Cooking my way to Italy!

My recipe contests are taking me to the height of adventure this week. I am going to ITALY!  As I pack my bags and dream of all that I will see in the next two weeks, I wanted to share the recipe that is responsible for such an incredible opportunity.  It is a simple bread pudding.  The best thing about this recipe is you can add your own variations- nuts, dried fruits, liquers- whatever suits your fancy!  Hope you enjoy and I look forward to sharing some fantastic Italian foodie photos when I return! Ciao!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces Philadelphia Indulgence, milk chocolate , room temperature
• 4 ounces Philadelphia Indulgence, white chocolate
• 8 cups Italian loaf bread, cubed into 1" pieces
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. Mix cubed bread in a large bowl with milk chocolate indulgence, stirring to coat all pieces.
3. In a seperate bowl, combine eggs, 1 T vanilla, milk, cream, 1 cup white sugar and mix with a hand mixer until well blended.
4. Pour wet mixture over bread cubes and stir.
5. Let bread sit for 5 minutes to soak up the liquid, stirring once or twice.
6. Pour entire mixture into the casserole dish and cover with foil.
7. Bake for 45 minutes, uncovering the last 5 minutes.
8. To make the sauce, combine butter, white chocolate indulgence, 1/2 C white sugar and brown sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
9. Cook until all sugar has melted and remove from heat and stir in 1 T vanilla.
10. Drizzle part of the sauce over the pudding, reserving the remainder to serve on the side.

Meeting Paula

So, there I was on stage with Paula Deen!  She is awarding me the "Videographer" award for Season 2 of  RWOP because my OCD had kicked into high gear and I made something like 32 recipe videos in 6 weeks!  Some would call it insanity, I like to refer to it as determination!  What I did not realize at the time was that this experience had sparked a passion inside of me that could not be extinguished.  I needed more, I yearned for the competition, the challenge and the reward of doing something outside of my comfort zone.  I was hooked and my competitve cooking took off this year. 

How It All Started

Chicken again for dinner, blah... Needing to find a recipe to jazz up what had become a bi-weekly event at my house, I headed for the computer and googled chicken recipes.  As I was browsing, a pop-up ad caught my eye.  Hmmm, Real Women of Philadelphia and some mention of Paula Deen. Well, growing up in Georgia, I can appreciate Paula's style of cooking and her infectious personality so I clicked on it.  What happened next is how this whole journey began...

I have spent the past year and a half creating recipes from a myriad of ingredients-Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Chef Boyardee canned goods, Pretzel Crisps and on and on.  I will be sharing the prize winning recipes as well lots of fun tidbits to keep us laughing and learning along the way.

If you are visiting this blog then you are most likely someone who enjoys cooking either as a hobby or is very passionate about cooking. Chances are if you are anything like me, you are not formally trained. Well, let's define formal training- you haven't attended culinary school, you don't work as a line chef, you aren't the owner of a famous restaurant...Yeah, you get the picture. But if you are here, we already have one thing in common... the love of food and a passion to show it on a plate!