McElroys Visit

Laura & I

The McElroys were passing through Austin the weekend before Valentine's Day & stopped for a visit to have breakfast with us. We had a great time catching up and enjoyed some yummy french toast, a new recipe my dad gave me. It was super rich, but super good and I'm sure super fattening!

Bananas Foster French Toast
(recipe from Food Network)

4 Large Eggs

1 Cup Heavy Cream

1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

8 TBL Butter, Divided

8 Large croissants, Halved (preferrably Egg Challah or Brioche Bread)

1/2 Cup Dark Corn Syrup

1/2 Cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar

1 Cup Pure Maple Syrup

1 Cup Chopped Pecans

6 Ripe Bananas, Halved Crosswise & Lengthwise

1 Teaspoon Rum Extract

Directions: In a shallow dish, whisk together eggs, cream, and cinnamon. In a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Dip 4 croissant halves in egg mixture to coat both sides. Using a fork, remove croissants from egg mixture, letting excess mixture drip off. Place croissant halves in hot skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes per side or until lightly browned. Repeat procedure with remaining butter and croissant halves. Set aside and keep warm.
In a large skillet, combine corn syrup, brown sugar, maple syrup and pecans. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, and simmer for 2 minutes. Add banana halves and rum extract. Coat with the syrup mixture, and simmer 1 minute. Spoon over French toast. Serve immediately.

Gobble, Gobble

Our Thanksgiving was filled with food, football and card games. As usual, Patsy's house (my grandmother for those that don't know) was the gathering place for lots of eating & chatting on Thanksgiving. It was an all day affair with family members stopping in throughout the day. We were grateful to have family members in from Lufkin & Grapevine in addition to all those local. Jarrod made his families sweet potato casserole recipe to take & I made my dad's pumpkin gooey butter bars.

Sweet Potato Casserole

3 Cups sweet potatoes (4) – peel before boiling
½ cup sugar
½ cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup milk

Topping:
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans

Boil & mash potatoes. Mix in sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla & milk. Put in 13x9 baking dish.
Topping: melt butter and mix in remaining ingredients. Sprinkle on top of potato mixture.
Bake 25 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Bars (recipe by Paula Deen)

Ingredients
Cake:
1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

One of our cousin's from Lufkin taught my brother & I how to play Bridge, which I had thought was only an "old people's" game, but boy was I wrong. Jarrod already knew somewhat how to play b/c his parents had taught him so the game was on! I learned that Bridge is sort of like Spades on steroids. Anyway, I am proud to say that the girls, Josie & I, beat up on the boys, Jarrod & Jim. I have a feeling a rematch will be called at some point so they can redeem themselves. It was lots of fun, but the competitive juices were definitely flowing! We also had some entertainment featuring Mary Grace Polk and her dance routine.

The guys watching football

Our teams didn't fair so well in football, both the Aggies (not surprising) & the LSU Tigers were defeated. But, I guess it is about time that the Longhorns pull one off. I know the Ags haven't had a great reputation over the past few years, but as I recall, we have managed to beat those Longhorns for the past 2 years! This year was just too much of a long shot & even though they are a rival & I'll never like them, in a way I do feel kind of bad for the Horns since they beat the Sooners, but got beat by the system and were left in the shadows. I was actually pulling for the Red Raiders to win out over both if you can believe that! And I dislike them about as much as the Horns! Anyway, moving on, we also had a mean game of Hearts during the weekend and Jarrod managed to pull out the victory there. I also got some gravy making lessons from mom, which hopefully Jarrod will reap the benefits of on our next dish that requires gravy. I have made it a few times, and have been successful a couple, but I'm not consistent so I called on my mom to give me some pointers. Good call too b/c we got to enjoy some really good chicken fried steak for dinner one night so she could help me make some gravy. All in all, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving -- restful, relaxing & good times with family all of whom I am very thankful for!