Bourbon Croissant Bread Pudding

I am excited to be off work today. I have nothing to do all day except relax on my porch swing and read a good book.

Since I have no reason to put effort into anything today, there is no reason not to add a little something  extra to my breakfast. Who ever said that you can't have bourbon for breakfast? It just requires a little creativity.

Salted Caramel Milkshakes

Some  days just call for a special treat. Especially those days that are already over 80 degrees in the beginning of April and you decided to turn on your oven and make your kitchen close to 100 degrees. Plus I have that salted caramel sauce in the fridge that has to be used up.

This milkshake seemed like a great use of some of that caramel sauce.

Salted Caramel Sauce

It's been one of those days. Most days I love my job and working with children is an amazing experience. Not so much today. Let me tell you. Four year olds can be VIOLENT. Not just mean, down right violent.

Today, I dodged chairs flying at my head, broke up fist fights, and have teeth marks in my arm. I also had my death described to me in detail while trying to convince a 4 year old to just lay still on her cot at nap time.

Today I deserve the Redbox movie I rented, the pint of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked, and the pizza that I picked up on my way home. Even though it is filled with brownies and cookie dough, it just wasn't enough to erase my day, it needed more. So I whipped up a small batch of salted caramel sauce to pour all over it.

Salted Caramel Sauce can improve anybody's bad day. You. Must. Try. It.

Warm Lemon Pudding Cake

Today may not be the first official day of spring, but it was certainly the first day that has felt like spring. And I was lucky enough to have this beautiful day off work. The weather was perfect and I spent the majority of the day outside, on my porch swing reading the second book in the Vampire Academy series. Nothing like an easy read for a lazy day.

While eating lunch, I happened to be looking through the April edition of Cook's Illustrated and came across their recipe for Lemon Pudding Cake. While I'm sure their  recipe was dead on, it also involved a lot of steps, which in turn would result in a lot of dishes having to be washed. So I did what all great cooks do, I improvised and skipped a bunch of steps that didn't seem necessary. My cakes turned out very lemony and perfect pudding-to-cake ratio.

Irish Soda Bread

♚ Ω ♧ Happy St. Patrick's Day! ♧ Ω ♚

As my Facebook new feed floods with random facts about today and pictures of green beer and less than appetizing green food, I am focused on a traditional Irish recipe. A simple, Irish Soda Bread, done in the more traditional style than the Americanized version that floods grocery stores and bakeries at this time of year.

The traditional version of this delicious bread has a moist, dense crumb and a thick, crunchy crust. I added in some raisins to make it comparable to an Americanized version of this bread that is sold at The Andersons, a wonderful all-purpose store located close to my parents' in Ohio. (They also have a cran-orange version that is delicious.)

Caramel Filled Brownies

♥ ❤ ❥ ❣ ❦ ❧ Happy Valentine's Day! ❧ ❦ ❣ ❥ ❤ ♥  

So this is technically not a breakfast food but it was totally my breakfast this morning.

Lemon-Berry Baked French Toast

It did something amazing here in NC yesterday. It SNOWED!

While I dislike the cold, there is something magical about watching the world around you turn white.  I watched from the windows at work as these beautiful little white flakes started floating down from the sky around 9am. I sat in a semi-dazed state, staring out the windows, wishing I could go out and play in it. I also watched snowplow after snowplow made its way down the road in front of my work.

I was thrilled at 2pm when work announced we were closing 2 hours early. By the time I left work there was about 3/4 of an inch of snow covering everything.