Biscuit Breakfast

My hubby loves biscuits for breakfast. 

Every time we go home to Little Rock or his Momma comes to visit he makes his request:  Biscuits and Gravy for breakfast.  Grammie doesn't have a recipe... She just makes the same biscuits and gravy she has always made and her Mom, Granny, makes too (I refuse to comment on whose are better:)  I have developed the same admiration for Grammie's biscuits and gravy that my husband has... it is an ar,t and the woman has mastered it!  My point:  I am not competing.  I think sometimes you have to appreciate perfection and find your own thing.  So we request our favorites when we go to visit and I try new stuff to hold the Hubby over until his next trip home!  This was one attempt... and it worked!  We all loved it!  We adapted the original recipe a little adding bacon and green onions.... Why not?

So here is the recipe... it would be a great Christmas Morning fix!  Easy, filling, and Yummy! 

Biscuit Breakfast Casserole

adapted from Plain Chicken

Printable Version

1 lb breakfast sausage (you can buy precooked sausage crumbles)

crumbled bacon (you can buy pre cooked bacon pieces)
7 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
8 frozen buttermilk biscuits, slightly thawed, halved
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

green onions

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly spray a 7x11-inch dish with cooking spray.

Brown sausage in pan, breaking into chunks. Drain fat. (or just sprinkle pre cooked sausage)

Cook bacon in pan and crumble. (or sprinkle pre cooked bacon pieces)

**we use these cheats a lot to make things nice and easy**

Whisk together eggs, milk, cream, salt and pepper in a large measuring cup. Set aside.

Slice each biscuit in half with serrated knife (they need to be a little thawed, but not much for this step). Place biscuit bottoms in baking dish. Sprinkle half of cooked sausage and bacon over biscuits and top with half of the cheese. Place remaining biscuits on top of cheese and cover with remaining sausage. Pour egg mixture over biscuits. (Can cover and refrigerate at this point)

Bake 30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese and green onions over casserole and bake until eggs are set, about 20 minutes (check middle biscuits are not doughy). Let casserole stand 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy:)

The Mom

Santa Time

We went to see Santa again. 

The little guy was not a happy camper. 

The difference a year makes.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!



Breakfast Pizza

I made this for my guys a few weekends ago.  I will be making it again this weekend when we visit The Hubby's family in north Louisiana for their annual Christmas get together. 

I loved this.  It was my sort of breakfast.  Easy and with all my favorite ingredients. 

I like it when both my guys love something I make.  The big guy liked it and so did the little guy.  This will be in our permanent Saturday morning rotation.  I adapted a little for our taste from the original recipe I found over at Fake Ginger.  Hope you like as much as we did!

Breakfast Pizza

adapted from fakeginger.com

Printable Version

Ingredients

• 1 homemade or store-bought pizza dough
• bacon pieces (fry your own or buy)
• sausage crumbles (ground your own or buy)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 cups grated mozzarella
• 4-5 eggs
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced chives
• olive oil, for brushing

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 500F or follow package instruction.
2. Stretch your pizza dough out onto your lightly greased baking sheet
3. Sprinkle with Parmesan, mozzarella, sausage and bacon. Crack eggs over top and season with salt and pepper. Brush the exposed crust with olive oil.
4. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until eggs are cooked through and crust is golden brown. Sprinkle chives over top.

Enjoy:)
The Mom

Prosciutto Bread

Our Little Family celebrated our Christmas this past weekend.

We will be traveling through the Holiday so we wanted to celebrate in our home with the new traditions we are starting for our family.  Some of our traditions are new, some of them are old. 

So Friday night we had a Christmas Eve dinner.  I made schnitzel and vegetables and prosciutto bread.  All of it was wonderful and it felt wonderful to cook a big meal for my little family and sit down at the table together and and celebrate our most favorite season. 

I loved the dinner food, but for me the star of the show was the bread.  It was ridiculously easy and tasted as good as it looked.  We snapped a few pictures.  I am disappointed I didnt get the really good final picture, but I hope they will at least give you the idea.  We love bread in our house... If you do too you should not miss out on trying this recipe sometime.

Prosciutto Bread

adapted from Food Network Magazine

Printable Version 

Ingredients:

1 tube refrigerated French Bread Dough

1 package (8-10 slices) prosciutto

Ground black pepper

Olive Oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375

Unroll the french bread dough onto counter sprinkled with flour

Use rolling pin to flatten it out just a bit

Use pepper grinder to sprinkle surface with pepper

Cover surface of dough with slices of prosciutto

 

Starting on one end of the dough tightly roll the dough up to form it back into a long cylinder

On a parchment paper lined baking sheet place the dough in a circle and press the ends together well so they will not seperate.

 

Bake 20 minutes then remove, coat in olive oil, and bake 5 minutes more.

 

Enjoy:)

Chicken and Rice

Yesterday was rainy. We were thanking God for the covered drop up by the nursery at church. Then we were thanking God for the amazing message delivered by Carrie McDonnall.  The little guy was not feeling the nursery, but came out snuggly (for a few minutes) so we were able to watch on the tv's in the church lobby.  I am always amazed by stories like the one Carrie shared with us of her missions and her life in the Middle East.  She has faced tragedy and triumph and has the strength to share.  Click on her name above if you are interested. 

So we got home unscathed by the downpour and I put a yummy little Sunday lunch in the oven.  This is another find from Plain Chicken.  I just love her stuff.  This is so ridiculously easy and equally yummy.

So if you are in the mood... Here you go!

(and I got fancy... there is now a printable link... yay me)



 

Chicken and Rice

originally from Plain Chicken

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 box chicken flavor Rice-A-Roni
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
3-4 cups cooked, chopped chicken (we used one whole rotisserie)

1 (6 oz) can French fried onions

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Prepare Rice-A-Roni according to package directions.

Add soup, sour cream and chicken.

Stir to combine.

Spread rice mixture in a lightly sprayed 9x13 pan.

Top rice with fried onions.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

 

Enjoy!

Our Family Ornament

I am a Christmas person.  Some people are, and some people are not.  You know who you are.  I have accepted this about myself. Thankfully, I married another Christmas person.  I love the music, the spirit, the lights, the shopping, wrapping gifts, cooking special things for special people, the crisp cold (or cool in Texas) weather, friends, family, camaraderie and mostly the Reason for the Season. 

The birth of our savior Jesus Christ.  What an amazing reason to celebrate. 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

We have a little family tradition from the Arnold family.  Every year we get a new Christmas ornament.  My Mom would get my brother and I one every year,  my Arnold grandparents would also get each of us one (and Leah, don't wanna leave out the super cousin:)  My Mom would always select something for us based off what we were liking that year or just special ones when we were younger.  My Grandma Arnold typically got each of us a German hand blown ornament.  I love how those delicate tiny little ornaments can remind me so much of my heritage and the strongest most amazing little 81 year old lady on the planet.  I hit the jackpot with my two sets of grandparents.

Back on topic. I digress. A LOT!

That is a little shot at the ornament that started my collection.  Its my favorite one to hang every year.

So when I moved away from home my Momma let me pick out all of my ornaments and take them right along with me. I had my own tree with my own ornaments all through college, pre-marriage, and now. Come to find out The Hub had his own collection. His Dad and Mom had done the same thing. So The Hub and I have a big lot of ornaments that are each special to us and we are doing the same thing for our Little Man. This year he got a little nutbrown hare ornament. If you know who that is,  you know it says "I love you right up to the moon, and back".

We decided to make a family ornament. I had an idea from something else I had seen. I had all the supplies on hand. So we got busy with some hands and some paint. Ill give you the story through pictures.

So we used green paint for Dad who went first, then red for Mom who went second, then silvery white for the Little Man who went last.  I then paint penned 2011 in the middle of his little hand print.  It was an interesting little experiment.  We had fun together as a family.  Especially trying to get the 1 year old to participate at all or not so much:)  You understand, right!

I had this idea of three layered hand prints.  Big one from Dad, Smaller from Mom, and tiny from the little guy.  It didn't come out perfect as you can tell.  I am a bit Type A, maybe, but I told Craig I had this idea of what it should look like.... Our looks not much like that at all... The big hands didn't press well.  The palms were at the bottom because of our big hands.  The little guy hand print is squishy and not very realistic.  

Then I started thinking:  It was cute... We had fun... Who cares if its perfect.  We certainly are not.  Far from it... Just like our Christmas ornament.  

So I love our family ornament... Ill love putting it on the tree for years to come and remember the moment in all its imperfection.

Love,

The Mom





#1 Christmas Tree

Well my team did it.

LSU beat Arkansas.

41-17

We are #1 in the country.  We are playing in the SEC Championship this weekend.

It is a good year to be a Tiger!

A bet is a bet.  If you read my The Boot post then you know what was on the line.

I am happy to say the team tree is up in all of its purple and gold splendor.

Geaux Tigers!

Love,

The Mom



Thanksgiving Festivities

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone.  We had a wonderful time with our families and left with very full tummies.  Our Little Family went from Texas to Louisiana to Arkansas to Tennessee and back to Texas.  A few miles and a few dollars in gas, but well worth the time, money, and energy.  There really is nothing like the holidays with your family.

So here is a little recap of our Thanksgiving holiday.

We started with a Sunday night mini Thanksgiving at home.  I had been dying to make The Hub one of his family favorites:  Chicken and Dressing.  I ran across a recipe online and decided to give it a go.  I found the recipe on this blog Southern Plate.  Who cant find a million things to make at a blog called Southern Plate.  We adapted the recipe just a little to suit our tastes. 

I followed the chicken and dressing with another favorite that never disappoints.

Then there was dessert.  I have recently found I do not dislike pumpkin like I thought I did.  So I gave this little dessert a go from one of my most favorite blogs Plain Chicken.  If a pumpkin dessert may be your thing... or you need to give pumpkin another shot... this is the way to go!

I took a picture of the Pumpkin Crunch pre topping and then plated.  It was fabulous!  It will be making repeat appearances on our table.

Our Little Family loaded up Wednesday afternoon for a trip to my hometown in Louisiana to see my family.  We arrived just in time for Johnny's Pizza, a north Louisiana staple that I crave daily, and then to my Grandmother's house to visit.  Thursday morning it was a go as the family arrived and one of my most favorite meals was laid out.  We had fun with the cousins, some Amazing fried turkey (Shout out to my Aunt Sandra and Uncle Chris), all our favorite staples:  broccoli rice and cheese, dressing, stuffing, hash brown casserole, pea salad, roasted turkey, deviled eggs and good quality time with some of the best people I know.

Grandma's yard was screaming photo op... So here are some pictures of our little man celebrating Turkey Day!

How precious is this little lady, my niece, Aubrie.  Look at her pose.  She is a natural.  She is looking so much like her big sister these days.  She is about to turn 3 and has decided that she was the youngest for long enough... She bosses her little baby cousin all over the place!  He listens to her pretty well too?

After Louisiana lunch on Thursday we got in the car and headed to Arkansas to spend the evening with The Hubs family.  We arrived just in time for some cousin play time and then dinner.  Friday morning we got up bright and early to head to Tennessee for the Clanton Family Reunion. 

Craig's mothers family gathers in Jackson, Tennessee every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It is the only time we all see each other through the year usually and it never disappoints.  I feel so blessed to be a part of all my "in-law" family and I enjoy our time with them as much as my Hub does... how many people get to say that? 

We all stay at a lodge in Tennessee so the whole weekend is spent together without having to separate and deal with logistics.  Not to mention all the logistics are pre-handled by a couple awesome folks whom we appreciate greatly (you know who you are)!

So lots of food, hand and foot, family board games, and visiting over a weekend that flies by way to quickly.  I was such a slacker with the camera, but I did snap a couple pictures to share.

Our little man was all about his uncles.  He apparently woke up from his nap the first afternoon and jumped right into his Uncle Paul's arms.  I wonder if Uncle Paul is feeling old since he is actually Great Uncle Paul??

This is the little guy with his cousin, Eva, who is a few months older.  Now she is a kissin cousin!

How cool is Cousin Josh!

I didn't mention the big game... it is coming in a follow up post... gloating,  yes!

We had a wonderful time with our always interesting families, We had safe travels, We are still waddling around... We are blessed everyday and so thankful to God to have each other, our health, food, our home, our families, friends, and pets. 

Love,

The Mom

The Boot

I would say it is arguable, but we all know that it isn't by now.  The Southeastern Conference is the BEST conference in College football.  It isn't my bias that forms this opinion... it is a proven fact by this Sunday's release of the BCS standings.  How sweet it is to see this:

We are a house divided... I am a Tiger Fan (#1... oh yeah:)  The Hub is a Razorback fan... The little guy is thankfully still neutral!  There are many opinions regarding this neutrality and one consensus among us:  Please Lord do not let him become a Texas fan:) 

 

A little story for you.  Several moons ago when we were dating and I was living in South Louisiana teaching high school C came to visit when it was time to put up the Christmas decor.  He and I went together to select a little tree for my house.  He helped me dig through rubbermaids and get everything ready.  He even lovingly put the lights on the tree for me (my least favorite part and now his exclusive duty as my man).  I always start with the colored balls and then move on the special ornaments.  I began decorating the tree and finished all the glass balls.  I then started on the ornaments.  C must have been doing a lot of television watching during this time.  I completed my tree and as I stood back in awe I looked to my loving boyfriend for approval and he said "Well that thing will never be in my house".  UMMMMM excuse me?  He then back tracked to say what a nice tree it was and that he never planned on having a purple and gold tree in his home. 

I lovingly told him that if we were to ever share a Christmas tree it would be because we shared a home and then it would be "OUR HOME". 

We realized then that we would have some fun compromises in the future.  Turns out we do share a tree and we do share a home, and now we share a handsome little fella. 

So why not have some fun?  Friendly little House Divided fun!

 

Our big game "The Boot" is this Friday afternoon.

Louisiana State University (#1) vs. University of Arkansas (#3)

The winner takes all in our house. 

As the last second of what we hope will be a good game (and I hope will be a Tiger victory) plays out the bragging rights commence.  The little guy will be changed into his mother or fathers favorite team jersey for the duration of the day (which just happens to be in Tennessee at the Clanton Family Reunion).  When we arrive home the victor will then decorate the team tree in either purple, gold, and tigers or red, white, and hogs.  Then we will spend the month of December introducing visitors to our team tree as they enter the front door and bragging about our team as we rub it in our significant others face.  Competition is healthy... in Moderation! 

Don't let me down Tigers... My little guy looks good in purple and gold and so does my tree!

October

Craig and I went away alone for the first time since the little man was born. 

We visited the Pumpkin Patch

We got a new yard guy

We made our first family trip to the beach.  Quality time with the cousins and the family.  Even an exciting annoucement that we will have another niece/nephew in May of 2012.  There is not much more exciting to me than the idea of a new little life... What a reminder of Gods Blessings.

"The cure for anything is salt water---sweat, tears, or the sea."  Isak Dinesen

We carved our first pumpkin and had a very Happy Halloween with our little Charlie Brown.

Love,
Our Little Family