Breakfast and Bread Pudding

Got up at Five AM this morning to fix breakfast for 36 of my dear neighbors. I have lived in this community since 2002 and used to cook breakfast once a month for the neighborhood. It is a great time to get together and visit over a good meal, and who doesn't love breakfast?

The menu consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, biscuits and sausage gravy, cinnamon rolls, blueberry streusel coffee cake, cantalope and coffee and orange juice. I got up at five because as you can see it is quite a lot of food to prepare. My sweet daughter, Melanie, came down from Forsyth to give me a hand this morning, as I haven't fixed breakfast for so many in several months. All the neighbors told me how excited they were to be having it.

I am a person who enjoys making other people smile, and believe me, as they wolfed down their sausage 'n biscuits this morning, they were smiling. It is nice to see them greeting each other with smiles and hugs. Some hadn't actually seen each other for months. Needless to say, breakfast was a roaring success, and we will be having our next one on September 10th.

One thing that sometimes causes me problems are the leftovers. It is hard to tell from one month to another what things will be consumed in large quantities and which ones will be left over. This morning I had a LOT of leftover biscuits. Yummy but leftover.

After packing everything up and taking it home, I remembered seeing a recipe on the cooking channel for bread pudding using biscuits. My hubby LOVES bread pudding, sooooo as I am writing this blog the bread pudding is in the oven. YUMMO!

Hubby will be Happy when he gets home tonight. Thought I might share this simple recipe with you...it is not only husband friendly, but kid friendly too!

APPLE BUTTER BREAD PUDDING

6 cups broken up biscuits ( I used Pillsbury )
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup apple butter
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup raisins
2 TBSP Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 quart baking dish.
Break up biscuits into large bowl. In another bowl thoroughly mix eggs, sugar, milk, cinnamon and apple butter until it is about the consistency of cake batter.
Fold into broken biscuits and add raisins, mixing until all biscuit crumbles are moistened.

Pour into 2 quart baking dish and bake for 60 - 70 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream. It's also good cold! Enjoy!

Hearty Breakfast Casserole/Great Fall Recipe!

We are having our monthly breakfast at Melton Place, A Senior Community, next Saturday. One of the favorite things on the buffet table will be a hearty hashbrown casserole. This serves 6 to 8 hungry people and is easy to assemble the night before to bake the next morning.

Here's the Recipe

Cooking Time: 60
Servings: 6-8
Preparation Time: 5
3 tablespoons butter
1 small yellow onion, chopped
10 cups frozen shredded hash browns
1 pound bulk sausage, mild, hot or sage
2 1/4 cups whole milk
8 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 cups (1/2 pound) grated Cheddar
2 cups (1/2 pound) freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a deep 13 by 9-inch casserole dish with vegetable oil cooking spray.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the onion and saute over medium-low heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the hash browns and break apart. Saute until soft, about 5 minutes.

In a second frying pan, saute the sausage, breaking apart large clumps. When the sausage is cooked through, remove it from pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg and mustard, briskly to blend.

To assemble, spread the onions and hash browns evenly at the bottom of the greased dish. With a slotted spoon distribute sausage as the second layer. Pour the milk and egg mixture over these layers. Add Parmesan as the next layer, while then adding the Cheddar.

Save a few tablespoons of the cheddar to sprinkle on top for the last ten minutes.

You can assemble this entire casserole the night before and refrigerate to cook in the morning. Enjoy!