Sass!

We know how it is when you have a house full of hungry people wanting something good to eat and the hostess of the mostess has limited time to prepare breakfast. You are wanting to impress those guests but you got so much else to be doing. That’s why the sisters love breakfast casseroles. Our stepmother Sandi always has some sort of breakfast casserole when we go to visit. It makes life so much easier and it makes your guests think you have worked so hard. We love this because it is inexpensive to make, you can make it ahead of time and it is get in my belly good. Need we say more? Hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as ours does.

Round up the first seven ingredients-
1 loaf, French bread, cubed
8 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups half and half
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt

TOPPING:
1 stick butter (room temperature)
3 tablespoons sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup pecans, chopped
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Extra Goodness (optional, but highly reccomended)
1 cup of maple syrup
3 tablespoons butter

Let’s make this casserole-
Go on and grease up your 13 x 9 baking dish. Get you a big ol bowl out and whisk the eggs, half and half, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Next, your going to want to pour that yumminess egg mixture over the cubed French bread. Now wasn’t that easy. Now cover and pop it in the fridge and let it soak up all that goodness for about 8 hours. Now the 8 hours are up and you are ready to feed that demanding family of yours. Before you pop this in the oven your gonna want to take it out the fridge and let it sit for about an hour. While you are taking the chill off of the casserole you can make the topping. The sisters love them some toppings. Get you 1 stick of butter, this is sounding some kind of good already. Back to the list- sugar, brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon. Use a fork and work these ingredients together, let them get to know one another. Sprinkle the topping over the bread. Go on and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You gonna want to bake the casserole for 45 minutes to an hour or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Take it out of the oven and smell it. Don’t that smell good? This is going to kill you but you need to let it sit for about 5 minutes or so. You don’t want to burn your mouth up. While that’s cooling make that extra goodness. Now when we listed the ingredients for the extra goodness, we said it was optional. Well your nuts if you don’t make it. So go on and do it- In a small pot warm syrup and butter. That’s it! Let your guest pour this over the top of the casserole. The sisters bet you and your family liked this one.

Artichoke and Collard Green Dip

4 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 shallot, chopped

4 ounces cream cheese

1/2 cup shredded Pecorino Romano

2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

½ cup sour cream

½ cup mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 lemon, juiced

Dash hot sauce

Dash Worcestershire sauce

2 (10-ounce) boxes collard greens, thawed and drained

2 cans artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots and sauté until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in all of the cheese and cook until the cheese has melted. Add sour cream, mayo, salt, pepper, lemon juice, hot sauce and Worcestershire. Fold in the collard greens and artichoke hearts. Add mixture to a casserole dish. Top with additional parm if desired. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown on top.

I know some of you are asking what is this? Well I am going to tell you it is the Mack Daddy of seasonings you need when cooking soups, stews or making a homemade broth. It’s like a little Gift for your groceries! The bouquet garni (French for “garnished bouquet”) is a bundle of herbs usually tied together with string and cast adrift in your pot to flavor a soup, stew, or broth. They are tied together so they can be removed easily at the end of the cooking.

There is no generic recipe for bouquet garni, but most recipes include parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Depending on the recipe, the bouquet garni may also include basil, rosemary, peppercorns and tarragon. Vegetables such as carrot, celery (leaves or stem), leek, onion and parsley root are sometimes included in the bouquet. You may use what ever you want. Here is our recipe.

Ingredients

2 sprigs Fresh Thyme

2 Dried Bay Leaves

Leafy Greens from two Celery Stalks

6 sprigs Fresh Parsley

Directions

Arrange the herbs in a neat stack on top of each other and tie the ingredients into a tight bundle with string. Place into broths, sauces, stews and soups. Remove the bouquet garni from cooking liquid once it is done cooking and discard it.

This is a nice change from your ordinary succotash. The bacon adds a lot of flavor and goodness to the vegetables. We love the croutons on top for that extra crunch.

Succotash with Bacon and Sour Dough Croutons

Get-
½ pound bacon
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small Vidalia onion
1 clove garlic chopped
2 cups diced roma tomatoes, drained
1 pound fresh or frozen Butter peas (cooked according to directions and drained)
1 11 oz can mexicorn
1 11 oz white shoe peg corn
¼ cup basil
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste
½ teaspoon sugar (optional)

Let’s do it-
Get your large black skillet out fry that bacon over medium heat until crisp. Drain bacon on paper towels and crumble. Pour off all of the drippings but about 1½ tablespoon bacon fat. Add oil to bacon fat and cook onions over medium heat, stirring, until softened. Add your garlic and tomatoes; cook until tomatoes are heated and garlic is fragrant. It should be smelling pretty darn good right about now. Add bacon, peas, corn and basil. Stir around making sure that all of the vegetables are coated in that goodness. Cook until veggies are warm. Taste mixture and season with salt, pepper and sugar. Toss with sour dough croutons and serve immediately.

Croutons:
What you need-
2 cups of sour dough bread, cut in cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
Garlic salt to taste

How to-
Brush bread with oil and season with garlic salt. Lightly oil a frying pan and heat over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. Grill bread until golden brown and toasted on both sides.