eat a cold waffle. So, to keep everything warm while I make 20 something waffles, we kept them in an oven, heated at 200, until we were ready to serve.

French Breakfast Puffs
*a Pioneer Woman recipe

Puffs:
3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Coating:
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the muffin pans. In a large bowl (I used my mixer), stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside. Add the eggs and mix again. Alternately adding 1/3 of the flour mixture and 1/3 of the milk to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. (I messed up here and dumped in all the milk, then added the flour). Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full (I use an ice cream scoop). Bake for the 20-25 minutes, until golden. Remove the muffins from a pan and set aside.

To make the coating, melt the butter in a bowl or glass pan. In a separate container, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Dip the warm muffins in the butter, coating thoroughly (I did tops only). Then roll the muffin in the sugar mixture.

*My review: these are good, no doubt...but not what I was expecting. From the pictures and ingredients, I guess I was expecting something very "doughnut-like". These are much drier and just very very sugary.

You can find her recipe on Pioneerwoman.com, a website I highly recommend anyone take a look at...love love love it! And it's in her book, "The Pioneer Woman Cooks Recipes From An Accidental Country Girl", which I received for my birthday from my sis-in-law, Amy. Thanks Amy!!!

Spoiler alert: I will be giving these gorgeous books as Christmas gifts this year, so if you're female and in my family...don't go buying these for yourselves!!

Also: Quick question for you bloggers out there. I do not know why my text size keeps doing funky things. For example, I have "banana chocolate chip" waffles on the same font as everything else, but set to "smallest". I have "french puffs" set to normal size...but obviously "banana" is still HUGE! What is up!?!? And how I fix it....help, please???