Circuit Breaker French Toast

It was already 90 degrees when we arose this morning - at eight o'clock - so perhaps turning on the coffee pot, the toaster oven (to warm the plates), and the Griddler to make French Toast was not the best idea.  With the high expected to be 100 toasty degrees and heat indices around 115, my heart stopped beating when all of a sudden it got very quiet and rather dark.  A quick picture of our desiccated bodies being discovered by the police due to our mutual death by heat stroke flashed through my mind.  Then I heard the motor of the refrigerator click on.  Aha!  It's the circuit breaker, as only half of the kitchen seemed to be without power.  A trip to the basement to locate the box, a push to the right, a snap to the left and things were back to normal.  I decided that we really didn't need warm plates, I could just set them on the patio table for a minute or two.

The actual name of this recipe is Grand Marnier French Toast. It was first published in Bon Appetit in September 1995, and I found it here.  I did, however, substitute Triple Sec as I don't happen to keep Grand Marnier on hand, and used blood orange zest in place of regular zest.  I also halved the recipe with no problem.  This is one delicious French Toast recipe and I will be making it again.

Though it can easily be found online by clicking the link above, here it is below, for the sake of convenience.  

Circuit Breaker French Toast 

a.k.a Grand Marnier French Toast

4 large eggs
3/4 cup half and half
1/4 cup Grand Marnier or other orange-flavored liqueur or frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 3/4-inch-thick French bread slices*
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
Powdered sugar
Warm maple syrup

Whisk first 6 ingredients to blend in medium bowl. Dip each bread slice into egg mixture and arrange in 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Pour remaining egg mixture evenly over bread. Let stand until egg mixture is absorbed, at least 20 minutes. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Place baking sheet in oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add 4 bread slices to skillet and saute until cooked through and brown, about 3 minutes per side. Place on baking sheet in oven to keep warm. Repeat cooking with remaining 2 tablespoons butter and 4 bread slices. Transfer French toast to 4 plates. Sift powdered sugar over. Serve with maple syrup.

*I used Challah.  I find this makes better French toast than any other type of bread I've tried.  What I used today came from Trader Joe's, but if you want the best Challah bread ever, you can make your own.  Instructions are here.

I absolutely LOVE my Griddler!
Click the image above for the skinny.

Thai Shrimp for Two

I packed the rice into custard cups and inverted it into the empty bowl then spooned the mixture around it.

I love cooking magazines.  So much so that I tend to subscribe to a lot of them.  Fortunately I also tend to get some great deals.  Fortunately for those who know me, I share.  Almost every magazine that I receive gets passed onto someone else, as I just don't have the space to keep them all, as much as I'd like to. You'd be surprised how grabby some people can get!  Tonight's dinner came from the current issue of Taste of Home magazine (slated to go to my mom upon the completion of this blog post).  I happened to open the issue to this page and knew immediately this was going to be dinner.  It's a simple recipe, serves two, and features the shrimp I've long been craving.  I did all of my chopping early in the day, so it went together in a flash, and it was delicious!

You'll have leftover coconut milk.  I used mine to make coconut rice to serve as a base for tomorrow's Rogan Josh.

Have a great weekend!

This post is linked to:

Weekday Pot Luck

Chilled Cucumber-Avocado Soup

I made this soup for the first time last summer.  When my husband asked me how it was I said, quite truthfully, "It's so good I could swim in it."  True.  This is the chilled soups to end all chilled soups.  Decadent, one might say; with fresh cucumbers it is ambrosial! Cooling, delicious, what an excellent way to get your daily vegetables.  Try it!

Chilled Cucumber-Avocado Soup

1 large, ripe Haas avocado, peeled and pitted

1 large cucumber, unpeeled, and cut into large chunks

1-1/2 cups homemade chicken stock (canned, if you must)

4 scallions, diced

2-1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

1/2 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt)

3 tablespoons salsa (homemade, if possible, jarred, if not)

1-1/4 teaspoons cumin (more or less to taste)

Pinch Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place avocado and cucumber into a large capacity food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until smooth.  With machine running, gradually pour chicken stock through feeder tube.  Process until smooth.  Add scallions, citrus juices, sour cream or yogurt, salsa, and cumin; process until combined.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Chill for at least 2 hours (the longer the better).  To serve, ladle into small cups or stemmed glasses and top with your choice of salsa, salsa verde, or sour cream.

This post is linked to:

Foodie Friday
Foodie Friday @ Little Brick Ranch
Food on Friday
Friday Favorites
Friday Fat Camp
I'm Lovin' It Friday

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Born from my love of chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate, this cookie has been filling my cookie jar since the early eighties when I first began to experiment with cookie recipes.  None of them ever had enough chocolate taste to suit me, so I had to come up with something on my own.  This crunchy, chocolaty cookie with just a hint of spice satisfied those chocolate cravings like nothing else ever could.  It has since become one of my family's favorites, so I hope you like it too.  The dough can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to three days, or wrapped in foil and frozen for up to three months.

CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 extra large egg, beaten to blend

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled*

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips*

Cream butter with sugars using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.  Beat in egg and melted chocolate.  Sift flour with baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a medium sized bowl.  With mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry mixture, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Do not over beat!  Stir in remaining cup of chocolate morsels until thoroughly incorporated.  Turn dough out onto board and divide in half.  Form each portion into a ball and then roll ball into a cylinder approximately 2 inches in diameter by 10 inches long.  Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  Cut chilled dough into 1/4" slices.  Arrange on sheets leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie.  These do not spread, so a bit of crowding is acceptable.  Bake cookies for 15 minutes.  Remove from over and allow to cool on sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.


* In both instances I use the Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chips.  The chips are rather large, so I roughly chop those that are stirred into the dough for ease of slicing.  The richness of flavor is assured by using this brand.

This post is linked to:

Real Food Wednesday

Cast Party Wednesdays

This Chick Cooks

Six-Layer Quiche

There is nothing easier to make for a quick meal than a quiche.  All you really need are cream and eggs, the rest is up to you.  I strongly suggest a heavy dosing of Gruyere cheese as nothing makes a quiche taste more rich and delicious than Gruyere; a few scrapings of fresh nutmeg can give it that little something extra that will have your guests raving.  After that the choice is up to you.  I'll often make quiche when I want to clean out the vegetable bin in the refrigerator, those last couple of mushrooms, the bunch of scallions beginning to sag, the half pepper, even the remnants of last night's roast chicken, all contribute to a delicious tasting quiche.  Depending upon the ingredients it can be hearty or light, and it's well suited to any time of the day  -- brunch, lunch, or dinner.  It can be prepared up to a day ahead and baked when you need it making it the perfect choice for your busiest of days. How's that for versatile?

Here's one of my favorite recipes both for simplicity and taste.

SIX-LAYER QUICHE

1 refrigerated pie crust

1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese

1/2 cup each:

Chopped green pepper

Chopped scallions

Sliced mushrooms

Diced ham

Bacon, diced

3 eggs

2 cups half 'n half

2 tablespoons flour

Grating of fresh nutmeg (about 1/4 tsp.)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Let crust come to room temperature.  Unroll and press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9" deep dish pie plate.  (If you don't have a deep dish pie plate, it's perfectly acceptable to use a deep dish frozen pie shell.) Saute peppers, onions, mushrooms, ham, and bacon together in a medium saute pan until done; drain.  Place in bottom of unbaked pie shell and top with cheese.  In a separate bowl, beat eggs.  Whisk in half 'n half and nutmeg.  Add flour to mixture and mix until smooth.  Pour on top of ingredients in pie shell.  Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 25 more minutes.  Let stand for ten minutes before slicing.

 

Serves 6

Cranberries!

Brace yourselves, people, I have a cranberry!  Three years ago when I first began to container garden, I planted blueberries in a 24" wide container.  Guided by the book Crops in Pots, I underplanted with three cranberry plants due to the similar needs of the two.  I suppose, like most people, I thought cranberries needed to be grown in bogs.  Not so, I found out.  The bogs are only for the ease of harvest, they are perfectly adaptable to the home garden and thrive in containers.  Year after year I'd have plenty of blueberries, but despite healthy, trailing plants, not a cranberry in sight.  Today while weeding, I spotted my first one!  Too early to break out the cranberry relish recipe, but hope springs eternal and all that.  Here's the recipe anyway just so everyone can plan ahead.

Spicy Cranberry Relish

1 cup sugar

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

6 whole cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 whole cardamom seeds, crushed

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 cups fresh cranberries

1 cup golden raisins

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1 cup water

Combine all ingredients in large soup kettle.  Bring to a boil.

Lower heat and simmer 45 minutes.  Serve chilled.

This post is linked to: 
Seasonal Sunday, Metamorphosis Monday, Garden Tuesday, This Week in My Garden, Tuesday Garden Party and Outdoor Wednesdays

Marshmallow Mermaid Pie

In a blog post that I wrote last May I waxed nostalgic about the movie "Waitress" and my fascination, first, with Nathan Fillion, and second, with those wonderful pies!  It was then that I began my quest to find the recipes and make each and every one of them.


This afternoon for a monthly luncheon I serve to a group of ladies who knit, I served up the second of my creations from the film, Marshmallow Mermaid Pie.  Not being an overwhelmingly huge fan of marshmallow (though cover it, or pretty much anything else, in chocolate and I'll eat it), I had my doubts about this one.  Would it taste as synthetic as the bagged marshmallows from which it had been made?  Would it be all fluff and no substance?  So I put it to the test with my ladies.  It overwhelmingly received thumbs up.  A festive looking pie, it is light and fluffy, but the grated chocolate makes it something special.  It is easy to make, needs to be made ahead (Yay for that!), and is the perfect light dessert for a summer luncheon or barbecue dinner.  Try it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Marshmallow Mermaid Pie

9 graham crackers

1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut, toasted

5 Tbs. butter or margarine, melted

34 large marshmallows (8 oz.)

1/2 cup whole milk

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, grated

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine coconut and graham crackers in food processor until coarse crumbs form. Combine crumbs and butter with fork. Press to bottom and side of 9-inch pie plate. Bake 10 minutes and cool on wire rack. Heat marshmallows and milk in 3-qt. saucepan over low heat until smooth, stirring constantly. Remove saucepan from heat. Cool completely (30 minutes.) In large bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Fold marshmallow mixture into whipped cream with grated chocolate. Spoon filling into cooled crust. Refrigerate pie at least 3 hours or overnight. Top with mini marshmallows, maraschino cherries and rainbow sprinkles. 

This post is linked to:

Foodie Friday

Foodie Friday @ Little Brick Ranch

Food on Friday

Friday Favorites

Friday Fat Camp

I'm Lovin' It Friday
Sweet Tooth Friday

Rednesday