Fabulous French Toast

I recently had a craving for French toast that just would

not go away.  This was unusual as I had not eaten it in several years. 

Mostly because I frequently found restaurant versions to be way

too sweet for my taste and I had this idea that it was

difficult to make well at home. 

Turns out, the latter is not true at all.  

 I made French toast for breakfast yesterday and it

was so good and ridiculously easy to make. 

Here's the recipe:

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

2 c. milk

1/4 tsp. salt

6 eggs

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 TBSP white sugar

12 thick bread slices (I used Texas Toast)

1.  Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk.

Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract

and sugar until smooth.

2.Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium heat.

3.  Dip bread slices in mixture and saturate.

 

4.  Cook bread on each side until golden brown.

Served with bacon and fresh fruit. 

DIY Breadcrumbs

I decided to try making my own breadcrumbs today because...

well, it just seemed silly to run to the store for them

when I have plenty of bread available. 

At my daughter's request, I am preparing spaghetti and meatballs

for dinner tonight.  The meatball recipe is fabulous

and can be found here.

Back to the breadcrumbs... they're super easy to make.

Just add bread to a blender (1-2 pieces at a time)

and chop until they reach a fine consistency.

Then, spread over a baking sheet and bake at 200*,
stirring every 15 min. or so

until the crumbs are completely dry.
(Mine took about 40 min.)

Remove from oven and cool.
Store in an airtight container.

Since we're going Italian tonight, I took the recipe a step further

by stirring in the following ingredients for seasoning into 1 c. breadcrumbs:

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dried parsley flakes

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 tsp. dried basil

So much better than the store bought breadcrumbs!

We Scream for Ice Cream!

We recently purchased an ice cream maker and I'm having fun with
collecting new recipes to try. I'm starting with the basics. 
The first batch was vanilla and and it
was devoured within 24 hours. 

Today, at hubby's request, I'm making chocolate. 

It's churning away in the kitchen right now.

My daughter served as a kitchen helper today. 

I was in charge of measuring and she was in charge of pouring

and mixing.  Everything was going great until we realized

we did not have enough ice to fill the maker.

This is when we made a mad dash out the door and jumped

in the car for a quick trip to the store.  All the way there

we were screaming, "Ice Cream Emergency!!!" and making siren noises. 

We then raced into the store, located the ice,

and got right back out in record time,

laughing the whole way.

Bring On the Bacon!

I am just coming out of a vegetarian phase. 

Not an unusual thing for me though as I have maintained

a similar cycle of eating habits throughout my life

in which I'm loving all kinds of meat and having fun

experimenting with new recipes and preparation

methods and then I'm suddenly repulsed by it

and I go vegetarian. 

This goes on for awhile and then I'm back. 

This is where I am today.

Today I am going to have a sandwich of turkey, bacon, 

avocado and provolone on rye.

Also on the menu for this week:  pork chops, steak kabobs, and crab.

  Mmmm...bacon.