I entered this recipe into the Pillsbury Bake-Off competition this year but unfortunately it didn’t make it to the top 100.  I do love the recipe even though there are a lot of steps.  You should try it and tell me what you think.  Does it make it into your top 100? Notice the awesome BACON BOW on top!

• 1 can Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ Refrigerated Flaky Dough Sheet 8-oz
• 4 slices of bacon
• 2 maple syrup and brown sugar sausage patties
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup frozen shredded hash browns 
• 4 Eggland’s Best Large Brown Eggs
• ¼ cup of milk
• Dash salt
• Dash pepper
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning 
• 2 Ham Slices
• ½ shredded Mexican blend cheese 
• 4 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a loaf pan with aluminum foil with extra foil exceeding the top of the loaf pan to help with removal later.  Unroll Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ Refrigerated Flaky Dough Sheet 8-oz on a cutting board.  Cut a piece of crescent recipe creation large enough to fit in the bottom of a loaf pan.  Place the loaf pan in the oven and cook for 8 minutes.  Once the crescent rolls are slightly browned, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, place 4 slices of bacon on baking sheet and place in the oven and cook for 10 minutes.  After ten minutes, add the two maple syrup and brown sugar sausage patties to the baking sheet and turn the bacon.  Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake an additional 7 minutes.  Once bacon and sausage is finished cooking, set bacon on paper towels to drain and dice sausage patties.

While meat is cooking, place 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in a medium sized frying pan on medium high heat.  Once the oil is to temperature, add the frozen hash browns and cover pan with lid.  Cook the hash browns for 7 minutes on one side and flip.  Cook an additional 7 minutes or until they are brown and crispy.  Once the hash browns are done, season with salt and set aside.

Beat 4 eggs with ¼ cup milk and season with salt, pepper and ½ tablespoon Italian seasoning.  Spray a frying pan with non-stick cooking spray and heat to medium.  Add the beaten eggs and cook slowly on medium heat stirring occasionally.  Remove the eggs and set aside.  Brown the ham slices in the same frying pan until slightly browned. 

Once all items are cooked, begin layering into loaf pan.  Place 4 slices of bacon on top of cooking crescent roll bottom.  Add 1/3 of the scrambled eggs and cover with ¼ cup shredded Mexican cheese blend.  Add ½ of the crispy, shredded hash browns and then cover with the 2 slices of ham.  Add another 1/3 of the scrambled eggs and another ¼ cup of shredded Mexican cheese blend.  Follow with diced sausage, the remaining ½ of the shredded hash browns, the remaining eggs, and then the remaining cheese.  Top finally with 2 tablespoon of parmesan cheese.   Sprinkle the remaining ½ teaspoon of Italian seasoning on the uncooked crescent rolls along with 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese.

Cut the uncooked crescent rolls into 4 strips.   Twist the strips in to a spiral.  Add the strips to the loaf pan around the outer edge.  Bake the breakfast meatloaf for 15 minutes or until the top crescent are lightly browned.  Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

After the Breakfast Meatloaf has cooled slightly, use the aluminum foil to remove the loaf from the pan and place on serving platter.

To bring in the new year, we are offering our friends and family a chance to win two movie passes to Rave Motion Pictures.  All you have to do is donate $1 or more to Hope for McKenna between January 1st – 31st, 2010 and your name will be entered for a chance to win.   A name will be chosen on February 1st and the winner will be contacted via email.  That individual will receive two gift certificate movie passes valid at any Rave Motion Picture nationwide. To find a theater near you please visit Rave’s theater location finder. All proceeds during our “Who’s Up for a Movie?” fundraiser will go to benefit Hope for McKenna. Click the Donate button below to make a secure donation online.

The tickets are valued up to $10.50 and have no movie restrictions. Though we appreciate your enthusiastic participation you are only eligible to enter the drawing one time.  All individuals that donate to Hope for McKenna in January will be entered into the drawing unless they specifically request exclusion. Any donation amounts exceeding $1, though much appreciated, do not qualify applicant(s) for multiple entries into this contest. If you have any further questions regarding this fundraiser, please click here.

Another wonderful, food-related page by Danielle.  She writes: Despite having just given birth two weeks earlier nothing can keep Aunt Brandy out of the kitchen. So when Maxx and Lexy came to visit, that was the perfect excuse for her to get in the kitchen and make brownies! And of course, the kids happily obliged! August 2, 2008.”

I love this scrapbooking page by Danielle.  She wrote: “Will someone please tell me what I did to piss off the cake gods? Last year, the kids’ cake was left on the radiator and melted. For Maxx’s birthday this year, they raked their fingers through the icing and for Lexy’s birthday, I put the ice cream cake in the refrigerator instead of the freezer, and it too melted into a big pile of goop.  It’s a damn good thing they still taste good.”

Have you had to buy chip bag clips and thought to yourself, “Why am I paying $10.99 for three or four clips?” Well, I have great news you can get 22 various sizes of chips clips for a whopping $4.99! “How?” you say. Well, earlier this year my wonderful stepfather, Gary took Adam and I to a store we hadn’t heard of before, Harbor Freight Tools USA. I am sure most of you know of this store and think I’m in the dark ages, but needless to say, we spent over 90 minutes touching everything in the the place and leaving with tons of wonderful finds.  My favorite of course was the above mentioned clips listed as the 22 Piece Spring Clamp Set.  I bought them to hold up decorations at Zoey’s birthday party and now use them to hold various things in place, primarily as chip bag clip holders. Gary uses the clips a lot while fixing up his ‘59 Oldsmobile Super 88. He says he used them to hold the roof headliner up after gluing the edges to make sure it would dry in place. When he and my mom were on their way to Dothan last month to meet us for the Peanut Festival, they mentioned they were stopping off at Harbor Freight Tools USA on the way. Without missing a beat, I said “Can you grab two more of those chip clip things for Beth and Carol?” Now we are all happy mommy’s with not a stale chips, pretzel or bag of cereal in the house. Thank you HFT USA for The Best Chip Bag Clips Ever!

Note: Harbor Freight doesn’t have online shopping but they do have their inventory online and locations to stores near you.

I am putting together a menu for Katy and Michael’s baby shower on November 14th.  I will be purchasing and creating a variety of appetizers for 75 guests. It is a couples shower with children as well.  I have some basic appetizers chosen such as a fruit tray with dip, mini quiche, cheese & meat tray with  crackers, turtle cheesecake cheese ball and mixed nuts.  I am now looking for the recipes to make the hot dishes.  I keep reverting back to the same dishes I always create that I know are crowd pleasers. I am torn because I want to make something unique, elegant but simply made for this party but I know I will have to test the recipe prior to the event.  I would like to have two meat and two vegetarian dishes.  I was thinking of a tomato, mozzarella and basil bruchette as well as crab stuffed mushrooms and maybe spinach artichoke dip.  I should probably have a red meat dish or chicken dish to close out the menu.  Janie, Adam’s mom is making the desserts for the event and luckily Katy has chosen Janie’s famous cheesecake. The guests will be walking and mingling so I want to have food that they can pick up and eat off the plate.  I do not want to require cutting or two hands for eating any of these dishes.  If you have any ideas, let me know. I’m excited about the event, I can’t wait to do something special for our best friends.  I look forward to your ideas!

For those meat lovers in the Birmingham, Alabama area DJ’s Fine Meats is the place to go for the highest-level quality meat choices, delicious sides and friendly service.  This locally owned and operated butcher shop helps the Birmingham residents turn their “homes into steakhouses”.  I have been visiting DJ’s Fine Meats for over two years now and though it is an across town drive for me to Alabaster, I wouldn’t buy my meat goods anywhere else. My all-time favorites are the Tortilla Encrusted Tilapia, the Ribeye Steaks, and their Applewood Smoked Bacon.  I literally buy a dozen of the tilapia filets just to have on hand on any given night.

This week’s theme is Tailgate Specials. 

• GAME DAY – $89.00
  • 8 x 12 oz Ribeye Steaks
• FIRST DOWN -$89.00
  • 8 x 12 oz NY Strips
• FIELD GOAL – $99.00
  • 3 x 12 oz Ribeyes
  • 3 x 12 oz NY Strips
  • 3 x 8 oz Filets  
• TOUCHDOWN – $129.00
  • 6 x 12 oz Ribeye
  • 6 x 12 oz NY Strips
  • 6 DJ’s Steakburgers
  • 6 Jalapeno Sausages
• SAFETY – $13.00
  • 2 Tuna Steaks
  • 2 Chicken Breasts
• P.A.T. – $10.00
  • 4 x 3 Cheese Potatoes  OR
  • 1 x 32 oz Loaded Potato Salad and 1 x 32 oz Deviled Egg  Salad
• FREE TWO POINTER
  • All Beef Packages come with 2 lbs of sausage.

*As always call-ahead orders are encouraged and appreciated.

Currently, DJ’s has new extended spring/summer hours and they are open seven days a week. Check out their website www.djsfinemeats.com for their daily specials, store hours and savings discounts.

When you go to the grocery store and venture to the bread isle to grab your favorite slice, do you ever wonder when it was actually made and packaged.  I found out recently that the twist tie on the package is the time stamp for the bread’s freshness.  Bread is made and delivered 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday.  Each day of the week is assigned a color coded twisty tie for the end of the loaf.  The colors are alphabetically sorted through the days of the week. The bread in your grocer should have the freshness marked as follows:

Monday – Blue

Tuesday – Green

Wednesday – Orange

Thursday – Red

Friday – White

Saturday – Yellow

Now, if you decide to purchase these presliced breads, make sure you give them a light squeeze.   If the bread bounces back, then it is probably fresh.  When purchasing whole loaves, try cutting a chunk from one end and then obtaining your slices from the middle of the loaf, returning the end you cut back to the loaf before storing it.  Also, be sure that the packaging that the bakery placed the loaf in doesn’t have small holes. If so, you may want to transfer the unused bread to a storage bag.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, combine all ingredients. Over medium heat, bring mixture to a boil. Allow it to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes.

Once cooled, strain the syrup into a sealable container. Yields around 1.25 cups of syrup.

This simple syrup should keep for up to 1 month when kept refridgerated.

Let’s change it up a bit…

You could substitute the rosemary for other fresh herbs for a variety of tastes. Thyme and various mints (spearmint, peppermint, etc) would work nicely.