I had the honor of appearing on the local news in my Saucy Frocks apron with my long time friend and TV chef, Bryan Woolley.

We went to college together as music majors and have adored each other for the last 15 years or so. We’ve cooked together dozens and dozens of times but I’ve never gone on air with him until now.

I had SO MUCH FREAKING FUN.

It was better than having tickets to Air Supply tied around a six-pack of Diet Coke and encased in a box of Godiva chocolate suddenly show up on my front porch.

I loved it.

I am not a food blogger. I am not a chef. Really, I had no earthy reason to be on air other than I am a decent home cook that well…is adored by my very talented and handsome chef friend that thought it was uber cool that I was featured in Parents Magazine and got myself to The White House. (Disclaimer: I had NOTHING to do with him calling me famous. He just wuvs me. The feeling is mutual.)

I chose to make a favorite recipe I thought up after going to the UK with my friend, Michelle. (In an ironic quinkydink, Chelle was gracious enough to come down to the shoot with me. We had OH, so much fun! She did a fabulous job taking both these photos AND the trash out. What a friend, right?! :) ) Every morning in Scotland and England we would start our day off with a traditional UK breakfast that consisted of eggs, toast bacon, sausage and my favorite part, a fried tomato.

I wanted something similar for my family but easier to cook and serve. So, I made an AMAZING bacon, onion, rosemary stuffing to stuff in vine-ripened tomatoes, portabello mushrooms, maple sausage links, thick bacon and eggs and fry it up in a pan. I call it  my Frisbee Fryup For a Crowd. It is perfect for brunch, “Brinner” or even if you don’t have a family but are young and starving with a pack of friends at 2 am after a night of clubbing.

You can make this dish with anything you like, but this is my kicked up version.

You can WATCH THE NEWS SEGMENT HERE.

Family style fry up for a crowd

Serves 4

4-8 Sausage links

4-8 Strips Bacon ((Set an additional 2 strips aside for the tomato stuffing)

4-8 Mushrooms (I prefer using 2 large portabello caps)

4-8 Eggs

2-4 Vine ripened tomatoes

1/2 Medium sweet yellow onion

Fresh Rosemary

Bread crumbs

1/2 C. Cream

1/2 C. Grated Parmesan cheese

Salt

Pepper

Cut up 2 strips of bacon and fry in a medium sized pan on medium heat. Dice the 1/2 onion and add to the pan. Sautee until translucent. Add rosemary to taste and cream and reduce heat to low. Add cheese and enough breadcrumbs to make a stuffing like consistency. Remove from heat and aside.

Cut your tomatoes in half and remove seeds. Stuff with onion and breadcrumb mixture.

Place each tomato half face down in a pre-heated, large, non-stick skillet with sloping sides.

Add sausage links, bacon and mushroom caps.

You want to cook everything according to size and thickness so it all gets done at the same time.

Once everything is almost done, arrange in “servings” around the pan, insuring that one of each item is close together so it can be served up to one person. Crack your eggs in all the remaining spaces until egg connects EVERYTHING in the pan (no bare spaces). cook until the eggs firm up and finish it off under an oven broiler until the tops of the eggs are cooked as firm as desired. (If you want you can whip the eggs and create a scrambled egg batter to pour over everything as well.)

Slide off like a frisbee onto a large plate or serving platter.

Serve with toast.

You really should try it out because it is FABULOUS, people.

The best part of this is the stuffing. It’s EVERYONE’S favorite part. In fact, I guarantee that if you make this dish and do a taste test of the stuffing you will love it so much you will want to marry it and have little stuffing babies. It is a rumor that someone (not me but someone who looks, um, freakishly LIKE me) MIGHT have been known to stand over the stove of a pan of this and eat half of it standing there with a fork.

I will warn you that this is a very rich and high calorie dish. I love how I come on the news in January, the month of renewed dedication and focus on all things diet and working out and I pull out one of the most fattening dishes in my repertoire.

It’s just how I roll, yo.

I had the best time, Bryan. I’d love to come back any time!

xo

Every parent has different thoughts on starting babies on solid baby food. There are so many things decide about it. When? How? Rice cereal? Multigrain cereal? Gerber? Beechnut? Small organic brands?  We decided to play it by ear and when Aaron started getting hungry between bottles at shorter and shorter intervals we decided to start him on baby food at 7 months.

It hasn’t gone well.

It’s surprising. I thought Aaron would take to starting baby food like a duck takes to water since he loves eating any random thing that comes close to the proximity of his mouth more than any other baby I have ever seen.

He CONSTANTLY has SOMETHING in there.

See?

I blame myself.

I got him started at the tender age of 10 days.

And he STILL is very fond of Rhino ala mode.

What he does NOT like is baby food.

It started out well. He SEEMED hungry. He was certainly into chomping on his plastic bib.

After that?

Not so much.

This was the most pleasant look he gave us.

It was an UTTER fail.

And it shows NO signs of looking up.

After I got him cleaned up, I went to change the laundry over and discovered he had been snacking on Jonathan’s hiking socks.

At least he had the decency to look horrified at being caught. (Small comfort that it is.)

At the end of the day, we’ll keep plugging along and trying different foods and brands to see what he ends up liking. Until that day, I see a LOT of THIS in my future.

Sigh.

I really wish I had a better excuse for this.

Or this:

Or this:

But I don’t.

None.

Nada.

Zip.

Zero.

Oh, wait, there is one.

I’m lazy?

Yeah…that is pretty much it.

This is horribly horrible even for me, though.

Actually, I am getting this squared away as we speak but it has taken me forever to figure out what we’re going to DO with everything once it’s boxed up. And I would rather deal with month old decorations up in my house than more boxes that I don’t know what to do with. Moving into 1,100 square feet has been so icky as far as storage issues (and ONE FREAKING BATHROOM issues) go.  We’ve rearranged the storage unit and so down goes the almost fossilized tree and sad, wilted, jostled and topsy turvy decorations.

Which is a REALLY good thing as it is almost a full MONTH after Christmas and I can no longer pretend that all the red around the house is really just gearing up for Valentines Day. It’s beyond the ridiculous point, peeps. At this rate it is indeed a very Dickens environment, but it is definitely more of the Great Expectations kind than A Christmas Carol.

THE STAR HAS FREAKING COBWEBS AROUND IT FOR PETE’S SAKE.

At this rate I’ll soon go all “Miss Havisham” on everyone’s asses and start walking around my house in a moldy wedding dress and one shoe and keep my breakfast of Diet Coke and…um….Diet Coke sitting on the table for 30 years.

Good thing I have an appropriate hat.

Sigh.