It was so good, and we're all still living to tell the tale

Many moons ago, Christmas of 2006, I wrote about Christmas food. Here's an excerpt of that post:

Anyway, Christmas food. The best kind of food ever. I have so many memories associate with food and the holidays.

On Christmas morning we have a traditional brunch meal. Mom ALWAYS makes the staples- bacon/ cheese casserole. My son eats almost a whole one all by himself. She also makes a hash brown casserole, like the one they sell at Cracker Barrel- also some of the best food on the face of the earth. We have juice and coffee. We also have fruit salad, which can change continents yearly, but still a fruit salad of some sort. (Once we even had fruit slush which we all loved, but I don't think that made the holiday menu again- it got deregulated to a lesser holiday, something like a Memorial Day picnic food. Damn!)

Then there's the sweet bread. This is the sole reason to have breakfast/ brunch on Christmas morning, in my opinion. This must occur before gifts are unceremoniously ripped open. This is the true meaning of Christmas...Okay, not really, but this is seriously the world's most perfect food. Without a doubt. This is most perfect coffee cake in all of history. Jesus could come to Earth and eat this cake and know it was better and more miraculous than walking on water. He would've fed this with the fish instead of loaves- the story would be "fish and coffee cake." Sour cream coffee cake, not to be served any other time of year. Ever. No questions. It is reserved for Christmas morning alone. Do not tamper with this idea because it will NOT taste the same. It just isn't allowed. It is reserved specifically for Christmas morning. I eat a whole one by myself. And if you think I'm kidding, well...I wish but no. I LOVE this stuff. I look forward to it all year. This is the most moist cake ever. It is the perfect blend of cinnamon and goodness and just...Heaven on a plate. I swear to God if I had to pick between a lifetime of going without chocolate or the coffee cake, I would put Hershey's out of business. It is a true toss up between coffee cake and sex as to which is better and I think coffee cake wins. Seriously= this is some fabulous baked goods. Momma makes it in a special pan with a hole in it- not a mere bunt pan but some other special coffee cake baking dish. And it MUST be served on the cut glass crystal pedestal cake plate that is never used the rest of the year. This pan and this plate enhance the taste and enjoyability of the sour cream coffee cake as a whole. I dig this coffee cake. You know when you were a kid and said "if you love it so much why doncha marry it?" Well, show me where to sign... Bliss. True bliss. I love Mac more, but barely...

Ummmmm, well, uhhhhhhhh.... about last night.

Mac thinks the bacon/ cheese breakfast casserole is the best food on Earth and has been nagging and hounding me to make it for about 3 years. I never have. I have my mom's recipe but since she died, I've never fixed it, for one reason or another. I have idea how it came about but I think Mac drove me nuts until over the long weekend I agreed to make the damn thing for supper one night this week. (We are people who enjoy breakfast for dinner at our house.) It's a make ahead dish so on Monday night I put it together and served it for dinner last night.

And since I was making the Christmas casserole on a day that wasn't Christmas and not only was it not for a brunch, but for a dinner, I said 'what the hell' and made the infamous sour cream coffee cake as well. Yes, it's official. I broke the tradition. I made it on a regular old Tuesday in September. For dinner. I kept checking for stray lightening bolts from my mother. I'm not kidding. The woman wouldn't give us the recipe for the casserole nor the cake while she was alive because it was supposed to be SPECIAL ONLY FOR CHRISTMAS. But I couldn't make one without the other so I did.

ITSam came for dinner and be brought the fruit salad.

And the casserole was perfect. This Christmas when I make if for the entire family I'll need to make 2 or three because the four of us killed the entire thing in one sitting. I got it just like my mother's. I was shocked speechless. I couldn't speak but I sure ate. I was going to invite Bro's family but I was afraid if I screwed it up it would just ruin it all, ya know? So I used Daddy-O, Mac and ITSam for my trial run. If I can do it again on Christmas day, then we'll have a home run.

And as for the sour cream coffee cake... well, Daddy-O said it was better than my mother's. Oh. My. Goddess. I hope he didn't get struck my lightening today while no one was home for uttering such words. But it was good. My goodness sake's alive but was it ever good. Wow. I think there were 2 pieces left when I departed from the house this morning. I have a feeling there may be none when I get home. It was almost a surreal moment of eating. It should've been on Food Network, or I should've taken pictures. Sorry!!!

I also did not use the special dishes. I just used a regular old cake plate, and the fruit was in a plastic butter bowl. The casserole was in a plain old Pyrex dish. I didn't do the whole special serving process. No sirree, not even gonna tempt fate even more! Now I won't go abusing it or anything and making it all the time so it can hold some special memories for Christmas, but it didn't hurt anyone or anything to have it when it wasn't the holiday. Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

As long as there are no stray lightening bolts around...

Maggie