Food, Fun, Family, and the Great Salt Lake Bake!

This is our beautiful baby daughter, Lindsey, the master baker in the family. The Mother's Day Brunch was her idea and a fantastic one. Her sweet husband, Ryan, tended the kids the night before and Lindsey came over to have a sleep-over so she could get up early in the morning to start the Blueberry French Toast Bake and Quiche.

I have three canisters in my cupboard. The small one is for salt, the medium for sugar, and the large one for flour ... The Blueberry French Toast Bake is baking in the oven, sending a sweet aroma throughout the house. My mouth is watering and I can hardly wait for the first morsel.

Addison and I are making cinnamon sticks from the left-over pie crust. I took from the cupboard the small canister of what I thought was sugar to the counter and suddenly exclaimed, "Oh my ... I almost put salt on the pie crust instead of sugar!"

All of a sudden Lindsey gets this strange look on her face and says, "Is that small canister salt?" "Yes", I reply. "Well, I just put salt on the Blueberry French Toast!", she said, with a sick look on her face. "Oh, perhaps you didn't ... maybe you used the sugar instead," I reassured her. The oven timer beeped and we took the beautiful Blueberry French Toast out of the oven. It smelled divine. But just in case Lindsey used salt instead of sugar, we sprinkled a generous amount of sugar over the top before tasting. I volunteered to be the first taste tester. Gingerly I scooped my spoon into the warm crusty concoction and put it into my mouth. I immediately tasted the warm pecans and juicy blueberrys and then the salt hit my taste buds. Oooooh Eeeeee .... salty! I asked Lindsey, "How much salt did you put in this?" She replied, "Oh ... only 4 Tablespoons!" I tried to console her with my words of hope by saying, "It's really good if you can just ignore the salt!" Needless to say, we had a good laugh and one less entree for the morning.


Here's the recipe. Just make sure to use sugar instead of salt.

Blueberry French Toast Bake

*You could use frozen raspberries in this super simple brunch recipe too.

*Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

· 1/2 cup flour

· 1-1/2 cups whole milk

· 2 Tbsp. sugar

· 1 tsp. vanilla

· 6 eggs

· 10 slices french bread, cut into 1" cubes

· 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese, diced

· 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (if frozen, do not thaw)

· 1/2 cup chopped nuts

· 2 Tbsp. sugar

· 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Preparation:

Generously grease 13x9" glass baking dish. Beat flour, milk, 2 Tbsp. sugar, vanilla and eggs in large bowl until smooth. Stir in bread cubes until well coated, then pour bread mixture into prepared pan.Top evenly with cream cheese cubes and blueberries.

In small bowl, combine 2 Tbsp. sugar, cinnamon, and nuts and toss to mix. Sprinkle over blueberries and cream cheese. Cover casserole tightly and refrigerate up to 24 hours.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and bake casserole, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Serves 8

Yummy ... Laurel made the fruit pizza. It was delish! And Lindsey made a wonderful Quiche with fresh mushrooms and artichoke hearts. I made the pie crust and Camie made Sweet Sunrise for the drink. Divine!

My dear sweet parents joined us for the brunch.

I'm not sure how my 91 year old Dad enjoyed the girly food, but he ate most of it. :) He's a real cowboy from Montana who thinks breakfast should be steak, eggs, and potatoes.

Later that evening Angie and the boys came to visit. Between all of the kids and Lynn, I received enough flowers to plant in 18 pots. My deck is beautiful with hanging flowers and potted plants everywhere.

Mothers Day was a busy day. Isn't that the way it usually is? My church meetings started at 7:30 a.m. and I didn't get home until 2:30 p.m. It was a looong day. My compassionate service leader and I spent 2 1/2 hours delivering geraniums to those sisters in the neighborhood who weren't at church. But it was a good experience getting to meet a lot of sisters whom I've never met before. Nice, nice women!

Then yesterday was another special day! Shannon and Shiloh from Stampin' Up! met me for lunch. Left to right, back row, Bonnie, me, Shannon ... front row ... Carrie, Shiloh, and Jaime. I miss these dear sweet women, but getting together at least once a week for lunch has made the parting much dearer!

Shannon surprised me with one of the most wonderful gifts I've ever received! I've been admiring her Jasmine sandals for weeks and wanted a pair just like hers, but they were too pricey for my budget. Yep ... she bought them for me and delivered them with a big hug and a kiss. I still can't believe I'm the proud owner of these gorgeous sandals. I wanted to sleep in them, they are soooo comfortable and beautiful! Thanks, Shanny ... I love you!

She also delivered some wonderful gifts from one of the most generous, sweet, and caring people I've ever met, Ngaire from Australia. Ngaire sent me some Australian candy and the sweetest children's book which was made in Australia. Ngaire doesn't know this, but I adore children's books. Hugs and kisses sent to you too, Ngaire!

A few of you have wanted to know what's happening in the world of job hunting. As you all know I had a job interview last week. I will hear from them sometime this week. I would love working for the company. So, I'll keep you posted when I hear.

Got a busy day today ... Relief Society Enrichment this morning and a meeting tonight.

Have a wonderful Tuesday! Love to you all!!!