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Brunch, a meal served late morning, midway between breakfast and lunch, has become the term for any morning meal consisting of traditional breakfast fare, combined with some luncheon dishes that are easy to serve buffet style. Lois Renkin brought Breakfast Casserole to a recent gathering. She found the recipe in the cookbook, Returning to the Kitchen with Friends of the Pool, attributed to Auntie Elsie and Suzie Deife. Lois reports this dish is easy to prepare the night before to have ready to bake first thing in the morning.

Breakfast Casserole

1 to 1 1/2 pounds bulk sausage, cooked and drained

8 slices white bread, cubed

1/4 to 1/2 cup diced onion

1/2 to 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

7 beaten eggs

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp dry mustard

2 cups milk

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) cream of mushroom soup.

Spread bread cubes in bottom of a buttered 13x9 inch baking pan. Sprinkle with onions. Sprinkle cheese over bread and onions; add sausage. Combine remaining ingredients except soup and pour evenly over ingredients in pan. Spread mushroom soup over all. Cover and leave in refrigerator over night. Bake one hour at 350 degrees. Yield: 8-12 servings.

Note: I preheated the oven and left the casserole covered with foil while baking, removing it the last 10 minutes of baking time to brown the surface.

Breakfast casseroles are easy, and substitutions of ingredients can make use of ingredients on hand. Ham, ground beef, cubed chicken or turkey are other options. Include a little sage seasoning and you have a savory dish without adding meat.

At this same event I brought a dish called Blintz Brunch Bake, a casserole version of Cheese Blintz, a popular but tedious dish from the 50s and 60s, that involved making crepes, filling with the cheese mixture and fussing with keeping everything warm until serving. I found this easy recipe in a Kraft Recipe enewsletter, and you can find this and many more yummy recipes at http://www.kraft recipes.com. Sign up for their email newsletter for the latest recipe ideas.

Blintz Brunch Bake

2 packages (8 ounces each) Philadelphia Neufchatel cheese, softened

1 container (15 ounces) Polly-O Natural Part Skim Ricotta Cheese

5 eggs, divided

3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

2 tsp lemon zest

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp Calumet baking powder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat Neufchatel, ricotta, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, lemon zest and juice in a large mixing bowl with mixer until blended. Whisk remaining eggs, sugar, flour, melted butter, milk and baking powder in a separate bowl until blended. Spread 1/3 of the batter onto bottom of 13x9 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; cover with Neufchatel mixture, then remaining batter.

Bake 45 minutes or until center is set. (increase baking temperature to 350 degrees if using a metal baking dish.) Yield:16 servings.

Note: next time I make this, I will add 1/4 tsp salt to bring out the flavor and increase the lemon juice to 4 tablespoons. This dish is delightful pared with a fruit salad or fruit or berry sauce.

Speaking of fruit, cutting all the ingredients for a fruit salad can be time consuming. Kelsey Scrupps posted a link to Scarymommy.com for a quick method of cutting grapes in half. Who can resist checking out a website called Scarymommy? Kim Todd mentioned she had seen this done with cherry tomatoes.

You can watch the video of this method, but you will need two plates of the same style, preferably the style that has a raised rim. Fill the center of the plate with a single layer of grapes. Place the second plate bottom side to the grapes. Hold firmly with one hand while using a sharp slicing knife to cut through all the grapes between the plates like you would split layers of a cake.

The key is a “sharp” knife. So many cooks spend way more time in the kitchen than necessary because they are working with dull knives. You can have your knives professionally sharpened, but there are a number of touch up tools that anyone can use to keep a reasonably sharp edge on kitchen knives. Then keep those knives in good condition by hand washing and drying. Bouncing around in the dishwasher dulls knives. A knife block or a magnetic knife holder are the best way to store knives, as jostling about in a drawer dulls knives as well.

Many people have asked me to come identify volunteer shrubs sporting small red berries. They are actually a Nanking Bush Cherry, and since they most likely arrived in your yards via birds packing off the fruit from our hedge of these bushes, here is a recipe to make Sour Cherry Jelly. These cherries are pretty small so jelly is the most efficient use, and it is very pretty and tasty.

Sour cherry Jelly

4 pounds (approximately) ripe sour cherries

1/2 cup water, if needed

1 box powdered fruit pectin

4 cups granulated sugar

Place cherries in a large saucepan, add 1/4 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour cooked fruit into a jelly bag in a large bowl or line the bowl with 3 layers cheese cloth and pour in fruit. Tie closed and hang over bowl and let juice drain until dripping stops, squeezing gently. Measure exactly 3 1/2 cups juice, adding up to 1/2 cup water if needed.

In a 6-8 quart kettle combine juice and powdered pectin. Bring mixture to a full rolling boil (a boil that can not be stirred down) on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar all at once. Return to a full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off foam with a metal spoon.

Ladle immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads, cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Process in water bath 5 minutes. Remove from canner and cool completely in a draft free place. Lids will seal (ping) as they cool. Yield 6 half pints.

Share your favorite recipes by sending them to: Welcome to My Kitchen, c/o The Odessa Record, P.O. Box 458, Odessa, WA 99159 http://www.therecord@odessaoffice.com or drop them in the Welcome to My Kitchen mail tin in The Odessa Record office. Pinch seed heads from snapdragons for continuous blooming.