French Toast Casserole..Yum!

Okay having recently checked out Money Saving Mom.com blog, I have fallen in love with her freezer ready recipes. I was very intrigued at the French Toast Casserole in particular. I'm new to freezing meals and having them ready just to heat at a moment's notice. Taken to allrecipes.com (one of my fave sites EVER!) and it looked very similar to bread pudding. Less butter but still quite yummy looking. I added it to my weekly meal plan and tried it out on Friday.  Since it was so close to bread pudding i knew to up the amount of Vanilla Extract in the recipe. I am a vanilla extract nut. when a recipe calls for 1tsp I add 3. So yeah i added more then the recommended amount and to the top raisins. Yum! It bakes at 350 for 45-40 min and my house began to smell the way it doe when my mom used to make budin or Bread pudding with raisins.

when the timer went off this is what i had:

Can We say Yummy! This was sweet,warm, gooey,crunchy and comforting all in one bite! I've never seen my daughter go through food so fast before. Even my 9 month old son loved it! 

This was so easy and I always have the ingredients on hand. The hubby came home from drill and devoured what was leftover. I made it again for Father's day breakfast and I know he loved waking up to the sweet smells of baking in the morning.


This is going to be such a keeper for the the recipe binder. Though there is no need for a recipe. It's committed to memory. I love that it only has 2 TBS butter in addition to the butter used to coat or as I call it "color" the baking dish. I call it coloring because i used butter in a stick form and it does feel very much like coloring.

According to MSM and the comments to the post, you can either bake this through and freeze it or leave it raw and freeze. If baked through thaw then bake at 350 for 30 min. How easy is that!

This is great for a quick go to recipe and would brighten any occasion or holiday. Click HERE to get the recipe. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

My Kobo ereader cover!

Okay I LOVE my Kobo ereader. It is perfect for my needs which are:
1. read a book without having pages to turn and distract infant while nursing.
2. Easily download and read Library digi books.
3. adjust text size and have wifi

Okay when looking for an ereader i wanted something that was almost bare bones and just simple to use. I didn't need touch, cause the boy is getting bigger and arms are getting longer so touch screens are out. Kobo has only one button with four points on it to aid in menu selection, page turning, and adjusting text size and a few other things, but I'm not going into that. If you'd like good reviews please see a YouTube review of the Kobo. Price was a factor too and i got this on ebay for less than $60 including shipping!

It has WIFi which is great if I'm away from my computer and wish to buy a book. It can easily handle epub and pdf formats and digi books from the library which is great! Increasing Library circulation and letting the higher ups know that ebooks at the library are where it's at!  Customer Service is nice too. 

I also love the quilted texture on the back of the reader which helps with gripping the reader. Fabulous! However, being the lover of accessories ..ie I'm a woman...had to dress up and protect (protection being high on my list..hardy har..yes it was there..somewhere...but there) my ereader. So, to Etsy I went.  I did a search for kobo ereader covers and found that seller are willing to customize covers made for the Nook and Kindle to match the size of the Kobo ereader. Yay! It really came down to one seller who had soem striking covers: Dana Designs. She had two that were basically the same thing but with different band colors. One in Magenta and the other in a rich purple. For $24 these are a steal and a treasure!

Dana has been on Etsy since 2009 and is  SAHM to three kids, a military wife, and loves shopping for fabric (sister we need to hang out).In addition to ereader covers she also makes tooth-fairy pillows and coffee cup sleeves.

So my decision came to:

Before purchasing i asked if she could customize it to the Kobo specs and she graciously said yes. Purchased the item included specs and shortly there after I got an email from Dana saying the process would take about 10 days. My reply: I look forward to a surprise in my mailbox.
(I love getting parcels. That and handwritten letters.)

Okay above is Dana's gorgeous pic of the cover. Here are my amateur pics, so hang on and i apologize for the glare ..still figuring out lighting and camera settings.

The item came wrapped meticulously in pink tissue paper with a label of Dana Designs.

After opening the tissue paper and yes i unwrap like a little kid..I did say I love parcels.  Holding the cover in my hands was like holding a beautiful glove. It's a work of art. Beautiful craftsmanship and attention to details and it's just for me.

The magenta stripe has velcro so the cover shuts and protects (see there it is) the ereader. It's cushioned and safe in the custom cut corners and fits in a as snug as a bug in a rug. I can still easily access the Kobo button for page turning etc. On the right hand side there are two little pockets for whatever..USB cords, reading light, paci. Will be handy when i travel with my ereader.

 I am just so happy with this that i had to blog about this bling for my Kobo. If you have an ereader and wish to accessorize it in a decadent way I highly suggest that you go to Dana's Designs and check out her gorgeous stock.

Summer readin': My top 8 Addictive Authors

Summer is here!

I love summer. The island girl in me really awakens and my skin itches for sand surf and salty sea air. When relaxin by the pool, having a quiet afternoon or just wanting to have some night time reading, I always turn to a few authors for great reading. I have so many but these are my top 8. Not all are series books but each author has had me addicted to their style and their attention to character development that i find myself itching for the next book to release even if it's a year or two away.

1. Clive Cussler - Dirk Pitt, Kurt Austen, and Fargo series are my fave. Great action adventure novels with underwater action and Historical tie-ins.  Great stuff. I've been reading Cussler since I was 15. My Dad started me with Inca Gold I've been hooked ever since!

2.Lauren Willig - The Flower Spy series. Mystery, intrigue, Jane Austen settings, romance and great historical fiction fun! Can't wait for the new book to come out in January 2012.

3. Charlaine Harris - Sookie Stackhouse Novels aka Southern Vampire Mysteries. These are the books that started the whole True Blood Series on HBO. I love these books! Mystery suspense, thriller, vampires, weres, Fae, shifters, witches and a whole lot more and a little small town bar maid who is more than she appears to be.  What more could you want?  (Eric in person! duh)  The audiobooks are great!

4. Sarah Addison Allen -  Her novels all take place in the south and have such great magic and small town lore about them. Her first couple of books even have recipes. There is always great food involved in her books. But the mystery is what really keeps you going. Her main characters are strong and curious. These for me are especially great summer reads.

5. Michelle Moran - If you are fancying a trip to the ancient world, then Michelle Moran is your author. Her first novel Nefertiti, is rich in historical fact and fiction. Heretic Queen is another wonderful trip down the Nile and Cleopatra's Daughter are all wonderfully written books with rich landscapes and powerful storylines that will keep you turning pages well into the wee hours of the night. Audiobooks are great here too!

6. Colleen Gleason - Before there was Buffy there was Victoria Gardella. Lady of the ton by day and vampire slayer by night. As her website says " Balls, Beaux, dance cards..and fangs?" Great page turners and the characters are all interesting with their own histories and tales. You will love Victoria and how she naigates her new role and tries to balance family and romance through out this series.

7. Kresely Cole - Immortals After Dark Series is HOT! Paranormal Romance fans will find this a great series as will other readers who are just getting into vampires, werewolves and the like. Cole weaves in mystical characters with myths and legendary characters like the Fae and Valkyrie along with vampires werewolves and witches. The men are hot and the women are strong and complex. Plot lines are always winding and weaving leaving the reader wanting more. Great cover art too.

8. Sherrilyn Kenyon - Dark Hunter series. Love Greek gods and vampires then this series is the ticket. Kenyon blends myth and romance beautifully. You will find you have a love-hate relationship with Artemis goddess of  the hunt and her temper tantrums and love of family. You will totally go for Acheron and his band of dark-Hunters who are sexy strong and captivating. The cast of characters is long and wide in Keyon's Dark-hunter world but all is explained and as you delve into the series, it becomes easier to remember who does what and what things mean. Various Pantheons of gods and goddesses are used to bring in different characters so that there characters are not limited to just greek and roman type characters. Audiobooks here are also great and you will Love Simi! If i had the money I would so get the custom doll.


I hope that this list can provide you with some great summer reads. Let me know what authors you find addictive and love to read cover to cover almost in one sitting.