Egg Soufflé for Christmas Brunch.

Today is great to spend time with family. My in laws are in town and we are always happy they are available to come and visit. I do so much cooking for Thanksgiving that I take it easy for Christmas. Christmas day we start out with a brunch of egg soufflé. The egg soufflé is prepared 24 hours in advance. When Christmas morning rolls around all I have to do is mix two ingredients together and put it in the oven. This is the most delicious egg soufflé.

My laws have a tradition and send all their children a honey baked ham for Christmas. Christmas dinner we have the honey baked ham with creamed spinach and stuffing.

I sautéed the veggies in a small amount of bacon grease.

12 oz. bacon, fried crispy and crumbled.

2 1/2 cups of half & half

4 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard

3 cups croutons

2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

2/3 cup of half and halt to mix with cream of mushroom soup.

1. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish and add croutons. Set aside.

2. Cook bacon in a large skillet until browned. drain, crumble and set aside.

3. Sauté 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into small chunks. Set aside

4. Sauté 1/2 onion, cut into small chunks. Set aside

5. Sauté 8 mushrooms sliced. Set aside

6. In a medium bowl combine milk, eggs and dry mustard; mix well. Pour over croutons.

7. Add crumbled bacon and spread evenly over the top.

8. Add cheddar cheese on top. Then layer all the remaining vegetables.

9. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

10. Preheat oven to 300°F .

11. In a medium bowl, combine condensed soup and half and half . Spread on top of casserole. Bake, uncovered, for 90 minutes or until casserole is set and lightly browned.

Makes 8 servings

All the Christmas Cookies

In our house part of our Christmas tradition is baking our family traditional cookies. Here are all the cookies I baked this year. Every year I bake about 500 cookies and give them to my Family and Friends.

If you would like to see the recipes to all my Christmas cookie collection, just click on the links. Connoli, Strufalas, Almond Crescents, no cook S’mores, Almond cups , Coconut Macaroons, Crisp sugar cookies, Chocolate Dipped Lady Fingers, and Oat Rageous Chocolate Chip Peanut butter, Neapolitan Cookies and Almond Rugalas Cookies.

Turkey Croquettes

I have Turkey coming our of my ears.  I am done with the Turkey. Thursday the turkey was wonderful. Friday the turkey sandwiches were great. Saturday the Turkey salad was perfect. Sunday the turkey pot pie was so comforting. Then I had to think of something else to make with that last bit of leftover turkey. I was dreading turkey again. I love turkey but come on. Enough is enough. I have to say this is about all I can handle. Even though I still have turkey leftover I was ready to ditch it. Then I remembered something my mother made when I was a kid. Turkey croquettes!! These croquettes are so good and let me tell you it puts a new twist on leftover turkey.

Croquettes
4 cups of chopped turkey
2 cups of leftover stuffing
2 cups of leftover mashed potatoes
2 cups of seasoned bread crumbs
Oil for frying
3 eggs beaten
Mix turkey stuffing and mashed potatoes together and roll in a cone shape. Approximately 1-1/2 inches round and 2-1/2 inches tall.  Dip them in the egg and then coat them in seasoned bread crumbs. Fry to a golden brown.

Sauce:
1 cup of leftover turkey gravy
2 cups of milk.
1/3 cup of chopped parsley
1 cup of frozen peas
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of corn starch and 1/4 cup of milk. Mix together and set aside.
Heat all remaining ingredients together. As soon as the sauce starts to boil turn down heat and add the corn starch mixture. Continuously sure until thicken.
Pour over your Croquettes and you have it.  the best leftover turkey dinner.

Makes 12 Turkey Croquettes

The great thing about this recipe is.......If you do not have mashed potatoes you can substitute the mashed with stuffing.  The stuffing is a must because of all the flavor in them.

This is what you will need to fry the  Turkey Croquettes





Sauce:
Only four ingredients.
Peas, left over turkey gravy, milk & fresh parsley.  That easy!  Add salt and pepper to taste.  I do not use any because the turkey gravy has enough in it already.