Ultimate Breakfast Casserole

serves 10-12

Ingredients: 
12 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled                                                       4 cups toasted bread cubes         2 cups shredded cheese 
8 ounces sliced mushrooms        8 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk  1/2 tsp kosher salt      1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions-
Use a 6 quart slow cooker. This makes a lot! Cook bacon to desired crispiness, and toast the bread. Set these aside. Spray the inside of your slow cooker with cooking spray, and set that aside, too.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the shredded cheese, mushrooms, eggs, milk, salt, and pepper.
Put the bread cubes into the bottom of your sprayed slow cooker, and pour the egg mixture evenly over the entire thing. Place bacon pieces on top.
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or until eggs have set, or on high for about 3-4 hours. When the eggs have completely set, and your casserole has begun to brown on top and pull away from the sides, take the lid off the cooker and let the steam and moisture evaporate for about 15 minutes before serving.

I found this recipe at Stephanie’s blog. I am going to try it tonight for breakfast for tomorrow and then we’ll see if we can use it for conference morning!! YUM!

Blar­ney Stones

Recipe courtesy of Marie Leslie 1 cup but­ter, soft­ened (not short­en­ing) 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup gran­u­lated sugar 1 tea­spoon vanilla 1 pack­age pis­ta­chio pud­ding mix (4-serving) 2 eggs 6 drops green food col­or­ing 2 1/2 cups flour 1 tea­spoon bak­ing soda 2 cups but­ter­scotch  chips 1 cup pecans, finely chopped Cream but­ter, sug­ars, vanilla and pud­ding mix.  Add eggs and food col­or­ing.  Mix in flour and bak­ing soda.  Add but­ter­scotch chips and chopped pecans.  Roll into walnut-sized balls and place 2″ apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8 min­utes at 350 degrees.     Tammy: wife, daughter, sister, friend, stay at home mother of 5 and one on the way,  Step Mother of 2, Learning coach to 3. . . Satisfied and happy!!

St. Patty’s Day Shortbread

St. Patty's Day Shortbread This is a quick and simple shortbread cookie recipe. The cookies bake up firm and crisp, maintaining the shape of whatever your decide to roll into the center of your sweets. To get the colors and shapes inside each of these cookies, I used a simple rolling technique to create a log of cookie dough, then sliced extremely thin cookies off of it. If you've ever made those slice 'n bake polymer clay canes (or millefiori), you will have likely done a similar technique to get a pretty design inside the circle of clay. It takes some time to get the centers just.right, but isn't it worth it?! Just look at those fine little cookie sandwiches. ½ c. Butter ½ c. Sugar ½ c. Light brown sugar 2 c. Flour Pinch of baking soda ¼- ½ c. Water Wilton gel colors In a large bowl, combine butter sugars, flour and soda together with your hands. Add water as needed until dough is pliable, but not too sticky. Separate dough into small balls and knead in various Wilton gel colors. To create designs for the center of each cookie, I simply rolled the dough into small "ropes" then gently layered them together, and rolled them into the center of several white strips of dough. To do this most properly, keep the dough from getting too floury. That's the most important part of this process. Keeping it just moist enough to stick together and working the dough gently. Ever so gentle. Once you've got your "cane" or "log" of dough, place it in the freezer for about 20 minutes. You don't want it too terrible frozen, but you don't want it warm and bloppy, either. Remove the cold log from the freezer and use a very sharp knife to slice off EXTREMELY thin slices. (Approx. 2-3 centimeters thick, if your dough & knife will allow it.) Bake slices on an ungreased cookie sheet, in an oven preheated to 325 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Edges should not be browned, but centers should be cooked through. Remove from heat & allow to cool. Fill cookies with Vanilla-Butter Cookie Crème. * * Vanilla-Butter Cookie Crème Vanilla? Butter? Need I say more?! Whip this up just before you need to fill the centers of your shortbread. Because you are using melted butter to make the crème, the mixture will thicken as it cools. To achieve a nice, smooth edge on my crème, I plopped the freshly-beaten icing into a large Ziploc, then piped it onto each cookie. ½ c. Butter, melted 4 c. Powdered sugar 1 T. Clear vanilla flavoring 1 ½ T. Milk In a large mixing bowl, whip all ingredients together until very smooth. Pipe into the center of cooled shortbread cookies, then smash a second cookie on there to make a delectable, gorgeous cookie sandwich. * 

Soft Baked Pretzels

Ingredients For the Pretzels: 1 cup milk 1 package active dry yeast 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing 1 teaspoon fine salt 1/3 cup baking soda 2 tablespoons coarse salt For the Sauce: 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1/4 cup dijon mustard 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar Directions Make the pretzels: Warm the milk in a saucepan until it's about 110 degrees; pour into a medium bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let the yeast soften, about 2 minutes; stir in the brown sugar and 1 cup flour with a wooden spoon. Dice 2 tablespoons butter and soften; stir into the mix. Add the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour and the fine salt to make a sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until smooth but still slightly tacky, about 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and grease a large baking sheet. Punch the dough to deflate it, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. (If the dough seems tight, cover and let rest until it relaxes.) Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll and stretch each piece with the palms of your hands into a 30-inch rope, holding the ends and slapping the middle of the rope on the counter as you stretch. Form each rope into a pretzel shape. Dissolve the baking soda in 3 cups warm water in a shallow baking dish. Gently dip each pretzel in the soda solution, then arrange on the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Bake until golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Prepare the sauce: Combine the mayonnaise, mustard, brown sugar and vinegar in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate. Melt the remaining 8 tablespoons butter in a shallow dish. Dip the hot pretzels in the butter, turning to coat; place on a wire rack to let excess butter drip off. Serve the pretzels warm with the sweet mustard sauce.

Crescent Roll Cheesecake

From my really great Utah Friend Sophia!! :) love her!!   Crescent Roll Cheesecake 2 packages refrigerated crescent rolls 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. Vanilla 1/2 cup butter, melted 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar Unroll one package of crescent rolls and line the bottom of a 9x13" pan.   Flatten out well.  Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla.  Spread this mix over the crescent rolls.  Unroll the other can of crescent rolls and place on top of the cream cheese mix.  Pour the melted butter over the top and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Tammy: wife, daughter, sister, friend, stay at home mother of 5 and one on the way,  Step Mother of 2, Learning coach to 3. . . Satisfied and happy!!

Crackerbread Pizza

Crackerbread Pizza   1 1/2 c. Very warm water 1 Tbsp. Yeast 1 1/4 tsp. Salt 1/2 c. Whole wheat flour 3-4 c. White flour 2 Tbsp. Olive oil In a large bowl, dissolve yeat into water. Stir in whole wheat flour. Begin adding in white flour, stirring to mix. When dough begins to form itself into a ball, add flour a sprinkle at a time just until it's soft and no longer sticky (but not stiff!). Knead until it makes a nice, elastic ball. Pour oil atop. Cover bowl with a dishrag and allow dough to rise for 1 hour. Separate dough into 2-3 inch balls. Press onto an ungreased cookie sheet until very, very thin (almost translucent). Pierce with a fork. Bake in an oven preheated to 500 degrees for about three minutes, or just until the crackerbread begins to brown. Serve warm, top immediately with pizza ingredients and bake, or store in a ziploc bag for up to one week. No matter how you decide to serve it, this crackerbread will delight you to pieces!       1 c. Asagio cheese, shredded 1 c. Fresh mozzarella, diced 1/2 c. Cherry tomatoes, diced 1/4 c. Fresh basil, chopped Salt & pepper to taste Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle cheese, mozzarella and tomatoes over baked crackerbread. Salt and pepper lightly. Bake on a cookie sheet for 5-7 minutes, or until cheese has just begun to bubble around the edges. Remove from oven, top with fresh basil. Serve immediately.