Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year: Week 8

Nestled in the breakfast section, this Baked Egg Bread Pudding is full of surprises. Soft, yet not soggy, the French bread portion of this recipe received the egg mixture wonderfully and the meal could be adapted to fit individual needs quite easily. As Charlie and I enjoy breakfast for dinner and he leaves for work too early to prepare a full breakfast, we paired this bread pudding with the remaining French baguette toasted with Nutella or jam and fresh fruit for our dinner instead. For his portion, I added two eggs on top instead of just the one to beef up the protein content and it did not require any additional cooking time or special accommodations which was great.

Crowd Average Rating:

With an average rating of a 6, this Baked Egg Bread Pudding was a tasty meal, but did not blow us away. While we both enjoyed our portions, it did not make such an impression on us that we are dying to make it again, however it would be an easy item to serve if you had 4 guests. As it was just the two of us, we did have to reheat our leftovers which was a bit tricky to accomplish without exploding the egg in the microwave. Likewise, be sure to check ahead of time to ensure that you have oven safe ramekins if you want an attractive display. I discovered that the ramekins that I had originally planned to use were not actually oven safe, so I had to resort to our traditional bowls instead, which did not seem to hurt the recipe, except perhaps in presentation.

As the last soup scheduled in our 1 Year Guide for some time until much later in the fall, this Sausage and Kale Soup was the perfect note to temporarily end on.  Full of flavor and quite hearty, this soup feels both substantial and healthy. Since we had the ingredients on hand, we paired this soup with the Bacon & Gruyere Drop Biscuits (and did not use parchment paper!) from the first week of the challenge which was a wonderful addition (to read about our experience with the biscuits, check it out here).

Crowd Average Rating:

As Charlie’s highest rated soup thus far, the Sausage and Kale Soup earned an average rating of 7.5! We both really enjoyed this meal and perhaps the only change we will make for the future would be to cut the sausage rounds in half to better disperse the sausage throughout the soup instead of alternating bites filled with or devoid of sausage. While this is a very simple tweak, I think it would enhance the meal and be an easy step to include. Other than that, we loved this dinner and felt it was the perfect companion for a cold and rainy Sunday.

While lemon bars are such an easy dessert to create, they were in fact an item I had never tried to make. That fact, however, will long be abandoned as this recipe for Mina’s Lemon Bars will be an addition to our table quite frequently in the future. A beautiful blend between sweet, chewy, buttery and flakey, these lemon bars are just divine. Perfect for almost any time of day, this dessert is fabulous to feed a crowd, take to a friend or just have around the house as they are easily portable and do not have to be refrigerated which is always a plus.

Crowd Average Rating:

Our highest rated item this week (and Charlie’s first 10 rating!), these Lemon Bars received an average rating of an 8. Served to our Sunday dinner crowd, they did not gain a single rating below a 7 and seemed to be enjoyed (or loved) by most.

• Rotisserie chicken
• Water chestnuts
• Almonds
• Chives
• Mayonnaise
• Soy sauce

• Curry powder
• Garlic powder
• Ground pepper
• Kosher salt
• Hearty bread
• Bacon
• Brussels sprouts

• Olive oil
• Butter
• Pecans
• Brown sugar
• Garlic salt
• Balsamic vinegar