Your forgot to send me directions to your place!!!!

Smiles, (and ooohhhhhh, yum!)

Sooz

Looks yummy

Everything looks and sounds delicious, Annie! We, too, enjoy an out of the ordinary breakfast on week-ends.

Now tell me where to find a recipe for the no-knead bread.

Awww, Annie, thanks for the invite (even though I invited myself LOL)! Ya never know when I'll be out your way!!!

What a wonderful and real life where you are! Where I live ( where most most people live) , there are laws against everything. You can't even roast your own coffee beans without your neighbors complaining.

dcarch

dcarch, why would people complain about roasting coffee beans? I put mine in front of an open window while roasting, because if you roast very dark it can smell a bit smokey. Usually, though, it just smells like fresh roasted coffee. Do the neighbors not like you to grill either? And what about bacon, now THAT is aromatic, or bread baking?

I don't think I'd like living there very much if they don't want me to cook. Of course, they probably really wouldn't like the smell of cows, LOL, or fresh hay.

Annie

Don't drink coffee, Annie, but do enjoy the smell almost as well as I love the smell of cows and fresh hay!

I live in dairy farm land in a small community in western Pa. I love the clean scent of fresh hay and the cows..lol. This community still puts their home baked pies on the window sill to cool and neighbors often are on their porch with a pitcher of home brewed tea along with a invite to take a seat and a tall glass, often offering a thick slice of fresh baked bread and butter. Always all manner of cooking going on as you walk the country roads. I could never live where the scent of cooking bothered people..that's just crazy and petty.

dandyrandylou, even when I didn't drink coffee, I loved the smell of coffee being ground, or that first whiff when a can got opened at the office. I do like the smell of hay better than the smell of cows, but I like either of them better than the smell of traffic/exhaust fumes or factories.

mamapinky, I agree, I can't believe people don't like the smell of cooking, although my stepdaughter moved out of an apartment because she lived right above a very nice Indian couple who cooked curry, a lot. She said she just couldn't stand the smell of curry Every. Single. Day. (grin)

Annie

OH! Using my griddle for a baking stone, so simple but never thought of that! YEAH!!

Another yes for the smells of cooking! I'm on my way too. That bacon is just too tempting!!! I've never roasted coffee but the smell I imagine to be very concentrated! I remember coffee in America not being very strong like here, but very good.

Oh, this thread always makes me drool!

As for the smells of cooking, I was going to jump in and say yes, what could be better, but I'm obliged to admit that last year I found an absolutely perfect storybook cottage from the 20s with an untouched interior, which is almost unheard of around here, and at a great price, too, but I passed on it because it backed up to the back of a busy Chinese restaurant.

recipe for raspberry bars if it isn't any trouble?

It ALL looks delicious

Susan, I'd never thought of that either, until we started talking about baking "steel" vs baking stones. I figured if they sold slabs of steel for baking, why not a nice round cast iron griddle? Works like a charm....

Islay, I'll wait up for you to get here! I love the smell of roasting coffee, but if it gets too dark it just smells like something scorched. Even when I was a kid and didn't drink coffee I loved going to the A&P with my grandmother and breathing in that lovely aroma while she ground coffee in that big machine. I also liked to open the cans that we bought later and just inhale, even though I didn't drink the coffee. Now I drink the coffee too, and I still love that just ground/just opened aroma...

Writersblock, I think I'd have had to pass on the house with Asian restaurant too. That's too bad, though, it sounds like quite a find. I know my stepdaughter moved out of an apartment because her neighbors were from India and she finally said she could not stand the smell of curry for ONE. MORE. DAY.

Auntpetunia, here's the recipe I used, and I used my own homemade jam.

Baked Oatmeal Bars with Raspberry Jam

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 8 inch square pan, and line with greased foil.

2. Combine brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and rolled oats. Rub in the butter using your hands or a pastry blender to form a crumbly mixture. Press 2 cups of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the jam to within 1/4 inch of the edge. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the top, and lightly press it into the jam.

3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.

5. They are healthier than a plain old cookie, I guess, and probably healthier than coffee cake or a lot of muffin recipes I see, but they are certainly not health food, LOL.

7. Annie

Thanks!!!

Your breakfast is very inspiring, and thanks for sharing the recipes! Unfortunately, Kevin will not eat bacon, and so I have to cook turkey bacon if we are going to have any at all, and I must prefer pork bacon - yours must be delightful. I'll have to try the oatmeal bars also, but I don't have any oatmeal at the moment - only granola, and I don't know whether that would work or not. I would definitely have to adjust the sugar. I've used granola to make oatmeal cookies (they came out very crunchy, which I like), and I had to adjust the sugar for that also.

Although I grew up on a farm near a tiny town (population 610), my mother did not cook breakfast like yours, and so I do not have that tradition. My own breakfasts (on week-ends) always seem to have red bell peppers and chilies as ingredients, but I often use them in a grits casserole or some Tex-Mex dish.

I think it is wonderful when someone makes you a great breakfast! However, I do not eat breakfast dishes at any other time. I've never been a "breakfast for dinner" person, unless you include crêpes, possibly because I did not enjoy breakfast as a child. I do very much appreciate a good breakfast in the morning now, however.