Comforting Breakfast Pie

Please join us in welcoming guest blogger Mollie Cox Bryan. And I'll be she had you with the title!

By Mollie Cox Bryan

 

Each year I make a huge Christmas morning feast for my family. One of the starts of the meal is this fabulous “breakfast pie.” It’s a little time consuming to make. I usually make two pies on Christmas Eve day and heat them up for the morning festivities. I never meant to make this a Holiday tradition, but now, my family expects it and I love that they do.

But this year, I’ve also made the pie for some friends who are going through rough times and don’t have the time or energy to cook. They warm up great—and they are even good chilled. With the egg and rich cheese mixture, I don’t know, I just find it soothing. This pie is crustless—technically known as an “impossible pie.” You can add other ingredients besides the onions—mushrooms, broccoli, ham, and so on. It’s a pie made for creativity.

 

Enjoy!

 

1 12-ounce carton cottage cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar
1 3-ounce package cream cheese
2 eggs
1 cup Bisquick
¼ cup green onions
2 eggs
¼ cup milk
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Combine the first four ingredients, set aside.

Combine Bisquick and onion in small bowl.

Combine 2 eggs and milk. Pour into mix. Stir until moistened.

Spoon half of dough mix into greased pie plate. Spoon on cheese mixture. Top with remaining batter.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake 375 degrees, 30-35 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean.

 

About DEATH OF AN IRISH DIVA

Spring is in the air, but the ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop hardly have time to stop and smell the roses. Not when famed Irish dancer Emily McGlashen is found murdered in her studio just after the St. Patrick's Day parade--and one of the Crop's own members is the prime suspect. Vera's dance studio may have suffered when Emily waltzed into town, but the croppers know she's not a vengeful murderer. Lucky for her, co-scrapbooker Annie is a freelance reporter eager to vindicate her friend. What she discovers is a puzzling labyrinth of secrets that only add question marks to Emily's murder. Just when it seems they've run out of clues, an antique scrapbook turns up and points the croppers in the right direction--and brings them face to face with a killer more twisted than a Celtic knot…

 

Mollie Cox Bryan writes the Cumberland Creek Mysteries, published by Kensington. Death of an Irish Diva is the third in the series. The first book, Scrapbook of Secrets, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel of 2012; the next one Scrapped was published in January 2013. Plans for the series include two more novels and two e-novellas. She lives in Waynesboro, Va. with her husband and two daughters.

 

Contact her at molliebryan@comcast.net.
Check out her website at molliecoxbryan.com.
Twitter: @molliecoxbryan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/molliecoxbryanauthor
Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/molliecoxbryan/boards/

And join Mollie and me, as well as Erin Hart and Lisa Alber, for an Irish Gabfest on Facebook, on Sunday, March 16th from 5:00-8:00 Eastern time! There will be prizes! And fun!

Welcome Mollie Cox Bryan

A very warm welcome to Mollie Cox Bryan. We're very excited to have her join us today because Mollie is a cookbook author in addition to writing mysteries!

Even though my mysteries are scrapbooking-themed, food is also front and center. After all, my characters are a group of Southern women who get together weekly to scrapbook. Of course food will be involved! 

In the first book, there was a lot of Southern food, as there is in SCRAPPED (Cumberland Creek Mystery #2).  But one of the reasons I like to write about food, even in my fiction, is that it crosses cultural boundaries. For example Vera, who grew up in Cumberland Creek discovers poppy seed rolls on her trip to New York City. She had never seen them in her Virginia town. DeeAnn, who hails from the North, was quite familiar with them. 

Enter Cookie Crandall, the new person in Cumberland Creek. She’s a vegan, a yoga teacher, and a witch who has evidently traveled extensively—though she never really talks about her past. (She sometimes lets things slip.)

Take this scene from SCRAPPED:

“Oh my God, this is good,” said Cookie, taking another bite. “This is just the way they make it in Eastern Europe.”

“You’ve been there?” Annie said.

“Ah, um, yeah, I was, as a child,” she said, obviously a little uncomfortable talking about herself, as usual. “Where did you get this, Vera?”

“From a little neighborhood bakery in Brooklyn. I try to pick Mom up a roll or two when they have it,” Vera answered.

“I never had it before Vera brought it home. I’m quite taken with it,” Beatrice said. “I’ve only had poppy seed in lemon poppy seed rolls. I understand you can make all kinds of things with it.”

“We ate poppy seed cake every year for the holidays,” Cookie said, grinning and suddenly looking like she was seven years old.

“Cake? Really?” Beatrice said.

Yes, really.  I grew up eating poppyseed cake every year at Christmas.  It's one of the most unusual cakes I've ever had—and of course, it's nutty, spicy and oh so delicious. We always had it at Christmas—but it's good any time of the year. My mom has been baking it for over 40 years and has perfected this dense cake.

Please leave a comment on the blog for a chance to win a signed copy of SCRAPPED. 

Photo by April Younglove (http://www.flickr.com/people/aprily/)

Poppyseed Cake

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups sugar

10 ounces, vegetable oil (You can use less, Mom says, but it won't be as moist.)

4 eggs

13 ounces (1 can) of evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 jar Baker's Poppy Seed Filling (Mom is adamant that Baker's is the best kind to use.)

Method

Sift all the dry ingredients together. Then mix in all your liquids and eggs. (You can add nuts if you want; Mom never did. I think black walnuts would be fabulous.) Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed.

Pour into a well-greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes.

Cool the cake at least five to 8 minutes before taking it out of the pan. Mom sprinkles powdered sugar on it. But a rum glaze would be lovely.

About Scrapped: ( Cumberland Creek Mysteries, Book #2)

The ladies of the Cumberland Creek Scrapbook Crop are welcoming an eccentric newbie into their fold. A self-proclaimed witch, Cookie Crandall can whip up a sumptuous vegan meal and rhapsodize about runes and moon phases with equal aplomb. She becomes fast friends with her fellow scrapbookers, including freelance reporter Annie, with whom she shares shallow roots in a community of established family trees. So when Cookie becomes the prime suspect in a series of bizarre murders, the croppers get scrappy and set out to clear her name. Annie starts digging and discovers that the victims each had strange runic patterns carved on their bodies - a piece of evidence that points the police in Cookie's direction. Even her friends begin to doubt her innocence when they find an ornate, spiritual scrapbook that an alleged beginner like Cookie could never have crafted. As Annie and the croppers search for answers, they'll uncover a shockingly wicked side of their once quiet town - and a killer on the prowl for another victim.

About the Author

After years of working as an editor and writer for nonprofits and corporations in the DC area, Mollie gave it all up for the "glamorous" life of a stay-at-home mom and part-time freelance writer. When she moved the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, she began to hear stories about the famous Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant and its owner, Mildred Rowe. Intrigued, she investigated and found most of the stories were true. Two cookbooks later, Mollie turned her writing skills to penning mysteries. One of her goals as a writer, as a person, is to explore many venues, genres, and to continue to learn and grow.

She grew up in Western Pennsylvania in a rural area (Raccoon Township) just outside of mill town Aliquippa, known for its football greats. She danced, did gymnastics, and wrote all the way through her youth. She started many novels—but finished her first one when she was a senior in high school. It was called "Circles" and featured a ballerina involved with a gang.

Today, she is the mom to two daughters who both dance and write. For Mollie, writing is like breathing, dancing, and love. She doesn't like to go a day without it.

Keep in touch with Mollie—loves to hear from readers!

http://www.molliecoxbryan.com

@molliecoxbryan (Twitter)

https://www.facebook.com/molliecoxbryanauthor  (Facebook)

http://pinterest.com/molliecoxbryan/

Blackberry Cobbler

By guest Mollie Cox Bryan

Even though my book (Scrapbook of Secrets) has a scrapbooking theme, food is front and center at times. Scrapbooking can be a social hobby and often where we gather, we also have food. I’m so happy to be posting here today because I know the writers and the fans of this blog really get that. I am preaching to the choir!

This is one of my favorite scenes in the book. It tells you a lot about Vera, one of my main characters.

Vera made her mind up to stop dieting last year. She decided to become a better role model for her students—and there was just no point in starving herself any longer. She would never be a ballerina. She had been on a diet for thirty years or so—after her dance teacher, when Vera was about ten—made a remark about her thighs.

Forget her. I am not starving anymore.

It was so freeing.

The first thing she ate—really ate, with abandon— was her mother’s blackberry cobbler. Not a piece of cobbler, but the whole thing.

She sat at her mother’s 1950s chrome and turquoise Formica kitchen table—the same table on which she ate almost every meal when she was a girl—and ate a piece while it was still fresh out of the oven.

“Do you have any vanilla ice cream, Ma?”

“Huh? Yeah, sure,” answered Beatrice, who was visibly taken aback by her daughter’s sudden love of blackberry cobbler.

“I have always loved it, Ma,” Vera said, as if reading her mind. “I just was always watching my weight. And I figure, well, what’s the point?”

Vera then ate a slice covered with vanilla ice cream. Real ice cream—for her mother never bought any thing low fat or low carb or low sugar. She almost fainted at the creaminess, the mixture of textures and temperatures in her mouth. The next piece was covered with dollop of whipped cream, while her mother tried to look busy wiping of a non-existent crumb from the teal, speckled Formica counter, not wanting to stare at her only child as she seemed to be enjoying a private moment with the cobbler.

As Vera relished each bite, the mixture of the gritty and gelatinous mingled with sweet, juicy berries, covered with a light but substantial crust, her mother gave up her stance and watched intently. Her mouth hung open after Vera’s fourth piece.

She handed her the pan. “Here, baby, this is the best way. Have at it,” she said and left Vera alone with the blackberry cobbler.  Later she explained that she felt it was the only proper thing to do.

After all, Vera had not touched cobbler, pie, or cake since she was ten-years-old.

So, Vera had put on about twenty pounds. But it was a good gain. She had more breasts and hips and thighs than ever before. And she loved her body. It was hers and it did everything it was supposed to do and more. She rewarded it often with good chocolate—preferably fresh and artisanal. She was still a graceful woman and dancer, even with the extra twenty pounds and she was a happier person.

Beatrice’s Blackberry Cobbler
(Vera’s first cobbler after years of not eating anything sweet)

2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 cups blackberries, picked over, rinsed & drained
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, cold, cut in small pieces
1/4 cup boiling water

In a large bowl, stir together the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water until cornstarch is completely dissolved. Add 1 cup of sugar, lemon juice, and blackberries; combine gently. Transfer to a cast iron skillet.

In a bowl, combine the flour, remaining sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 1/4 cup boiling water and stir the mixture just until a soft dough is formed.

Bring the blackberry mixture to a boil, stirring. Drop spoonfuls of the dough carefully onto the boiling mixture, and bake the cobbler on a baking sheet (line with foil to avoid a mess) in the middle of a preheated 400°F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the topping is golden. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Photo by Gluten Free Cooking

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookingglutenfree/

Mollie Cox Bryan is a freelance writer, a mystery author, and the author of "Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies," "Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant Cookbook" and a NEW mystery novel, "Scrapbook of Secrets: A Cumberland Creek Mystery." Who says writers can't cook?