Rock Around the Clock

 The hostesses and my lovely bride to be future sister dressed in white.

We hosted a "Round the Clock" shower for Em at my crib Saturday morning. Two of the girls made these adorable clock cookies, which I had no hand in, as precision and patience in icing is not a strong suit of the Spice and Sass coterie of skills.

 However, I can put together a brunch shower with the best of them! This is one of my favorites showers to throw, as it is easy to expand depending on your numbers, can be accomplished by yourself or a bevy of hosts, and is tasty.  So our menu consisted of- Ham Delights (those little poppyseed ham sammies), fruit salad, marinated asparagus, a savory strata, and French Toast Casserole.  All are easily made ahead (and in case of the strata and casserole, must be made ahead), and can feed a crowd.  So recipes!

For today- French Toast Casserole-

French Toast Casserole:

Ingredients:

1 (16 oz) soft loaf of French or Italian bread, torn into 1 inch pieces

1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

8 large eggs

2.5 cups whole milk

1.5 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (or more to taste- I adore cinnamon, and you need something to burn off the rest of the ingredients)

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Topping:

1 stick unsalted butter softened

1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoon Karo

2 cups pecans chopped coarsely

For the casserole:

adjust two oven racks to the upper middle and lower middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Spread the bread over 2 baking sheets and bake until dry and light golden brown, about 25 minutes, switching the sheets about halfway through the baking time. Let cool completely.

coat a 13x9 baking dish with the butter and pack the dried bread into the dish

whisk the eggs in a large bowl until combined, then whisk in the milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Pour the egg mixture over the bread and press on the bread lightly to submerge it.

For the topping:

stir the butter, brown sugar and Karo together until smooth then stir in the pecans

Refrigerate the topping and casserole separately at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.



To serve- 350 oven, put rack in middle position. Sprinkle the topping evenly over top, breaking apart any large pieces with your fingers. place casserole on rimmed baking sheet and bake until puffed and golden about 1 hour. Serve immediately.

So, not exactly health food, but. . .it's soo delicious.  Just don't eat it every day, okay?