This post originally ran last Christmas Eve, so this is the updated version. At the end you will find the perfect breakfast for Christmas morning and still have time to shop for the ingredients. Actually, I think some scrambled eggs would be a good addition…
Tonight we will load up onto a party bus to see the Christmas lights around town. I’m in charge of the hot cocoa. We will have marshmallows, candy canes for stir sticks, and white chocolate chips to stir in. But you could load up the SUV with some quilts, drive through Starbucks, maybe even grab a tin of Christmas cookies, and head out. Every town has that one neighborhhod, don’t they?
This Christmas Eve is an experiment in baking – Italian Cream Cake. I’m using Trisha’s recipe. If you watch the Food Network, you know I’m talking about Yearwood. I sure hope it turns out because I’m bringing the Christmas Eve dessert tonight. Here she blows!
Update: Well, it was dry. Maybe I baked it too long. Maybe it’s Trisha’s fault. But I have not given up. This year, Southern Living gets the nod. And I am using my own favorite cream cheese icing. This cake needs plenty of icing. Wish me luck!
We will attend Christmas Eve services. It is our first time back since the pandemic hit. We had to make reservations for socially distant seating, and we will be wearing masks.
You know, if you can’t go, what if you turn on the Christmas tree, light some candles, turn down some lights, and read the Christmas story? Just to be sure we remember the Babe in the manger and keep him in our hearts. You can read it here. Luke 2:1-20.
Update: We – our immediate family – all wound up having covid, but we are all fine. We thank God for that. Church is kind of back to normal. It does not seem as full, but we are sitting in a different spot. Maybe it looked fuller from our old seats. And we sit socially distant, but no masks. And no rules. We are left to ourselves to make the decisions about protecting ourselves. Some of us were triple-vaccinated, some not at all. We will gather for Christmas.
A friend shared this gorgeous rendition of Patty Lovelace singing Beautiful Star of Bethlehem. You can listen here. It’s country and beautifully simple. It is worth taking a moment just to listen.
Christmas morning breakfast will be Monkey Bread and Sausage Roll. Monkey Bread has been around forever. You can even buy it in the freezer section at the grocery store. We cut up canned biscuits, roll them in butter and cinnamon sugar, sprinkle in some finely chopped pecans (we don’t use raisins, but some people do). The glaze is just butter and brown sugar cooked until the sugar dissolves. Bake it in a tube pan and invert it onto a platter while it is still warm. The glaze just pours down over the baked biscuit chunks. It is pull-apart and gooey and yummy.
Monkey Bread
- 2 cans biscuits, cut in quarters *1 package frozen Parker House rolls work even better!
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans *We left these out this year and think they were better w/o.
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 3/4 cup melted butter or margarine (1.5 sticks)
Grease a Bundt can. Pour sugar into a zip lock bag, and add some of the biscuit chunks (or dough balls). Shake them around until they are fully coated. Arrange in the pan. Sprinkle in some pecans. Repeat the process until all the biscuit chunks are in the pan. Now make your glaze. Heat the brown sugar and butter until the sugar dissolves, about one minute. Pour it over the biscuits. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove it from the oven and run a knife around the edges, then let it sit for about 10 minutes. That’s when you turn it over onto a plate. Put the serving plate upside down on the top of the Bundt pan and flip the whole thing all at once. Let it sit like that for a minute or two so that all the glaze and pecans slide out of the pan and onto the monkey bread. Pull apart chunks to serve.
Update: So we ditched the biscuits for Parker House dough balls and we liked them much better! Everything else is the same. This was really the best one we have ever done.
And…our Sausage Roll from Christmas morning. I have had so many people ask for this recipe, and I thought I had shared it here before. It is yummy!
Sausage Roll
- 1 block cream cheese cut into chunks
- 1 roll sausage – we prefer hot Jimmy Dean
- 2 cans Pillsbury Crescent Rolls – the sheets if you can get them
Brown the sausage in a skillet and break it up as it browns. Tear off a sheet of wax paper about two feet long. Working on one can of crescent roll dough at a time, lay the dough flat on the waxed paper and press the seams together to make a solid rectangle of dough. Place another sheet of waxed paper on top and roll it out with a rolling pin. It should end up about 18” x 8”. Stick that whole thing, waxed paper an all, into the fridge while you do the other roll.
Don’t burn your sausage! When it’s cooked, turn off your burner and stir in the cream cheese that you diced. It will melt into the warm sausage. Stir it all together and divide it into two sections. You will use each half to fill a sheet of dough.
Spray a long cookie sheet with Pam.
Get one sheet from the fridge and remove the top sheet of paper. Spread your filling down the center of the sheet of dough. Pick up one long side by the waxed paper and roll it toward the center. Peel back the waxed paper. Repeat on the other side. Pinch the dough together in the center and on the ends. You don’t want the filling to leak out during baking.
Pick up this long roll along your forearm and flip it over onto one side of the prepared cookie sheet. Carefully peel off the waxed paper. Repeat the entire process for the second roll. Leave a couple of inches between the rolls. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes until golden brown. Slice into two-inch wide segments and serve warm. Yum!
My Sweet Blue Home 