A simply scrumptious goat cheese spread
in Cinnamon, Coffee, Fig and Honey. Photo
by Katharine Pollak | THE NIBBLE.

Whether or not you like goat cheese, we’re here to spread the joy about Belle Chèvre Breakfast Cheese.

It’s a line of four sweet-and-tangy spreadable cheeses that reminds us of lighter, drier cheesecake filling. Each of the flavors is perfect for spreading on your bagel, toast, muffin, crispbread and anyplace you’d spread cream cheese.

Goat cheese is a lot healthier than cream cheese. Even if you don’t like it, if you like cheesecake, chances are you’ll like Belle Chèvre Breakfast Cheese.

The melt-in-your-mouth cheese spreads—in Cinnamon, Coffee, Fig & Honey—can go from breakfast to hors d’oeuvre to dessert. You’ll be maa-d about it.

Classic French toast. Photo courtesy
MackenzieLtd.com.

November 28th is National French Toast Day, celebrating one of our favorite foods (we prefer it to pancakes and waffles). French toast isn’t French; it was actually invented in ancient Roman times. In early French recipes it is called pain à la romaine, or Roman bread.

This eggy fried bread, with or without maple syrup, can be served for breakfast, brunch or lunch. It is usually made with plain white bread, but can be even more enjoyable when made with brioche, challah, cinnamon swirl bread, French bread or raisin bread.

As with waffles, French toast can be elevated to a dessert by topping it with ice cream and dessert sauce. It also can be baked in the oven, casserole style, for a bread pudding-type dessert.

FRENCH TOAST RECIPE

1. In a shallow bowl, beat 4 eggs with 1 cup milk and optional spices: 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, orange zest or vanilla extract (or a combination). Grown-ups can replace spices with 2 teaspoons of orange liqueur (Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Triple Sec, etc.). Or, you can replace the milk with egg nog.

2. Soak slices of bread 30 seconds on each side in the mixture.

3. Fry in butter on both sides. Additionally, you can caramelize the toast with extra butter and sugar in a hot pan.

4. Serve immediately with maple syrup. For a special experience, serve with an infused maple syrup from Moosewood Hollow, like Sweet Autumn (a blend of sweet spices and vanilla), Sweet Chai, Sweet Ginger or Sweet Heat.

5. Garnish with fresh berries or sliced bananas and enjoy with a tall glass of milk.

Want to avoid soggy cereal?

We find that our morning bowl of cereal, filled with milk, becomes soggy after three spoonfuls.

It occurred to us: Why pour milk over dry cereal? Why not use a glass of milk as a chaser?

We tried it, it worked, and now it’s our favorite way to eat cereal:

1. Fill a bowl with cereal plus any sweetener or fruit.
2. Fill a glass with milk.
3. Insert a spoonful of cereal into mouth. Crunch once.
4. Follow with a sip of milk.
5. Repeat until all cereal and milk are consumed.

Just because it seems unusual doesn’t mean that it isn’t a better way. After all, forks weren’t used in England until the mid-17th century, although they were introduced to the country in 1608 by an Englishman who brought them back from Italy.

Keep it crunchy: Follow a spoonful of dry
cereal with a shot of milk. Photo
courtesy PreserveProducts.com.

According to The History Of The Fork, the English ridiculed forks as being effeminate and unnecessary. “Why should a person need a fork when God had given him hands?” was the refrain.

So, learn a lesson from history: Try new things, as strange as they may seem.

Did you have French toast this weekend? It’s our favorite Sunday breakfast food.

We like it even better than pancakes and waffles—and it’s easier to make. For the simplest recipe, just whisk 1 cup of milk with 4 eggs and 1/4 teaspoon salt to make a batter. Place the batter in a shallow bowl or pie plate. Soak slices of white bread, brioche or challah (both sides) in the batter. Place in a frying pan and fry in melted butter over medium heat until golden brown. Serve with maple syrup.

French toast dates back at least to ancient Rome, where they served it topped with sugar and possibly honey. There were no sugar maple trees in the Old World; most likely, the Pilgrims were the first to enjoy their French toast with maple syrup.

Read the history of French toast, which includes three tasty stuffed French toast recipes.

French toast, a breakfast favorite. Photo courtesy MackenzieLtd.com.

Waffles came to America on The Mayflower in 1620, making them a traditional “American” food. One hundred and sixty-seven years later, Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France and “waffle frolics” (that’s waffle parties) began.

Today waffles are a favorite brunch food and a special-occasion food. Many of us get out the waffle iron for Mother’s Day and other occasions. Americans buy almost $50 million in waffle irons annually.

But if the waffle iron is one of your least-used appliances, consider expanding your waffle repertoire to lunch, dinner, dessert and a waffle frolic with an add-your-own-toppings bar.

Lunch & Dinner Waffles

Dessert waffles. Photo courtesy L’Auberge Provençale. Get the recipe.

Dessert Waffles

Here are 15 waffle recipe ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.

The history of waffles.

Get ready for Halloween:

For a bewitching breakfast, lunch or dinner on Halloween, go batty with pancake molds.

A Williams-Sonoma exclusive, they’re easy to use.

The set of three molds—these adorable bats plus a pumpkin and a haunted house—is $19.95.

Pancakes—also known as flapjacks, griddlecakes and hotcakes—are an ancient food. While some type of griddle cake has likely been made since the domestication of wheat, the oldest pancake recipe in the English language dates to the 15th century.

MORE PANCAKE FUN

Go batty with special Halloween pancakes.
Photo courtesy Williams-Sonoma.

Bring the flavor of fall to breakfast with
pumpkin pancakes. Photo courtesy IHOP.

Throughout October, IHOP is serving pumpkin pancakes. Although the company won’t divulge its secret recipe, they have shared their tips for making perfect pumpkin pancakes.

As a Halloween special, IHOP will offer free Scary Face Pancakes to trick-or-treaters aged 12 and under, on Friday, October 29th from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Find an IHOP restaurant near you at IHOP.com.

See our review of the best wholegrain pancake mixes, and get more pancake tips.

One of our favorite whole grain and
multigrain pancake mixes. Photo by
Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

Love pancakes and waffles? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

You’ll love them even more if you win this week’s Gourmet Giveaway prize from Allens Hill Farm. It was one of the favorites we tasted of 99 different whole grain and multigrain pancake and waffle mixes (read the entire review).

This week’s winner will receive a pancake and waffle gift box, which includes three delicious pancake mixes, one Belgian waffle mix and apple syrup. The 8 Grain Buttermilk Pancake Mix was among the best whole grain and multigrain pancake mixes we tried. Read more about it. Retail value: Approximately $33.00.

Do you avoid a hot bowl of instant oatmeal each day because it’s just too mushy?

Do you like oatmeal but wish the instant kind were more like stovetop-cooked?

Do you want an easy way to get your daily 48g of whole grain?

Do you want more fiber, cancer-fighting foods, the ability to lower bad cholesterol?

Malt-O-Meal, a company that makes only cereal products, has hit a home run with its new Better Oats line. It has a toothy, not mushy, consistency. No one would know it’s instant oatmeal. We don’t know all of the secrets, but one of them is the inclusion of flaxseed, which adds crunch plus Omega-3 fatty acids.

The variety of choices—classic, brown sugar, chai-spiced, cinnamon, maple, multigrain blend and even a tasty chocolate oatmeal—offer a different flavor for every day of the week. Unlike most instant oatmeal, they aren’t stripped of fiber and nutrients.

Enjoy a better bowl of instant oatmeal.
Photo by Katharine Pollak | THE NIBBLE.

Grab-and-go foods like breakfast bars and yogurt don’t make for a warm and hearty breakfast. Yet “warm and hearty” takes time—or does it?

You can cook frittatas, omelets and scrambled eggs the night before and microwave them for seconds in the morning, putting a hot dish on the table in a minute. Steel-cut oatmeal and other non-instant hot cereals can be made ahead as well.

Make this delicious frittata today and enjoy it tomorrow morning:

FRITTATA RECIPE

Ingredients

Make individual frittatas in a muffin
pan. Photo courtesy IncredibleEgg.com.

Preparation
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper in medium bowl until blended.

2. Add cheese, zucchini, bell pepper and onion; mix well. Spoon evenly into 12 greased muffin cups, about 1/4 cup each.

3. Bake until just set, 20 to 22 minutes. Cool on rack 5 minutes.

4. Remove from cups.

5. Serve immediately or refrigerate and microwave for 30 seconds to heat when you’re ready to eat.

This recipe is courtesy of The American Egg Board, IncredibleEgg.org.