New Christmas Tradition- Breakfast Recipes

We've been considering what sorts of Christmas Traditions we want to set for our little family. As a huge fan of special breakfasts and celebrations with food, I knew a stellar breakfast line up was in order. With a freezer full of hand-picked wild blueberries and the need for a meal to tide us through Christmas Cookie temptations until the Christmas Dinner at 4pm, we needed to use blueberries and have a substantial meal. Here's what we found (and will probably incorporate into Christmas next year):

Christmas Morning Egg Bake
1 bag tater tots
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 lb bacon or sausage
8 eggs
2 cups milk
3 cups Cheddar or Colby Jack cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large casserole dish, lay out frozen tater tots in a single layer. Add salt and pepper to taste, then bake according to packaging. (Tots should be golden brown.) Remove dish and set aside.

Lower oven temp to 350. In large mixing bowl, mix 8 eggs, milk, and cheese and set aside.

In frying pan, cook bacon or sausage until done. Remove from pan and crumble or chop and set aside. Drain pan of grease, but do not clean out completely. Add onions and peppers to pan, return to medium heat, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add onion and peppers to top of tater tots. Add bacon or sausage to pan on top of onions and peppers.

Carefully pour the egg mixture evenly over the top.

Bake covered for 45 minutes then uncovered for 30 minutes.  Allow to sit for 10 minutes outside of oven before slicing to serve.

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 tsp lemon zest
7/8 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups fresh blueberries (we used 3 cups of defrosted frozen berries)
1/2 cup buttermilk*

Preheat oven to 350 and grease 9x9 baking pan. Cream butter, lemon zest, and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

Toss blueberries with 1/4 cup flour. Combine remaining flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the dry flour mixture to the batter, a little at a time, alternating with buttermilk. Carefully fold in the blueberries, avoid overmixing.

Spread batter gently into pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick in center comes out dry. Let cool 10-15 minutes before slicing and serving.

*Homemade buttermilk by Jake. We put the remainder of our heavy whipping cream from holiday baking in an empty mason jar which Jake shook for about 15-20 minutes to form whipping cream, and then a solid glob of homemade butter and 1/2 cup of homemade butter milk.  While an exhausting process, the resulting buttermilk was delicious in this cake and we served the resulting fresh butter with Christmas dinner. Another new tradition!