Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

I am so thankful for all of the blessings that I have received and continue to receive – a wonderful husband, family and friends, our home, and so much more.

I am also blessed to be able to attend Thanksgiving Dinner at my cousin’s house this year, which means no cooking for me!  Instead, Mr. O and I made a special Thanksgiving breakfast of…

…his special hash browns (leftover baked potatoes cubed up and fried in a little olive oil with a little onion, garlic, and Italian seasoning – awesome with a little bacon, too, but I digress…) paired with yummy sausages from our local grocer’s meat counter sauteed in olive oil and butter.  Heaven on a plate.

I also found a recipe for his Mom’s “Overnight Coffee Cake” that we just had to try.  The recipe is typed out below, but here is the original recipe from his Mom’s recipe box (I love well worn recipe cards)…

As I wasn’t organized enough to actually prepare and refrigerate the cake last night, I put it all together this morning and put it in the fridge before we went to the gym (aren’t we good?) so it chilled for about an hour.  When we got home, we popped it in the oven while everything else was cooking, and it turned out p.e.r.f.e.c.t.!

I am calling it Black Friday Coffee Cake because this would be so easy to put together tonight and pop in the oven before you head out into the craziness tomorrow morning at o’dark thirty (if that’s your thing).  Or it would just be a nice easy breakfast after working your butt off on Thanksgiving.  You choose.

It turned out so moist and delicious, I can’t even put it into words.  Ours baked for 35 minutes exactly.  The only change we would make next time is less brown sugar on the top, but that is just a personal preference thing.

Mr. O also thought that a “frosting drizzle” would also be a good addition (take his basic frosting recipe and leave out the cocoa, maybe add some vanilla or almond extract – YUM!).  This is such a good base recipe, you could mix it up by switching up the nuts (I used walnuts because that is what I had, but almonds or pecans would be awesome – or do a combination!), adding some nuts to the top, make more of a “crumble” topping, adding some dried fruit like cranberries or raisins, top it with bananas or whipped cream – the options are endless (this is just what we came up with while we were eating it this morning)!  I’m looking forward to playing with it.

My first clean plate of the day!

Happy Thanksgiving from the O’s!!

Black Friday Coffee Cake

Cream together:

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 3/4 cup butter or margarine

Add two eggs and mix.

Sift together:

• 2 cups flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon nutmeg (or a 2nd teaspoon cinnamon)

Mix dry ingredients into sugar/butter/egg mixture.

Add 1 cup sour cream and 1 cup chopped nuts and mix until combined.  Pour into 9×13 pan and top with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  In the morning, bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes.

Enjoy!