Egg Nog French Toast & Monthly Giveaway!

Egg Nog French Toast

1/2 cup Egg Nog

6 large eggs

4 tablespoons butter, divided

8 slices bread

In medium bowl, combine Egg Nog and eggs.  Mix well. In large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter, over medium heat.  Dip two slices of bread in egg mixture, place in skillet.  Brown bread on both sides.  Repeat three more times.  Serve with maple syrup.  Makes 4 servings.

Tips for making French Toast trees:  I like to cut the bread into triangles before I dip them in the egg mixture and cook them.  It makes it easier to arrange into a tree if the hot bread is cut before you have to handle it to form a tree.  The trunk of the tree is two breakfast sausage links.

My husband Stan and I have one son.  I knew I would only get to do somethings once, and that made me go overboard when it came to my family.  When Tyler had to take a sack lunch to school, I would draw dog footprints all over the bag.  When it was Valentine's Day, I couldn't just send a box covered with red paper like all the other kids had.  I made a space shuttle Valentine's Day box.  And don't get me started on the paint shirt I made.  I am lucky my poor kid turned out normal.

I like tradition and making memories with my family.  The Egg Nog French Toast recipe, is one my family enjoys on Christmas day.  The spice in the Egg Nog, gives the French toast a nice subtle holiday spice flavor.  I precook the sausage the night before, then try to get up early enough on Christmas day, to have the French Toast cooked up and place in the oven, at a low temperature to keep warm.  By preparing the breakfast that way, I can spend time with my family instead of in the kitchen cooking, while everyone else is having fun with their gifts.

The winner of December's Giveaway is: Amber @ This Mommy Cooks

Winner was picked by random.org

Sign up to follow my blog, for your chance to win this apron,
kitchen towel, and a copy of my cookbook,

MY KIND OF COOKING

Leave a comment and get a second entry.

For January's drawing, I will be giving away a copy of my cookbook, MY KIND OF COOKING.  This cookbook has over 500 yummy recipes using only 3, 4, or 5 ingredients.  It has everything from appetizers to desserts and everything in between.  It also includes slow-cooker recipes!  The winner will also receive an apron and a kitchen towel.

I will be drawing a name from my followers, on Friday, January 7th.  The giveaway is open to all of my followers, regardless of where they live.   If your name is drawn and you have a blog, I will mention your blog address on my "Fast Food Fridays" radio show on the The Passion Radio Network, and post your blog address on my blog.

 

Sign up as a FOLLOWER for your chance to win!

Visit my friends blogs!

You will love Bo and his blog,  Bo's Bowl.  Not only does he host great giveaways,  his recipes are incredible!  One visit to his blog and you will see why I faithfully follow it.

Also visit my friend Pam's blog, Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner,  for more great recipes!  Once you read her blog, she will be your friend too! 

Another blog that I think you would enjoy is my friend Janet's blog, 

Chocolate and God.

Recipe: No Bake Pumpkin Pie

No Bake Pumpkin Pie

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1(.25 ounce) packet unflavored gelatin  
2 eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin pie mix
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker pie crust

In large saucepan, combine sweetened condensed milk, gelatin, and eggs.  Mix well.  Over medium low heat, cook mixture 10 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Add pumpkin pie mix.  Mix well.  Pour into pie crust.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours.  Keep refrigerated until time to serve.

This no bake pumpkin pie recipe has a creamy texture instead of the firmer texture of the baked version.  When I tested it on friends, it was a big hit!  I should have made two pies, because almost everyone wanted seconds.

There are so many blogs posting Thanksgiving recipes, I had decided to just post some more photos from my trip to Honduras.  After taste testing this pie at last week's radio fundraiser, I had a lot of people request the recipe.  So here it is, just in time for Thanksgiving.  Below are a few of the remaining photographs from our trip to Honduras.

Every morning while we were in Honduras, we ordered fruit, yogurt, and granola for breakfast.  I was pleasantly surprised when on the last day we were in Honduras, our fruit tray arrived with Rambutan fruit on the plate.  The only other place I had eaten this fruit, was in Malaysia.

Rambutan, is a funny looking fruit.  The fruits are round to oval in shape, the ones I ate were about 2 in length.  The thick leathery skin had a deep purplish red color and had lots of fleshy soft spines.

The firm flesh of the fruit is translucent and slightly whitish. It has a sweet flavor, that reminds me of a grape. The fruit contains one large single brown seed.  The fruit grows in clusters on a tree.

Our son had a little problem ordering breakfast at our hotel.
No Spanish + Room Service = Breakfast for 4 instead of for 2!

Fried bananas are a tasty street food!

Fresh tortillas, YUM!

The food we had in Honduras was the typical fare that you could order at an authentic Mexican restaurant in the States.  Honduras is famous for their beef, so a lot of the dishes that we ate were beef based. 

The coffee in Honduras is incredible!  Smooth and rich with a slightly sweet flavor.  Everyone took back several bags of this delicious coffee.

On Friday, I will be posting Leftover Turkey Recipes.

I hope you and your family have a 

Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

My husband Stan, me, my uncle Dr. Richard Reasoner,
and my son Tyler, in Honduras.

Sign up to follow my blog, for your chance to win a Christmas apron,

and a copy of my cookbook, MY KIND OF COOKING.

Check out my blog about the Giveaway for more details.

Visit my friends blogs!

You will love Bo and his blog,  Bo's Bowl.  Not only does he host great giveaways,  his recipes are incredible!  One visit to his blog and you will see why I faithfully follow it.

Also visit my friend Pam's blog, Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner,  for more great recipes!  Once you read her blog, she will be your friend too! 

Another blog that I think you would enjoy is my friend Janet's blog, 

Chocolate and God.

Recipes: Sweet Potatoes Two Ways

 Sweet potatoes are one of the dishes I look forward to having on Thanksgiving Day.  I am always on the lookout for new ways to recreate them.

The Sweet Potato Ball recipe is a remake of a recipe that I spotted on Lisa's Kitchen, a blog that is featured on the Living the Country Life website.  I used canned sweet potatoes and Lisa used sweet potato flakes in her recipe.  It is a delicious, kid pleasing dish that is sure to be a hit at your Thanksgiving meal.

The Living the Country Life website is full of fantastic information, interesting stories, delicious recipes, and more.  It is a website you will want to visit again and again!

Sweet Potato Balls

1 (1 pound 13 ounce) can sweet potatoes or yams, drained
1/3 cup brown sugar
15 mini marshmallows

2 cups slightly crushed corn flakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In medium bowl, mash sweet potatoes.  Add brown sugar. Mix well.

Using a cookie scoop, fill with mashed sweet potatoes.

Press a mini marshmallow in the middle of mashed sweet potato in the cookie scoop.

Add additional mashed sweet potatoes, covering marshmallow and forming a ball.

Place sweet potato ball in the middle of the corn flakes.  Roll in corn flakes until completely covered.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Bake 20 minutes.

Makes 15 Sweet Potato Balls.

Oven and stove top space is scarce when I am cooking up Thanksgiving dinner, so I decided to try making my sweet potatoes in the slow cooker.  This is an easy basic recipe that can be jazzed up with brown sugar and spices.  After I cooked the sweet potatoes in the slow cooker, I put them in a baking dish and topped them with mini marshmallows, then I popped them under the broiler for a couple of minutes.  It was a big hit when I tested the recipe on my family and friends.

Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes

5 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1 cup maple syrup

In 4 quart slow cooker, place sweet potatoes. Add butter and syrup.  Cook on high 3 to 4 hours or until fork tender.  Makes 10 servings.

Sign up to follow my blog, for your chance to win a Christmas apron,

and a copy of my cookbook, MY KIND OF COOKING.

Check out my blog about the Giveaway for more details.

Visit my friends blogs!

You will love Bo and his blog,  Bo's Bowl.  Not only does he host great giveaways,  his recipes are incredible!  One visit to his blog and you will see why I faithfully follow it.

Also visit my friend Pam's blog, Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner,  for more great recipes!  Once you read her blog, she will be your friend too!

Recipe: Apple Stuffing

Apple Stuffing

2 medium apples, cored, diced

1/3 cup diced onion

2 tablespoons butter

2 (6 ounce) boxes stuffing mix, prepared according to package directions

3 eggs, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In large skillet, saute apple and onion in butter over medium heat until tender.  In large bowl, combine prepared stuffing, apple mixture, and eggs. Mix well.  Pour into greased 13x9 inch baking dish. bake 30 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

This recipe is a recreation of one I saw on Rachel Ray's show a few years ago.  It was one of her Thanksgiving specials, in which she makes the whole meal in 60 minutes.  I loved her idea of putting apples in the stuffing, but she used a lot of ingredients when she made the stuffing and I only like to use a few ingredients when I cook.  After a couple of experiments, I came up with the above recipe.  Rachel put her stuffing in the cups of a muffin pan.  When I tested this recipe on my husband and son that is the way I made it too.  We like the crunchy brown parts of stuffing and by baking it in the muffin pan each serving is nice and crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside.

The stuffing is savory, with just a hint of the apple sweetness.  I don't like dry stuffing, and by adding the apple that problem is avoided.  My son Tyler, was never a fan of stuffing until I created this recipe, now he loves it!  I am sure it is the addition of the apple that he likes more than the stuffing.

Tyler was allergic to apples when he was a little boy.  When he was five, we attended a Fall Harvest party at our church.  All of the kids were given a bag full of candy with an apple thrown in to make the adults feel better about the sugar overload.  When I realized there was an apple in the bag, I began looking for my son to make sure he didn't eat the apple.  I found him hiding in a corner, munching on the apple as quickly as he could.  I took the apple away from him and told him to eat the candy.  As I turned to throw the apple away, I caught  another mom looking at me in horror, for encouraging my son to eat candy instead of the nutritious apple.  I explained to her, that in a few minutes he would begin to get sick from eating the apple.  I couldn't have her thinking I was a bad mother or a candy pusher now could I.

This recipe is on page 218 in 

MY KIND OF COOKING COOKBOOK.

November's winner of

MY KIND OF COOKING COOKBOOK is:

Is Jennifurala of Indigo's Sugar Spectrum

Sign up as a follower, to enter my monthly, Cookbook Giveaways!

Check back on Tuesday, for  details on December's giveaway..

For more great giveaways, visit my friends blogs!

Bo, at Bo's Bowl, is giving a way a, Barefoot Contessa Cookbook!   You will love his blog!  Not only does he have great giveaways,  his recipes are incredible!  One visit to his blog and you will see why I faithfully follow it.

Also visit my friend Pam's blog, Pam's Midwest Kitchen Korner, she is giving away a, John Besh Cookbook.  You will love Pam's delicious recipes!  Once you read her blog, she will be your friend too!