December 12, 2010

First Tastes of Christmas and French Friday Cookies

Most weekends in December we start off either Saturday or Sunday with this Sausage and Jalapeno Casserole.  I came across its inspiration in a Southern Living years ago.  There was a large spread on holiday cocktail party ideas which included jalapeno bites (or something like that).  That recipe lead to this recipe & hope you enjoy!

Sausage Jalapeno Casserole
serves 4 or double for 8
6 oz sausage, cooked & crumbled
2 tbs diced jalapenos
3 eggs
1/3 cup 1/2 & 1/2
1/2 cup shredded Jack Cheese or Mexican Blend
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt & Pepper
Salsa & sour cream for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a pie plate sprayed with cooking spray add the sausage and jalapenos to the bottom of the dish, toss together and spread evenly.  Whisk together the eggs, 1/2 & 1/2, garlic powder, Salt & Pepper.  Cover the sausage and jalapenos with the egg mixture & top with cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes or until set. Serve with salsa and sour cream as optional toppings.

This week's French Fridays with Dorie I choose to make Speculoos. 

They are a gingerbread type cookie and they went over very well.  The dough was very fragile, and for some reason I froze it (don't ask).  I did decide to treat these more as a wafer rather than a cookie by cutting the dough into strips and made small rectangle treats (with  my pizza cutter - very easy).  I also topped my version with sparkling white sugar to add a little more sweetness to the spice.  Overall very yummy & perfect coffee or tea treat.
At this point I am almost completely decorated for Christmas.  We do multiple trees around here - 2 real and several fakes.  Here is a little tour of how things are looking so far...
Family Room
Family Room at night
Dining Room


Living Room

Our bedroom & our watch dogs
Breakfast Room Tree

6 comments:

Cher Rockwell said...

Wow! Way to go with the trees. Beautiful. Great idea with the cookies. Gotta love those KAF products!

Lara B Knight said...

Thank you Cher!!!

Frolicking Night Owl said...

hmmm. some have said that they froze the dough and it worked better for them.

Lara B Knight said...

Maybe my mishap was a good one. I meant to only put it in the freezer for a bit (to speed up the process), but as always a bit turned into a while (delaying the whole process). I found the dough not that bad to work with.

Steph said...

Can't wait to try these out!

Penny said...

Your house looks lovely! Wish I had the stamina for all of those trees. Your egg dish sounds fabulous and I am so glad you made Dorie's speculous! I saw them in her cookbook and thought they would be perfect for Christmas. Happy Holidays Lara!