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Best of 2015 – No 1 – Overnight Blueberry French Toast Casserole

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If you will be having overnight guests during the holiday season, you may want to consider this blueberry French toast recipe for breakfast. Perfect for any holiday brunch, it’s filled with fresh blueberries and topped with rich berry sauce. You can also choose to serve the blueberry sauce on the side. If strawberry is your preference, tweak the recipe to make it yours!

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Total time: Preparation 15 minutes + Cooking 1 hour 15 minutes

Yields 8 servings:

Ingredients:

12 slices day old bread, cut into 1 inch cubes

8 oz. cream cheese, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 cup fresh blueberries

12 eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup water

1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1. Lightly grease a 9*13 inch baking dish. Arrange half of the bread cubes in the dish, and top with cream cheese cubes. Sprinkle with 1 cup blueberries over the cream cheese and top it with remaining bread cubes.
2. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, vanilla extract, milk, and maple syrup. Pour over the bread cubes. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. Remove the bread cube mixture from the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).
4. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking 25 to 30 minutes until center is firm and surface is lightly browned.
5. In a medium saucepan, mix the cornstarch, sugar, and water. Bring to boil. Stirring constantly, cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in the remaining 1 cup blueberries. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes or until the blueberries burst. Stir in the butter and pour over the baked French toast.

Creamy, gooey, and crunchy at the same time, this holiday brunch recipe will certainly have your guests talking. Leftover sauce, if any would be great on pancakes, waffles, or pound cake.  Give it a try!

For a stuffed french toast recipe on Stagetecture, click here.

See the entire year of Stagetecture’s Best Of for 2015 posts!

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Best of 2015 – No 2 – Our Favorite Slow Cooker Recipes

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These days, Crock Pot Meals are becoming the most popular appliance of choice, and for a good reason. From side dishes to dinner to desserts, you can throw almost anything in the crock pot for scrumptious, slow simmered flavor. As the season of slow cooker meals is almost upon us, we point you our favorite recipes so that you can have your meal practically cook itself.

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Easy Slow Cooker Recipes

Pulled Pork Sliders

Looking for some perfect addition to a relaxed menu? Try these delicious, mouthwatering pulled pork sliders. The intelligent slow cooker does all the work for you, so that when you come back home six to eight hours later, you will have juicy pork ready to be shredded and served in a sandwich with your favorite barbecue sauce.

Herb Chicken with Mushrooms

Flavorful spices and herbs, onion and mushrooms give this plain herb chicken recipe a rich flavor. Vegetables and cooking juice complete the meal. If you don’t wish to use the wine, you can use cooking sherry instead and omit the salt. Serve it with mashed potatoes or a side dish like steamed green beans and you will have a satisfying meal.

Cranberry Pork

Cranberry pork tenderloin is a tasty, easy dinner any time of the year, but it’s especially a great choice during cooler weather. It’s healthy, simple, and just as good reheated the next day. A slow cooker really helps to bring out the best in pork loin, leaving it juicy and tender, and saving you hours in the kitchen.

Butternut Squash Soup

This one is one of our all time favorite soups. We love the recipe because you can throw everything in the crock pot and walk away. In about few hours you have a tasty soup all ready waiting for you. And of course, your home will smell just amazing while it’s cooking way. Simply open the cupboard and add what you desire. Freeze for another meal!

Slow cooker meals are such a time saver. Set and forget at the beginning of the day and come back home to a hot dinner. Let us know through comments what you think about our collection of recipes?

For more easy slow cooker recipes on Stagetecture, click here.

Check back throughout the week to see the rest of Stagetecture’s Best Of for 2015 posts!

Here’s links to the past ‘Best Of’ Stagetecture years:

Best of 2015 – No 3 – My Garden Party with Pier 1 Imports

Original Post:

This post is sponsored by Pier 1 Imports and the content and opinions are strictly my own.

My Garden Party – #SummerofEntertaining with Pier 1 Imports

All images via: Stagetecture

Last week I showed you how I transformed my dark and gloomy front porch into a welcoming garden Patio with Pier 1 Imports Outdoor Entertaining decor. This week I had fun in my new outdoor area throwing a garden party!

Let me show you how to host a garden party this summer with delicious food, natural decor and garden inspired favors your guests can take home and plant their own garden inspiration.

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Setting up your garden party decor

What I love the most about a garden party is it can be as casual or formal as you would like. I decided to use natural elements for decoration around the Oversized Outdoor Tray from Pier 1 Imports. Lemons, plastic silverware and the Trellis and Carmelo Melamine Dinner Plates create a backdrop area for dinnerware.

The Green Clarity Acrylic Goblets and the Pier 1 Imports fabric napkins and floral napkin rings tie the green garden theme in beautifully beside a galvanized pail of ice for your guests’ drinks. I used flowerpots with garden gloves to hold utensils. A festive way to carry out the garden theme!

Choosing garden themed food for your party

On hot summer days there’s nothing more refreshing than light fare such as vegetable spring rolls, spinach turkey and strawberry wraps beside cucumbers, fresh fruit and croissants. Your favorite assortment of gourmet shortbread cookies on the side will leave your guests delighted with your party.

Send your guests home with garden-inspired favors

A garden party isn’t complete without garden-inspired favors for your guests to take home. What would be more fitting than fresh flowers in personalized pots, and packets of seeds for guests to plant when they get home? I used moss in each of the pots, tied a ribbon, and found these cute inspirational rocks to give each guest. Use the rest of your fresh flowers in the centerpiece. The Oval Plant Stand gave a tiered display area for the favors.

Find what speaks to you at Pier 1 Imports. See their Outdoor Living collection in stores or at pier1.com/outdoorliving.

For more outdoor home ideas on Stagetecture, click here.

Check back throughout the week to see the rest of Stagetecture’s Best Of for 2015 posts!

Here’s links to the past ‘Best Of’ Stagetecture years:

Best of 2015 – No 4 – Easy Meatloaf Recipe

Craving for a warming, autumn-inspired meal? Here is a classic meatloaf recipe that is just perfect for cooler weather evenings. Serve it with simple mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes for a hearty, satisfying meal it will give your usual chicken recipe a run for it’s money! The only secret to get it right is very finely chopped vegetables that will give it its due moisture and flavor. We point you the recipe.

Image via: Martha Stewart

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Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Yields: 10 servings

Meatloaf Ingredients

1 coarsely chopped carrot

1 coarsely chopped rib celery

½ coarsely chopped onion

½ coarsely chopped red bell pepper

4 coarsely chopped mushrooms

3 chopped garlic cloves

2 ½ pounds ground chuck

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup plain bread crumbs

1 teaspoon olive oil

Glaze Ingredients

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Hot pepper sauce to taste

Procedure

Image via: Betty Crocker

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Place the carrot, onion, celery, red bell pepper, mushrooms, and garlic in a food processor, and pulse until very finely chopped, almost to puree. Put the minced vegetables into a large mixing bowl, and mix in ground chuck, Worcestershire sauce, and egg. Add salt, black pepper, Italian herbs, and cayenne pepper. Using a wooden spoon mix gently to incorporate vegetables and egg into the meat. Pour in bread crumbs. With gently mix bread crumbs until combined.
3. Form the meatloaf into a ball. Pour olive oil into a baking dish and place the meat of ball onto the dish. Now shape it into a loaf, about 4 inches high by 6 inches across.
4. Bake in a preheated oven just until meatloaf is hot about 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix together ketchup, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, and hot sauce. Stir until brown sugar gets dissolved.
6. Remove meatloaf from oven. With back of the spoon, smooth the glaze onto the top of the meatloaf. Then pull a little bit of glaze down the sides of the meatloaf with the back of the spoon.
7. Return meatloaf back to oven and bake until the loaf is no longer pink inside and glaze has baked onto the loaf, approx 30-40 minutes. Insert an instant read thermometer into the thickest part of the loaf which should read at least 70 degrees C. cooking time will depend on the thickness and shape off the meatloaf.

This classic meatloaf tastes so good that you might want to double the recipe so that everyone can enjoy second servings. However, still if there are any leftovers, simply chill and reheat. The slices also taste good in sandwiches as well.

Please share with us your best meatloaf recipe!

Check back throughout the week to see the rest of Stagetecture’s Best Of for 2015 posts!

Here’s links to the past ‘Best Of’ Stagetecture years:

Best of 2015 – No 5 – How to Make Cork Wreaths 

How to Make A Cork Christmas Wreath

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Creative Cork Christmas Crafts

It is worth recycling corks all year just to get to enjoy their versatility as a building material in December. Using wine corks as creative outlets, you children will grow with a healthy idea on how to recycle and reuse objects around them. Valuable not only as a fun material, but as a set of building blocks – I have seen amazing bathroom mats made from cork – cork has also inspired designers to use it for building modern furniture, like the Pushpin by Kenyon Yeh.

Miniature Cork Christmas Trees

Cork Christmas trees are a joy to look at – their simplicity adorns any corner of the house and choosing differently colored corks (or paint them yourself), the mini Christmas trees will look like adorned with Christmas tree globes. A small branch at the base will give your miniature trees that earthy edge and the perfect excuse to go look for the branch in the nearest park or forest. Scavenger hunts with your children will be greatly appreciated before the start of the holiday season.

Cork Christmas Wreath for a Welcoming Home

Instead of buying more and more decorations that follow each year’s Christmas trend, mind as well create our own Christmas decorations. This activity saves money, encourages creativity and co-work, not to mention it’s an eco-friendly way of decorating the home this holiday. Cork Christmas decorations can be enjoyed especially by children – this is how they learn that our endangered planet is theirs to save for their own children.

Miniature Reindeer in Herds

A small wine cork reindeer herd can decorate your mantel, the stairs or a strategically placed side table. Cork craft is easy and fun and can successfully be the original elements you change each year for the holidays. These wine cork ornaments can be displayed alongside treasured inherited ornaments – they are be as artistic as you are.

Corks and family

Around Christmas, the home becomes a playground for the whole family, regardless of age. Wine cork Christmas crafts can be introduced as part of a special social time among family members. Use recycled corks to write a welcoming message in tone with the holidays. “Merry Christmas” sounds like a good start. Each letter will be worth the patience and you will definitely want to teach someone how to work their way around cork lettering after you’ve done this project. The impermeable letters can be used to decorate the outdoors, too – imagine a special message for the whole neighborhood to see.

A small army of wine cork snowmen

Chances are your kids will fall in love with this easy to make Christmas project. Painted corks can become a small snowmen army – use your imagination and stuff you have around the house to compose your own snowman design and multiply it in assorted details.  This will keep you entertained and spark up a conversation with every visit. Have fun and enjoy the holidays!