Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Both my parents worked when I was a kid so we fed ourselves a lot, mostly cold cereal (Sugar Smacks, Corn Pops, Frosted Flakes and Corn Flakes with sliced bananas were the faves) and pop tarts, Co-Co Wheats and Malt O Meal in the winter and I remember some hot cereal thing from the 80's that had a packet of jam or some fruit filling that you could mix in.

On her days off my mom made great french toast for us and I remember, every once in a while she would make breakfast casserole or breakfast burritos for us. The only time we ever got pancakes was on our twice yearly trip to grandmas house in the summer and winter. That was really the only time we ever ate eggs and bacon for breakfast as well.

This is my go to frosting for cake....very smooth and pipes beautifully and it doesn't just taste like sweet butter.

Very Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

2 and 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
1 and 1/4 cup egg whites
5 sticks butter (half salted)
1/4 cup pure vanilla

Optional flavorings, Omit all but 1 tsp vanilla and add either:

-4 oz melted chocolate – white, milk or dark
-2 tb instant espresso disolved in 2 tb pure vanilla
-1/2 cup of pureed fruit – raspberries (seeds removed), strawberries, mango, cherries etc.
-1/2 cup lemon or lime curd
- 2 to 4 tb flavored liqueur – amarettto, chambord, grand marnier (sp?) , godiva, kahlua (sp?) etc.
-4 oz cream cheese (softened, whipped alone and FOLDED in)
-2 tb or to taste, pure extracts: orange, lemon, almond, mint etc.

Instructions

Over a double boiler , whisk the sugar and egg whites for 3 to 5 minutes until the sugar has melted. you can use a candy thermometer to see that it has reached over 140 OR you can test by rubbing a little between your fingers for smoothness. if the mixture is still grainy, its not ready. when it is, transfer the mixture to a stand mixer and use a whisk attachment on high until the bowl is no longer warm to the touch. about 7 to 10 minutes. Then switch to the paddle attachment and on low (1) add the softened butter one tb at a time. beat on low until it becomes smooth and creamy. Once complete, you can add the vanilla slowly , or other flavorings and or gel color.

This will be an ivory colored frosting because of the use of butter and pure vanilla extract.

Pie crusts....these are my Everest...no matter how hard I try they always come out either mealy or tough, no matter how little I handle it.

Biscuits....hockey pucks..no matter how little or how gently I handle the dough, same as above.

Omelets......I have never been able to make a good one...they always just end up like one big round of scrambled eggs that gets torn.

But ask me to make homemade danishes, croissants and puff pastry and I'm your gal....anything made with yeast...breads...cakes, cookies and I am a pro...I just don't get why I suck so much at the above three....

I guess it was appropriate then that I went to the store today and noticed that like 85% of my cart was drinks....water, gatorade, diet coke, dr. pepper, apple juice, milk, sweet tea. It was crazy!

Pibb is my favorite but they don't sell it in our little corner of Arkansas, we have to drive about 45 min to the Missouri border to stock up on Pibb. We used to have Cheerwine here when I was a kid but they stopped selling it LONG ago.

We actually call all soda "Cokes" too, as in someone will ask you if you want a Coke, and then ask you what kind. I never thought that was weird!

Pizza here as well, not too exciting tonight. I'm toying with the idea of making either chocolate cupcakes or a pineapple upside down cake for dessert.

Mmm... I used to love this stuff as a teen, I always wanted a big pan of this stuff (3 boxes in a 9 x 13 pan) instead of a cake for my b-day.

You can use low sugar/no sugar pectin (made by Ball, I think) .....that what I would do and probably cut the sugar down to 2.5 cups or so. BTW, this sounds delicious and is definitely on my list to make!

I usually eat yogurt for breakfast but I like sweet breakfast foods at other times of the day, especially french toast late at night. I also love coffee cake, muffins and homemade croissant and danishes.

Cheap! Especially here where we have a Little Debbie Outlet store, where most boxes go for about 50-75 cents each (and most still have a great shelf life, exp date is a month or so later). I've always loved those strawberry rolls and every once in a while I just NEED one of those oatmeal cream pies.

I use it for cookies, pie crust and greasing pans....it works for us since butter isn't always the best option and we don't eat any pork products ever (ie..lard).

Pizza or Chinese

buffalo fried turkey!