French Toast Bread Pudding

My sweet girl and I love french toast, my husband not so much.  Surprisingly, he loves this recipe. He loves this recipe so much that recently, while we had company, I made it for the first time and he requested it the next morning too! This is a winner and oh so easy! What is also great about this recipe is that it can be prepared for baking the night before and popped in the oven in the morning.

French Toast Bread Pudding

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, not packed

French toast sticks, enough to cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan

1 cup of heavy cream

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup water

Fruit is optional

Cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch cake pan with brown sugar. (You may add sliced apples, pears, bananas, blueberries or strawberries on top of the sugar before adding the french toast sticks.) Lay the french toast sticks side by side on top of the brown sugar. In a bowl beat together the heavy cream, eggs, vanilla extract and water. Pour over the french toast sticks. Press sticks down to wet them thoroughly.

You may leave the unbaked French Toast Bread Pudding in the refrigerator over night for a creamier texture. If you choose to immediately bake the bread pudding the top of the sticks get crispy while the bottom is rich and creamy. We have had it both ways and we prefer to go ahead and bake it and not let it set over night.

Bake at 350 degrees F 30 to 40 minutes. Let the bread pudding stand for 10 minutes before serving. Top with your favorite syrup and enjoy!

Peach Strawberry Pie

I love the fresh fruits of summer. I often buy large quanities of fresh fruits and freeze or dry them to use year round. While cleaning out my freezer yesterday I found a bag of strawberries and a bag of peaches I had frozen last summer. Along with the fruits, I also found some deep dish pie crusts. What better combination could I have asked for?

One of the great things about the recipe is that even if you don't have access to the fresh fruits, you may use canned or frozen. I also make two pies at a time; I also do this with casseroles. This way I can bake one and put one unbaked back in the freezer to bake at a later time. This makes it very simple to pull a homemade meal together in a hurry.

Peach Strawberry Pie

2 1/2 pounds peaches, peel, pit and chunk
3 cups strawberries, sliced
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional but very good)
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter

2 deep dish frozen pie crusts
2 crust covers (I go the lazy way and buy the rolled up pie crusts to cover my pies if I am not making from scratch)

You may mix the 1st 8 ingredients in a bowl and pour into the pie crusts. (OR you can only pit the peaches and remove the stems from the strawberries. Add the 1st 8 ingredients into a blender and chop the mixture before adding to the pie crusts.) Cover the pie crusts with the top crusts. Cover the edges with pie rings or aluminum foil. Bake until golden brown. Enjoy! This is really good with vanilla ice cream.

Indoor Smores

What does a bag of marshmallows, a fork, a lighter, a jar of Nutella and a bag of marshmallows have in common? If you guessed a delicious variation of the smore made indoors you would be correct.

I love smores! When I am in the mood for smores I don’t want to have to go to the hassle of building a campfire and doing it the old fashioned way. Sometimes I don’t even want to go outside to get in the car and go to the store to buy the new microwavable smore; which I have not tried.

For years I have loved putting a marshmallow on a fork, setting it on fire, watching it burn out and then eating its gooey goodness. After the customary Memorial Day cookout complete with smores I thought I would try to make smores at home in my kitchen. Then my mind started working and wondering what variations of the standard smore I could make. There is always the option of flavored marshmallows, peanut butter, marshmallow crème, coconut, etc. The variations are endless.

For this recipe I simply take a graham cracker, smear Nutella on each half, put a marshmallow on a fork, set it on fire, let it burn itself out, place the burnt marshmallow on the Nutella smeared cracker  and most importantly- enjoy!