Sunday Breakfast - French Toast with Apple Compote

Sunday's are my day. Well, ok not ENTIRELY mine, I do have to share with my monkeys.

My Monkeys.

Anywho, so sundays are my day to clean the house and do other mommy stuff.

This morning, I happened to have some used bread left over from spaghetti night, so I decided french toast would be a good use for it before it became dry enough for bird food.

Of course, if you have french toast, then you have to have apple goo to put on top. Its required. No really. It is. If you don't have any apples to make your french toast happy then I suppose fresh berries are a good substitute.

But then you have to add whipped cream.

Sigh. Whipped Cream.

*shakes head*

Ok, back on track.

Today's breakfast's name...French Toast with Apple Compote, Tori's famous Macaroni and Cheese Eggs, Bacon and sausage.

The Bacon and sausage, if you so desire it, should be in the pan first. It takes the longest. If you are not vegetarian, you can use the greasy pan of their cookin's for your eggs for some extra yumminess.

If you are, or have a vegy person in your house, throw the bacon on a baking sheet line in foil and throw in oven. This allows it t all cook evenly at once, and doesn't risk contaminating the other food with grease splatters (and keeps cleanup of stove easier too)

I generally cook them at abou 300 or they will be done before everything else.

You could totally do the sausage this way too, but i use turkey sausage so it doesn't splatter.

Pour yourself a cup of coffee. Nectar of the gods...an all day sunday thing.

Ok, the apple compote takes the next longest to do.

You will need:

2 apples, cut into chunks (remember chunks are bigger than bits)

2 Tbs butter

squirt of maple syrup

2-3 Tbs brown sugar

dash of cinnamon

splash of vanilla

Melt butter into skillet, you'll want non-stick, trust me.

Saute' apples for a few minutes. Add rest of ingredients and get all melty. Turn heat to med-low. Let do its happy melty thing while you move one. Don't forget to stir every now and then.

Next prep the bread by cutting in 3/4 to 1" thick slices.

Then mix together

2 eggs

2 c milk

2 tsp vanilla

1/2c sugar

dash of cinnamon, and nutmeg if you want.

Whip up eggs first then add the other stuff, stir until it feel like sugar is mixed well in. You will have to mix off and on (between soaking slices) to keep sugar in place.

Damn sugar. Never stays where you want it to.

Get your pan all nice and warm. Cast iron is good for this. LOVE cast iron.

Stir the apples. You forgot.

Get a stick of butter out and schmear all over the bottom of the cast iron. If it is well seasoned, then you only need to do this once. If you are using nonstick (ugh) then every batch will need re-greasing.

Ok, so there are 2 ways to cook the french toast. There is the speedy, I am starvingm the kids are whining, way and the I have to do the dishes and clean the kitchen while cooking way.

Way #1. Soak bread in goo for a few seconds on each side. Oooh look BUBBLES!

Throw them in pan as is, and move on.

Way #2 Soak them in goo until all the bubbles are gone mostly.

*Sniff* No more bubbles.

Lay them in foil lined pan and let them sit for about 10 mins, then throw in over for another 8-10 mins on 325. (Or 300 is ok if your doing the bacon, although, if you are using way #2 to make toast, you will want to put bacon in after the toast is out 'cause it'll be done before toast and that mean cold bacon. Yuk.)

Ok. Take it out and NOW put it in greasy, buttery pan to fry it up.

Stir the apples. You forgot again.

What does this do you ask? It makes the insides stay soft and gets a crisp on the outside but makes sure everything is cooked through. If you do the pan way, you usually dry it out and overcook to get it cooked all the way through and you lose the creaminess of the innards.

Creamy innards=good and yummy. Got it? Ok.

Moving on.

Hang on, getting walloped by a pillow wielded by the perpetual toddler puppy.

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Ok back.

Tori's Mac n Cheese Eggs

So whilst the toast is getting toasty, crack some eggs into a bowl and whisk.

Yes a fork works if you don't have a whisk, but seriously, get a whisk. It has multiple, non-egg uses.

Assume 2 eggs for each person unless they are 11 year old growing boys, then about 6 :-)

For our family of 5 (1 normal kid, 1 eat everything boy, myself and 1 overgrown eat everything boy and my sis- both who don't partake in eggs very often) we go through about 10.

Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Yes, before you cook them. Add some more after too. This is called LAYERS of flavor.

Very Important. Remember that.

Cook eggs in your yummy baconey (is that a word?) grease or a little olive oil.

Flip the french toast. Get out the plastic squishy cheese (velveeta or its generic)

Yes this is required as well. Real cheddar cheese does not work correctly for tori's mac n cheese eggs.

Cut 3-4 slices into chunks. The smaller the chunks, the faster it'll get all melty and happy.

When eggs are to correct doneness, add cheese and turn heat to low. If you don't you'll have a lot of clean up to do with burnt on cheese. YUK!

By this time everything should be getting done-ish

Assemble. Apples should be all happy, bacon and sausage done, french toast waiting, eggs just done.

(If you need to make large quantities of french toast, cover with wax paper and put in micro-nuker without turning on to keep warm. A towel over top of top of wax paper helps too.)

Ok your done. Yummy Sunday morning breakfast.

Signature Dish- Noodles in lemon garlic cream sauce, salad with raspberry vinaigrette, steak with blue cheese butter, foccacia

On occasion...I say that a lot it seems...On very RARE occasion I take the time to make my signature dish.

Why is it signature you ask? Well, this is 100% mine. No altered recipe, all mine. And it was my very very first recipe like that. There are a couple of others. When I make them, I'll post them.

So earlier I posted about Alfredo sauce and said in the once in a great while that I made it, when I did again, I would post pics.

Tonight is one of those nights.

On the menu tonight is Steak with blue-cheese, roasted garlic and herb butter, Homemade noodles with garlic lemon cream sauce, Salad with apples and blue cheese with raspberry vinaigrette and foccacia.

Ok so the foccacia I bought this time because I didn't get home early enough to make making bread feasible. I'll give you the recipe anyway. It's pretty easy.

Let's start with that because it takes the longest.

No. Wait. No. Nevermind.

Oh. Get out the butter so it can warm up. You need it kinda squishy.

The Bread. Although when you bake it, throw in the garlic head covered in olive oil wrapped in foil to bake with it. You'll want it to cool before you squish it.

Foccacia - This is mom's recipe. Again, I don't alter baked goods, usually.

If you have a bread machine, this makes this a million times easier. I don't bake in my bread machine, I just make the dough. I have this thing against bread that is rounded on the end and not length wise. It bothers me.

1c Lukewarm water

1 pkg yeast (2 1/4 teas if you do bulk like we do)

Mis these together. Let them get all happy in the warm bath.

In mixer dump...

1 1/2 c flour

1 Tbs Rosemary

2t salt

3T oil.

Pour in the water mix. Use your dough hook for this it work best. If using the bread maker, liquids first, then dry.

Mix until soft ball forms.

If needed, add more flour.

I always end up adding more flour.

Knead dough until its stiffish.

Get a pan that is a good size at. Err baking sheet. Technicalities sheesh!

Roll dough out into flattened circle of about 1 foot. (12") ONTO THE PAN. Seriously, you don't want to pick it up afterward. No more nice roundish bread...

Stick your fingers in it lightly. Ok act like you are a concert pianist and play the bread. You want little pockmarks, its ok. Really.

Brush top of dough with oil and sprinkle with pepper. Fresh cracked or course, silly. Geez!

Let it rise for 30 mins in a warm but not HOT place.

Bake at 400 fo 20-25 mins. Brush top with oil again and some kosher salt when out of oven.

Don't forget to throw the garlic into the oven.

Next is making the noodles. No it is not hard, so shush. Its very, very easy. And doesn't take forever, just longer than what a quick evening meal requires.

It takes a million ingredients too.

Ready?

You sure?

Ok. Here goes. *Deep breath, cracks fingers

6 eggs

3 C Flour

Whew! *wipes brow* that was tough.

Now what do you do?

Put the flour in a bowl or on a flat surface. Yes, flat. Because a non-flat surface causes gravity issues, that's why.

Fine.

Make a hollow in middle of your pile of flour. Crack in the eggs.

Get a fork. Whisk egg and grab a little flour from the edges as you do, working it into the eggs. Keep grabbing flour until the fork is no good anymore. Then get your hands in there and fluff in flour and squish together.

Now you have enough in there its time to start kneading.

Knead the dough until everything is incorporated together and it makes a stiff ball.

Wrap in oiled plastic wrap and set aside away from heat to rest for 30 mins or so.

If its gonna be longer, throw it in the fridge. No don't literally throw it! Ok. Go clean up the milk you just spilled.

When you are ready to boil the noodles, get the dough out and warm it up to room temp. Roll out so its about 1/16 to 1/8" thick. If you have a fancy pasta attachment for your mixer, use it. If you have a manual machine (like I do) us that.

Cut noodles into desired width. Powder with flour to keep them from sticking together, because trust me, they will. Like glue on.. well whatever. Like glue.

To cook, boil water with a little oil and salt. Salt is important.

They take like 2 seconds to cook. Well maybe 60, but not very long.

DO NOT COOK UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO EAT! They will become glue if not served fresh.

Ok. Now that that is clear as mud.

Next course errr, part.

Get out the steaks. Throw on some seasoning. Salt, pepper, garlic.

No really. That's it.

I like using strip steaks but my fave is ribeye.

Get out the butter. Warm it up if you forgot to get it out earlier. 20 secs in micro-niker is fine.

You will also need...

2 Tbs blue cheese, crumbled. Or however much you want to put in. I use half of one of those little pre-crumbled cartons.

your head of now very happy roasted garlic.

Pinch of basil

Pinch of thyme

Throw butter in bowl.

No, don't actually throw it! Geez now look at that mess!

Poor counters. Never saw it coming.

Now that you have scraped it off the counter and wall, put it in the bowl. Better.

Add the blue cheese and herbage and then squish the cloves of garlic tip to base to squeeze out all that good squishy stuff inside. Squish. Squish.

Ok now, get a fork. Squish all of your ingredients together. Good job!

Now that your butter is all happy and content, dump it out onto a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper. (To keep mother nature happy, wax paper is better!)

Roll the paper around the butter and help it make a log by pushing it outward a little as you roll. Twist the ends tight until a solid log is formed.

Toss in freezer or fridge. If you like you steaks medium to rare then freezer is better, well done, fridge should be ok.

The steaks can now go into the oven on broil or on the grill. Also if you are going to fix a veggie, like asparagus, then get that to cooking too. (Water, plate, wax paper, microwave for 5 mins)

Get out your alfredo ingredients.

Cream, lemon, cheese, garlic, salt and pepper.

Remember to not add the cheese and lemon juice until the VERY end k?

See recipe for alfredo sauce

I made a salad with mine just 'cause.

If you like the looks of this I used

Lettuce, blue cheese, apples, onions, cucumbers and generally top with a raspberry vinaigrette or other vinegar based dressing.

Yes, apples. Cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, these are all very yummy in salads. So are nuts...I especially like almonds or pecans caramelized with it. MMMMMMMM.

So in about 5-10 minutes, 15 if you like your steak extra crunchy, dinner is done.

I told you this was a long haul. This is a special, once every now and then, takes a few hours to do kinda meal. Plan ahead. Anticipation is everything.

Now assemble and enjoy!

Oh, ya. I have a serious thing for mushrooms. So i added mushrooms. These are baby bella's 'cause in the PNW we have LOTS of mushrooms for cheap.

Ok. I'm done now :-)