Sausage-Cheese Balls

To continue with the breakfast posts, here's another Christmas morning fav! My grandparents also serve up some sausage cheese balls with their cheese souffle. A bisquick classic, and why reinvent a wheel that's not broken?? I'm the biggest fan of back of the box cooking for that reason, of all the recipes their product can make, the ONE the marketing gurus choose to display on their packaging is surely the best. ;)

I cut this recipe in half for the two of us, and I will list both the full recipe's ingredients below as well as the halved amounts. I know that on a Thursday night (TGIF tomorrow!), I can't be the only one who appreciates not having to think that hard!

Sausage-Cheese Balls

Ingredients:

Full Recipe

3 cups Original Bisquick mix

1 pound ground sausage

4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed

1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes

Half Recipe

1 1/2 cups Original Bisquick mix

1/2 pound ground sausage

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed

1/4 teaspoon parsley flakes

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease baking sheet.

Stir together all ingredients.

And YES, the sausage can be uncooked, who'da thought???

Shape mixture into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until brown. Immediately remove from pan.

Eat with Cheese Souffle!!!

Cheese Souffle

Family traditions are so important to our family. I love looking forward to them each time we get together. One of my favorite traditions is this breakfast souffle. We eat it every Christmas morning at my Grandpa and Grandma Carter's house.

I have been wanting to make it for forever, it seems like I love it so much once a year, and then don't see it until 365 days later. This year at Christmas I made a decision to make it a few extra times. So easy to put together...but, my goodness, does it have a lot of cheese! Don't think this is an egg bake or bread pudding. Nope! This is fluffy cheese! Yummy, all the same, but not something to add to a daily diet!

Cheese Souffle Ingredients:

6-10 slices of bread

3/4 lb graded mild cheddar cheese

4 eggs

2 cups milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dry mustard

2 Tbsp. butter, melted (Ignore the tub of margarine.:))

Prehead oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9x13 making dish.

Remove crusts from bread and cut into cubes.

Layer half the bread cubes, half the cheese.

Then repeat with remaining bread cubes and cheese.

In a bowl, beat eggs slightly.

Add the remaining ingredients (milk, salt, dry mustard, melted butter) and stir together.

Pour mixture over bread and cheese.

Regrigerate overnight or for a few hours. (I'm good with about 20 minutes!)

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes.

Yummy and enough cheese to last you the whole week! Serve with yummy sausage balls and petite carmel rolls...I'll post those to round out my breakfast week blogs!

The Best Bread Pudding

Really! That's its name! And I have to agree with Paula Deen on this one. I never thought I'd enjoy bread pudding, but this one takes the cake and also opened up a love of all bread pudding for me. I think the delectable part of the recipe is the resemblance it has to my favorite sweet potato casserole recipe. Speaking of that, I'll need to make and blog about that casserole...especially since sweet potatoes are priced at 10 cents a pound right now! Both contain a brown sugar, butter, and pecan topping that literally melts in your mouth. Paula Deen's original recipe calls for double the sugar that I use..and mine is plenty plenty sweet, and I also add more bread cubes. To make a tasty "breakfast for dinner," I combine this with scrambled eggs and ham. It's great as a dessert too!

The Best Bread Pudding Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

5 large eggs

2 cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

5 cups cubed Italian bread, staled overnight

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 stick butter, softened

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.

Beat eggs. Add granulated sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix well.

Pour over cubed bread and let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together brown sugar, butter, and pecans.

(I use a pastry blender.)

Pour bread mixture into prepared pan.

Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over the top and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

So stop throwing your old bread away and give this dish a try!