Friday, December 26, 2014

Overnight French Toast Casserole Recipe

I posted on Instagram about my overnight French Toast casserole. A couple of people asked about a recipe. So I decided to dedicate a post to it to share with everyone.

I really love making this dish for Christmas morning, for the guys at work, or on a rare occasion at home. It's such a rich dish, that I don't like to make it all the time. However it is always a hit when I do make it.

It does require a bit of planning in advance. As you make it the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight. I also find that getting the bread a day or so on advance that it helps as well. My favorite is an Italian loaf, which I get from my local store's bakery.

So what you need:

1 loaf of bread (cut or torn into cubes)
1/2 cup of melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon (or apple pie spice)

5 eggs
1 1/2 cup of milk (I use buttermilk, but you can use regular)
1 tsp vanilla


Cut or tear bread into cubes. Mix your dry ingredients (sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon) in one bowl. Whisk your wet ingredients (milk, eggs and vanilla) into another bowl. Take your melted butter and coat a 13 x 9 baking pan.

Take half of your bread cubes, layer the bottom of your pan. Then take half of your dry mixture and sprinkle over the bread cubes. Take the other half of your bread cubes and layer on top of the first layer. Sprinkle the remaining dry mixture on top. Pour the wet mixture on top.

Then cover the casserole with tin foil. Set in the fridge overnight.

Next morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lift up the corners on the tin foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then remove the tin foil, and bake for another 15 minutes uncovered.

Lastly (and this is optional) sprinkle the top with powered sugar. The dish is sweet, but is also very delicious with maple syrup.


Enjoy!



Merry Christmas!

Just stopping by to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas! Our little family had such a wonderful day. We were able to see lots of our extended family. It was also nice just to be home and enjoy some of the smaller moments of the day.

Although my house is a mess, I think it will take me a solid week to find all the little bits of wrapping paper. Mister Mans had an awesome time opening up gifts, even helping others open their gifts! What a helpful boy.

We were also able to go to Christmas Eve mass. The sister church to my home church does a family service, and they have a wonderful space in the church for families with little ones, with quiet toys for them to play with / keep them distracted. It was nice to get back into a church. It was great getting to sing carols.

Mister Mans was most obsessed with ringing his bell and blowing out Dada's candle during Silent Night.




I'll post some more pictures later on, these are the ones from my cell phone! I hope you and your family had a lovely Christmas! I have been on facebook for the last few hours just looking at pictures of all my friends with their families, it brings such warmth and joy to my heart.

If you have been a follower of my blog for awhile, you know that I live in New Hampshire. We are used to cold, snowy winters. Christmas Day today we hit a high of 51 degrees while we were in the car! Holy Toledo! That's nearly shorts weather. And no snow to be seen.




Monday, December 22, 2014

Paint Nite!


Recently a girl friend and I had a chance to get away for a GNO (girls night out)! Shaun is a friend who is also a fellow blogger (Go give her some blog love, here!). We signed up for Paint Nite, where you can meet up at a local restaurant, drink and paint. Now I am by no means an artist, but I really enjoy this type of outing.

So Shaun and I met up at the Riverworks Tavern in Newmarket, NH. We met up a little early so we could grab a quick bite to eat. Then we grabbed our drinks and headed to the other side of the restaurant, so we could start our painting.

We met Patrick who would be our instructor for the night. And he showed us the final product, what we would be creating.

Hi Patrick!

Before we began, we had to take an oath, and pledge on our canvas! Poor Shaun could barely make it through the pledge, without breaking out into a giggle fit.


And then we started! The instructor was very good at explaining the steps and was very chill. I enjoy the casual aspect of the night. That we can just go and have a good time. There were people painting their own picture, or their interpretation of the picture of the night, or the painting itself.

The first few paint strokes...



Of course you have to take a selfie


Then we added some mountains in the middle ground.




While we waited for the paint to dry we took a break for a picture.





Shaun and I shared some laughs over randomness and nothing. Truly one of the better nights I have had in a long time. I am so glad we are friends. I was able to talk shop with her and get some blog tips, which kind of reinvigorated me about getting back into the blog world.

So are you ready to see the final product?


Viola!

It was such a great time! This is the third Paint Nite that I have done, and I really do enjoy this type of outing. It's not your typical outing; it's something different. I like that you can still talk with the other people in your party, that you can drink and you get to go home with something. If you don't want to paint what is being instructed, you don't have to, you can make it your own thing.

Photo credit: Paint Nite Portsmouth - Facebook
If you are looking for something to do, I would certainly recommend checking out Paint Nite!



Thursday, December 11, 2014

Christmas Season!

Oh how I love the holiday season! I love the weather, I love getting to spend time with family. We've had the opportunity to see Santa and boy, did it not go over well. However we were able to get at least one good shot.

Photo credit: Bushor Photography
Mister mans was being quite the ham that day. And he was so wiggly. All he wanted to do was run around and have fun. Boy did he take a great nap that day.


The following weekend we watched the Christmas Parade in my hometown. Although it rained and was forecasted to rain throughout the whole event; the rain stopped just as the parade stepped off! I couldn't believe our luck! It was nice getting to enjoy the parade and see all the people out and about enjoying the holiday season.


My brother, Brenden and my husband

Oh what a fun time of year this is!

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