Blah Blah Blah (Also, French Toast)

[xifeng]

So I'm doing this to show forgottensanity up. Well, not really, but Cat loves to bake and make desserts, so she's been talking about photoblogging the dessert progress in question, which I think is a capital idea. I'm not trying to steal her thunder, as I do more cooking than baking, but I did kind of steal the idea.

I was bored and wanted to have something nice for breakfast on Saturday, since lolmom and I were both off, so I made some stuffed French toast. (Also, I am bleeding and want carbs; I have had a recent craving for Jimmy Dean Griddle Cakes And Sausage Breakfast Sandwiches, which is horrifying because of a story I'm not going to rehash in a public post.) This isn't really a walk-through of the recipe, just me in my never-ending search for stupid things to take pictures of; if anybody wants the recipe, though, hit me up. :D

duokinneas may not read this because she will start gnawing on things, such as for instance me.



Here is the recipe I was working from (from, I think, the March 2005 edition of Cooking Light. No, we never throw cooking magazines out at our house why do you ask?). This was lightened in Photoshop because it was about 4 o'clock in the morning when I was making this. I'm amazed that some of it is actually legible, ffs.

So you start with a caramel sauce! I was somewhat trepidated about this as I am notoriously impatient and have burned caramel every single time I have ever tried to make it in my entire life. Nevertheless, I was bound and determined that victory would be mine, because hey I'd just worked at Lol-Mart until midnight and any other challenge pales by comparison.


This is the sugar water that begins caramel. At this point it was just sitting on the burner and I was being Very Careful about Following The Recipe Religiously and Not Wandering Off.


This is what happens when the sugar water starts to bubble. The recipe was all DO NOT STIR OMG, and at this point I was having Serious Concerns because this sort of thing is usually preliminary to the stench of burnt sugar.

So then I removed it from the heat and added some butter and evaporated milk. Then I had to throw it back on the heat and stir constantly (reassuringly familiar territory) until the caramel melted.


I managed not to torch it and leave it a reeking, blackened mess soldered permanently to the bottom of my saucepan. VICTORY IS MINE~

K, so then you spray down a 13x9" pan with cooking spray and pour the caramel sauce in the bottom. Then you start layering French bread on top. The recipe calls for 8 servings. I have no spatial IQ to speak of, which is why when the lolmom asked me if the dishwasher, which I had reloaded, was full, I told her I didn't know.


But BY GOD I WAS GOING TO FIT 8 PIECES OF BREAD IN THERE. They didn't go in an orderly fashion, but who cares, there's eight in there. We're just going to eat it anyway. (This is my rationale for a lot of shortcuts taken in the preparation of foodstuffs.) It's not like it needs to be beautiful.


The filling for the stuffed French toast is strawberry preserves (lolmom thinks it would also be good with a brown-sugar-based filling, which I endorse). Bonne Maman is a little more expensive, but so good. Top with more bread :D


So then you mix together some milk and eggs and Egg Beaters and vanilla and the like, and then pour it over the bread slices and caramel sauce. Once you've got the caramel sauce made, it's really all a walk in the park from there.


Bake for 35 minutes at 350 F. Also note the splotch on the counter where I spilled jam. l33 r klutz.


PROFIT!!!!


Um, so other stuff. As previously mentioned, RP is eating my brain, srry gaiz. Also, I hate my uterus and it hates me; it decided that today, when I had to go and be tested for AIDS and fail, a test that involves a physical exam, would be a great time to leak torrents of blood into my underwear. FUCK YOU SHITTY UTERUS, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED IN MY ABDOMINAL CAVITY EVER AGAIN.

Speaking of my never-ending search for stupid things to take pictures of: I have no idea if any of the ladies of my flist would be interested in this, but I bought a shitton of makeup last month and was thinking about possibly pretending to be a beauty blogger and taking some shots and doing product reviews and the like. I've already got part of this written, but don't see the point in posting it if there's not much demand.

Not much else to report. Things proceed apace.

Comments

[tara]

That looks yummy! Although far too rich for me to eat for brekkie!

And I am interested in anything you want to post :)

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

It was yummy! The lolmom was v. excited when it came out of the oven :D THIS DISH ALSO MAKES A FINE LUNCH OR DINNER~

Next up: Pictures Of The Dirt Under My Fingernails ;)

[samanosukesgirl.livejournal.com]

OO!! Interesting!! I Wiki'd it and French toast is actually Spanish. I knew that Spain during the Middle Ages had some nomerific foodies but I didn't know French toast was hip and happenin' then for them.

The whole hospital night I had last year? You've read my LJ entry (I'M SURE?!) after I finished at the hospital on Friday. I MAY HAVE A DORMANT VIRUS THAT DECIDED TO WAKE UP and smell the coffee. I'll know at the beginning of November if it be that or a passing by one.

Avon? Mary Kay? Sears? Canadian Tire?

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

That is awesome! I have learnt something new today! Though I wonder why it isn't called Spanish toast; perhaps it's like the French Pox/English Pox thing.

I remember that vaguely, yes. Ugh on dormant viruses; however, as I do not have one, cannot fully sympathize. (I am free of AIDS. I'm pretty sure I'm also free of other kinds of fail, but I don't have those tests back yet and probably won't until the beginning of next week.) Hopefully it's something just passing by? :D?

ELF (http://www.eyeslipsface.com), actually. Does Canadian Tire sell makeup? Who'da thunk it.

[samanosukesgirl.livejournal.com]

Since it only came up once over a year, it was probably just a passing one. But with all the other things I have, I won't be surprised if I have something.

Canadian Tire probably has Christmas things up for sale. Oo I just got my Halloween costume..

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but fingers crossed that that isn't the case :(

I saw your Halloween costume! Awesome.

[samanosukesgirl.livejournal.com]

MOBILE REPLY!!

I bet they'll say you'll need more maple syrup in your blood. It does a body good!! I speak the turth here.

Considering the costume was hip and happenin back in the day, I'm sure that I can get Sammykins to feel me up. Hideyoshi is not allowed to watch!! D:

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Mobile reply ftw!

I doubt it; I just took my meds with sugar and fat for dinner, so I'm going to be paying dearly later. The last thing I need is moar maple syrup, delicious though it is.

It was hip and happening, though not in medieval Japan. XD

[samanosukesgirl.livejournal.com]

CONSIDER THIS: remember who visited Japan then.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

White people!

[samanosukesgirl.livejournal.com]

I could be Portuguese or Dutch, stalking keeping Hidemitsu.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

I'm sure nobody would mind if you borrowed him for a bit.

[samanosukesgirl.livejournal.com]

He's all mine. The drrty things I want to do to him are unpublishable.

Isn't Hideyoshi hungry? Where dem bananas you promised him?? :o

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

I promise no bananas. :O

[samanosukesgirl.livejournal.com]

Monkeys have feelings, too.

[forgottensanity.livejournal.com]

Mm, French toast.

All the recipes I've seen have always consisted of: soft bread dipped in egg with sugar / cinnamon then fried on the pan and served with some kind of berry compot (a few places also whipped cream). Blueberry have often been seen, but otherwise strawberry or raspberry. Jam / marmelade can work in a pinch.

Caramel sauce is unheard of up until now, but I will have to give it a go one day. It would go well with a brunch.


Also, you stole my idea!?! *ragequits the internets*

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

That's how we usually do it, too, but stuffed French toast, or fancified French toast, is not uncommon at buffets and bed-and-breakfast type places here. We often have ours with maple syrup or powdered sugar, though fruit-based anything would work well. :9

Caramel sauce goes well with lots of things!

BUT YOU STOLE IT FROM SOMEONE ELSE, SO I ONLY STOLE IT AT SECOND HAND. D:

[forgottensanity.livejournal.com]

When you say powdered sugar, do you mean the white confectioner's sugar? Because I was just thinking that brown sugar would also be awesome.

When I was little, I loved myself some white bread with a thick layer of butter and then an equally thick layer of brown sugar on top.

Mm. Waaant.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

That is indeed what Americans mean by powdered sugar. Brown sugar also works well on French toast, though, and I speak from experience. :9

Also: cinnamon toast. :D

[dethorats]

Wow that french toast looked ridiculously good. Also, I think my mother still has that magazine as well. The Price household also holds onto all things possibly useful and printed on paper.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

It was really good. :9 I tend to hang on to printed matter indefinitely, so lolmom is like CAN WE PLZ GET RID OF OLD COOKING MAGAZINES and I am like NO. XD