Serve a stylish and yummy breakfast

Last week, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, we featured several recipes from Jim Thorpe innkeeper Sheila O'Neil, owner of The Gilded Cupid Bed & Breakfast.

Earlier, I had spent a fun afternoon with Sheila, who cooked a few different breakfasts for me to sample, and generously provided all of her recipes so that I can share them with our readers.

If you enjoyed last week's column, you're going to love this one!

Cake for Breakfast

Makes six cakes

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla

2 tablespoons high quality cinnamon

Various toppings:

Sliced apricots

cup dried cranberries

Orange-tangerine juice

Sliced almonds

Chopped walnuts

Cream together cup of sugar, butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add with eggs and buttermilk. Do not overmix.

Apply non-stick spray to an English tart pan. Fill with about cup of batter per tart. Combine remaining cup of sugar with 2 tablespoons of cinnamon. Sprinkle two tablespoons of cinnamon-sugar on top of each cake.

For the apricot and almonds, arrange three thin apricot slices in a pinwheel, and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Proceed with baking directions that follow.

To make the dried cranberries and walnut crumb, soak cup of dried cranberries in orange-tangerine juice (just enough to cover), and microwave on high for about 1.5 minutes. Let cool. Squeeze the juice from the cranberries, and stir into remaining batter. Fill tart pan and top with crumb topping.

To make a standard crumb topping, combine 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the unbaked cake.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for about five minutes, then gently remove.

Omelet with Chevre

Serves 6 people

8 eggs

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 ounces crumbled chevre (goat cheese)

Water

Beat eggs well until light and lemon colored. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat, then add eggs. As sides of eggs begin to bubble, use a soft spatula to draw outside edges into the center of the pan.

Before eggs are cooked through, add chevre in dollops around the surface of the omelet. Add a few drops of water around the edges of the omelet, then cover and cook on medium heat until the steam from the water has evaporated. It helps if you have a glass lid for your frying pan.

When you first cover the eggs, condensation will form on the lid. When the condensation dissipates, the eggs should be ready.

Tomato Avocado Salsa

Avocado (Use half if large; if small, use the whole avocado.)

Lemon juice

4 medium green onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped

8 small pear tomatoes, cut in half

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Cut avocado and remove seed. Squeeze with lemon juice to keep from discoloring. Using a paring knife, cut diagonal lines across the avocado, 1 inch apart, in two different directions, and scoop into a small bowl. Add onions, cilantro and tomatoes and toss.

Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Serve atop Omelet with Chevre.

Black Bean

and Corn Salsa

1/4 cup chopped red onion or Vidalia onion

1 8-ounce can corn, drained

1 16-ounce can black beans, rinsed

1 tablespoon sushi-grade rice vinegar

2 teaspoons olive oil

Combine all ingredients and serve.

Fruit Parfait

Vanilla yogurt

Fresh raspberries

Raspberry syrup

For each serving, in a tall champagne flute, using a tapered scoop or spoon, place a large dollop of vanilla yogurt.

Cut about 3 or 4 raspberries in half and carefully place on top of the yogurt in the glass.

Drizzle about a tablespoon of raspberry syrup over the raspberries.

Repeat with yogurt, raspberries and syrup. Then top with one more dollop of yogurt. Serve immediately.

You can make this with strawberries and raspberry syrup, or blueberries with blueberry pancake syrup. Or, for a patriotic holiday, alternate the two fruits with the yogurt. This is also good with peaches.

Lemon crepes with Lavender-Infused Maple Syrup

Lemon Crepes

Makes 4 servings of two crepes per serving.

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups milk

4 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Lemon zest

Sift flour and salt; add eggs, milk and vanilla. Beat until well mixed.

Spray a 6-7 inch crepe pan or frying pan with non-stick spray and heat over medium high. Add about cup of crepe mix to the pan and swirl to spread the mixture and coat the pan.

As the edges begin to appear dry, shake the pan back and forth; when the crepe becomes loose, either flip it or, using a flexible spatula, turn it.

While it continues to cook, quickly grate about 1 teaspoon of lemon zest onto the crepe. When cooked this is quick, and can be only about 30-45 seconds remove from the pan. Roll the crepe into a tube, and plate. Top with 1/2 ounce of Lavender-Infused Maple Syrup.

Lavender-Infused Maple Syrup

1 cup high quality maple syrup

1 handful lavender leaves and flowers

Combine syrup and lavender in a heatproof bowl and microwave for about 30 seconds. Let steep for about an hour or refrigerate overnight. Heat in microwave before serving.

Garnish with a sprig of lavender and an edible flower.

Bacon Rosettes

For each serving:

2 pieces of thick-sliced black pepper bacon

High quality maple syrup

To make each rosette, take a strip of bacon and fold it in half, then twirl the bacon around your finger, forming a rosette. Place fat side down in a deep baking dish, that is just large enough to hold the amount you are cooking so that the rosettes won't fall over or unravel. Drizzle each rosette with about 1 tablespoon of maple syrup. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. Keep warm until serving.