This time of year we are drowning in events, activities, and more things going on than time. Breakfast for dinner is the perfect solution. This frittata is a little bit of a “clean out the fridge” + quick dinner that will be a winner.

My dad is a champion frittata maker. He can seem to put anything in it and it’s always delicious. That spirit is what led me to pop in every winter veg that we love in our house and bake it up. It is amazing. And you can pop in anything you will probably love.

Topping with cheese is obviously delicious but totally optional. In our house we have lots of allergies and intolerances, so we make adjustments as we go. You should do the same!

Winter Vegetable Frittata

Serves 4

8 eggs

2 cups Swiss chard, chopped

1 red onion, sliced

1 small sweet potato, sliced thin

¼ cup parmesan cheese, shredded

2 tbs butter

STEP 1

Preheat broiler.  Cook potato, chard, and onions in 2 tbs butter. Season with salt and pepper

STEP 2

Continue cooking until potatoes are browned and chard & onions are limp.

STEP 3

Whisk eggs in a bowl and pour into the pan.  Stir until ½ way cooked.  Remove from heat.

STEP 4

Top the eggs with parmesan cheese and pop into broiler.  Cook until bubbly on top.  Keep an eye on it!  Serve with toast.

---

Also called a German Pancake, the Dutch Baby is a family favorite! My mom used to make it all the time when I was a kid and it always seemed so fancy. Then when I got older, I realized she made it all the time because it’s so simple. My mom’s recipe is the best one out there because it’s three ingredients. AND it’s scaleable.

When I was a kid we ate it with a dusting of powdered sugar. My oldest eats it with jam. My middle with whipped cream. And my youngest eats it with Nutella, strawberries and whipped cream. He’s extra. The best part of this super simple Dutch Baby is that you can top it with literally anything. Your favorite fruit, jam, a jammy spread, your call.

So here’s the secret to this: It’s just a 1:1:1 recipe. 1 egg is the equivalent of 1/4 cup which means for each egg, you add 1/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup flour. The recipe listed here is for a 12” skillet. If you go smaller in the skillet, then scale down. We have these tiny little skillets, so I’ll make individual Dutch Babies some mornings!

Gwen’s Classic Dutch Baby

makes one 12” pancake

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons butter

STEP 1

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

In a blender, whiz the eggs until they are light and fluffy.

STEP 2

Slowly add the milk until incorporated. Then, with the blender going, slowly add the flour. Blend on high for two minutes until incorporated and there are no lumps. Do not over beat! Quickly stir in the vanilla.

STEP 3

Place a 12” skillet in the oven with the butter in it. Let the butter melt completely. Swirl it around and then pour in the freshly blended batter.

STEP 4

Bake 12-15 minutes until the pancake has fluffed up on the edges and is golden brown.

---

Shop for supplies

---

My kids call this spider eggs. But I can’t tell you how much I like it. It’s also really good for you. Chia is packed with fiber so it helps with digestion and keeps you filling fuller longer. Fiber is also supposed to do amazing things for your heart and what not too. Bottom line, nothing but good news when you eat chia seeds. Unless, of course, your children call them spider eggs in which case it makes them a little less appealing.

I’ve never talked about my daily eating pattern before because it seems really boring to me - but I do get asked questions so here goes…

I take a handful of supplements in the morning - for my hair, my stress, and a probiotic - but I cannot tolerate anything in my stomach without food in there too. So I have a bowl full of chia pudding with my supplements. This time of year I mix in fresh strawberries to jazz things up a bit. Plain old chia seeds are not delicious. In a few weeks I’ll switch to raspberries but for now - strawberries are the best.

I like to go with chia pudding first thing because I know it will fill my stomach, give the supplements something land on, and give the probiotics something to work with. It’s also a healthy start to the day and if I start healthy, I find I do better throughout the rest of the day. Or I at least know I started healthy so if things fall off, then I at least tried.

Strawberry Chia Pudding

1 1/2 cups milk alternative

1/2 cup chia seeds

1/4 cup smashed strawberries

1 teaspoon vanilla

STEP 1

Smash the strawberries in a large measuring cup or a small bowl.

STEP 2

Add the milk alternative and vanilla and stir.

STEP 3

Stir in the chia seeds and refrigerate at least one hour but ideally overnight. Stir every 15 minutes for the first hour. Serve with sliced strawberries and granola.

---

I make these muffins all the time. They are super simple and a fan favorite. They are literally the perfect muffin. We often have a big crowd at the beach over the summer and a dozen muffins fills a hole at breakfast. They are also great for menu planning for the week!

I started making these with berries that I had around. Then it turned to fall and I tried it with apples and cinnamon - totally worked great. So I kept trying all of the other fruits that I had on hand. It totally works every time. You cannot go wrong with these muffins! I gave some ideas for mix ins at the bottom so you can see what all of your options are!

Options:

• Apples + 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• Blueberries + 1 teaspoon lemon zest

• Strawberries

• Clear out the fridge of all different berries

• Raspberries

• Blackberries + 1 teaspoon lemon zest

Any Fruit Muffin

makes one dozen

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup canola oil

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup chopped fruit

1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

2 tablespoons big chunky sugar of your choice

STEP 1

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease the muffin tins. Combine together the flour, sugar and baking powder.

STEP 2

Whisk together the egg, oil, milk and vanilla. Combine the flour mixture with the egg mixture. Then fold in the yogurt.

STEP 3

Add the fruit and carefully stir in. Scoop evenly into the muffin tins.

STEP 4

Sprinkle the top with the crusty sugar of your choice and bake 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

---

I started making a scone recipe thinking a scone recipe couldn’t be too hard. I make a great cake, a great muffin and a TON of cookies that are great. So how hard could scones be?? Turns out I was wrong. Scones were harder to crack than I thought. And millions of recipes out there all do something different to make a scone. Doesn’t it seem like a scone is a scone?

Then I started cooking scones. A scone is not a scone. The first few batches tasted good, but boy were they ugly. And they could not replicate easily. So I kept going.

Turns out freezing butter is a big trend in the scone world. Do you know how hard it is to work with frozen butter?? And it does not stay frozen very long once you start working with it. It seemed to me that the idea of baking from cold - with cold butter - was the critical part of keeping things flaky and tender. Frozen, whipped, chilled, room temp, melted; I tried them all.

And then I arrived here! Cold butter is critical and then refrigerating the dough keeps the scones from spreading and losing their shape.

Since strawberries are just coming into season right now, this is the first fruit I tried with them. Over the summer I’m going to work on raspberries, blueberries, etc. and we’ll see if we can make these an ‘every fruit’ scone - which is the goal!

The Very Best Strawberry Scones

makes 8

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup grated butter (very cold)

1/2 cup chopped strawberries

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

1 egg yolk, beaten

turbinado sugar

STEP 1

Mix together the milk, egg and vanilla and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, combine together the flour, sugar and baking powder.

STEP 2

Blend the milk mixture into the flour mixture until loosely combined. Remove the bowl from the stand and add the butter. With your hands, fold the butter in by kneading the dough until the flour and butter are completely integrated. Use as few kneads as possible. Don’t overwork the dough!

STEP 3

Toss together the strawberries with the cornstarch. Fold them into the dough with three or four turns. Form into a 10 inch circle on a floured cutting board and pop in the fridge. Let it chill for at least one hour or up to overnight.

STEP 4

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the scones from the fridge and cut into eight triangles. Brush the top of each one with egg yolk and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. Bake 20 minutes until golden brown on the edges. Let cool slightly before serving.

Tell me what you want to see in a scone? Have you had a good one somewhere that we should recreate?

---

Cheers to brunch

Toast with an espresso martini! And really kick up the morning.

Joe’s Special is a classic dish from San Francisco. It originated as a late night meal for bands at a little hole in the wall in the 1920s. It’s the perfect late night meal still!

When I was a kid, my dad would talk about the Joe’s Special he’d had in San Francisco and then make it for us at home. For me, without the mushrooms, but the rest of the family loves them, so I left them in for this recipe. It seems like most people like the mushrooms, I don’t see the allure. If you’re also not a fan, you can easily leave them out.

When I search the original recipes, the mushrooms and onions are optional. At my house growing up, they were not optional.

This is clearly a great breakfast, but better - it’s a late night dinner. As baseball season ramps up, late night dinners are going to be a regular thing for us. If it’s not a practice night, it’s a game night. I think we have one night a week without something happening that keeps dinner from being at a reasonable time!

Joe’s Special Frittata

Serves 4

8 eggs

2 cloves garlic

1 onion, chopped

8oz ground beef

4 cups spinach (OZ)

4 oz white mushrooms

¼ cup parmesan cheese

1 tsp oregano

Salt & Pepper

STEP 1

Preheat broiler to 500.  In a large skillet, brown ground beef with onion, garlic, oregano.  Season with salt and pepper. 

STEP 2

Add spinach and mushrooms and cook until wilted. 

STEP 3

Beat eggs and pour them into the pan.  Stir until cooked about halfway through.

STEP 4

Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top and pop into the preheated broiler.  Cook until bubbly and browned on top. 

---

Every year I make an Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day and EVERY year I forget it takes 40 minutes (or more!) to make. Then, a few years ago, I thought about making mini loaves and that train of thought quickly went to scones. Scones are basically mini bread loaves - and when you’re making bread that’s based in buttermilk and cold butter - you are LITERALLY making scones!

Scones are buttermilk or cream + cold butter + flour + your favorite fruit. It could not be simpler. And the recipe could not read more like an Irish Soda Bread recipe - they are so close to the same recipe.

It makes turning one into the other painfully simple.

Here are the secrets

• Use frozen butter and grate it on a cheese grater. You need tiny curls of butter

• Don’t let the dough warm up - either work fast or pop them in the fridge before baking

• Don’t overwork the dough. You’re going to knead it a few times and then let it go. They won’t be perfectly smooth and that’s ok.

Irish Soda Bread Scones

makes 8-12

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/2 cup frozen butter, grated

1/2 cup currants

1 tablespoon heavy cream (or an egg yolk) for brushing the top

STEP 1

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together the buttermilk, egg and egg yolk and set aside.

STEP 2

Combine flour, sugar, baking power, and currants in the bowl of a stand mixer. Grate the butter into the flour. Turn on the mixer and combine until almost mixed but there will still be some flour in the bowl (about 1/2 cup should be remaining.

STEP 3

Turn out the dough and knead it 5-6 times until the flour is combined into the dough. Form the dough into a 12 inch circle. Slice into 8-12 triangles.

STEP 4

If the dough does not feel cold to the touch, pop the scones into the fridge and let them rest for 10-15 minutes. If they are still cool, then place the scones on a baking sheet lined with parchment and brush the top with cream.

STEP 5

Bake 20 minutes until brown on the edges. Serve warm with butter.

---

Irish Cocoa

The perfect side to a perfectly Irish breakfast. And topped with Lucky Charms, it’s actually the cutest spiked cocoa you ever did see,

Ok - so these aren’t really a Danish. Not like the amazing Danishes you can get at a fancy bakery, but these are the kind of Danishes that you can make quickly on a Sunday morning with three ingredients! So they pass. My kids love them. I often have them make their own and fill them with what ever they want - which becomes a fun way to breakfast. Unless it’s a weekday and then I just pop these out so we can dash off to school.

Not that I’m making these on a weekday morning regularly. These are more of an “I couldn’t sleep last night and I’ve been up for hours and I’m bored” type breakfast.

There are so many options with how to fill these. When I do cream cheese, I just do cream cheese. I personally like the savory with just a little sugar on top. I’ve seen other recipes where the cream cheese is whipped with powdered sugar. That’s also delicious. It takes a minute or two longer which I’m not always into also.

Homemade Danish

makes 16

One package puff pastry sheets

jams, cream cheese, fresh fruit

one egg, beaten

sugar

STEP 1

Unroll the pastry dough on a floured cutting board. Roll out gently to about 18”x 12”. Cut into eight squares.

STEP 2

Slice in on each corner of each square, leaving the center uncut. Pop a spoonful of filling into the uncut center. One tablespoon of filling does the trick. You can combine fillings depending on what you want to eat.

STEP 3

Pull up every other corner of the pastry to form a little pinwheel. Brush the top of each pinwheel with beaten egg. Sprinkle the top with your favorite sugar.

STEP 4

Bake 20 minutes until browned on top. Remove from the baking sheet and cool. Serve slightly warm with coffee.

---

My favorite food is tater tots. FAVORITE. Crispy, recently fried, and served with ranch is my usual order. Highly recommend if you haven’t tried. And tater tots are just a quick skip away from hash browns which is when I realized BREAKFAST TOTS!

Breakfast for dinner, football game snacks, actual breakfast, late night snacks.

I like these to be simple with just the basics. But what do you like with your breakfast scramble? Onions? Add them! Green bell pepper? Add it! You do you - but simple is pretty epic.

Breakfast Tots

1 package tater tots

6 strips of bacon

4 eggs, scrambled

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

hot sauce

STEP 1

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Place bacon in a cold skillet and begin cooking over low until crispy.

STEP 2

Pour out tater tots on a baking sheet in one even layer. Don’t over crowd the pan! Use two if you need to! Pop into the oven and bake about 20 minutes until crispy. If they aren’t crispy on the edges, don’t pull them out.

STEP 3

Scramble those eggs!

STEP 4

Pour out the crispy tots on a plate and top with half of the cheese. Top with scrambled eggs and crumble up the bacon. Top with remaining cheese.

STEP 5

Turn on the broiler and pop the tots in - it only takes two minutes to get the cheese crispy on top. Pull out from the oven (carefully! the plate is hot) and serve with hot sauce.

---

Espresso Martini

I love these - but only if it’s decaf. Some of us are just too old for caffeine + booze in the same moment.

Christmas morning - or the two weeks before Christmas morning when the kids are home and you have literally nothing to do with them in the morning - deserve something delicious and festive for breakfast! We sure do love gingerbread at our house. Basically because it’s cake. Which means these taste like cake and who doesn’t love cake for breakfast?

Also, they sound super festive, so despite the fact that they are really easy - they give you the illusion of being a real Christmas elf. Even if you’re exhausted because the kids are home for way too many days before the holiday even starts!

Gingerbread Waffles

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup molasses

3 tablespoons melted butter

STEP 1

Combine all of the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl (or giant measuring cup) combine all of the wet ingredients.

STEP 2

Carefully blend all of the ingredients together and let them rest for 3-5 minutes. While they are resting, warm up the waffle maker.

STEP 3

Spray the waffle maker with cooking oil and fill the waffle maker about 1/2 full. Cook slightly longer than usual - mine went an extra two minutes - until crispy. The trick is to test the first one and see how much longer you need to let the rest of them cook. They will take extra time!

Serve hot with whipped cream and syrup.

---

Espresso Martini

A little something for the parents on Christmas morning - or the week before?

🍸

2 ounces vodka

1.5 ounces espresso

.5 ounce coffee liquer

Pour all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice and shake well. Strain into a martini glass and top with three coffee beans. Cin cin!