White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Good evening! This is a recipe my friend Samantha gave me, that her mom makes. It was simple and DELICIOUS! Enjoy!

6 cups French bread cubes
1 package (6 oz) white chocolate baking bar, coarsely chopped (My mom used chips)
1 cup fat-free egg product
3/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)

1. Spray inside of 3- to 4-quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Place bread cubes in slow cooker. Sprinkle with baking bar.
2. In small bowl, mix remaining ingredients; pour over bread cubes and baking bar.
3. Cover; cook on Low heat setting 3 hours 30 minutes to 4 hours or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm

Who doesn’t love condensed milk and vanilla?

Crock Pot is my new favorite thing…

This is what everything looks like after is has all been piled in.

After 3.5-4 hours…VOILA!

Cloooser

In ya face!!

It was an awesome dessert and will be made again very soon. My roommate and coworker both loved it!

Collard Greens

I have been making greens weekly for the past month and decided to post my version. Now, the recipe was given to me over the phone from my mother and written on a post it. I grew up watching her make greens and would season them for her so it is about recreation for me. I hope the instructions are clear and helpful. I have learned in the past few weeks to make sure you keep an eye on the greens so they do not get too soft and make sure not to over season them. I constantly taste them to make sure it does not taste like putting your tongue on a salt lick!

Ingredients

2 Bags “Glory” collard greens (you can pick up unbagged collards in the produce section but I am too lazy for that)

1 Smoked turkey wing or wing drumette

Seasoning salt, table salt, pepper to taste

Retrieve a large pot and place the smoked turkey wing at the bottom. Fill the pot with enough water to submerge the wing (not much more water than that). Bring the pot to a boil. Boil for a about 5 minutes. Cover reduce heat and let the wing simmer for about 40 minutes.

While the water simmers, clean the greens. Soak them for at least 10-20 minutes in cold water and then rinse. Pick through the bunch and discard all brown pieces as well as thick stalks if you do not like them.

Add the greens to the pot. Bring to a boil and let the greens cook down until they are submerged in the water. Cover and reduce to a simmer, for about 2-3 hours. The time all depends on how long it takes for the greens to soften (but not get mushy). As they cook, check on them every so often and stir. Add any combination of seasoning salt, table salt or pepper. This all depends on how you want it to taste. I generally add a little seasoning salt, table salt and red pepper flakes for some spice.

Before serving, take the turkey wing out of the pot. The skin meat should be falling off the bone at this point. Cut off the meat and put back into the pot with the greens. For me there is nothing better than a forkful of greens and turkey wing meat!

Hash Brown Quiche

Yesterday as we know was Valentines Day and while my boyfriend was training for his fight, my friend/coworker Rebecca decided to be my date for the night. I found this Paula Deen recipes on foodnetwork.com and thought I would give it a try.

Ingredients

nocoupons

• 3 cups, shredded frozen hash browns, thawed and drained
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 3/4 cup diced cooked ham
• 1/2 cup diced green onions
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Gently press the drained hash browns between paper towels to dry them as best as possible. In a 9-inch pie plate, toss the hash browns with the melted butter into the plate. Press them into the bottom and up the sides to form a crust. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and starting to crisp.

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. When the hash brown crust is ready pour the egg mixture over it and return to the oven.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for about 30 minutes until the quiche is light golden brown on top and puffed.

Three eggs instead of four, realized this after I took the picture and had started cooking *shrugs*

Favorite brand of has browns. Make sure that you really squeeze out as much water as you can or you will have to bake the crust a few minutes longer.

Before the oven.

A close up of the rest of the ingredients. Combine while you wait for the crust to brown in the oven.

Fresh out the oven. Time for the filling.

It looks like a giant omelet to me. After about 30-32 minutes, it looks like this:

Now I sliced it because shoving my face into the middle of it seemed rude, especially in front of company.

That’s better!

This won’t make it very long…

Rebecca diving in. It was quite delicious and simple. A recipe to make again (very soon).

My Kitchen

I will be posting recipes later in the day but for now I post pictures of my kitchen so you can understand my space restrictions. It is quite small so you will often see food boxes, the sink, or the living room in the background.

As you can see, I barely have enough room for a cutting board and a mixing bowl. God forbid anything takes a tumble into the sink!

Again, no real counter space but I do have a sexy stand up mixer. That is all for this morning. Recipes for collard greens and hash brown quiche to follow later today!

Camera

Finally got a new camera so I can take decent looking pictures of food. Now to find some decorative dinner plates and bowls! I will start posting recipes and photos next week.

Hey ya’ll!

As my family and friends know, I have a love of all things food. I also love to bake and cook (when not exhausted). This blog will be my adventures and I am sure misadventures in the culinary world. I find recipes everywhere: cookbooks, blogs, and family members. Every post I will add the recipe or URL to the recipe I followed to share the wealth! Let the fun begin!