Having a sneaky nature isn’t necessarily a bad thing...just as long as the person is good at heart. I can’t hide the fact that I am sneaky, growing up in the shadow of my sister and mother’s stronger figure and bolder personality, (not literally; that sounds like I spent my childhood camping out by their ginormous stone statues…) I was given many chances to hone my skills as a raccoon..er..tiptoeing around. Now that I am older, and possibly matured, I use those learned skills for the good of my friends and family.

I have a lot of fun surprising people with monetary, practical, completely silly, or edible gifts. I enjoy spending time and putting love into something, and taking someone totally by surprise when I give it to them. You may mention a need for an item and it gets stored in my brain’s filing system as “things to watch out for while shopping or cleaning out closet for Goodwill”.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not boasting about all of the wonderfulness that I possess and how lucky you should be to consider yourself my friend, but more so about the wonderfulness that is giving. See a need, fill a need. Whether you subscribe to good karma, the Golden Rule, or paying it forward the act of giving almost never leaves both parties unhappy. And it’s simple mathematics; You’re hungry and I love to cook. Or you need groceries and gas, I can either hand over $20 for my own personal happiness for the week, or give it to you and we both get a little happiness for ourselves.

I really do get a lot of enjoyment out of giving. Unfortunately, in my nephew’s case, I need to back it down a notch. When I come to visit and I happen to be carrying a bag (which is almost always) he suspects that there is a gift waiting for him inside. I’m still on the fence as to whether or not this is a good thing. Since I only see him, maybe twice a month, it is a good thing. But on the other hand, it’s almost to the point where if I show up without something, what I would get is “Auntie Naaeee, where’s my present?” Bah…that’s what family members (non-parents) are for! Spoiling!

On the topics of giving, food, and general sneakiness…I have a friend. Yes, I do. 90% of my friends’ meals come from every fast food joint in the area, and the other 10% would be PB&J at home…but that’s only when there are 2 slices of bread in her cupboards. Now, I never eat breakfast, even though our mothers and women’s health magazines tell us that is the most important meal of the day. I don’t eat it because of two reasons: I’m rarely ever hungry in the morning and two, if I put something in my tummy other than coffee before the sun has been up for a few hours, I get sick to my stomach. Maybe it’s the coffee…

Back to the story, I decided to make a breakfast meal for my friend. Or it could have been the other way around; I received in my daily email from allrecipes.com, a recipe for Ham breakfast braid.


This is a breakfast deserving of a real plate! Paper plates be damned!

Wanting to try it out, I chose my friend as a guinea pig. Whichever one works best for the story, I prefer to call it divine confection. This recipe, like most are after the fact, is super easy and the ingredients are incredibly basic. Allrecipes.com did not provide a step by step photo montage though, and if you learn visually, like myself, you can check out this chickadees blog instead.

Bakingwithbeth also follows a smaller serving size than Allrecipe, but I didn’t realize that until after the oven had preheated and I was beating the eggs…but what is good cooking without mistakes? And yummy mistakes and “ooo lemmie try it this way” ideas?
Meat! Any will do and I suggest using the most flavorful of the choices. Spam, Baconbits, and 88c hot dogs are some options to avoid.

I had the needed ingredients; Eggs, cream cheese, milk (I used canned milk and it was just fine), shredded cheese, and 2 tubes of crescent roll dough. (I just realized that frosting is really the only food that sounds decent coming from of a “tube”.)



An example of how to take unappetizing photos. This was the beginning formation of the dough, later I added additional dough to cover the complete top surface.

You really only need enough dough to make a base for the eggs to sit in and some more to cover them up a bit. I noticed that, while a lot of photos show an equal baked dough/egg ratio on the top, there were a lot of photos that made the whole thing like a human torso with its skin flayed and its innards showing.


Place 2 eyes and a menacing mouth on this and viola! you have the cutest Halloween breakfast mummy!

Nomnom. I chose the modest path and went complete coverage, using all but 4 crescent triangles of dough; I made the base, piled on the goodness and then covered it with “braids” of dough. I forgot to brush the top with butter, but if you forget too, it does not make it less yummy!

This is what a baked braid looks like. Don't do drugs kids.

Another mistake that I made was beating the eggs with the milk and cream cheese, all at once and without an actual blender or beater of any kind. I used a spoon. I am only admitting this because it just shows how hard it is to screw up this recipe. My concoction left the eggs and milk whipped, of course, but with the occasional bit of cream cheese. I would like to try it again with an adequate beater, but I am not dismissing the enjoyment of taking a bite and hitting a pocket of SURPRISE - CREAM CHEESE!

The cream cheese melted during both the frying and baking process, so if you make the same mistake I did, no worries.

Additional touches to the mid-morning nap inducing breakfast included these bad boys (sliced) and a sprinkling of tarragon.

In trying to recover..

I've learned a couple things:

•  Boiled chicken is awesome. There is just something about it, maybe I'm low on protein, but I am so happy that I invested $7 in 2 whole birds and that my parents gifted me a large stock pot in which to boil said birds. My meat intake is limited - no heavy, breaded, fatty, spicey, nothings! so I'm glad to be able to enjoy. 
• This is one of the few times in my life where I can let the house go and not be blamed for it. Sick people don't have to do dishes on a daily basis. Not to mention other things that while they do make me feel more human and better in a way, I now have a great excuse to not do them - not shaving my legs, wearing a pony tail for more than 2 days in a row *faux pas!* and becoming more familiar with the feeling of the couch and my buttox meeting while enjoying an all day Alfred Hitchcock film festival. 
•  I really am blessed with the parents that I have. No matter what my siblings think, and I am aware of how spoiled I am, even at 28 years old. I am so blessed, and even more so appreciative of their help through this time in my life. Not to mention all of my friends and my family. The cards, balloons, flowers, magazines, books, assistance around the house and home, coming over to mow my lawn for me, picking up my mail, dropping off juices, sneaking over milkshakes, making sure I have everything I need. I could very well bring myself to tears just thinking about the caring people I have in my life right now. Thank you guys <3  And I'm pretty sure that's not the medications talking. 
• And last but not least, even if I feel fantastic, does not mean I can go out on a shopping excursion!

My latest Dr. appointment left me with yet another prescription and a small shopping list of items to help relieve what I believe to be steroid related side-effects. One of which is itchy palms, and currently the most annoying, although small annoyance it is. I'm hoping in a couple weeks to say "Ah! Relief! And all I had to deal with was indigestion, mushrooms, and itchy palms!" Apparently having itchy palms is a sign of money coming my way.
The old wives tale is told "Left to leave. Right to recieve. Scratch it on wood to make it come good." Which really makes sense, because with all the doctors bills coming in, I am and will be having money given and taken away from me on an almost daily basis for the next couple months, I'm sure!