Caramelized French Toast

If it was morning when I found myself on the east campus of the community college where I worked, I always contrived to get over to the cafeteria for breakfast. Of the four campuses, East had the best french toast and home fried potatoes. During the last minute or so of cooking, they sprinkled the toast with a thick layer of a sugar and cinnamon mix, then flipped it face down on the grill. It came up syrupy and cooled into a thin crunchy candy crust that needed no other syrup to enjoy. YUM!

If I happened to arrive at just the right time Jim, the manager, would dish my home fries as they came out of the fryer, before the heavy salt and seasonings were added (I’m on a loosely restricted sodium diet). Jim often catered my campus events when I was an activities coordinator, and it was from him that I learned the little tricks of presentation that I still employ for festive gatherings at home.

I whipped up some french toast the other morning and at the last minute remembered to throw on some brown sugar for old time’s sake. Thaniel liked it a lot, but I did wind up eating his leftovers!

We all scream for ice cream

Enjoying a big scoop of Cold Stone Creamery mocha ice cream with roasted almonds and heath bar crunch with hubby, while watching one of our favorite movies, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?. “This place is a geographical oddity: two weeks from Everywhere!” Hee-hee!

I was never really one for dessert before I met Scott, who seemed to like it after every meal except breakfast. And while I have favorites when we go out, at home we keep it simple with ice cream. Yes I blame, er, credit hubby with my ice cream habit!

When we were first married and living in El Paso, TX, where there was not a Publix and therefore no Publix Premium ice cream to be found, we favored Dreyers, which we later learned was the west-of-the-Mississippi name for Edy’s (same striped packaging). When I first went to therapy for lymphedema and had to cut back on fat in my diet, I switched to orange sherbert with dark chocolate chips. Later we started making our own ice cream based on recipes from Ben & Jerry’s recipe book, in the snazzy red Cuisinart ice cream freezer we got free with some points-reward program. Talk about rich; we made it full-fat, and after eating a bowl, you could wipe the grease off your lips!

In the early days we ate our ice cream out of an eclectic mix of coffee mugs collected over our college days and first jobs. A few years ago when I was a consultant with Southern Living At HOME, I picked up a few special dishes sized just right for our evening scoops. I do believe enjoying our favorite flavors in a pressed glass compote or brightly colored tidbit makes for a double-whammy of happy. And of course, the company is important; sometimes I open the freezer because I know it’s five minutes I know we’ll sit down together in the same place!

Tags: dessert, Scott

Steel cut Irish oatmeal with apples, cinammon and raisins

A few months ago, my friend Beata called because she was worried her toddler (a few months younger than mine) wasn’t eating well or enough.  Turns out he eats better than mine!  Along the way she mentioned that his favorite breakfast was steel cut oats, which she served with a dollop of applesauce.  I’d wanted to try steel cut oats since another acquaintance posted about them on Facebook, and the applesauce angle was enough to make me pick up a can on my next grocery run.  I got the 5-minute version (vs. the traditional 30-minute oats) because it fit into our morning routine better, and swirled it with a healthy amount of homemade applesauce.  It was an instant hit!  This week I didn’t have time to make applesauce, so this morning I chopped an apple and let it simmer with the oatmeal, which Thaniel loved just as much.  I liked the texture of the chopped apples.

Irish oatmeal with apples, cinammon and raisins
1 1/2 cups water or milk (I use 1 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup water)
1 apple, peeled and chopped fine (a “slap chop” works great for this)
1 stick cinammon
brown sugar to taste (you won’t need much if the apple is sweet)
1/2 cup steel cut oats
1 spoonful of golden raisins per serving

Put everything except the oats in a pot and bring to a boil. Add oats, cover and simmer until done, about five minutes. Remove the cinammon stick and stir in golden raisins. Enjoy!

Homemade applesauce (I totally wing this), to serve with plain oatmeal or all by itself
1 sack of organic apples, peeled and chopped
1-2 sticks of cinammon
A couple of shakes of whole cloves
Brown sugar to taste

Put everything in a pot with just a bit of water, maybe an inch deep (you’re not trying to cover the apples, they will produce a lot of juice on their own). Simmer until apples are tender. Remove cinammon and cloves. Put apples through a potato ricer or otherwise puree them (blender, food processor, hand blender).  Store in the fridge for as long as it lasts (not long!).

Tags: Beata, breakfast

On food and friends

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink. ~Epicurus

Over the years I realized that many of the foods I enjoy on a daily basis were introduced to me by a friend, or were first experienced in the company of a friend.  I remember Shawn when enjoying fried calamari with a glass of red wine; Ellen when dipping into a fondue pot; Mona when lamenting the lack of a decent cup of chai.  Suzi is the reason I throw a double-handful of chocolate chips into my banana nut bread batter, and Erin the means by which I finally conquered crispy home-made pizza dough.  At my first professional job after grad school, Shawn and Brenda gently introduced me to coffee.  I was twenty-three!

When scrapbooking was all the rage, I resolved to create a record of my little culinary indulgences along with the friends responsible for them and the memories surrounding them.  That, of course, never came to pass.  So here is the blog form, which hopefully I’ll add to from time to time, as I remember the origin of the meal I’m enjoying at the moment.

He who eats alone, chokes alone. ~Proverb