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 