I’m really liking this blogging-baking bit. I have always had love for baking and have since discovered my love for taking pictures of food, so this seems like a perfect fit! Plus, it’s fun to share ideas and recipes. Today, I’m presenting a family favorite. My mother always made this dish whenever we came home; we had it Christmas morning, weekends we were all home, and even at my brunch after my wedding. It’s a fan favorite, and I’m pleased to share it with you. Plus, you can sound fancy saying “I made sausage soufflé!”, even though its super easy, hearty, and it gets better every morning!

Recipe

• 8 – 10 slices of bread (cubed)
• 3/4 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 lb Jimmy Dean Mild pork sausage
• 1 lb Lean hamburger (or venison)
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 teas salt & pepper
• 2 3/4 cups of milk, divided
• 1 can (16 oz) cream of mushroom soup

I start by cubing the bread. I usually use 10 slices and cut the bread using kitchen shears. Place cubed bread into a sprayed 13 x 9 baking pan.

Then, add cheddar cheese to bread.

Fry sausage and hamburger (or venison). I use venison as my hamburger meat, as my husband is a hunter and we have venison available to us all year. It’s a super lean meat and really good. Plus, I feel like at least the deer had a good life running free in the wild; I can’t say the same for the sausage or hamburger. I should really be a vegetarian, I know.

Drain and arrange meat over cheese. The haze on the top corner of the picture is steam!

Once that’s done, beat eggs, add 2 1/4 cups of milk, dry mustard, salt and pepper together in the bowl. The mixture didn’t look that cool, so I took a picture of 4 eggs in my ceramic egg crate! Necessity? Yes.

Pour over sausage and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Just before baking, mix cream of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup of milk. Pour this mixture over the top of the dish.

Bake for one hour! (Start the coffee!)

Enjoy! It will keep for a couple days, and it gets even better each morning!

Since moving to Texas, this northern girl has had to make a lot of adjustments … Macintosh Apples are rare, the Friday night fish fry is not a special, there are no Spotted Cows (beer or actual), and you feel the need to at least like Mexican food (Tex-Mex), Barbecue, and Ahi Tuna Towers.  I honestly was told in clinic, after telling a patient I don’t really like barbecue, to never to say I don’t like BBQ to a patient – he may not respect my opinion on his dermatologic issues either. So, I set my heights on trying, and at least learning to like (I was wishing to enjoy) prepared styles of bbq. It’s all in the sauce, and I found one! Austin’s finest BBQ and Pizza.

I love pizza, so to start my barbecue adventure this way, was a safe-er bet.  I actually found this recipe on my friend’s website, A Food Driven Life, and decided to try it out!  Let me tell you, it was a little work, more waiting for the yeast to rise and chicken to cook, than actual work but I would recommend it to everyone! Hence, me repeating the post.

Recipe

Start by mixing the pizza dough. In a liquid measuring cup, mix one cup of warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let it stand there for a few minutes to get all foamy.  In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and salt. Pour in the warm water and mix. Add the honey and oil. Knead together until combined. If the dough is too sticky, add a bit more flour. Cover the bowl and let rise for about an hour and a half.

Since adulthood, I have always been taught when bananas go bad, freeze them…freeze them, so someday you can make banana bread.  I don’t know where I got this from but I rarely have ever made banana bread in my day, and rarely have ever used the bananas I had in the back of my freezer. I have moved many times, and every time I find so many forgotten or ignored frozen bananas in the back of my freezer. With all these lost-souled bananas in the freezer hoping someday to become banana bread, many of which in the past have had their dreams shattered, I figured I would start giving them a chance! I started making banana bread! Some of those banana’s didn’t even have to set foot in the freezer! I’ve made many different banana bread recipes within this last year, since the banana revolution began (Viva la Banana!), and my favorite one comes from my mother and grandma Anne; I should have known! And I must add, my spouse has also been on the tasting team and agrees with my decision.

Recipe

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon (I usually put 2 tsp)
• 2 eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I first start by creaming the sugar and butter and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. I put about 2 tsp of cinnamon in my banana bread because I think this is what makes it taste so yummy! Yay Cinnamon! 

Then I add the eggs.  Mix eggs in one at a time. I think this makes a difference when baking.  Mix in one egg, then the next. Grandma Anne taught me this, and I haven’t been disappointed in my baking since.

In a small bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork and add milk. Mix well.

In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and soda, and salt.

So you should have 3 bowls. One with liquids (sorry I didn’t get a mixed-with-eggs photo), one with bananas, and one with dry ingredients.

Add banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir to combine.  Add dry ingredients, mixing JUST until flour disappears. Pour batter into prepared pan. I just use cooking spray or butter to coat the pan. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Enjoy!  A little hot coffee and a slice of banana bread makes any morning fabulous! Sometimes I do add in a cup or so of mini chocolate chips to turn this banana bread into a sweet treat!