Friday Football Foodie – Brunch Edition Monster Mashup: Breakfast Enchiladas, Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake, Phillips Head Screwdrivers and Pumpkin Spice Liqueur

Hearty Breakfast Enchilads to get you through a long day of football, or at least through your 10am games hangover.

Monster Mashup Day at Friday Football Foodie!  Vegas gave me a week of extra material, so instead of letting these sit around the archives getting stale, two-for-one recipe day for football brunches!  Plus, two recipes for means me having to type out fewer instructions! Go me!

Long time Friday Football Foodie readers know that I love the football brunch. NFL games start at 10 am!  College games at 9 am!  Premier League starts at… Eff it! You’re probably still drunk from the night before for a 5:45 am start.  And full of In-N-Out!  Or House of Pies!  Or Fred 62!  Or Cafe 101!  Or Del Taco! Better yet, let’s go to a taco truck!  WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

You get the idea.

So like any good brunch, pre-game planning is the key.  In the past I’ve made Friday Football Foodie quiches, stratas, baked French toast and pear tarts.  What do they have in common with Breakfast Enchiladas and Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake?  You have to make them the night before.  Sunday morning before a 10 am game, you want to wake up at 9 am at the earliest.  Maybe 9:30 if you need a shower. 9:50 if you still need to make fantasy football moves.  8 am? Forget it.  Did I not mention the 2 am taco truck visit?  The cake can be baked the night before, and the enchiladas need to rest before baking morning of the game.

See those those things in there? Those are cherries. Don't let anyone tell you you didn't eay anything healthy while watching football.

As always, you will need…

Breakfast Enchiladas

No Spencer this week, so the cheese is back baby!

Hopefully by now you know how to put stuff in a tortilla. Right down the lower middle for wrapping. Or like the joints you rolled in the '50's. Or '60's. Or '70's. Or '80's. Or '90's. Or last week.

Couple of tablespoons of ham, couple tablespoons of cheese, sprinkling of beans, chiles, and onion.   Roll up and place seem down in your 9X13 inch dish.

Don’t use all the cheese though.  Leave about a 1/4 cup of each to sprinkle on top of the tortillas during baking.

Beat together the half and half, eggs, pepper, salt, cumin and flour, then pour over your enchiladas.

Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.   Bake covered for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven and how cold your fridge is.  (I keep mine Minnesota-cold, so the enchiladas needed the extra ten minutes baking time.)

Speaking of cold, congrats to James Harrison for being named the AFC Defensive Player of the Month. Eight sacks in October.  I imagine that if this was bizarro world where he could play against the Steelers, it would have been 345 sacks.

Uncover the enchiladas, sprinkle on remaining cheese and bake for about 10 more minutes.

Serve with salsa and sour cream, as pictured above.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake

Ok, cheese free but not dairy free. And sour cream is just cheese waiting to happen.

You will need –

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 cup frozen cherries, thawed and drained well
1 cup streusel (see below)

Streusel, one of the best words in the German language.

Streusel is just soften butter cut together with brown sugar and cinnamon.  That’s it.  There is no such thing as a bad streusel.  Even if it might be bad, it’s still hard to tell because it is already so damn good.  You could mix in white sugar too, I guess, but I find it is just as easy to mix together 1 stick of soften butter, 1/2 cup – 1 cup brown sugar and couple of teaspoons of cinnamon.  (Really to taste.)

If you were to stop RIGHT THERE and just eat the streusel, I would not blame you.   As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure a straight streusel diet is how JaMarcus Russell got to where he is today.

Butter your pan, and then mix together all the ingredients that don’t involve streusel or cherries in a bowl. (FINE. If you want more details on how to put together the batter, follow the link at the bottom of the page. Mashups meaning leaving some of the details out! Danger Mouse told me so!)

Put 1/2 of the batter in your cake pan.  Now, I used an angel food cake pan, but any round or even a 9×9 pan will do.

Cherries! They should bring back the Cherry Bowl in the BCS. Nuts get a Bowl. Oranges get a Bowl. Motor City Bowl? I bet you could totally convince more people to go to Detroit if you mentioned cherries instead of Failed Industries Bowl.

Cover the batter with cherries and then fill with the remaining batter.   Sprinkle with streusel.

Baked streusel!

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Don't say it.Â

Once done flip the cake streusel-down onto a plate.  Glaze with a simple powdered sugar and milk frosting.  (About one cup powdered sugar to a couple of tablespoons of milk until it is… Drizzling consistency.)

Bonus Mashup Cocktails!

Okay, so it is just a screwdriver. But if you make it with pineapple vodka, call it phillips head screwdriver. Still much tastier than plain old vodka and OJ.

A twist on the classic screwdriver.  The sweetness of the pineapple helps offset the usual harsh taste of orange juice at brunch.  It also helps you forget you’re cheering for a losing team.

I’m in a fantasy football league with a bunch of other fun Pittsburgh sports fans, Pat from Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke/Fanhouse,  Mike from Kissing Suzy Kolber/Sporting News Blog/DC Steeler Nation,  Nic from Pittsburgh Sports and Mini-Ponies,  Cotter from One for the Other Thumb, Dan from Blog and Gold at the Post-Gazette, Bry, and Keith from various hockey… Hell with it.  I don’t even know where else Keith is wandering these days.   (They’re all over in the sidebar if you want to check them out.  Or follow our Twitter list feed!)

Anyway, I love our email threads almost more than the actual playing of the league (No, I am not losing!) just because it is the most relaxed group of fans just enjoying being fans around.  And for the smack talk about other teams.

For example,

Christmas Ape – http://content.usatoday.com/communities/thehuddle/post/2009/10/fix-for-terrible-towel-hex-titans-players-autograph-steelers-good-luck-charm/1

Keith – And if, by coincidence, they happen to suck less than Jacksonville this week, they can say it worked.

(They’ll suck more than Jacksonville.)

Me – Now, now.  No one sucks more than Jacksonville, unless your team has a QB named “Jake” or “Delhomme” on it.  Or might possibly for sale, no wait not for sale, okay maybe since a DeBartlo is interested for sale.  Or maybe a team with a fan base planning a protest for MNF.  (Two teams in this category in two weeks! Thanks NFL schedulers!)

Or the Rams.

I’m just saying I love those guys.  And that the Titans suck.

Wooo! The end!

Holy crap this post – like all mashups – has gone on way too long.

Halloween is this weekend, and if you want to mix up your brunch cocktails, try pumpkin spice liqueur in your White Russian in place of Kahlua.  Or even better, Captain Morgan, pumpkin spice liqueur and cream or milk.   If you’re not a fan of White Russians, spiced rum and pumpkin spiced anything go great just over ice.

Cherry-Streusel Cake – Martha Stewart.com

Inspiration for the Breakfast Enchiladas – Allrecipes.com

Full Flickr sets for Breakfast Enchiladas and Cherry-Streusel Cake.