What's Going On?

I've been on a little bloggy break lately. You can see what I've been up to here.
I wanted to share with you all a couple of new recipes.
I found this one at a new-to-me site, Recipe Shoebox.

The ingredients:
4 strips bacon, halved crosswise
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1-1/2 lbs)
salt and pepper
1 cup favorite BBQ sauce
1/2 chipotle pepper, minced (optional)
1/4 cup water4 large onion rolls, split (we used onion hamburger buns)
1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Fry bacon in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until crisp, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Cook chicken in bacon fat until browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Flip chicken and add barbecue sauce, chipotle pepper (if desired), and water.
Cover, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until chicken is cooked through and sauce is slightly thickened, about 8 minutes.
Remove chicken from skillet and slice into bite size pieces. Arrange onion rolls cut side up on baking sheet. Divide chicken among bottom haves of rolls and top with sauce, cheese, and bacon.
Bake open-faced sandwiches in oven until cheese melts and rolls are golden brown, about 4 minutes. Top each sandwich with toasted roll top.
Serve immediately with a fruit smoothie on the side. Makes 4 sandwiches. Enjoy!

My notes: I skipped the chipotle pepper just because I didn't have any around. I doubled the recipe and added more bacon, because, ya know, bacon!!! YUM!! It was absolutely delicious, we all loved it.

And this dish from Taste of Home is sitting in my refrigerator right now, waiting for me to finish it for our breakfast in the morning. I'll let you know how it turns out. I am so looking forward to going home and eating it, it sounds wonderful!

Ingredients
1 loaf (10 ounces) French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (10 cups)
8 eggs
3 cups milk
4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt, optional
TOPPING:
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Maple syrup, optional

Directions
Place bread cubes in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and salt if desired. Pour over bread. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Dot with butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the top.
Cover and bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes. Serve with maple syrup if desired. Yield: 12 servings.

My Easter Dish

We're going to my parents' house for Easter and my Mama is making a ham. My contribution is going to be Cheezy Potatoes. I didn't want to make potato salad again, so I decided to make something potato-y and cheesy. I went to allrecipes.com and found this Cheezy Potato recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 pound frozen Southern-style hash brown potatoes
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of potato soup
• 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
• 1 (16 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup crushed potato chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large baking dish, mix together potatoes, soup and sour cream. Mix in cheese and butter. Salt and pepper to taste, if desired. Top the mixture with potato chips.
3. Bake 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mixture is bubbly and lightly brown.
4. Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes before serving.

However, I chose to substitute bacon for the potato chips, because...um, hello, bacon?? Who needs a reason?

In fact, I think that should be one of Southern Loving's mottos: One never needs a reason for bacon.

I'll let you know tomorrow how it turns out, but I really don't see how I can go wrong with these ingredients!

Oh, and my Mom is making Chocolate Delight....I think I'll post that recipe next! It's fantastic!