Blueberry and Brie Stuffed Waffle

Happy Monday! I’m back from a week-long vacation to Bermuda so even Monday is happy. It was such a great family trip and I will have some photos to share. Today we’re talking about brunch. I hosted brunch yesterday but my camera is still the residence to vacay & brunch photos, my luggage isn’t 100% unpacked, and I’m just happy to have a post for you.

I’m still on vacation mode in the sense that I went to find this recipe’s inspiration on Pinterest. Then I discovered a pin for a fun party theme which lead me to a blog, which later lead me to my reader with lots of unread blog posts which distracted me from this post. Short & sweet it will now be!

Blueberry & Brie Stuffed Waffles

adapted from Damn Delicious

Ingredients:

2 waffles (fresh or frozen)
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup blackberries (or raspberries)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup blueberry pancake topping (or 1/2 cup blueberries macerated, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 2 tbs water, 1/2 tsp cornstarch)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbs heavy cream
4 oz brie, sliced

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, add blueberries, blackberries, sugar, blueberry sauce, cinnamon, vanilla, and heavy cream over medium-low heat. Stir well and keep an eye on it for when it gently boils.
Prepare waffles to your liking
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Turn the blueberry sauce to low once it has boils so it can thicken.
Assemble waffles with 1/2 waffle on the bottom, topped with sliced brie, then topped with blueberry sauce. Finish it with the other 1/2 of waffle on top, or serve open faced.
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I loved this. I like brie and I don’t usually seek out sweet breakfasts. I think this was a good sweet/savory balance. I  prefer it cooked/melted. It is creamy and mild but has such a distinct flavor. It gets gooey which is balanced by the crispy waffle and the sweet blueberries popped. It was perfect! I usually eat/serve the rind on the brie, but that’s personal preference.

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I kind of cheated with the blueberry sauce. I had some from Stonewall Kitchen and really wanted to use it up. I added more blueberries and just a few other ingredients to liven it all up. The blueberries and blackberries were frozen and often appear in my smoothies. Frozen fruit is best suited to be cooked or made into a sauce after being frozen. I was using up stuff all over the place!

I hadn’t cooked a special breakfast in months. It was so great to have this treat one Sunday after my event, before vacation.

Need an idea for your leftover brie? Try a cranberry, brie and turkey panini or my very favorite calzone with prosciutto, apple, and brie.

Sausage Puff Roll Up

These were pretty addictive. I made them for dinner thinking they’d reheat well too but it got me thinking they’d be a good brunch addition! These Sausage Roll Ups use only a few ingredients and are quick to whip up while tossing salad together.
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Ingredients:

1 sheet of puff pastry (or crescent rolls)
3 sausage links, casing removed
1 tsp fresh thyme
salt & pepper
1 tsp garlic, chopped
2 tbs heavy cream
1 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions:

Defrost puff pastry to room temperature.
Saute sausage, thyme, salt & pepper, and garlic in a hot pan over medium heat. Add heavy cream when mostly cooked through.
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Lay out puff pastry sheet, top with sausage and cheese. Roll up into 1 long roll.
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Cut into 3/4 inch slices. Reform if the slices if they get a bit squished. Lay them on the cut side up in a greased baking pan.
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Bake 25 minutes until golden brown and puffed.
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I served it with salad and it was perfect. I appreciated how few ingredients it took. I knew it would be hefty so I used pretty minimal cheese. I had a few mozzarella string cheese laying around so they became my cheese addition (in case you were confusing my cheese disks for hearts of palm or something).
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Pigs in a Blanket

Let’s reminice, shall we? I randomly remembered going out to breakfast, as a kid, on the Cape, and getting pigs in a blanket. Once I thought of it, I was obsessed. It may have happened the very next night. I am kind of on the fence about sweet breakfast. It always seems like a good idea at the time, but I really only want savory items in the morning. This is such the best of both worlds.

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When I was a kid, I got sausage links with a pancake rolled around it. The crumbles just seemed much easier. And I was using sausage from the freezer.

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I served them with some brown sugared apples
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They were fluffy and sweet with the perfect hint of savory.

Guest Post: Huevos Rancheros

Today Mr. J provides a guest post for you. He’s quite the cook, though he doesn’t get as many chances to make dinner. With dinners like this, he could be cooking a lot more often! 

First and foremost, I do not claim to have a Mexican cooking background nor is this an authentic recipe. This was my interpretation of Huevos Rancheros based on looking at a few recipes online and determining what we had on hand for ingredients. I was looking for a quick weeknight breakfast meal for dinner and came across several Huevos Rancheros recipes online, many of which offered different variations on preparation and ingredients.

I didn’t have all the ingredients to make a fresh salsa, so I chopped some fresh tomato and added it to some existing jar salsa to freshen it up a bit.

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I preheated the oven to around 250 degrees, and then heated some olive oil on a griddle pan. I dropped two flour tortillas on the pan for about 2-3 minutes per side, just long enough to get some browning and bubbling, and then transferred them to the oven to stay warm.

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The eggs are the key ingredient in my mind, and I noticed some recipes taking a shortcut by using scrambled eggs. I prepared them sunny side up, because the runny yolk ties everything together and is so delicious.

When the eggs were almost done, I pulled the tortillas from the oven and topped with shredded cheese,

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Then topped that with the sunny side up eggs,

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Followed by the salsa,

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Finally finishing with more shredded cheese and a dash of parsley.

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I was really pleased with how these turned out. They didn’t take more than 10-15mins to prepare and are perfect for a quick and easy weeknight dinner.