Paula Dean, Y'all!

Who doesn’t love brunch? I mean, really? You get breakfast foods combined with lunch and you can put champagne in your orange juice!

I had a family brunch on labor day and cooked up some tasty things. The menu was, baked French toast casserole, creamy hash browns, sausage soufflé, biscuits, coffee cake, fruit plate, sliced tomatoes, sausage links and patties ( because I’m certain there wasn’t enough fat in this meal) and coffee cake! Whew, I’m full just thinking about it.

The French toast casserole and the creamy hash browns were a Paula Dean recipe. Both were so good. The thing that I loved about the French toast recipe was that the majority of the prep was done the night before, so in the morning all I had to do was make the praline topping and bake it. I took a nice loaf of French bread from the bakery, sliced into 1 inch thick slices and overlapped them in a buttered baking dish. ( I used my beloved le crueset gratin pan). Then you take 2 cups half and half, 1 cup milk, cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg and pour that mixture over the bread. Let it sit overnight, and then in the morning melt 2 sticks of butter. Yes, I really did just say 2 whole sticks of butter. To the butter combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla flavoring and 1 cup chopped pecans. Mix that together and pour over your bread. Bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes. One of the best things about making this was how divine it made my house smell. It reminded me of Christmas and this would be a great dish to make Christmas morning. I almost forgot to mention that we served it with real, warm maple syrup drizzled over top. Doesn’t that just sound delightful? Both recipes can be found on food networks website, www.foodnetwork.com if you are interested

The hash brown casserole was a snap. All I did was take one package hash brown potatoes, combined with 1 package shredded cheddar, 1 can cream of mushroom, 1 diced sautéed onion ( in butter of course) and 1 cup milk. Mix that all together and bake for 45 minutes until it gets nice and brown on top. This reminded me of the hash brown casserole at cracker barrel that I adore. So if you’re a fan of that stuff, you will want to make a pan of this. Trust me!

I can’t take any credit for the sausage soufflé or for the coffee cake, because my lovely mom and grandma made those. I’m blessed with a family of great cooks!

To top the whole thing off, Chris set up a Bloody Mary bar and was custom making them! Even though he doesn’t drink he can sure make a mean cocktail. He had the whole shebang, horseradish, worcestershire sauce, Tabasco the whole enchilada. My brother made the comment that it was better than the bloody mary he had a St. George and the Dragon’s so I think that is a compliment.

The ladies drank mimosas. I picked up a couple bottles of inexpensive Spanish champagne called Rondel. Although you’re not supposed to call it champagne unless it was made in France, so I guess I need to refer to it as sparkling wine. It was pretty good for $7.99 a bottle. I mean, as good as you would expect for $7.99 a bottle. The good thing is when you’re mixing it with orange juice you can’t really tell as much that you’re drinking cheap stuff!
All in all, I would say it was a very good meal. The best part was that I got to share it with my family. Nothing brings people together like a good meal!

Cheers and happy cooking,
Rosie