Overnight Caramel French Toast

Holly over at Homebody posted this recipe back in December and I have just been waiting for a good time to use it.

Overnight Caramel French Toast adapted from Homebody

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
12 slices bread
6 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:  Combine sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a small saucepan; cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Place 6 slices of bread over syrup. Top with remaining 6 slices. Combine eggs, milk, vanilla and salt. Pour evenly over bread; cover and chill 8 hours.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until lightly browned and eggs are set. Serve immediately.

Here's what you'll need:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.



Combine brown sugar, corn syrup (or maple syrup), and butter in a saucepan.  Stir constantly until a small simmer.

While the butter is melting in the saucepan, crack your eggs and whisk.

Add the milk and vanilla to the whisked eggs.

Once the sugar mixture just starts to bubble, pull it off the stove and pour into a 9x13 baking dish.  Don't let it continue to boil.

Lay out enough bread to cover the pan.  Stack another layer of bread directly on top of the first layer.

Pour the eggs evenly over all of the bread. 

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Here's what you'll end up with:

Our Thoughts:

This was the perfect dish for weekend guests.  It took me about 10 minutes to put together on Saturday night and then we just popped it in the oven on Sunday morning.  I actually made 2 9x13 dishes and we had plenty of leftovers.  We had 6 adults and 3 kids eating it and still had 1/2 of a baking dish.  Of course, we also had bacon but I think the 2 slices of bread along with the cooked eggs made it a really filling dish.  Everyone loved it!

Hope you enjoy it!

April

Turkey, Spinach, and Tomato Frittata

This is such an easy breakfast/brunch to make.  Great for weekend company!

Turkey, Spinach, and Tomato Frittata
Eggs (depends on how many people you are having)
Fresh spinach
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
Creamy cheese (I used Muenster)
3-4 slices of deli turkey

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk the eggs together.  Chop up a handful of fresh spinach and put it in with the eggs.  Heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Chop up 3-4 slices of turkey and add it to the eggs.  Drain the tomatoes and add about 1/2 of the can.  Work your way around the egg mixture and as it starts to harden pull it up and let more egg juice flow beneath.  When the mixture is semi-hardened, add the cheese on top.  Bake in oven for about 20 minutes until eggs set and cheese melts.

For this meal, I used 5 eggs and 2 egg whites

Here's what you'll need:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the eggs

Chop up some spinach and throw it in with the whisked eggs

Chop up 3-4 slices of turkey

Put the eggs and spinach mixture into an oiled pan.  Add the sliced turkey

Drain a can of diced tomatoes and add about half to the eggs.

As the eggs start to cook, take a spatula around the outside edge of the pan to let more juice drain down. 

When the eggs have set, place your cheese over the whole thing.  (This is a 12 inch pan)

Pop in to the oven for about 15-20 minutes

Here's what you'll end up with:

Our Thoughts:

I LOVE frittatas or so my kids would eat it . . . breakfast pizza.  I told them that the eggs made the crust.  It worked!

You can take this recipe and change it up anyway you want.  I have used turkey sausage, turkey bacon, feta cheese, onions, green peppers, jalapenos, etc. etc.  The list goes on and on.  I make these all of the time!  You really cannot mess this dish up.  Anything you like, throw it in.

Hope you enjoy!

April

Rum and Eggnog French Toast

A couple of weeks ago I found a blog, Three Jewels in My Crown.  Crystal had posted a recipe for Rum and Egg Nog French Toast. The title of this recipe just screamed Christmas to me and I knew that I wanted to try it.  As it happens, though, I had never even tasted egg nog before but when we had our PJ, Cookies and Craft night my friend, JoAnna, brought and left some at my house so I had all of the ingredients.

Rum and Egg Nog French Toast

2 eggs
1/2 C. store bought egg nog
2 T. spiced rum (optional)
1/4 t. pumpkin pie spice (or 1/8 t. cinnamon plus 1/8 t. nutmeg)
6 slices bread (I used thick french bread)

Directions:  Whisk together eggs, egg nog, rum and spices. Heat a griddle. Dredge bread in egg mixture.{I say that like I know what I'm talking about. For non-culinary peeps like me, "Dredge" simply means to dunk or soak something} Butter the hot griddle and place soaked bread on the griddle. Cook on each side until golden brown. Serve with butter and powdered sugar or syrup.

~The rum is optional. If you leave it out (like I did because it was just me and the kids tonight) then try adding 1/2 t. vanilla in it’s place.

Here's what you will need:



Here are a couple of REALLY crappy pictures but it is 1/2 cup egg nog and 2 Tbsps of Captain Morgan's. 

Next comes 2 eggs and a good dash of cinnamon.  I didn't have nutmeg so I just added a bit more cinnamon and whisked it altogether.

 I was using my griddle to fry up some turkey bacon so I just used a regular old skillet and threw some butter in there.

I dipped both sides of the bread into the egg mixture and then put it in the skillet until it was brown on one side and then flipped to brown the other.

When both sides were browned, I pulled it off the skillet and put sprinkled powdered sugar all over with a side of turkey bacon.

I had to take one more picture.  A little story . . . when my husband was growing up and his mom made French toast they never used syrup or powdered sugar.  They used 100% granulated sugar out of the sugar bowl.  They would sprinkle the entire thing with nothing but sugar.  I have always laughed about this because there is no way I would put just pure sugar all over my kids' French toast but that's what they did and that's how he likes it.  This morning I asked him if he wanted me to get out the sugar and he said that he would try it with powdered sugar.  I had to take a picture and the amount of sugar he put all over it with NO SYRUP!  Notice the huge clumped balls of powdered sugar.

Our Thoughts:

I was so excited to get up on Christmas Eve morning and make breakfast for the family.  I hope that I will make this a yearly tradition.

I have never cooked French toast before and this was really, really easy.  I was a little apprehensive about the rum and egg nog but, honestly, we really couldn't taste either one of them.  I think the egg nog just help to coat the bread more than just straight eggs.

The taste that everyone loved was the cinnamon.  Scott kept saying that there was a really good after taste.  When he figured out that it was the cinnamon, he told me to always make it that way.  Big success!

Hope you enjoy!
April

Egg and Sausage Casserole

Egg and Sausage Casserole
8-9 eggs, whisked
5 pre-cooked turkey sausage patties
handful of cheese

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Crack eggs and whisk.  Salt and pepper.  Warm up sausage patties in the microwave and then cut them up.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.  Pour the eggs into the dish.  Sprinkle the pieces of sausage throughout.  Cover with cheese.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until set.
Modifications:
-You can add any vegetables (green peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc).
-You can add bacon, ham, etc.

Review:

I forgot to take pictures when I first started to make this but remembered it at the end.  This casserole is super easy and delicious.  It is perfect for the day after a holiday, Sunday brunch or if you have a houseful of people you could make 2-3 different kinds.

We will definitely have this dish over and over again!

Hope you enjoy!

April