Happy New Year! & I Like Thursday #164

2025 has arrived and we let the new year swim in with some shrimp. I made Crispy Orange Shrimp and served it with rice and roasted broccoli. We'll enjoy some split pea soup using the leftover Christmas vacation ham bone later this weekend when the weather goes frosty again. Snow is expected!

Besides my house returning to normal, I am enjoying a bit of peace & quiet. We're apparently expecting quite a bit of snow on Monday and bone-chilling temps the rest of the week. I'll be huddling down sprucing up the house and hopefully sewing up a storm.

I did finish the book "Afterwards" by Rosamund Lupton. It could have been a depressing book but it was written so well. There's also a mystery to solve which also kept the book moving right along. I definitely recommend this one.

Read about it HERE

Yesterday I started  "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah. Even though I only managed about 15 pages last night, I can already tell I'm probably going to enjoy it. It's a WWII historical-fiction story taking place in France. Kristin writes beautifully. Enough said.

Read about it HERE

Since I was serving a crowd for Christmas morning brunch, I decided to make three very different breakfast caseroles. All three were delicious and everyone loved them. Of course we also critiqued each and I'll pass along our notes to you as well as the recipes.

1. Tex Mex Slow Cooker Breakfast by Spend with Pennies. I didn't cook it in the slow cooker. I checked my phone for swapping out in the oven (since my oven was already going to be on with the other casseroles). 350 degrees for 45-60 mins worked perfectly. I served it with salsa. Sarah said it would be even better with sour cream. We also thought it might be good if black beans and/or corn was added.
2. The Best French Toast Casserole by The Stay at Home Chef. This was probably the all-around favorite here. The only notes we added were to fill your pan 100% with the cubed French bread. We made it perfectly level. The directions said to be sure to saturate the bread with the custard. I actually stirred the bread to ensure this and it was perfect. I had some blueberries which I sprinkled over the top. Next time I might try tossing the berries among the bread cubes
3. The Best Breakfast Casserole by The Recipe Critic. Perfectly wonderful. We used all cheddar inspite of the ingredients calling for 1/2 cheddar, 1/2 pepper jack. There are some in our crowd who don't like spicy. It could have used a little more flavor, maybe use sharp or extra sharp cheddar next time. Also maybe shred some pepper jack and some cheddar to add on top for the last 15 minutes of cooking. Can there ever be enough cheese? Lol!

The last of the company have arrived home with the exception of my nephew who is in OK with his wife. He'll head back home this weekend to NM. I'll sign off here with a picture of my brother's dog, all propped up in the back of the van. His bed is laying across my mother's upside-down card table which is laying across the living room end tables. The dog has the best seat in the house! Lol!

I'll share my I Like Thursday post with the others on Not Afraid of Color. Happy New Year!