Apple Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding and P.E.O.

Tonight's meeting was the first meeting of our new year.  I co-hosted the meeting with Peggy Grote, who was the chapter president when I moved to St. Charles.  Such a welcoming lady!  We met at the First Christian Church and had our social hour first.  I served up the warm cinnamon roll bread pudding and poured a little of Deb Othic's Warm Vanilla Sauce and the combination was magical!  So many compliments on the dessert!

P.E.O. is so very important to me.  I joined in Jefferson City (Chapter FS) and instantly became friends with all the members.  Attending meetings and sharing programs and memories were some of the highlights of my time in Jefferson City.  When I was recuperating from my double mastectomies, P.E.O. was a godsend to Bob and my family during that time as they supplied meals, cards, did errands, cleaned house, made phone calls, whatever they could think of to do to help out. When Ashley moved to Indiana, I made sure she found a P.E.O. chapter in her new community.

When we moved to St. Charles, one of the first things I did before I even moved was to find a chapter in St. Charles.  The first person I met was Liz Kallestad who worked hard to get me to one of their meetings.  Again, it was instant friendship with the ladies in this chapter (KQ).  I haven't attended as many meetings as I wanted, but I have done our Dinner Out and our Book Club.  I promised myself that when I retired, I would find more time for this chapter.

The recipe as I made it for tonight:

3 c half and half
4 eggs
1/2 c sugar
1 T good vanilla
3/4 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t salt
2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored ad chopped into 1" pieces
4 oz cream cheese, cut into 1/2" pieces
1 1/2 lbs of Tasty Kake premade cinnamon rolls, cut into 2" pieces

Heat oven to 300.  Grease a 9 by 13" pan.  Whisk together the half and half, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt in a very large bowl until smooth and well incorporated.  Add in the apples, cream cheese and cinnamon rolls.  Gently toss until the cinnamon rolls absorb the liquid.  Be gentle so that the bread doesn't turn to mush.  Pour into the greased pan.  Bake until the custard is set, about 60-70 minutes.  The top will be lightly browned.  Cut and serve with Warm Vanilla Sauce. Serves 15. 

Warm Vanilla Sauce
(Thank you Deb Othic!)

Freshly ground nutmeg.  It is so fragrant and pretty!

1 c sugar
2 T cornstarch
2 c hot water
1/4 c butter
2 t nutmeg
2 t good vanilla

Combine sugar and cornstarch, slowly incorporate into hot water.  Boil 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Stir in butter, vanilla and nutmeg.  Yum.

I'll be making this again.