CUSTAR – Jessica Nagel is used to feeding a crowd.

“I really only know how to cook enough to feed an army,” Nagel said.

She cooks for 300-400 people for ag breakfasts where she teaches “and never bats an eyelash.” Nagel also handles the morning meal for fair board directors during the week of the Wood County Fair.

The need to feed a crowd is how she came across her Pecan Caramel French Toast Casserole.

Nagel needed multiple casseroles for breakfast for a sunrise service at her church and an internet search turned up this recipe.

She said she can have this dish ready to bake in 30 minutes.

The original recipe did not have pecans in it and she didn’t like the flavor of the caramel sauce, so she changed it to the ice cream topping.

“It didn’t have enough flavor to it,” Nagel said about the original caramel.

She also added heavy cream to the custard and topping.

After experimenting with Italian bread and not liking the results, Nagel said she switched to the French bread.

“Other people have said sourdough (bread) works really well in it because it gives it a different flavor,” she said.

Nagel has deep roots in Wood County.

She is a past member of the Leaders of Tomorrow and Beaver Creek Boosters 4-H clubs.

Nagel earned her degree in agriculture education from Ohio State University. She is a 1998 Bowling Green High School graduate and also attended Otsego Local Schools.

A member of her family has served on the Wood County Fair Board since 1964. Nagel’s term ends next year.

When Nagel taught ag education in Van Buren, the beef show at the Hancock County Fair was early in the morning so she started taking breakfast casseroles to feed the kids who were showing.

She has been teaching ag education at Fairview High School northwest of Defiance since 2010, and she has continued feeding her students for early-morning events.

For those meals, it is sausage and gravy with biscuits, scrambled eggs, pancakes and hashbrowns.

“Making 80 pounds of pancake mix is nothing,” Nagel said, adding that cooking for 40 people is normal at Thanksgiving.

Nagel said she became interested in ag education, first in 4-H and then FFA.

She worked in the flower shop at Klotz in Bowling Green and raised hogs and chicken for her supervised agricultural experience in FFA.

She helped Elmwood High School’s Zane Hagemeyer prepare for his interview for a national FFA award based on his own SAE. That award will be presented Saturday at the national FFA convention in Indianapolis.

Nagel is a self-taught cook and has been making dinner since she was 12; the first person home had to make that meal. For her, that typically meant something out of a box.

Now she finds her recipes on the internet and has learned the more she preps in advance, the easier it is.

While Nagel prefers to cooking to baking – and is adamantly opposed to making cookies – she does enjoy baking cheesecakes and pies.

She said all of her cheesecakes use her aunt’s plain cheesecake base. One of the better ones was using Girl Scout Samoas, but her favorite is turtle. The worst one she’s ever made was using Girl Scout Thin Mints.

Nagel said she does a lot of breakfasts because she has a lot of morning meetings.

She said the Wood County Fair Board directors meet early in the morning during fair week.

“Every morning during fair week, I get up at 5:30 and toss breakfast in. … I made sure everyone had breakfast. Everything was stuff I could easily make, and this was one of them,” Nagel said about the French toast casserole.

She also has cheesy potato and sausage and vegetable casseroles in her repertoire.

Nagel is in charge of the Home and Garden entries plus Handicrafts and Hobbies at the fair. She also has organized the Cook Out for the past dozen years. In 2022, competitors entered their best BBQ and a picnic salad, among other dishes.

She would not disclose what she has planned for 2023, when the fair celebrates its 150th anniversary. She teased that it would go with the Fair Family Reunion theme.

Pecan Caramel French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

Topping

1/2 stick butter

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon caramel ice cream topping

Bread & Custard

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 loaf (about 8 ounces) French bread, cut into cubes

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions

Butter a 9 x 13 baking pan and set aside.

For topping, in a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Once butter has melted, stir in brown sugar until dissolved and mixture is smooth. Add heavy cream and caramel topping. Stir until smooth. Pour mixture into bottom of 9×13 pan and spread evenly. Add a layer of chopped pecans.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, heavy cream, milk, vanilla and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Add bread cubes and mix, ensuring all pieces of bread are saturated.

Pour bread/custard mixture into pan, spreading over the top of the brown sugar/butter mixture. Add the remaining pecans.

Mix the remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon brown sugar and sprinkle on top.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake covered for 25-30 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Pecan Caramel French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

Topping

1/2 stick butter

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon caramel ice cream topping

Bread & Custard

6 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 loaf (about 8 ounces) French bread, cut into cubes

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions

Butter a 9 x 13 baking pan and set aside.

For topping, in a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Once butter has melted, stir in brown sugar until dissolved and mixture is smooth. Add heavy cream and caramel topping. Stir until smooth. Pour mixture into bottom of 9×13 pan and spread evenly. Add a layer of chopped pecans.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, heavy cream, milk, vanilla and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Add bread cubes and mix, ensuring all pieces of bread are saturated.

Pour bread/custard mixture into pan, spreading over the top of the brown sugar/butter mixture. Add the remaining pecans.

Mix the remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon brown sugar and sprinkle on top.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake covered for 25-30 minutes. Remove cover and bake for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.