Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast is one of the best parts of the Venza weekend.  We used to go out to breakfast a lot, but then we started making more and more elaborate breakfasts at home.  We'll typically load up on a delicious breakfast, and then we'll skip lunch as a way of justifying the extravagance.  Here are some of our most favorite breakfast creations.

Cheddar Cheese Grits

This is maybe my favorite breakfast.  Made from scratch, cheddar cheese grits with bacon and Tabasco.  I could eat this all day!  The recipe was adapted from Alton Brown with a few Jenny-twists.  To answer those who want to know what a grit is, it's basically cornmeal.

Cheese Danish

Ina Garten's easy cheese danishes.  This is a real show-stopper.  We'll pull these out when we have guests stay over.  If you make the filling the night before, it's less work in the morning.  We also like to add a little jam with the cheese filling (any flavor will do...mango, tabasco, blackberry, etc). 

Egg McMuffin

This is a play on an Egg McMuffin.  English muffin with melted cheddar cheese, Canadian bacon, and a poached egg.  Poached egg..... mmmmmmm.  Super easy to make, but watch out...they make a big mess on this sandwich!

Baked Eggs & Polenta

I made baked eggs with polenta and sausage on a whim one morning while I was waiting (impatiently) for someone to get out of bed.  I can't remember exactly which recipe I used, but this recipe is pretty close.  I made my own version of polenta (see grits above) and then topped it with eggs and sausage and popped it in the oven.  It turned out pretty great.

Apple pancakes

Another staple for when we have guests staying at our house:  Penzeys' apple pancakes.  It's easy to make and looks like you slaved in the kitchen forever even though you didn't.  Having a mandolin on hand to slice the apples helps, too.  Also, Jimmy Dean hot sausage is the bomb-diggitty.

Sweet Potato Hash

Southern Living's sweet potato hash.  More delightfully runny yolks.

Fried Polenta with Fried Eggs

For the health food nut, we have fried eggs on top of fried polenta. We used a Giada recipe, but essentially we used leftover grits from the previous day's breakfast.  In the future, we may put the polenta in the freezer a bit to help it get super firm, pre-fry.  By the way, polenta and grits are more or less the same thing.

French Toast with Rum Bananas

French Toast with Rum Bananas.   No syrup needed because all the goodness is in the rum sauce.  Top it off with a mimosa and you're ready to start the day.

Cranberry & orange scones

Call the queen, 'cause we got scones in the house, guvner!  You can make any variety that you want...these are cranberry & orange scones.  We've also made the same recipe with fresh blueberries.  Deliciously buttery and easy to make.

Bird's nest toast

Bird's nest toast with raisin bread.  This is a pretty standard thing, apparently, but I had never heard of it until I saw the movie "V for Vendetta."  I was intrigued ever since and had to look up a recipe.  The raisin toast is a nice twist.

Eggs in Baskets

This, my friends, is "Brunch Approved."  Sunny Anderson's Eggs in Baskets is pretty amazing and looks fantastic, too.  We had a buy an extra-large muffin tin, but it was worth it.  Use store-bought frozen hash browns, because it's much easier than doing that part from scratch and works just as well.

That's all for now.  We'll have more breakfast exploits, but you'll just have to come over one weekend to share the experience!

*UPDATE*
This Sunday's breakfast: Pannetone French Toast topped with bacon.