Italian Bread Pudding

I just realized that I haven't actually posted any recipes in quite a while and figured I'd try to rectify that real quick! This is a recipe that I made for my Christmas brunch and will absolutely be keeping in the make-again file. I actually made it for our women's bible study, as well. Put it this way, both times the casserole dish was all but licked clean:-) It's especially good for those times that you need to bring a "brunchy" kind of casserole to church, MOPS, that sort of thing. Easy to throw together and since it has to sit in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, you can do it the night before and just throw it in the oven the next morning. Enjoy!

Italian Bread Pudding

Prep: 15 min., Chill: 4 hr., Bake: 55 min., Stand: 5 min.

5 large eggs
*1 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried basil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 to 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper1
(9.5-oz.) package frozen mozzarella-and-Monterey Jack cheese Texas toast, chopped
3 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
8 fully cooked bacon slices, chopped
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
Garnish: fresh basil leaves

1. Whisk together first 6 ingredients until blended.
2. Layer half of Texas toast in a lightly greased 11- x 7-inch baking dish; sprinkle with half each of tomatoes, bacon, and cheese. Repeat layers once. Pour egg mixture over toast and cheese. Cover and chill 4 to 24 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 325°. Bake casserole 50 to 55 minutes or until center is set. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Garnish, if desired.

*1 1/4 cups egg substitute may be substituted.

Note: For testing purposes only, we used Pepperidge Farm Mozzarella and Monterey Jack Texas Toast. (Karrie's note: I used a generic store brand that was $2 cheaper than the Pepperidge Farm and it tasted just fine:-)

Texas Toast Bread Pudding: Omit dried basil, tomatoes, and bacon. Proceed with recipe as directed.

Sausage Roll Casserole: Omit dried basil, tomatoes, and bacon. Increase cheese to 1 1/2 cups. Substitute 1 (18-oz.) package frozen sausage wrap rolls for Texas toast. Break apart sausage rolls; cut each roll crosswise into thirds, cutting across sausage. Proceed with recipe as directed.

Note: For testing purposes only, we used Sister Schubert's Sausage Wrap Rolls.

Yield: Makes 6 servingsSouthern Living, DECEMBER 2008

Christmas 2008 Part II

Ok, as I said, my last post had gotten to a crazy length and so here is my promised second post to wrap up the holidays!:-)

My parents were able to stay with us until the afternoon of Christmas day. At that point, they had to get on the road to head back to Kansas City as they had company coming themselves just a few days later. However, our holiday celebrations continued as Brad's parents flew in from Dallas on Christmas evening! They were able to stay until the following Monday which gave us plenty of time for a pleasant and relaxing visit. (For any mothers of toddlers are wondering...the schnitz recovered from his desire for constant spoiling much more quickly than expected after being surrounded by all of his doting grandparents:-)

Time to show Granddad the fancy new tools!

Woohoo...a Rangers baseball set from the grandparents! If only summer weren't seven months away.....

Brad was very excited about his copy of Thucydides. Hmmm...think I'll let him enjoy it first:-)


Helping Grammy unwap his new Texas Tech sweatshirt from Uncle Kip and Aunt Sarah. Can you say, "Double T, Texas Tech"? The schnitz can!

Ah...more Tech-wear. If only this model was as cute as the last one!

Granddad's wondering when he can start working with the schnitz on his form.

Who doesn't enjoy an episode (or two or three) of Corner Gas?!






















You think he enjoys spending time with Granddad...just a little?

Christmas Fun

Wow....the holidays have been a lot more of a whirlwind than I imagined they would be this year! But, in true New Year's Eve resolution fashion, I'm going to try to give a bit of a synopsis and be a bit better about my blogging this year.

Our season of craziness actually started with Rusty and I making a trip to Kansas City to visit with my paretns. It was so much fun and we wouldn't have missed it for the world; I say that in spite of the 14 hours it took us to drive back over black ice in western Kansas!

The reason that we had to push on through the black ice was because we had to get back to ready everything for my 4th Annual Christmas Brunch. I started this, obviously, four years ago for a variety of reasons. I really love the opportunity to get together for some girl time, Christmas is such a festive time, I love bringing together friends from all different areas of my life, and it's a great chance for me to try out fun recipes. If that sounds like I'm using my friends as guinea pigs, that might be the case, but so far no one seems to mind!

What can I say? I just felt the need to show off my yummy brunch food:-)

Church friends: Janice, me, Laura and Amanda

Work friends: Jeannine, Deena, Lisa and me

And so fun to have Mom and Aunt Ruth join us this year!

Even Rusty enjoyed himself with one of his favorite friends, Ashleigh.

And he even provided some entertainment for my cousin, Andrea and her daughter, Ashton:-)

The brunch was SO much fun, but once it was over, we quickly moved on to more holiday entertainment. The next thing on the agenda, was to attend an event called Winter Wonderlights at a local museum. They places lighted figures and Christmas lights all along a path that encircles the museum, had a small Santa's village with live reindeer, a craft area inside and several showings of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on the IMAX screen. How cool is that? We will definitely be attending this event again next year!

Enjoying the lights with Mimi.

Coloring the walrus puppet is serious business!

Waiting for his viewing of the "Grinch"...how cool is it to see it for the first time on such a big screen??

You'd think those big antlers would make him at least a little nervous, but no:-)

A quick pic with Mama before ending our evening o' fun.

A few days later, Christmas Eve arrived. We attended service at our church that afternoon and then headed home for a "dinner" of appetizers, the reading of the Christmas story and the opening of just one present. On my side of the family, tradition dictates that the one present opened on Christmas Eve is always pajamas (my mother's way of ensuring that everyone was decently clad for pictures on Christmas morning!) The schnitz was excited about the idea of opening presents, right up until the point that he figured out that none of the gifts contained cars! I think it's going to take a while for this particular tradition to grow on him;-)

A fun gadget from Papa made up for the disappointment a little, but Mimi gets the benefit. Sorry Papa! Life's just like that sometimes!:-)

The next morning was a little more, shall we say, gratifying to his little two year old heart! Between his GeoTrax and bath toys from Mama and Daddy and legos and tool set from Mimi and Papa, life was certainly looking up!

The rest of the morning was spent helping the rest of us open our gifts and cuddling with Mimi and Papa (kitty Louie got a little bit of that too, as you'll see:-)

Ok, this has got to be in the running for "longest blog post ever" and so I'm going to do Christmas Part II in another post!

Hope you enjoyed the first part of our Christmas holiday:-)