Mega Breakfast 9/16/12

Thats right, you read it right.  Mega Breakfast!  I absolutely love love love making mega breakfast for my friends.  The guest list included Allison, Brett, their baby, Ella Lou, Matthew, Melody and of corse my husband and I.  I did the basic spread that I normally throw out, but instead of pancakes I made French Toast Casserole.  It was a big hit and I was very proud of myself. 

We have a lot of food so the following recipe was halved and shown to the left. 

1 loaf of french bread, cubed
8 eggs, beaten
3 c milk (I did half heavy cream)
4 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 block of cream cheese, soft

topping:
2 TBS butter
3 TBS brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Syrup and powered sugar

Butter the mess out of a 9x9 in square, glass baking pan.  (again remember the above recipe was cut in HALF)
Lay half of the bread in the bottom trying to make an even layer.
Cut cream cheese into small cubes and dot over the bread. (I dig cream cheese, do I had a lot of tiny spots)
Top w/ remaining bread
Beat eggs, milk (heavy cream) brown sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and pour over bread making sure to soak it all. 
I then sprinkled brown sugar and cinnamon on top and dotted w/ butter.  Cover and sit over night.
Take out of fridge about 1 hour prior to baking.
Bake 350 for 45-50 mins or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
Sprinlkle w/ powdered sugar and serve w/ syrup.  This is like Cake!!  And who doesn't love cake?!?!? 

Here is the table set.  I like for everything to be on the table.  Feels like a country fall day...why?  I don't know stop asking me dumb questions.  Eggs, hashbrown casserole, brown sugar grilled ham, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy and french toast casserole. 

Jim N' Nicks BBQ

Jim n' Nicks BBQ is the best place ever!!  We visited there accidently once while on vacation in Charelston.  Anytime we get cross the Florida line we are googling the nearest location. Their food is so delicious!  Our favorite is the cheese corn muffins pictured above.  I have come close to recreating them, but not quite there.  They also have a habanero bbq sauce that will make you wanna slap yo momma.  Moral of the story: don't eat here w/ Mom!  We were here last November on a trip to Atlanta and am JUUSST now getting around to sharing it w/ you. 

White Stuffed Shells

9-12 Jump shells, just barely undercooked
2 cups chicken, cut into small pieces
1-2 cup of mozz cheese
1/3 c parm cheese
1/4 cup of white wine (I had cheap moscato, so I used it)
garlic powder
onion powder
dried parsley flakes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup of sour cream
2 tbsp butter

Heat butter in a skillet until hot.  Add chicken and sautee over medium heat until no longer pink. 
Add garlic and onion powder. Im not gonna lie, the odds of me dashing some cayenne here is pretty good.
Remove chicken and while skillet is still hot add the white wine and allow to reduce.
Add CofC soup and Sour Cream.  More than likely you are gonna want some more garlic and onion so while you have it out add some here and grab the parsley while you're at it. 
Put a little sauce on the bottom of a 9x9 square glass baking dish allow the rest to simmer for a second while you prepare the shells
Add about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of mozz and parm cheese to chicken and stir to combine.  Stuff chicken into shells and law in the baking dish. 
Top with sauce, making sure to cover the pasta well or it will be hard...I know this from experience! 
Top of as much mozz cheese as you like. I, personally, don't think the cheese in the star here, but whatever floats your boat. 

Serve w/ garlic bread and salad.  Right, like I made a salad.  But I did make bread. 

Atlanta Trip 2011

So the Hubs and I went to Atlanta, Ga for the weekend and ate.....a lot! We went to a joint called Stone River Legendary Steaks. Semi-upscale steak house with a lot of flavor!

Christopher had their Lobster Bisque which he thoroughly enjoyed. I, however, found it to be L-A-M-E! It tasted like Campbell's tomato soup w/ a dash of heavy cream and a sprinkle of lobster-like particles. Whatever floats his boat and it had better float for about $4-5 a bowl!

To the left is what they call "Stone Puppies" They are basically little mini rolls with poppy seeds and served w/ a deliciously amazing honey butter. These were pleasurable to the taste buds!

I would love to show you a picture of the meal we ordered, however, we were so excited when it came that we forgot to take pictures until it was all gone. Well it was mangled to the point that taking a picture would not do it justice!

I had a sirloin steak served "oscar" with fries. It was a decent steak. I ordered it medium, which was a mistake. I should have asked for medium rare, but I'll know next time. "Oscar" as they call it, is throwing a few pieces of crab meat on top. Nice touch, but not worth the extra $6.00 I paid for Oscar! Christopher chose the tuna and mashed potatoes. I expected it to be a tuna fillet, however, it was sushi size pieces of tuna that were barely left in the pan long enough to turn white, muchless brown a bit! He ordered it medium and it came out RARE! He said that he enjoyed the meal.

Overall nice experience, however, I would probably not return. The bill didn't meet my taste's expectations.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

I'll give you the recipe as soon as I remember how I made them!

Jalapeno Cornbread

Jalapeno Cornbread

1 package of jiffy cornbread mix

1 Egg

Milk

6-7 pickled jalapenos

1 TBS pickled jalapeno juice

Half handful of cheese

Follow directions on jiffy mix box.

Chop jalapenos as small as you like

Add jalapenos and juice

Bake as normal

Sprinkle with cheese if you like!

Sides- Cilantro Lime Rice

So tonite went better. I bought some Carnitas from BJ's and they were awful! No flavor, fatty, yucky...should I go on? Nah.

To the right you will find my Cilantro Lime Rice. It's actually pretty good. We get this at one of the "Chain" Mexican restaurants in our area. The flavor is subtle, yet delicious.


2 cups chicken broth
1 cup rice
dashes of garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper
1-2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
1 TBS lime juice (give or take, more or less, whatever)

Bring broth to a boil and then add rice
Throw in all the other stuff, cover and let it roll
When rice is pretty much done I add a little more lime juice

Side- Chinese Noodles

So tonight wasn't as successful as yesterday. Good, not great. I made Potstickers that I bought frozen from Bj's and those were delicious, however, my Chinese Noodles left a little to be desired. They were a good start, but need a lot of work.

I used ramen noodles because the chinese noodles at my store were like $4 and that defeated the whole "save money" thing so I opted to borrow ramen's noodles! :)

3 packs ramen noodles, discard flavor pack
1 packet of stir fry dry seasoning (follow directions, sugar, soy, water)
1/2 cup broccoli
2 eggs

After I boiled the noodles I heated up the pot again and stir fried the broccoli in a tid bit of oil.
Added the noodles, stir fry sauce and scrambled eggs.
Eh, it was ok. Christopher ate all of it that I put on his plate (except the broccoli) but I didn't think it was all that good. The flavor was pretty good, but the noodles went soggy on me too soon. BUT, I should have known that would go down all sogged-like. So in the future I will spring for the real Chinese noodles!

Sides are important, too.

This little experiment has taken a turn for the best? I work late almost every night and even tho I enjoy cooking....it's late and I'm tired! Grabbing take out 3-5 nights a week adds up. I spend on average $20.00 a night for Christopher and I. Also, do you ever get in a rut and everything you work so hard making turns out to be junk? I'm there. I always overlook side dishes because after I slave away over the main course I don't care anymore about sides. So the purpose of "Sides are important, too" has a few main goals:

1. Try some new side recipes and make my own
2. Save money
3. Because I've been reading the Pioneer Woman's blog and decided I needed a project


I went to BJ's (bulk store) and bought some of the premade, gulp, frozen entree's. Go ahead and stone me now. Blasphemy! It'll all make sense...maybe. This evening we had Premade Chicken Cordon Bleu, Macaroni and Cheese and my new side dish Big Bird Bowl. (I can name it whatever I want, don't roll your eyes at my corny name...hehehe it also has corn in it!)

1 Small yellow squash (cut into thin slices)
1 Small can of corn
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Dash cayenne
2 TBS butter
Handfull of french fried onions

Melt butter over medium-high heat
Add squash slices and stir to coat in butter
Add spices, however much tickles your fancy. I went easy on the garlic and cayenne, little heavy on the onion.
Sautee until squash starts to brown a tid bit.
Add corn and stir to heat thru.
Add handful of french fried onions (again, however much floats your boat)

I'm not a big squash fan, but I actually really liked this. Everything in it is yellow and I figured if Big Bird were to ever come over for dinner that he'd probably like this.

So lets review:

Frozen Chicken Cordon Blew $10.00 for pack of 6. I used 3: $5.00
Box of the fancy mac n' cheese that I got onsale 2 weeks ago: $2.00
Squash, corn and such maybe: $3.00

Total of $10.00! I saved $10 this evening. Yeaaahhhhhh!

Mega Breakfast 3

It was time for another Mega Breakfast! Allison just had baby Ellie and she was 3 days old! We had some of the regulars: bacon, sausage, grits, eggs, hashbrown casserole....U get it. Some additions were added.


Sausage Gravy:

1 package of Jimmy Dean Ground Sausage (sage is the best for this)
Good 3 TBS flour
2 cups milk
Biscuits (duh)

Crumble and brown sausage
Sprinkle flour over sausage and cook until browned. You don't want that flourey taste!
Gradually stir in Milk.
Salt, Pepper and throw it on a biscuit!


I had some boneless ham steaks in the fridge and had a burning desire to eat them that morning.

2 ham steaks cut into 6 pieces
Brown Sugar
Small can of sliced pineapple
Hungry belly

Heat griddle to about 350
Slater both sizes of ham w/ brown sugar and cook until brown and heated thru. Throw the pineapple on there too and brown it a bit.
Add about TBS of brown sugar to pineapple juice
When I took the ham off the griddle and into my serving dish I poured the pineapple/brown sugar sauce over it. Big Hit! Too Easy!!





Here's Ellie! Isn't she the sweetest little thing!

Below is the whole Shebang! Yummy!