- Donna

Breakfast: in a Sandwich, over a Biscuit, and in a Glass

Anyone can slap breakfast sausage on an English muffin and call it a sandwich, but this one brings together a variety of flavors that play together in an interesting way. You've got the sage-y pork sausage, the salty, rich speck, the smoky cheese, the sweet maple butter, and the brightness of the tomato. All those flavors in one bite will have your taste buds dancing. One at a time, the flavors emerge, then you dive in for another bite to start it all over again.

The cheese I used was Seaside smoked cheddar. It softened a bit from the warmth of the meat, but I didn't try to melt it -- aged cheddar isn't a great melting cheese, which is just fine. 

If you don't have biscuits, you could use small buns, English muffins, or even toast, but I suggest that you buy -- or make -- the biscuits.

Breakfast Sandwiches

Serves 6

1 pound bulk pork breakfast sausage
6 biscuits
6 slices speck (or prosciutto)
6 slices tomato
6 thin slices smoked cheddar
2 tablespoons maple butter

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

If you have biscuits and you have breakfast sausage, can biscuits and gravy be far behind? No, they can't. If you cooked extra pork sausage patties that you didn't use for sandwiches, you can cut or break them up into small pieces. If you bought extra pork sausage, you can cook it and break it up into pieces as it cooks. This recipe assumes you have cooked patties.

Biscuits and Gravy

Serves 4

2 cooked pork sausage patties
2 slices speck (or prosciutto)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 1/2 cups milk
4 biscuits
Freshly ground pepper

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

What do you drink with breakfast? Coffee? Juice? Or do you drink something instead of breakfast? Smoothies have become quite popular, and I've recently jumped on that bandwagon. A smoothie is filling without being fattening, if you make it right. To make it even healhier, I used GoodBelly instead of orange juice, since it has probiotics.

Cherry juice added color and sweetness, and the yogurt added creaminess and body. The crushed ice also adds to that body, making the drink seem more substantial than if it was just juice poured over ice. The vanilla is optional, but it adds some depth of flavor.

You can look at this as a template rather than a recipe -- use a different flavor of GoodBelly, and use a different juice, too, if you'd like. You could even use flavored yogurt. If you like the flavors together, that's all that matters.

GoodBelly Smoothie

Serves 1

1 tray ice
1 cup tropical orange GoodBelly
1/2 cup cherry juice
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Like this post? See Donna's previous topic: Back to Basics: Fresh Bread and "Roast" Chicken.

All photos by Donna Currie.

Donna is a Colorado food writer and the inventive blogger behind Cookistry. If she's not in the kitchen, she's likely shopping for intriguing new edibles.