Breakfast of Champions- Cinnamon Toast Crunch Sticks

I put a teaser photo up on Facebook last week of this yumminess and feel terrible that the tease lasted so long! I recently started a new job part time and it has rocked my planned out world! It is my first away from home job I have had since I had my first muffin six years ago so it has been quite a change for all of us. I love the job and feel so blessed, it has just put super fun things like blogging and recipe browsing on the back burner. We love us some cinnamon toast around here with eggs for breakfast. We also love us some Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal. Last week when I was cooking some breakfast I decided to put a spin on the traditional cinnamon toast. My muffins always gobble up the bread until the edge of the crust then pitch it aside. I decided to crust the bread and let is simmer in some love butter...and it turned out to be cinnamon toast crunch perfection. This has a similar feel to a Mexican churro so what's not to love? This is great for any meal or snack!

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Sticks-Made enough for 4, adjust recipe to how many you need
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tsp honey
2 tsp veggie oil
5 slices bread (I used wheat) with crusts cut off and cut into 3 long planks
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

Let me preface by saying that I did this recipe in two batches. If you have a super large non-stick then you can do them all at one time. I was too lazy to dig for my giant pan so I did two batches. You really do need a non stick surface to cook this on. Let's begin.

With the heat on medium-low, slowly melt 1 Tbsp of butter, 1 tsp honey and 1 tsp oil (if you are using a giant pan then melt all of the butter, honey and oil at one time). Let the mixture get good and friendly and warm. Meanwhile, in a medium size bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

Slowly place your bread on top of the butter honey mixture but try not to move the bread around so that there is plenty of butter love for all. Let the butter soak and cook in the mixture for 2-3 minutes until golden. Once it is golden, flip the bread and let it toast on the other side for about 1 minute.
After the bread has toasted, remove the planks one at a time and roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat again until all of the bread is cooked and coated.
Stack them up and watch them disappear!!
Enjoy y'all!

Home Sweet Home - Jalapeno Cream Corn

 

This past Memorial Day weekend we took a super quick and super long trip to my home state of Texas! It was so good to be back in the Promised Land. The salesman asked me while we were there if everyone has this much state pride or if it is only in the DFW area...to which I chuckled and just left the comment hanging in the air like some sheets drying in the sun. I think we saw no less than 100 state flags flying high and 24 businesses named "Texas" something or other before we got fifty miles over the border. I love Texas. I love the dry heat that smacks you in the face. I love the giant pickup trucks that cover the cement filled cities. I love the metal fences encasing wild horses running around private prairie land. It is my home. My Texas roots are generations deep and I hope that my babies will fall head over heels in love with my home too.
During our 2200 mile, five day trip we covered a lot of territory and ate a lot of really good food! I have posted before about Pappasito's, my absolute favorite Mexican restaurant. While we were in Fort Worth we stopped to gobble up some fajitas and fresh salsa and it was all as good as I remembered. While we were in Abilene we stopped at a local bar-b-q joint for some Texas staples of smoked sausage, beef brisket and pinto beans. One other delight we had at the restaurant was creamed corn. Now, when I say creamed corn there are about five variations that pop on my head that I make. Since I am a born again Southern Texan I cook everything from creamed corn to corn pudding to jalapeno corn bread. But, this cream corn was a spin on an old dish my mom has been making for years called creamed cheese corn. It is every bit as sinful as it sounds. If you thought that slathering a huge block of butter and a heavy dash of salt on a cob was bad, this is going to move you on down to the naughty list. This variation is the perfect fusion of my roots combining good old southern love (butter and cream) with good Texas heat. Can I get a yeehaw y'all?

2 blocks of cream cheese (yep, you read that right!)
1 stick of butter
1 cup milk or cream (really, might as well go all out at this point)
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 bags frozen or 5 can drained of kernal corn (I prefer frozen)
1/2 -1 jalapeno finely chopped (I prefer more heat)

If you prefer a crock pot you can dump all of this into the crock pot, turn it to low heat and let it cook for 2-3 hours on low, stirring every now and then.
For stovetop, place your corn in a large bowl.
Slowly melt the cream cheese, butter and milk in a saucepan on medium low heat. Whisk in the flour, salt, garlic powder and jalapeno. Pour cream mixture over corn and stir to combine. Pour mixture into an oven safe dish with a lid and cook for 30 minutes at 350.
Serves 8-10

Enjoy Y'all!