Pecan French Toast

My friend, Doris Mason, served this to my mother in law and me back in 2006. The next morning the lovely Wendy James at the Kate Shepard House Bed & Breakfast served us another version: Praline Pecan French Toast. 

4 large eggs (she used six)
1 cup milk (she used 1/2 and 1/2)
1/4 sugar (she used Splenda)
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cinnamon or nutmeg
vegetable oil spray (which she used) or melted butter
1 loaf (8 oz) French bread, cut into 1" thick slices
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 Tbsp. butter melted

Place eggs, milk, sugar, spice and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Mist the bottom of a 12" by 8" glass casserole with vegetable spray or melted butter. Place the bread slices in a single layer in the pan. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, distributing it evenly. Turn the bread slices once. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove the pan from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Sprinkle the bread slices with pecans and drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the bread slices puff up and pecans are deep brown, but not burned. Serve warm with syrup. Makes 6 servings.

Zero Carb Pizza

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/162481499032675788/

Cheesecake waffles

This just in from Kilby. 

Yorkshire Pudding

Shamelessly lifted from my tattered wedding gift copy of the Betty Crocker cookbook this is a necessary item for our Christmas roast beef, shared here with all my offspring and the rest of you readers. This is basically a big cream puff flavored with meat drippings.

“Thirty minutes before rib or boneless rib roast is done, prepare Yorkshire Pudding. Heat square pan, 9x9x2 inches, in oven. Remove roast from oven; spoon off drippings and add melted shortening, if needed, to measure ½ cup.

“Increase oven temp to 425 degrees. Return roast to oven.

“Place hot drippings in heated square pan; pour in Yorkshire Pudding batter. Bake 10 mintues. Remove roast; continue baking pudding 25 to 30 minutes longer. Cut pudding into squares, serving with roast.”

6 to 9 servings.

Mix together just until smooth:

1 c all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 c milk

2 eggs

Tea Eggs

Soft boil eggs. Remove from water and crack all over with a spoon. Add to hot water 1/4 cup strong black tea, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/2 tsp. Chinese black peppercorns, and a small handful of star anise. Return eggs to brew and simmer for about an hour. The longer they steep, the more flavorful they will be.

Sweet Potato Casserole

So I was boiling sweet potatoes for use on the Super Food Salad which I was going to make for our lunch. But then I got doing Espanol con AJ y las olivde' and they boiled to mushy! Here's what I did. They're in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes and we'll see if it is good:

Mashed two medium large skinned sweet potatoes (bet there was a cup and a half to two of potato) with two tablespoons butter, 3 egg yolks, several shakes of sea salt, large shake of cinnamon (1/2 tsp?), medium shake (1/4 tsp?) of ginger, and small shake (1/8 tsp) of cloves.

Beat till peaked the three egg whites and stirred into potato mixture about a half cup of them. Then folded in till smooth half of what remained, then folded in the rest. Piled it in a 1.5 or 2 qt buttered baking dish.

Maybe I'll reheat Sunday's pork loin roast to go with a late lunch...

Quick "Baked" Custard

My favorite breakfast in the world is French toast. Ideally, that means stale bread soaked in just eggs and milk and fried on a griddle with butter. Then, of course, smothered in syrup. But today I decided I didn't have time to wrestle with golden syrup, the only stuff I have, so I went the sugary vanilla French toast route.

But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the cold, smooth, firm custard, dusted with nutmeg, that Miss Craig brought our family every time we were sick. That could easily be my favorite dessert in the whole world. The nostalgia and comfort-food factors rocket it up above more sophisticated cakes and mousses on my list, and I have always regretted not being able to make it just right myself.

Well maybe this isn't "just right," but it's closer than any water-bath has gotten me yet.

After I'd made enough French toast this morning, I had just the right amount of egg mixture leftover to fit into a small oven-/microwave-safe ramekin, the same kind of service Miss Craig used for her custards. A (brilliant) thought occurred to me. I've been microwaving eggs for the last few months as a mid-morning protein snack with minimal cleanup requirement, so why wouldn't I microwave this? The milk would stabilize it, I imagined; my microwaved eggs are very touchy-feely about the amount of time and power they get. (Usually I drastically overcook them.)

So into the ramekin went equal parts beaten eggs and milk, a handful of castor sugar, a dash of vanilla, and a sprinkling of nutmeg. Into the microwave went the ramekin, for 2 minutes and 30 seconds at power level 3. Out came a slightly denser version of Miss Craig's custard, piping hot and still barely jiggling.

Try it! I didn't measure anything (except I used 6 eggs for the French toast) and I had to keep my eye on the microwave while it was cooking. Your microwave is probably different to mine; just make sure not to overcook it. When it puffs up over the rim of the dish, it's done, and when it comes out it should still be wobbly and probably a little runny underneath, but that's okay: just let it sit in it's super-hot bowl or ramekin until it settles down and finishes cooking to perfection in its own heat.

Lubowa treats

Spent a lovely time with Kilby in Uganda last week, cooking in her kitchen, shopping in her second-story supermarket. I asked her to send me the recipe for the grilled salt and vinegar potatoes we made one evening. Here's her emailed reply:

101cookbooks.com –– where we got the grilled salt and vinegar potatoes. Vegetarian/vegan whole food recipes, unbelievably creative.

smittenkitchen.com –– New Yorker with rich tastes and a great sense of humor, latest recipe is the fried egg/bacon salad sandwich.

oneperfectbite.blogspot.com –– I no longer follow this one because a lot of her recipes seem either samey or too complicated (stuff I can't make here, using processed food ingredients) but she does have some great ideas and lots of good dessert recipes.

annies-eats.com –– mom of two with tons of "DIY" (do it yourself) recipes. I've made pumpkin spice syrup and flour tortillas from her recipes.

Martha's Eggnog

Marissa, forgetting to buy the eggnog, having the ingredients on hand, made this Saturday night for Sunday morning. We agreed that it could be made with less sugar and still please. For the sake of the kids, and a husband scheduled to teach Sunday school, she left out the Bourbon. ;-)

Basic Spoonbread

When Grace finishes the piano lesson she's giving, I'm going to teach her to make this recipe, one I found in the May/June 1983 COOKS Magazine that we enjoyed a number of times as newlyweds; a good supper meal.

6 T butter

3 c milk

1 c cornmeal

1-1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

4 large room temp eggs, separated

pinch salt

In preheated (350) oven, melt 1 T butter in a 2 qt. casserole for 2--3 minutes. Brush the sides and bottom of the casserole with the melted butter and set aside.

Pour milk into a heavy-bottomed 5 qt. saucepan and bring to almost a boil over medium heat. Gradually stir in the cornmeal with a wooden spoon or whisk. Stir until dissolved. Continue stirring over reduced heat for 2 minutes or until thick. Add remaining butter, salt, and pepper. Mix well and cook 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and add lightly beaten egg yolks; mix to incorporate all ingredients.

Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Fold into yolk/meal mixture. Pour batter into casserole, spreading it evenly and smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes, until puffed and browned. Serve at once with butter, fresh tomato sauce, or a green chili sauce.

Kilby's Easy Custard Ugandan Ice Cream

This was an accident -- a happy accident. In Uganda you can never be sure about the dairy products, and brand of milk I like is not the brand for cream. Apparently so, because the first bag of "full cream milk" I bought was sour (but I needed sour cream, so) and the second absolutely refused to whip. So I turned that into ice cream after a little bit of research and a great deal of recipe tweaking. The following is, therefore, an accidental, original recipe for ice cream that tastes like Mrs. Lyon's custard and is waiting to offer itself a refreshing dessert for my husband and me tonight. (It makes about two servings.)


1 pint whole milk or light cream
1/3 cup caster sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg


Prepare:
In a saucepan over low heat, slowly bring milk and sugar to boiling point, but do not allow to boil. Remove from heat, beat in egg yolks well, then simmer, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat your spoon. Stir in vanilla and nutmeg, then pour into a tupperware or other freezer-safe dish (square is the preferable shape) and cool on the counter for about half an hour.

Freeze:
Place custard mixture into the freezer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Remove and stir with a fork vigorously, scraping the sides and breaking up all the frozen chunks. Replace into the freezer for 30 minutes, then stir again. Repeat this freeze/stir pattern until the mixture retains the consistency of ice cream even while stirred, then cover and store in the freezer.

The sooner after freezing you eat it, the better. Garnish with a sprinkling of ground nutmeg.

Norma's Rice Pudding

My mom's Scandanavian friend, Norma, has this richer and simpler recipe for rice pudding.

3/4 c converted rice (Uncle Ben)
Water
4 c milk
1 c sugar
dash salt
1 can condensed milk
7 eggs
cinnamon
nutmeg

Cover rice in saucepan with water. Add 4 c milk. Bring to boil, then simmer until rice is soft. Add sugar, salt, and condensed milk and heat. Beat eggs by hand into rice mixture, one at a time.

Pour into casserole dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake at 350 in another pan of water. Stir halfway through bakng. Do not overbake, about 20 minutes or more. Jiggle pan to test doneness.

Marian's Rice Pudding

Our Christmas eves were marked by a traditional Swedish supper before we raced off to a service at church. Upon our return we'd put on Handel's MESSIAH and enjoy this rice pudding, warm and topped with Swedish lingonberries.

4 c milk
1/2 c sugar
1 c uncooked rice or 2 c cooked rice
4 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 t almond extract
pinch salt
nutmeg

Combine 3 c milk and sugar in saucepan. Heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add rice. Simmer until rice is soft. (You may want to add some butter.)

Separate 4 eggs. Mix yolks with 1 c milk. Add to heated milk, sugar, and rice mixture, and cook until thick. Add vanilla, almond extract, and salt. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into rice mixture. Pour into casserole dish and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Bake at 350 in another pan of water until set, about 20--30 minutes. Do not overbake.

Mayonnaise

First came across this in Julia Child and I love it better (almost) than Hellmann's. It sure is helpful to have when you run short and can't run out!

Blend in electric blender on high for 30 seconds
1 whole egg, 1/4 t dry mustard, 1/2 t salt

Add 1 T lemon juice, or vinegar and blend for 10 seconds

Uncover blending jar and blending at high speed SLOWLY pour up to 1 cup of olive or salad oil in to center of mixture in a very thin stream of droplets. The sauce begins to thicken after 1/2 c. has gone in. Sometimes this is where I stop. If it blends too far it gets thin again and you'll have to make salad dressing out of it. If the blend is too thick, blend in a few more drops of lemon or vinegar.

Spoon into a wide mouthed jar and chill.

Quiche

Debby,

I am glad you liked the quiche-here is the recipe. I believe you could substitute 1/2 and 1/2 for the heavy cream and I have also used evaporated milk before, as well. The texture is a bit different, but a lot less fattening. I adapted the one I made for you, using diced ham and a bit of sauteed broccoli. Usually, I pour the egg mixture over the cheese and other fillings because there is too much to use and it overflows. Make sure you bake it on a cookie sheet lined with foil.

Kimberly

pastry for 1 crust pie crust (I used a frozen deep dish crust)
1 T. butter
12 bacon slices
4 eggs
2 c. heavy or whipping cream
3/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 lb. natural Swiss cheese, shredded (Gruyere is yummy if you have it and cheddar works well with sausage. I also like to make it with leeks, shallots, mushrooms, colored bell peppers and asparagus. The veggies turn out better when I saute or even brown then a bit in butter, cool, then use.)

Prepare and roll out pastry; line one 9 inch pie plate. Spread crust evenly with softened butter, chill well.

In 10 inch skillet over medium heat, fry bacon slices until crisp and brown.

Drain bacon on paper towels and crumble. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Spread crumbled bacon pieces in prepared pie crust.

With wire whisk, beat eggs, cream, salt and nutmeg. Stir in cheese. (you can also layer it on top of whatever meat/veggies you use, then pour the liquid ingredients over those.)

Pour egg mixture into crust. Bake 15 minutes, turn oven control to 325 degrees, bake 35 minutes.

Quiche is cooked when knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. (or cool on counter, then put in refrigerator or freezer for use later)

Italian quiche

By popular demand I post here a slightly altered recipe from the one we just enjoyed over lunch.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees, to be turned down when you put pie in oven.

Crust for 9" pie pan:

1 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 T parmesan cheese

1/4 c olive oil

2 T milk

Mix and roll out between two pieces of plastic wrap. Place in pie pan and fix edges. Fill with:

4 oz fontinella cheese, shredded

1/3 c shredded mozzarella cheese

2 T parmesan cheese

1/2 c Italian sausage, browned and drained

2 t dried oregano

Pour over blended mixture of:

6 eggs

2 c whole milk

2 oz cream cheese

1/8 t cayenne pepper

1/2 t salt

Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

Add thin slices of one tomato around the top after baking and set back into hot oven until serving.