Baked French Toast

My dear friend Suzanne fixed this for our Quilt Guild Retreat this past month. It was Fabulous! I use that word a lot but it really was.
My children love French toast and so do I. I may post how they make that but here is how we adapted Suzanne's recipe and made it our own.

4-6 sliced of whole wheat bread cubed or torn in chunks
1 pkg 8 oz cream cheese (optional)
6 eggs
1 cup milk
sprinkle of cinnamon and/or nutmeg
pinch of salt
brown sugar or Sucanat

Butter a 9"x9" baking dish
Place half the cubed bread in the dish.
Cut the cream cheese over the bread.
Cover with remaining bread cubes.
Mix eggs, milk, salt, and cinnamon or nutmeg together in a blender.
Pour over bread.
Sprinkle the top of the bread mixture with Sucanat or brown sugar.
Cover with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate overnight.
In he morning, preheat the oven to 350 deg F.
Bake for 45 - 60 minutes.
Serve warm with maple syrup, powdered sugar or just the way it is.

Scented Play Dough Tutorial

Play dough was one of my favorite things to play with when I was a little girl and I love making it for my children now. I love how home made dough feels. It is so smooth and has the right texture. I loved helping her make it over the stove and then helping her kneed in the color when it was done. I loved the feel of warm fresh play dough. It was so wonderfully soothing.
As a little kid, I had to attend many meetings and some night classes with my mom. She would pack a baggy of play dough and I knew that I was in for a treat for hours. I loved making sculptures and had all kinds of stories running in my head as I sat on the floor next to her or at the back of the room with a chair seat as the stage for my pretend play.

Well here is the recipe I use now for my kids. I switched over to scented dough several years ago. The one thing I hate about play dough is what it smelled like after a couple of kids had played with it. Now the dough has a nice fruity scent.
I bet you could also use essential oils and have herbal scented play dough. I might have to try that with lavender. Hmmmm.... Any way this is the recipe that always works for me.

Scented Play Dough
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 pkg fruit flavored drink mix (without the sugar)
1 Tbsp Alum
3 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup flour
2 cups boiling water

Directions:

Add flour, salt, flavoring, alum, and oil into a large mixing bowl.

Add the boiling water ....

.... and stir.

Add the remaining 1/2 cup of flour if needed ....

..... and kneed by hand .....

..... until smooth, soft and definitely not sticky.

Now Play!

Ozark Christmas Stockings

I know it is still early BUT in true anti procrastination spirit of the Holidays, I am posting my stocking selection now rather than the week before Christmas.

I have a collection of Old Quilt Stockings that I have made. These are made from an old quilt top I rescued from an antique mall here. Sadly the shop is no longer there.

The quilt top was hand made by someone with less than perfect quilting skills however, it was packed with charm and I was delighted with the effort and hard work that had been put into each stitch. The poor top had also suffered some damage so I rescued the top and turned it into a set of Christmas stockings. There were 14 in all but there are only 10 left in the shop.

I also have some stockings made with some rescued and re purposed hand made lace.

Go check it out at

My Byrd Nest

Suzanne's Stuffed Peppers

This is one of my favorite, vintage recipes. I owe it all to one of my dearest friends, Suzanne. When I was a teen I used to babysit on a regular basis for several families I knew. Suzanne's was one of them. I got to watch her two boys. Suzanne is a great mom and a great teacher. She almost always had dinner in the fridge and I would just fix it up for the kids while she was at work or night school. The foods she had were always wonderful and the introduced me to new flavors that have become some of my favorites. This recipe was one of them. I had never cared much for cooked peppers (what kid does) but I would try anything once and I wasn't going to set a bad example for her kids so I tried it, loved it, and have craved it ever since.

So here is the lovely recipe she shared with me.

Stuffed Peppers

1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
3/4 cup of crushed crackers
1/2 can tomato sauce
garlic to taste
onion fresh or dried to taste
salt & pepper
red pepper if you like bite

Mix together by hand, don't over work.
Stuff bell peppers,
add Ketchup on top, and
bake for about 1 hr. 350. enjoy!
I added little strips of bacon to the top because there was some in the fridge.

It was as good as I remembered and my kids gobbled it up.
THANK YOU Suzanne for sharing the recipe. Sometimes you need comfort food and this is it for me.