Breakfast

French Toast with Apple Topping

July 19, 2015

frenchtoast

It’s Father’s Day and I wanted to kick it up a notch for breakfast. When it comes to holidays, I prefer to cook at home vs going out. I got up extra early today, the air conditioner is broken and the repairman is not coming until Tuesday. The windows are open and the birds outside are obnoxiously chirping. There are are least 4 nests around the perimeter of my house and the screeching has become unbearable. 6:00am, far too early for a Sunday!

After a quick cup of coffee and an inspection of the garden, I head back inside to start the French toast. Typically, I use whatever bread I have on hand, couple eggs milk and cinnamon. Not today. I had sent Alec to the store yesterday (again!) for real French Bread and Apples. The bread was still way too fresh this morning, so I sliced it up and put it in the oven at 300 degrees until it started to dry.

Bill loves apple pie, so I thought I’d dress it up with an Apple Pie topping. I sliced and peeled 5 apples and tossed them in a medium saucepan with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and vanilla. While that cooked, I beat 5 eggs with buttermilk and more cinnamon. Make sure you use a dish that is deep enough to fully submerge the bread. This meal does not need syrup, was perfect without it!

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French Toast with Apple Pie Topping
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: Serves 4+
 
Perfect for a weekend treat. Pretty sweet, we opted to use the sauce from the apples as syrup to cut down on the sugar.
Ingredients
  • 1 loaf French bread! sliced 1" thick
  • 5 eggs
  • 1½ cup buttermilk
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 5 medium apples, peeled sliced and core removed
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 4 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • powdered sugar (optional)
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, heat apples, brown sugar, butter until melted. Add vanilla and 1 tsp of the cinnamon. Simmer until apples are soft 10 min. Take off heat, let sit for space to firm up. If you want a thicker sauce, use more brown sugar. I opted for less to save calories.
  2. In a shallow dish, beat eggs, buttermilk and remaining cinnamon. Dip bread into egg mixture thoroughly coating, make sure you scrape off extra mixture before cooking. Place bread into a preheated fry pan cook each side until brown. Top with apple mixture and powdered sugar.
  3. Enjoy!

 

 

Salads and Dressings

Blue Cheese Dressing-Finally

July 19, 2015

BlueCheeseDressing

I finally have all the ingredients to make blue cheese dressing. I have been thinking about this all day. I’m planning a Blue Cheese Caesar Salad, with fresh romaine from my garden., another recipe from my favorite magazine this month (Food Network, June Edition). I know everyone (Bill) will need more substance than just a salad, so we will throw some lightly seasoned chicken breasts on the grill to slice up on the top.

Bill started the chicken breasts, I picked lettuce and Marsha worked the salad spinner (now her favorite part of making dinner). I never realized how easy making blue cheese dressing was. For some reason, I always thought there was complicated ingredients and would be time consuming, it was neither.

I combined the blue cheese, buttermilk, and sour cream. Pulsed it all together with a hand held mixer. Added the garlic, Worcester sauce, vinegar, blended some more. Stirred in more blue cheese, salt and pepper and freshly chopped parsley (from my garden). Voila, done and amazing. I have to admit, if the first attempt is successful and awesome, the recipe must be easy!

Since I was making a “Caesar” version, I whisked in Parmesan, Dijon Mustard and some lemon juice.  Added the lettuce and tossed together.  My only complaint (and reason for no photo) was I way over dressed the lettuce. I threw the lettuce in the same bowl as the dressing and should have removed 1/2 of it. Very disappointing. I even ran out to the  to add more lettuce to help rectify the problem to not avail.

Topped it with homemade croutons (white bread drizzled in olive oil and baked until crispy). A must do more often and topped with more Parmesan.

I will definitely try again, with slight modifications!

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Blue Cheese Dressing
Author: 
Recipe type: Dressing
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 cups
 
Loved the recipe, easy fast not super messy! Great weekday meal!
Ingredients
  • ½ cup crumbled blue cheese + ¼ cup
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ⅓ cup buttermilk
  • 1 small garlic clove smashed
  • 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
  • 2-3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
  1. Puree ½ cup of crumbled blue cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, garlic, and vinegar. Transfer to a bowl (I used a hand held blender so I could keep everything in the same bowl) and add remaining blue cheese, Worcestershire and chopped parsley. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

 

Salads and Dressings

Greek Goddess Dressing

July 19, 2015

GreekRanchSalad

I love cheese, pretty much any cheese.  Blue cheese is one of my favorites.  Paging through the June edition of Food Network Magazine, I found a recipe for a blue cheese dressing that I have to try!  I sent my son to the store today, since I spent yesterday on the golf course (Thanks Alec).  Imagine my disappointment when I apparently, left off the main ingredient, blue cheese.  Time to regroup.  The next recipe was for Green Goddess.  Ok, I can make a version of this work, for the dressing, but I needed to improvise on the salad.saladdressing

I enlisted my monther-in-law to help with the salad tonight, she loves to help and loved the opportunity to use the salad spinner.  For the salad, I combined mixed greens and spinach, cucumbers, yellow tomatoes, avocado and fresh picked radishes from my garden!  I know my husband like “protein” in his salad, so I cooked up 6 strips of bacon, pretty sure he would have preferred chicken, but I used what was convenient and quick and who doesn’t love bacon!

I had to play around with the recipe based on ingredients I had on hand, but overall I thought the dressing was great.  I substituted creme fraise for mayo and I did not have tarragon. I can’t wait to try it again with a little more “green” in it!

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Greek Goddess Dressing
Author: 
Recipe type: Salad Dressing
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 1½ cups
 
This is a version of a dressing in Food Network Magazine, July 2015
Ingredients
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ½ cup creme fraise (sub for Mayo)
  • ⅓ cup of chives
  • ⅓ cup chopped parsley
  • ¼ avocado (my add to make it more green)
  • ¼ jalapeno seeded (my add)
  • ½ juice from 1 lemon
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Use a blender to mix all together, add additional salt and pepper and or more lemon juice.

 

Appetizers

Grilled Peach Bruschetta with Fig Chili Vinegar

July 19, 2015

FigChiliBreadstuff

Bill and I were fortunate enough to spend 4th of July weekend in Manhatten Beach, CA. 3 days walking the beach, eating, drinking and relaxing was a perfect diversion for a busy life. One of our favorite places is Mangiamo’s, we stopped in for a glass of wine last time we were there and ended up staying for dinner. This time, we requested the cave and settled in for a quiet evening. I started with the Peach Bruschetta appetizer. It was amazing. I could have had it as my main meal and been perfectly happy.

Today, at Parker’s Farmers Market, I saw the huge sign for fresh picked Colorado Palisade Peaches and immediately knew I wanted to recreate this. I thinly sliced a baguette, brushed it with olive oil and baked in a hot oven at 400 degrees until almost crisp and set aside to cool. Since we were grilling, I decided to grill the peaches. I cut in half, removed the pit and lightly brushed with olive oil and threw them on a medium-low grill covered and let sit for about 10 minute. I started checking about 5 minutes in. Took longer than expected, but came out looking and smelling great. I spread a thin layer of burrata cheese, topped with sliced grilled peaches, basil (of course) and drizzled with Fig Chili Vinegar (my find from a previous post). Tasted better without the basil and the Fig Chili gave it a nice kick, however a simple balsamic vinegar would have been just as great.

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Grilled Peach Bruschetta with Fig Chili Vinegar
Author: 
Recipe type: Appetizer
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 12 slices
 
Great appetizer to bring to a dinner party or when you want something a little out of the ordinary. Easy, quick. Rating: Great.
Ingredients
  • ½ loaf baguette thinly sliced
  • 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 peaches halved and pitted
  • ½ lb Burrata (1 round)
  • 2 fresh basil leaves thinly sliced
  • 3-4 tablespoons of balsamic or fig chili vinegar
Instructions
  1. Brush baguette slices with olive oil and bake at 400 degrees until almost crisp, 5-10 min do not burn. Set aside to cool. Place peach halves cut side down on grill and cook 5-10 min until soft. Let cool. Spread Burrata on baked baguette slices, top with peaches, basil and vinegar.
  2. Enjoy!