Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with your family & friends.  This morning we had Gingerbread Challah French Toast after we opened presents. This is going to be a quick post so I can get back to playing with Stella and her new toys.

In a bowl combine 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon of ground clove and 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice.  Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of the mixture to 1/2 cup of Mascarpone and mix well.

I used the Challah bread from Trader Joes as I have in the past with my other French toast recipes. I also used the TJ brand of Mascarpone cheese.

Because I was using two slices of bread I tried to slice them a little thinner than 1 inch.  In a bowl whisk together 3 eggs and approximately 1/4 cup milk. To the egg mixture add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add the remainder of the gingerbread seasoning to the mixture and an additional pinch of ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg. 


Melt butter in the pan before cooking the french toast.  Spread a generous amount of the gingerbread mascarpone on 1 side of each slice of bread. Put the slices together like a sandwich with the Mascarpone in the middle and dip the bread into the egg mixture. Be sure both sides are covered.  Let excess drip off back into bowl. Cook in pan until slightly browned on both sides.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and some pomegranate seeds.

Her reaction when she saw all of the presents under the tree

Very excited about her new Sid the Science Kid Microphone

This meal was rated 4.5 asparagus spears

Croque Madame

When we were in Napa a couple weeks ago Chris ordered a Croque Madame that looked heavenly so I thought I would give it a shot tonight.  I have made a Croque Monsieur in the past but never a Croque Madame; the only difference is a fried egg on the top.  I found a recipe on Williams Sonoma but also have a recipe that I have used in the past, I ended up kind of combing the two.

Menu
Croque Madame
Arugula Salad with Strawberries

Ingredients
Challah Bread
Unsalted Butter
Dijon Mustard
Black Forest Ham
Gruyere Cheese
Milk
Flour
Salt, Pepper and Cayenne Pepper

In a small pan melt 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter and then whisk in 2 tablespoons of flour.  Slowly add in 1 1/2 cups of milk.  Season with salt, pepper and a dash of Cayenne pepper. The recipe recommends Whole Milk but I used Fat Free Milk (actually I use Lactaid). Continue whisking the so that the milk doesn't burn.  You will cook the roux for approximately 15 minutes or until the mixture thickens.  You are creating a béchamel sauce.  Once it thickens you will add the grated Gruyere cheese; I added approximately 1 cup.  Remove from heat and continuously stir so that the cheese melts into the sauce.  


Take your slices of Challah and butter one side of each slice.  In a warm skillet, place one of the slices butter side down. Add two pieces of ham and top with the second slice.  The second slice should have Dijon mustard on the inner side and butter on the outer side.  Cook until the first side is browned, flip and brown the other side.  You can remove and place the sandwiches on a foiled lined pan.  In the same skillet add a little more butter, melt and then crack in the eggs.  You will be frying one egg for each sandwich so be sure to keep the eggs about an inch apart.  You are making an over easy to over medium egg.  Salt and pepper the egg.  


Take some of the cheese sauce and smear it on the top of the sandwich, top with a small amount of grated Gruyere.  Place the egg on top and then add the additional cheese sauce; generously cover the top of the sandwich.  Sprinkle the top of the sandwich with chopped fresh parsley. Place under broiler until the cheese sauce browns a bit.  Be sure that the sandwich isn't too close to the broiler or you will burn the bread.


Serve with a nice green salad.  I used baby arugula, sliced red onion, sliced strawberries and Brianna's Blush Wine Salad Dressing.

This meal was rated 3 asparagus spears

S had a bit of the sandwich and she thought it was quite tasty. She loved the ham.  Again, you will have to excuse the foodograph, not one of the best shots.

Adult Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Last night I was flying solo since my husband was out of town.  After work I brought S with to run a few errands so by the time we got home it was pretty much bed time. We followed our usual routine of reading, having a bottle, saying our prayers and then off to the crib she goes.  But there seems to be a gap between 8:30 pm when I came down from putting S to bed and 9:45pm when I realized I hadn't eaten dinner. So I looked around the kitchen to see what I had in the fridge that could be made very quickly and grilled cheese was the winner.  One issue, I didn't have any sliced American or cheddar cheese.  Time to improvise...

• I cut two slices of Challah bread and buttered one side of each slice
• I took some Whole Foods Apricot Goat Cheese spread and put a little on one of the inner sides of the bread.
• Layered on two slices of tomato
• Added a little basil
• Topped it off with a few crumbles of Point Reyes Blue Cheese
• Grilled it up and it was surprisingly delicious!

Chris would like me to point out that he did not take this picture since there were shadows in it.  I told me that I have lost my foodographer license.  Ha, ha

Challah French Toast Stuffed with Mascarpone

Apparently this was the weekend to re-create dishes from Father's Day.  I used my recipe from Father's Day Breakfast as my inspiration and made a few tweaks, delicious tweaks at that.  This morning I made Challah French toast stuffed with Mascarpone topped with fresh fruit.

 















Ingredients

• a loaf of Challah bread
• Mascarpone Cheese
• 3 eggs
• Skim milk (1/4 cup)
• Nutmeg
• Cinnamon stick
• Vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
• Apricots, Pluots and Blueberries
• Powdered Sugar

I used the Challah bread from Trader Joes again and also picked up the TJ brand of Mascarpone cheese.  Because I was using two slices of bread this time, I tried to slice them a little thinner than 1 inch.  In a bowl whisk together 3 eggs and approximately 1/4 cup milk. To the egg mixture add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Grate fresh nutmeg and fresh cinnamon into mixture.

I put a tiny bit of butter in the pan before cooking the french toast.  Spread some mascarpone on 1 side of each slice of bread. Put the slices together like a sandwich with the Mascarpone in the middle and dip the bread into the egg mixture. Be sure both sides are covered.  Let excess drip off back into bowl. Cook in pan until slightly browned on both sides.  Cover with fresh blueberries and slices of fresh apricots and pluots. Top with a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

This meal was rated 4 asparagus spears

Father's Day Breakfast

Menu
Challah French Toast with Fresh Berries
Black Forest Bacon
Mimosas
Intelligentsia Coffee (Daddy's Favorite)




Challah French Toast
I buy the Challah bread from Trader Joes.
Cut into approximately 1 inch thick slices
In a bowl whisk together 3 eggs and approximately 1/4 cup milk (This was enough to make 5 slices)
To the egg mixture add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Grate fresh nutmeg and fresh cinnamon into mixture
I put a tiny bit of butter in the pan before cooking the french toast
Dip the bread into the egg mixture. Be sure both sides are covered.  Let excess drip off back into bowl
Cook in pan until slightly browned on both sides
Cover with fresh berries and sprinkle with powdered sugar

We gave S some pieces of the french toast and blueberries. She loved both of them.  Hopefully she doesn't start expecting breakfast like this every morning.

Using my husband's rating scale he said this meal was 4.5 asparagus spears! I hope that this was a good start to his first father's day!