Ginger Orange French Toast

French toast takes me back to being a little kid. That was my mom's breakfast specialty. Dad did the pancakes, but mom made French Toast. It was always a great treat smothered with butter and cinnamon sugar.

I had some stale-ish bread in the fridge that needed to go and so French toast was on the menu for breakfast Saturday morning. I wanted to punch up the flavor a bit, since while regular milk and eggs work great, I wanted a bit more depth to my stale bread. I ended up adding some orange juice, vanilla and ginger to my egg and cream (yes, I used cream, it was handy since there was no milk and was delicious!). What I ended up with was a subtle orange ginger flavor that was great alone or with syrup.

Ginger Orange French Toast

(Measurements are approximate, add more or less to taste)

1 c. cream or milk or half-n-half
1-2 eggs
1/4 c. orange juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

9 slices of French bread (the more dry and stale the better)

Beat ingredients in a shallow bowl with a fork. Heat pan on medium and add a bit of olive oil to the bottom. Dip bread on both sides the place in the pan. Flip when underside is lightly browned. *Do not let the bread soak, as it will not cook all the way through or be very soggy and difficult to flip.

Domestic Bliss and Apple-Sass

I did not have to work today... woohoo! Like many people I took a look around my messy house and said screw it I am gonna do something other than clean on my day off.

So, instead of cleaning I decided to earn another patch for my domestic diva status and learn how to can food. Now canning food is a process that I have watched my parents do since I was a small child, so naturally I went to my mother, the queen of all things domestic. She could give the circa 1990 Martha a run for her money in the cooking department.

Anyway, I had gone apple picking about a month ago with some friends and had a ton of apples just taking up space in my fridge, so apple sauce was the obvious choice for canning. I decided that I did not want to stand over a pot for an hour waiting for all these apples to cook, so I selected the lazy (or creative) way out. The Crockpot!

I cut and cored and peeled all 30 apples by hand, quartered them and dumped them into the Crockpot on low over night. Magically in the morning I had apple soup and schlepped it to mom's house. I added some cinnamon, put in over the wood stove at the rents house and then let it thicken. About 30 minutes later, after prepping the jars, was ready to fill and steam can my sass.

It turned out beautiful. I should have taken a picture! So for those of you interested in having homemade apple sauce for over the winter check out the Ball Blue Book, basically the bible of home canning.

What to do with a Whole Head of Cabbage?

Part of the reason that I wanted to start blogging is because I have a wide range of interests, well really more like an interest in cooking bloggers. So I am going to share my first recipe!

I ended up with a rather large head of cabbage from my local CSA and thought to myself, what the heck do you do with an entire large head of cabbage, besides make a ton of coleslaw? I for one, am not a huge cabbage fan, but refuse to just throw it away, or even give it away for that matter. It was time to get creative.

After poking around online I decided that I was going to make stuffed cabbage. Sounded like something I would eat. I wanted it to be savory and hearty without being too cabbagey. The biggest thing is once it was made, would I bother to make it again after tasting it and my conclusion is yes. It was hearty (one stuffed leaf filled me up) flavorful and easy to make.

So here is what I ended up with:

Savory Stuffed Cabbage

Makes 10 Rolls
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

1 head of cabbage
1 roll of sausage (16 oz I think)
3-5 medium sized potatoes cooked until soft and cut into chunks (think bite sized)
1 egg
1/2 c. chopped onions
1/2 c. chopped green peppers
1 1/2 tsp. salt or more to taste
1 tsp. ground pepper
1 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. ground rosemary or 1 tsp. chopped
1/4 tsp. ground mustard
1/2-1 c. chicken broth or liquid of choice

Directions:
1. Cut core out of cabbage and place in pot of boiling water for 7-10 minutes. Remove from water and place on a plate to cool some before handling.
This will allow you to peel the cabbage layers and roll them much easier. Just a heads up, it will make your house smell like cabbage for a bit.

2. Take potatoes, sausage, egg, onion, pepper and seasonings and mix together in a bowl. Much easier to use your hands, kind of like making a meatloaf.

3. Spray bottom of 13x9 glass baking dish with Pam (just-in-case)

4. Gently peel first leaf off of cabbage place open on a plate and plop two heaping spoonfuls of the sausage mix into the center of the leaves (about 2/3-1c. of mix).

5. Starting with the sides, fold in, then roll from thin side toward the stem (thick part). Kind of like rolling a burrito.

6. Place stem/seam side down in baking dish and continue rolling until all the mix is used. I ended up with extra cabbage, still not sure what to do with that, suggestions will be appreciated!

7. Pour broth over cabbage rolls and then bake at 350 for 30 min covered and 30 min un-covered. Be sure to cover them or the leaves will dry out and not steam all the way.

*I made them earlier in the day and placed them in the fridge until I was ready to cook. I also plan on freezing the leftovers. You could probably make them the night before if you wanted, but I wouldn't make them any earlier than that because of the raw meat.

*You could probably replace the potatoes with stuffing mix (2 c. prepared) and go lighter on the seasonings if you don't want to use potatoes. You could even used left over mashed potatoes.




Enjoy :)

Inception

Its time.

I have been contemplating this blogging business since I had to start one for class and now after reading some really great blogs, have decided to try my hand at it. I don't know how successful I will be, or even if anyone will care, but I am gonna give it a try.

So while I may not be the most entertaining or interesting person out there, I hope to share stuff that is. I like to cook and bake, craft, as well as read, garden, and most importantly hang with friends generally in a setting that involves alcohol.

I like to use my co-workers as guinea pigs for my baking and tonight as a way to avoid doing my grad work (something that this also helps with as well) I decided to make some most delicious Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins that I found on an excellent baking blog. The original recipe was for a cake, but you just cut the time down to 20 minutes for the muffins. They turned out great and I will be taking them into work tomorrow, I am sure to the pleasure of my work friends.