Praline French Toast Casserole

I'm sure you're starting to notice a trend with breakfast!  Breakfast really is one of my favorite things.  Growing up, my whole family liked pancakes more than I did...I always loved French toast.  With my love of French toast, I was excited to try Paula's Praline French Toast Casserole.  The idea of piles of French toast, topped with sugary pecan topping made my mouth water just thinking about it.  One bite into this casserole, and you will be in French toast heaven!  I will say, Paula makes her own raspberry syrup, but I think I liked it better with some good ole fashioned maple syrup..

Praline French Toast Casserole

French Toast                                                              Praline Topping
Butter for baking dish                                                2 sticks butter (room temperature)
1 load French bread 13-16 ounces                             1 cup packed light brown sugar
8 large eggs                                                                1 cup chopped pecans
2 cups half and half                                                    2 Tbls.  light corn syrup
1 cup whole milk                                                        1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbls. Sugar                                                              1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon                                                        
pinch of salt

Raspberry Syrup
1 cup raspberry preserves
2 Tbls.  Raspberry liqueur or sub orange juice

Grease your 13x9 pan with butter and slice your bread into 1-inch slices and layer up in your dish.

Combine your eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and mix with a mixer until a custard like mixture.

Pour the custard over the bread and make sure they are covered evenly.  Cover and refrigerate overnight. 

When you are ready to bake,  preheat your over to 350 degrees.  Now we can make the praline topping. 

Combine all the ingredients with a fork and spread over the casserole.  Bake your casserole until golden brown about 45 minutes.

 

And now enjoy!!!

 



 

To make the syrup combine the two ingredients with 3 tablespoons of water and stir until a hot and syrupy consistency.

Eggs Baked with Grits and Ham and Buttermilk Pancakes

I've mentioned it before, but I simply love having breakfast for dinner!  Throughout this blogging endeavor, you will probably see me cook breakfast more for dinner than for actual breakfast.  If you ever have difficulty deciding what to do for dinner, breakfast is always a great way to go!

Paula's Eggs Baked with Grits and Ham is a great and simple breakfast dish.  Its as easy as 1-2-3.  This dish includes all your favorite breakfast foods: eggs, country ham, and grits.  The only real problem I found with this recipe is that it contains too much salt.  When using country ham, you really don't need to add the extra salt she calls for in the recipe.  Even being a little too salty, this was still an excellent dish.

Since this was such a simple dish, I decided to serve it with Paula's Buttermilk Pancakes.   I can't really say too much about the pancakes,  It's not too difficult to make pancakes and there wasn't anything special about them.  This is a good pancake recipe if you don't already have one. 

Eggs Baked with Grits and Ham

1/2 cup quick cooking grits                                    Salt and Black Pepper
1 1/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese                              1/8 tsp garlic powder
3/4 cup chopped country ham                                4 large eggs

1 to 2 Tbsp. scallions

Preheat your oven to 350.  Grease an 8-inch square dish.  Cook the quick cooking grits to the directions on the package.  Once done, stir in 3/4 cup cheddar cheese, the country ham, salt, pepper and garlic powder and keep stirring until the cheese is melted.

Pour the grit mixture into the 8-inch pan.  Make 4 indentions and crack one egg into each indention.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and bake for about 15-20 minutes.   I like my eggs runny so you may only have to bake 10-15 minutes, but if you like them well done, cook until the yolks are firm. Then garnish with scallions.

 

Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups all purpose flour                                             1 3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sugar                                                             4 Tbls. butter, melted
2 tsp. baking powder                                                 2 large eggs
1 tsp baking soda                                                       1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt                                                                     Maple syrup


Grease your griddle with butter.  Whisk together your dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl whisk the buttermilk, eggs, butter and vanilla.  Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until combined.

Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto your hot griddle and cook until golden brown then flip your cakes and finish cooking until golden brown on the underside.

 

 

 

 

Southern Chili In A Biscuit Bowl

As the weather begins to cool, we all seem to crave hearty soups and stews, and who doesn't love a good bowl of chili?  Despite being known as a cold weather dish, this chili would be a hit any time of year!  Despite the rather simple list of ingredients, this chili is packed full of flavor!  Unfortunately, I couldn't locate one of the ingredients, Mexican-style Stewed Tomatoes, so I used regular Stewed Tomatoes and added 1 can of Hot Rotel instead.  The dish was fantastic regardless! 

 

The Biscuit Bowls are quick and easy too.  Paula kicks them up a notch by adding a little cayenne pepper to give them a slight kick.   I loved eating the chili out of these bowls.  The bowls are so good you won't need any tortilla chips or crackers with this chili! 

Southern Chili In a Biscuit Bowl pg 134
http://www.pauladeen.com/recipes/recipe_view/chili_in_a_biscuit_bowl/

To make the Biscuit Bowls
 

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Take a muffin pan and flip it over and spray generously with non-stick cooking spray.  In a bowl, combine the Bisquick, milk, and the cayenne pepper.   Shape into a ball, dust your work surface with flour, and knead the dough about 3-4 times.  Then cut the dough into 6 balls.

Take each ball and flatten with your hand into a 6 in round then form the round the cup of your pan.

                                     

 

Bake at 450 until golden brown, about 10 - 12 minutes

 

Remove the biscuit bowls and set aside.

 

 

 

 

To make the Chili

 

In a Dutch oven (or stockpot), brown the beef until almost all the pink is gone over medium heat.

 

 

 

Add your onion and pepper and continue to cook until the beef is browned and the onion and pepper are tender.

 

 

 

Drain off any fat, then add the tomatoes, beans, chili powder and salt and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 35 minutes. 

 

 

 

Serve the chili in the biscuit bowls and top with your favorite toppings and enjoy!

 













Cinnamon-Glazed Sour Cream Apple Bundt Cake

What better cake to kick off the Fall season than an Apple Cake?   This bundt cake is loaded with apples along with tons of flavor and topped with a cinnamon glaze.  It's extremely moist and smells wonderful while baking.  You'll want to dive right into this cake as soon as it comes out of the oven! This cake is a great way to get you in the Fall spirit, and if you love apples, you will really enjoy this cake!

Cinnamon Glazed Sour Cream Apple Bundt Cake pg 374

Cake
2 sticks of butter (room temperature)                                     2 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 3/4 cup sugar                                                                       1/4 tsp almond extract
4 large eggs                                                                            2 medium granny smith apples, peeled,
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour                                                        cored and finely chopped
2 tsp baking powder                                                               Glaze
1 tsp baking soda                                                                   1 cup powdered sugar sifted
1 tsp salt                                                                                 1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sour cream                                                                   2 to 3 Tbl. whole milk
 

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Grease your Bundt pan.  Make sure you grease it well to make sure there is no problem removing the cake.  

Beat your butter until smooth.  Mix in the sugar until well blended and fluffy.  Add your eggs one at a time, making sure each one is well incorporated.
In a medium bowl combine remaining dry ingredients and in a small bowl combine the sour cream and the extracts.   Alternate adding the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture to your butter, starting and ending with the flour mixture.  Once combined well, fold in your apples. 
 

Pour into the Bundt pan and bake for an 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. 

Glaze
Whisk the sugar and the cinnamon together.  Add the milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, and whisk until the glaze is thick but still able to be poured on the cake. 

Fall off the Bone Ribs

One thing I love about southern cooking are most things are cooked with something pork. So how can you go wrong with some oven barbecued ribs?  These ribs are cooked low and slow to make sure you get the most tender and juicy ribs possible.  Up to this point, I have never tried to make any ribs, but Paula made this as easy as possible.  Where I grew up, I was used to ribs covered in a thick ketchup style barbeque sauce. Those are good, but I took Paula's suggestions and covered them in her Daddy's Tangy Grilling Sauce.  This sauce is simple with just Worcestershire sauce, butter and lemon juice. When I tasted it, I really was a little worried about how they would turn out but, the sauce really is the key to these wonderful ribs.  As the ribs cook, they soak up this tangy sauce and it makes the ribs so succulent and tender you will think they're finger licking good. 

What goes better with barbeque ribs than Paula's Best Braised Southern Greens?  Paula uses some good 'ole bacon grease, butter and onions to flavor this dish. We all know you can't go wrong with butter and bacon for flavor in the south!   Overall the greens turned out really good, but I do think they needed to be cooked way longer then what Paula suggests.   I don't know about the rest of you, but I love my collard greens cooked soft. I don't want any crunchy greens!  In the recipe, Paula says to only cook these about 20 minutes total. To me they could have cooked for longer, but that is how I like them.

BBQ Pork Ribs pg. 143

5 pounds bone in country style ribs
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Daddy's tangy grilling sauce.

To make the sauce take 1 cup of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 stick of butter and the juice of 2 lemons and combine in a sauce pan and simmer for 10 minutes.

For the Ribs:

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic powder then cover and refrigerate for 4 or more hours. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Pour half of the sauce in your roasting pan, making sure to coat the ribs with the sauce.  Cover your pan with foil and bake 1-1 1/2 hours.  Then pour the rest of your sauce over your ribs and bake until tender around another 1 1/2 hours.  Once they are done make sure you let them rest for a few minutes before you serve them.

Best Braised Southern Greens

8 slices of bacon cut into pieces
1 medium onion
1 stick of butter
2 pounds collards
salt
hot sauce

In a large sauce pan fry the bacon pieces until crisp then add your onions and butter and cook until the onions are soft and tender.

Add about 2 cups of water,  I needed a little more than 2 cups, and bring to a boil then simmer for 10 minutes.  Add your collard greens and cook until tender.  Paula says 20 minutes, but I say you will need longer.