Last month, Eggland’s Best contacted me to see if I would like to participate in the “Eggland’s Best Double Dozen” in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, to help raise awareness and funding for the fight against breast cancer. To participate, I would host a brunch or brinner party using their eggs and blog about it. Well, Dennis’ Aunt Dorothy is a breast cancer survivor and so I would have agreed simply because they offered to make a $100 donation in my name to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but they sweetened the deal even more by sending me a box of goodies, including free egg coupons, and a gift card to pay for all my ingredients! It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. :)
I decided to host a brinner party for my birthday with the money and free eggs they supplied me. I got enough coupons to give to all my guests, and to make all my egg-y dishes. Since the weather has been so nice, I decided to have an outdoor dinner and though it rained the day before, the weather behaved itself in honor of my birthday and was quite nice the day of the celebration!
The only problem was that I started dinner too late, forgetting the sun sets earlier in fall, and we ended up eating most of the meal by moonlight! Learn from my mistake, and be prepared with candles if your outdoor dinner party runs late. I have to say, though, it was a relaxing and unique experience. You will see from the photos that I had less and less daylight as they become more and more terrible. I apologize for that!
The first thing I made was poppy seed crescent rolls, which calls for four eggs. It’s a recipe I’ve been holding onto for a few years which comes from the recipe box of none other than my heroine, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Did you know she has a cookbook?
I’m sorry to report they were disappointing. Everyone said they were “good,” or “OK,” and I agreed. If I hadn’t put a lemon glaze on them, they wouldn’t have been worth eating. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t good enough to share the recipe. But they did turn out pretty!
I got the hashbrown casserole and two spinach-ricotta quiches in the oven and while they were baking, I shot some pics of my birthday “cake,” a Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte, which I topped with good-quality raspberry preserves because I adore the combination of dark chocolate and raspberries.
I’ve made this once before for Dennis’ birthday long before I was blogging, and I’m happy I finally made it again so I could take pics and share the recipe. It is just outstanding. Creamy, melt-in-your mouth rich chocolate, the texture lightened with whipped eggs (6 of them, which is why I chose this for my brinner–because I could use so many of the Eggland’s Best eggs in it!) and butter. And those are the only ingredients! This is for the serious chocolate lover. It’s like eating a slice of chocolate truffle or mousse.
I did a fall tablescape because of the time of year, and I saw this cornucopia and had to have it in honor of my blog’s name. :)
After shooting this, we added two more chairs, just in case you counted the plates and were wondering why the chairs didn’t add up. :)
And in honor of my blog’s Thankful Thursdays feature, I just had to have this pumpkin too!
I am thankful that breast cancer does not run in my family, and that my husband’s aunt survived it with flying colors! She seems even healthier now than before the cancer and she is an inspiration.
While we were waiting on the food to finish baking, my nephew, Owen, and I posed for some silly photos with the plush egg that Eggland’s Best sent me. Someone please warn me if those are gang signs he’s making! lol It’s so funny because his mama used to do the same crazy things with her hands in photos that he does now.
By the time the quiche was done, the sun was nearly set so the following photos are awful! Here is the spinach-ricotta quiche,which I wasn’t overly impressed with anyway so I don’t regret not having great photos to blog the recipe with.
The hashbrown casserole (à la Cracker Barrel) was another story! This was my favorite dish of the evening. It’s been a long time since I’ve had it at Cracker Barrel, so I’m not sure how close this was in taste but without comparing the two, I thought this was incredible. So creamy and cheesy. Oh, yums. Thankfully there was a tiny bit leftover so I was able to snap a picture at home the next morning in better light for when I share the recipe!
I don’t know if I’ve ever shared a picture of Owen’s mama, my sister, Lacey, so here she is for the curious, digging into her food:
I didn’t bring the veggies out until later, so here is a picture of my plate before they were added. You can see I also have meatballs on my plate, and they’re the same ones I bring to almost any party. I have the recipe here. The cups, though not filled yet, later housed iced coffee with sweet cream, which I made by combining a can of sweetened condensed milk with a cup of heavy cream. Yums.
I finally took off my apron so you can see my shirt. I wore my hot pink tank top underneath an Aerosmith (who just happens to have a song called “Pink!”) net shirt in honor of breast cancer awareness month and the purpose of the party.
The crazy thing is that I wore this exact same shirt on my birthday last year for my 80s themed party! This is me and my sisters at my party last year (Lacey is in the middle-she was a redhead last year-and Danielle on the right):
Here is the only photo which hints that we ate vegetables! I just nuked some Green Giant steamers and we poured them out onto our plates. We couldn’t see anything anyway, and we were kind of like barbarians in the dark, as you can see from the devastation of the table. LOL!
After all these photo shenanigans, I realized I forgot to serve the bacon devilled eggs! I ran in and brought them out and forced everyone to take them, despite their full stomachs. Although I was sure these would be the winning dish of the evening, I guess devilled eggs are either a love ’em or hate ’em thing, even if they have bacon in them. I love devilled eggs and along with the others present who did too, I loved these! The bacon and cheese really made the filling good enough to eat with a spoon as a meal. :) I took this photo of the leftovers in better light:
Bacon Devilled Eggs
Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture
10 eggs
1 cup mayonnaise (I used homemade Miracle Whip)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (I used regular)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I used 1)
8 slices bacon, fried crispy and crumbled into tiny pieces (um…I used a lot more :) )
1 cup cheddar cheese, finely shredded
Salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce to taste
Smoked paprika for topping
Hard boil the eggs and cool completely. Once cooled, peel them, then slice in half, placing the yolks in the bowl of a food processor. Plate the egg whites on a serving platter. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar to the egg yolks, and process until smooth. Add the bacon and cheese and process until combined. Season to taste.
Transfer to a small Ziploc bag and snip off the corner to use as a piping bag. Squeeze filling into each egg white half. you will have a lot of filling so be generous with it. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Sprinkle with paprika just before serving.
Recipe source: Cairns Manor
OK, now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. As the title of this post suggests, I have a giveaway for you! Eggland’s Best is offering to award one of my readers with a prize pack which includes:
- 2 Free EB Dozen coupons (Any variety- classic, cage-free, or organic)
- 1 Free EB Hard Cooked and Peeled variety coupon
- 4 EB ramekins
- 1 EB apron
- 1 EB whisk
- 1 EB spatula
- 1 EB egg timer
- 1 EB eco bag
- 1 EB plush egg
If you would like to enter to win, leave an inspiring comment below, or share how you contribute to raising awareness or funding for breast cancer.
For additional entries you can do one or all of the following, and be sure to leave a separate comment for each, letting me know you did (or already do) it.
- Like Veronica’s Cornucopia on Facebook
- Like Eggland’s Best on Facebook
- Subscribe to Veronica’s Cornucopia by email or RSS feed (email subscription box is in upper right corner)
- Sign up to send at least one piece of mail this week for The Postcard Project (you must add your name on the spreadsheet for this entry to count)
Drawing will end Friday at 11:59 PM, and winner will be announced Saturday along with the winner for this week’s Postcard Project prize. Good luck!
Veronica's Cornucopia 
I’ll be doing one of these posts too! I’ve just been procrastinating! I have like 3 devilled eggs printed and bacon ones are ones that I want to make!! Great pictures, looks like a lot of fun!
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Bacon devilled eggs – perfect!
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It sounds like you had a perfect birthday :)
You look so pretty in those pictures!
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Eggland’s Best are truly the best – we’ve been eating them for a while.
Inspiring comment – Family is forever, even when they remind us all of our human-ness.
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That’s awesome that you were chosen to have a Brinner and EB sponsored it and made a donation for breast cancer. My grandma and aunt suffered from breast cancer twice so I am happy to see that EB is supporting the great cause!
And…as always, your food looks delicious!
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I liked your blog on Facebook (I don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner)
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I have been subscribing to your blog for a while now (RSS feed and email) and I love seeing new emails in my box with recipes! I tried the pumpkin oatmeal pie bake this weekend and it was great!
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That is so great to hear–I’m glad you liked it!
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I also liked EB on FB! (I really want to win! :))
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Looks like y’all had a great time, your first photo of you is a great one! The deviled eggs sound yummy. Funny thing is I was craving eggs and made prosciutto and egg cups 2 nights ago for dinner and for lunch today I have an egg salad sandwich :)
My Grandmother and my cousin are breast cancer survivors. We have a donation box at my hubby’s shop :)
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During October, I try to buy pink items that support breast cancer awareness.
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I’m a subscriber (and loving every moment) . . .
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I’m also on the spreadsheet and sent those two B-day cards on Monday.
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In terms of breast cancer, my mother-in-law is a cancer survivor. I admire her so much–she was the strongest one in the family during that time. Right now she’s got a clean bill of health, but during the chemo her hair completely changed (from blond and wavy to iron-grey and curly) and she hates it. =( I wish I could help her love her new look.
Anyway, I really enjoyed all your b-day pics. I can’t belive you cooked so many things for your own party! Heh heh. And you are so beautiful and so silly–I always love seeing pics of you. =)
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I loved your birthday pictures…felt like I was there. I reeeaallly appreciated your candor when stuff you made didn’t taste that great! You make me smile Veronica… :|)
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I do the race for the cure.
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I like you on fb.
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I like Egglands Best on fb.
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Mmmmm – Bacon Deviled Eggs sound awesome!
As for breast cancer support – I walk in the Avon 2-Day walk every year. It’s really hard, but amazing at the same time!
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Eggland’s best are really great!! We have had several women in our family to fight breast cancer. It is a really nasty disease. I admire all women who have the courage to fight and push on.
Your birthday looked amazing. I will definitely have to try those deviled eggs. Keep up the good work, I love the blog.
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I wear a pink hair extension in my hair all month, plus I proudly wear my breast cancer pin all year long!
katherinedibello (at) gmail (dot) com
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i subscribe via email
katherinedibello (at) gmail (dot) com
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I try to buy products that support breast cancer awareness and I donate.
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I liked you on facebook.
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I liked Eggland’s Best on facebook.
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I don’t know what I personally can do to help breast cancer…but I know two individuals personally who passed away from breast cancer, and the best way I can help is to show love and concern for the loved ones.
Note to self: dine at Veronica’s house at least once in my life before I die.
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I’ve done race for the cure for the past 4 years!
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Already following your RSS feed!
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I have a yearly mammogram and make sure my older sister gets hers too.
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I love the idea of the hashbrown casserole… can’t wait till you post it! I have been supporting a friend who does photography, who is really into the breast cancer awareness. I already like Egglands Best on FB.
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Thanks so much for being an advocate for breast cancer awareness. Until a little over a year ago I never really thought twice about cancer of any kind. Then in May 2010 my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer while in the hospital for a completely unrelated procedure. She went in for knee surgery and came out a breast cancer victim. She is thankfully a survivor now but it has changed my whole outlook. I now do all that I can to get the word out there that breast cancer is not just heredity. Anyone can be diagnosed, and anyone can survive with the right tools! So get out there ladies and get your mammograms as uncomfortable as they are, it could very well save your life! And if you find any abnormalities, get them checked, don’t wait but do it now! You’ll never regret it no matter the outcome.
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What a great way to celebrate your birthday! I like you on Facebook:-)
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My mouth is watering looking at your pix-:) my mom is a 5 year breast cancer survivor-she has yearly mammograms
thanks
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like u on fb Julie Scott Laws
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like eggland on f b Julie Scott Laws
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email subscriber
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Happy belated Birthday! Here’s a song for you: Old Dan Tucker
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What a fun birthday dinner (brinner)! Lots of great food to enjoy with loved ones! Happy Birthday!
I’m definitely trying the eggs. My husband loves deviled eggs. He usually makes them in a basic way with mayo, yellow mustard, and just a tiny bit of sugar and they are so yummy. But who doesn’t like bacon?? These sound like a great protein snack!
Still waiting for you to divulge the details on the chocolate dessert! :)
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While I support raising awareness and information about breast cancer, I no longer support the Susan G. Komen foundation. Being a pro-life person, I was GREATLY disappointed and troubled to find out that Susan G. Komen gives part of it’s proceeds to Planned Parenthood- and Planned Parenthood supports abortion. So, even if it’s only a small amount of $$– I will not support S G K since I do not support abortion.
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Thank you for this, Amber, I’m pro-life too and wouldn’t support an organization that supports abortion, whether directly or indirectly. Where did you find this information?
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We have been buying Egglands Best for years. However, we bought some eggs recently from a local farm and compared them to Egglands Best. And there was no comparision. The local farm egg yolks were a much deeper orange than Egglands and tasted a lot better. After doing some research on Cornucopia.org, I found that Egglands Best is an “industrial organic” company, with its suppliers giving its hens very little opportunity to get outdoors or even to stretch their wings, as they are so cramped in the coops. We will be buying locally from now on.
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