Easy Weekend Breakfast Casserole

Last weekend Cory hosted a bachelor party for one of his closet friends, Rich. They were meeting at our house early Saturday morning before their tee time at a local golf course, so I volunteered to make breakfast for everyone since I knew the bachelor party wouldn't end after their round of golf ;). After consulting some of my facebook friends for a quick casserole recipe, I decided to improvise and throw together one of my very own! The guys loved it and I did, too. Most of the ingredients I already had at home, so it was a really affordable recipe to make for a large group. It would be perfect to ensure a lazy morning at home!

Ingredients:

6 eggs

2 cups of milk

1 pack shredded cheddar cheese

black pepper + salt

white bread, sliced

sausage (or bacon, but you can also go without)

13x9 baking dish

optional: diced peppers/tomato/onion

Recipe:

• Spray or grease your baking dish.
• Cut the crusts off of 8 slices of white bread (it has to be white bread, btw) and lay them in the bottom of the baking dish so the entire bottom is covered. 
• Spread the entire pack of shredded cheese across the bread.
• Brown and crumble sausage. Spread sausage on top of the cheese and bread.
• In a medium bowl, whisk 6 eggs, milk, black pepper/salt to taste, and 2 cups of milk.
• If you choose, you could add the veggies into your egg mix at this point.
• Pour the egg mixture on top of sausage/cheese/bread in baking dish.
• Let sit over night in refrigerator.
• Next morning, let it sit for about 20 minutes while oven is preheating to 350 degrees. 
• Bake for 35-45 minutes or until egg is golden yellow.
• Let sit for about 5 minutes before cutting and serving. 

Enjoy!

 

Ending 2011 (photo heavy)

Last year...er... 2010, Cory and I rang in the new year surrounded by family and friends at his sister's wedding. It was so much fun that we knew we wanted to do something equally as enjoyable this year, too. Since we take 3 days to celebrate Christmas (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Day-After-Christmas), our Christmas break was limited to just a week. We headed down to Reston, Virginia to hang out with our friends Rich and Beth for our annual mix swap and Anthro shopping trip. Since it's been so unusually warm in the mid-Atlantic region, the boys were actually able to put their new golfing gear to use and hit the links! Crazy! Meanwhile, Beth and I hung out and ran errands. We had a lovely dinner with Beth's family and played games as well. 

After making it home around midnight on Wednesday night, we decided to take it easy on Thursday by eating a yummy pancake breakfast, taking care of a sick kitty, solidifying our New Years plans, listening to last bit of Christmas music, reading books, and cleaning the house. I put up the new curtains I picked up at World Market with Beth (I LOVE the pop of color they bring to our mix-match living room) and ran a few last minute errands around town with Cory. We treated ourselves to a slice of pizza from a local pizza shop that we adore and hit the sheets early for a full night's rest.

 (those are sneaks of a new crochet project I'm working on!)

Friday morning we woke early, cleaned out our closet and packed for a New Year's trip to New York City! So fun! No, we didn't hit up Time's Square; instead we headed out to Queens to bring in 2012 with a small group of friends. Before the ball dropped, though, Lisa and I decided to go thrifting in her new neighborhood, Gramercy. My oh my, there was a lot of wonderful thrifting. I scored an entire outfit for $30, which made me crazy happy. There was so much furniture I had my eye on, too. We also got a mani/pedi together... a typical Liz & Lisa thing to do whenever we're around one another :) 

We also went to a few neighborhood spots to check out their Christmas attire... like Rolf pub that was so incredibly over the top, I couldn't even focus! CRAZY!

We also went to Molly's, that had a less distracting, more-able-to-focus atmosphere. ha!

For dinner on New Year's Eve, we wanted it to just be the 4 of us in their apartment, so Lisa and I decided use the pasta maker Cory and I gifted her and Kevin (for housewarming in September) and make a home-cooked Italian meal full of pasta, meatballs, and garlic bread! We had so much fun figuring out how to use the pasta maker. I felt like it was the perfect gift for such a lovely Italian couple :)

We headed to Queens around 9 p.m. and had a great time playing the best card game ever, Cards Against Humanity. It is so much fun and totally inappropriate!  I only have a few cell phone shots from the night, but I know there are a ton of photos floating around.. so once my friends post them, I'll share them with you.

How did you put an end to 2011?

Deck the Halls: Raspberry Almond Thumbprints

Our last Deck the Halls cookie recipe this week is for Raspberry Almond Thumbprints. These cookies are adorable and if you're making cookie platters as gifts, they would be a great way to dress it up!

Ingredients:

Cookie

1 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup raspberry jam*

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

2 to 3 teaspoons water

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

 

Directions:

Combine butter, sugar and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour. Beat, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Cover; refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Make indentation in center of each cookie with thumb (edges may crack slightly). Fill each indentation with about 1/4 teaspoon jam.

Bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire cooling rack. Cool completely.

Combine all glaze ingredients in small bowl with wire whisk until smooth. Drizzle over cookies. 

yum!

xo,

Liz

Deck the Halls: Lemon Snap Cookies

To add to our cookie trail, today's Deck the Halls post includes a recipe that is yummy all year round, not just during the holidays! During my trip to SC in November, my sister-in-law introduced me to an easy cookie to make in replacement of the classic lemon bar. These cookies aren't as sticky and messy as lemon bars, but still just as yummy, light, and refreshing! I can imagine eating these on Memorial Day just as much as I hope to snag a few on Christmas Day, too!

Lemon Snaps

Ingredients:

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy.                     

 Nom nom!  Enjoy!

Deck the Halls: Peanut Butter Blossom cookies

On my cookie trip at the end of November, we made sixteen different kinds of cookies. SIXTEEN. Who knew baking could ever be so intense!? Today I want to share with you one of my favorite cookies, not just for Christmas, but for all year round! The peanut butter blossom!

Ingredients: 

• 48 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup REESE'S Creamy Peanut Butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Granulated sugar

1. 1 Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
   
2. 2 Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
   
3. 3 Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
   
4. 4 Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each
   cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.
   About 4 dozen cookies.

Yum!

What is your favorite Christmas cookie?

xo,

Liz

P.S. Here are all the Deck the Halls posts!

Deck the Halls: Cranberry Apple Pie

I always try to change up what part of the meal I bring to each of my family gatherings. Most of the time, I try to keep it simple, but add an unconventional twist. Today's Deck the Halls post is a delicious recipe for cranberry-apple pie!

This year for Thanksgiving, I was asked to make a dessert, but wanted to go beyond the customary dishes. I checked out the local market and found a crate of delicious, vibrant red, organic cranberries. Those beauties inspired me to toss them into an apple pie recipe I had sitting around and the end result was absolutely delicious! Each family member raved over how perfectly sweet and tart the pie tasted; a perfect match to the savory main course dishes!

Ingredients:

• pack of Pillsbury pie crusts (Crusts and I don't always get along... they fail nearly every time. If you have the talent, feel free to use your own pie crust recipe!)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 big apples (Gala or Granny Smith) peeled, cored, and sliced
• 1/2 cup fresh cranberries (you can supplement dried cranberries if needed)
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into small triangles 
• 1 sheet of aluminum foil (about 12 x12)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees. 

2. Button the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate. Place the bottom pie crust to fit in the pie plate.

3. In a large bowl, mix the sugars, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add sliced apples, cranberries, and orange juice. Mix well so the apples and cranberries are covered by sugar mixture.

4. Spoon fruit mixture into pie plate on the crust. Be sure to adjust apples and cranberries so they fit into the plate snug. Once you have the fruit in the plate, place the triangles of butter throughout the dish. 

5. Lay your second crust over the top of your pie and pinch the edges to the original crust. Be sure to pinch the crust all the way around.

6. Place piece of aluminum foil on the oven rack, and then place pie plate on top. This will catch any juice drippings.

7. Bake pie for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.

8. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for another 35 minutes. 

9. Remove from oven once the juices begin to bubble on the edge of the crust and the crust is a delicious golden brown.

Let cool for about 2 hours before you serve the pie. This will allow all the juices to finish cooking.

We loved pairing this with a rich vanilla bean icecream, but I'm sure it would be delicious just by itself!

xo,

Liz

Our Weekend Menu!

Earlier this week I posted about mint-chocolate chip cookies and it really got me thinking. I had a nice little convo with myself (per usual) and it went something like this:

"Self, you should really reserve this weekend as a stay-in-to-cook-and-crochet-all-day weekend."

And I replied... "You are absolutely right, self."

I immediately looked at the weather forecast (I think the current temperature truly effects your diet). It's calling for low 70s, upper 60s all weekend. Perfect! My next step was to start searching around for new fall recipes that I haven't tried. I'm really into soups these days, plus all those pumpkin-y treats that are so a-la fall. So as I was searching around I stumbled across Annie's Eats and instantly fell in love. What a great food blog!

Here is my entire weekend menu straight to you. Maybe you'll be inspired to try something new! ;)

Saturday Morning:

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes Yum!

Saturday Lunch:

Roasted Garlic-Potato Soup

Saturday Dinner:

Braised Chicken with Peppers, Olives and Capers

Sunday Breakfast:

Baked Quinoa

Sunday Lunch:

Creamy Avacado Chicken Salad

*repurpose some of the chicken from last night's dinner*

Sunday Dinner

Chicken Pot-Pie

*Perfect for lunch the next day!*another re-purpose meal*

What's on your menu this weekend?