Friends, food and a baby

Not sure if you remember or not, but last fall I ran a marathon. With marathons, the actual race is really the "easy" part. It is the months of training-- the early morning jogs, the long weekend runs, the blisters and the overall bodily soreness that is the kicker. However I had Emily and she made everything better. Emily was my running partner. We ran, and ran, and ran together. We spent literally hours together on the the WO&D trail. Running. Talking. Sweating. Laughing. And at times walking. I heart Emily.

Well today, I was so happy to be able to help throw Emily a Baby Shower. It was an afternoon of great, great friends, silly fun and good food.

Me and Emily

The shower was at 11am, so I kept with a brunch-y based menu-- Ham Biscuits, Cucumber toasts, fruit salad (Thanks Sonya!) Egg Casserole, Baked Brie and Punch. I didn't snap to many pics of the food I was too busy taking pics of us girls, so you will have to imagine what the dishes look like!




For one of the main dishes, I relied on an old standby--Cheesy, Sausage, Egg Casserole. I am not sure where this recipe originated, it was either with Wendy or Erin but it is easy, feeds a crowd, and good.

Cheese, Egg, Sausage Casserole

**This makes TWO 9x13 dishes
1-2 loaves French bread; cut into cubes
6 Tbsp unsalted butter (melted)
3/4 lb Swiss cheese (shredded)
1/2 lb Monterey jack cheese (shredded)
2 cups (or more if you would like) sausage
16 eggs
3 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 large green onions, minced
1 Tbsp Grey Poupon mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Day Before:
Butter 2 9x13 dishes. Spread bread over bottom and drizzle with butter. Sprinkle with swiss cheese, monterey jack cheese and sausage.

Beat together eggs, milk, wine, green onions, mustard, black and red pepper until foamy. Pour over cheese. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Serving Day:
Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake covered with foil for 1 hour. Uncover and spread with sour cream and parm cheese. Bake uncovered until crusty and lightly brown (about 10 min.)

On the buffet line was another baby shower standby,

Baked Brie en Crute

1 round of President Brie
1 sheet of puff pastry thawed
1/2 cup (approx) brown sugar
1/2 cup (approx) chopped walnuts
1 egg beaten

Slice the cheese in half so that you have two rounds of cheese, layer the brown sugar and nuts on one half of cheese and place the other half of the cheese on top. Next wrap the pastry around the cheese and brush on egg wash.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until brown.

Serve with crackers.

Brunch Punch

It isn't often that you have punch anymore. But punch is fun. I got this recipe from my sister Molly's good friend Linda. Most people love it!

You will need a big, beautiful punch bowl

2 liters of 7up, Sprite or Ginger Ale
Rainbow Sherbert
1 bag of frozen mixed berries

Combine the ingredients and serve, the punch foams and bubbles and is quite fun.