Four Pounds of Bacon

We have officially successfully hosted at least one dinner party, birthday party, holiday party, and now, breakfast party in the short 4 months that we have lived in 906. My mom calls us crazy, I call myself a wannabe Martha Stewart in training (ok, maybe more like Rachael Ray). Really - what better way to practice cooking and entertaining than to do it for other people?

Last weekend we started off the celebration for my favorite day of the year - Forest Park St. Patrick's Day - with a breakfast party at the house. Thanks to the help of the greatest little 12 year old in the world, Manda Banana, Dan and I managed to offer quite a spread for our guests. Here's what was on the menu! -

- cinnamon roll bake
- english muffin egg pizzas
- stuffed strawberries
- irish soda bread
- breakfast tortilla wraps
- pancakes (some shamrock shaped, thanks to jeff!)
- bacon (true to the title of this posting - FOUR pounds of the deliciousness)
- yogurt parfaits
- fruit salad platters
- mini banana muffins


Since my mom asked and I got lots of other compliments on it, here's the recipe for the cinnamon roll bake (made for the party by Dan) -

Cinnamon Roll Bake

Ingredients
3 egg yolks
2 large eggs
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (16-oz.) package frozen cinnamon rolls
2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

1. Whisk together first 7 ingredients until blended.
2. Break apart cinnamon rolls, and chop. Place in a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish. Pour egg mixture over top; dot with butter. Cover and chill 4 to 24 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 325°. Bake casserole 55 minutes to 1 hour or until set and golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

A few notes about this AMAZING breakfast treat:
1. As with every other baked dish I've made that involves a lot of eggs... I would omit some of the egg if I made this again. And in this case, maybe 1/2 cup or so of the milk. The bottom was gooey and people loved it, but gooey creeps me out when eggs are involved.
2. The packages of 8 Pillsbury cinnamon rolls are not 16oz. Dan doubled the recipe, but used 3 full tubes of cinnamon rolls in total.
3. The recipe above does not mention frosting. Um, why not? We most definitely frosted this when it was cooled a bit and in the future I think I would use even more, because why not?? Some cream cheese frosting on this would have been wonderful.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for breakfast and a HUGE thanks to Manda for being such a great kitchen assistant!