Foodbuzz 24x24: Breakfast Reimagined

As a baker I have a special love for breakfast. It's the only meal of the day where eating cereal and pop-tarts (essentially sugar and flour) is completely acceptable. For this month's Foodbuzz 24x24 - a collection of 24 different bloggers' meals in 24 hours - I chose to reimagine breakfast in a slightly different way. Breakfast staples like pop-tarts, grape juice, sausage, eggs, toast, pancakes, and cereal were all transformed into dinner fare. There's nothing more fun or creative than planning out an entire menu of reimagined food - thanks go to Foodbuzz for hosting this event!

So many good dinners and parties have started off for me with a cheese plate and glass of wine. Cheese course "pop-tarts" were made from homemade puff pastry and filled with either brie or goat cheese. The brie version got a swirl of cherry jam "frosting" while the goat cheese variety was balanced with plenty of honey "glaze" and walnut "sprinkles".

I wanted to play on the idea of a lumberjack special for the main event: sausage, eggs, toast, and pancakes. Rather than completely transform breakfast sausage into something new, I made a supper-worthy homemade version with fresh sage, garlic, and spices. I even fried them in bacon grease to give them more moisture.

Eggs usually always come on a lumberjack special whether they're fried, over-easy, scrambled, or put into an omelet. This version combines the flavors of an omelet with the runny yolk of an over-easy. Gruyere cheese and truffle salt gave these earthy flavor while the slightly tart bite of sundried tomatoes balanced it all out.

Have you ever noticed that by the time you get to the toast portion of a breakfast special it's often picked up the flavors of everything else on your plate? I made a maple-bacon butter to spread on homemade brioche toast to try to mimick those flavors. The brioche is buttery with a cake-like crumb.

I reimagined blueberry pancakes into a killer cocktail. Not only did it taste just like a blueberry pancake, it was ten times easier (and possibly more fun) to make. Blueberry vodka, butterscotch schnapps, and irish cream liquer all blended together to mimick the maple and blueberry flavors.

Last, but definitly not least, was a homemade cereal marshmallow panna cotta. I could never have imagined this turning out so good! It was by far my favorite dish of the night. I stamped out hundreds of cereal marshmallows for this dessert (which I got from Brave Tart), and they really complimented the rich cereal milk panna cotta.

Stay tuned for all of the recipes in the upcoming weeks! My highlights of the night were the homemade puff pastry, cereal marshmallows, and blueberry pancakes martini - of course, all the sweet items. I hope everyone has a great week, and I hope I inspired you to be a little more creative in the kitchen! Let me know if you have any questions or comments. :)