Recipe: Vegan French Toast -- Guest Post

Photo by PianissAmma

For years, I have been a fan of brunch. I love the idea of getting together with friends and family to commune with a tasty late morning meal. Perhaps a Belgian waffle, or a spicy potato quiche served up with juice and sunshine on a Saturday morning.

One dish I have loathed since becoming an adult however, is French toast. Restaurants often serve them too soggy with egg batter, or they’re much too dry and flavorless. Even one slice can be heavy enough to make me regret getting out of bed for the rest of the day.

This spring, I challenged myself to revisit the concept of French toast on my own terms. I wondered if it was possible to make the dish without eggs. I had already began removing eggs from many dishes with a bit of success. So would it work with a brunch staple like French toast? To my surprise, the answer was ‘yes.’

Now that we are facing another egg shortage in much of the United States courtesy of a particularly bad avian flu outbreak, I wanted to share this recipe.

Vegan French Toast

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
1/3 cup apple sauce (I used Mrs. Gooch’s, because there is no added sugar)
3/4 cup milk of your choice (I have plain soy, but I think oat milk would work well here too).
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
oil or margarine for griddle as needed (I use Earth Balance)
8-10 slices of stiff bread of your choice
Note: You can use fresh bread, but lightly toast it prior to dipping in batter

Ingredients used. Photo by PianissAmma

Directions:

Preheat the griddle or skillet.

Beat or puree the fruit, milk, vanilla and cinnamon until it reaches the consistency of a smoothie. Add mixture to a plate or shallow bowl.

Dip the bread into the batter, soaking up to seconds per side. Don’t let the bread get too soggy.

Place on heated griddle or skillet, and cook until both sides are browned. This particular mixture takes a little longer to cook than it’s egg enriched counterpart. Allow for about five minutes on the griddle.

Serve as you like.


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Jill Redding blogs at Pianissamma. You can find this recipe and many others there!

Bacon Bites Fail ala Drunk Kitchen

I've got petulant bacon curling up, and angry bacon grease spitting at me as I try to push it down. It's like parenting all over again.

Go subscribe to the channel though. All the funny fails every time I'm in the kitchen. For real.

Recipe - Pillsbury Meatpie

Sometimes I don't fail in the kitchen. Those times usually involve Pillsbury.

Heat oven to 400°F. Grease 9-inch pie pan with shortening. Separate dough into 10 biscuits. Press 6 biscuits in bottom and up side of pie pan to form crust. Cut remaining 4 biscuits into quarters; set aside.

In 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef and onion over medium heat, stirring frequently, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in ketchup, mustard, salt and pepper. Cook uncovered until bubbly. Spoon into biscuit-lined pan.

Arrange cheese slices on top of beef mixture. Place biscuit quarters, point side down, around edge of hot beef mixture.

Bake 15 to 17 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown.

Easy, quick and delicious.

Recipe - Golden Santa Bread (fail)

Making Golden Santa Bread was sure to be a horrible experiment gone wrong, and my lacking skills didn't disappoint. Labelled "meth Santa" by my friends, I won't be bringing him to any parties for people to nom on any time soon.

To make this masterpiece of modern science, see the recipe below the video.



4 to 4-1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter, cubed
2 eggs
2 raisins
2 egg yolks
2 to 3 drops red food coloring

1. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a small saucepan, heat milk, water and butter to 120°-130°. Add to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened. Beat in eggs until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough.
2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350°. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into two portions, one slightly larger than the other.
4. Shape the larger portion into an elongated triangle with rounded corners for Santa's head and hat.
5. Divide the smaller portion in half. Shape and flatten one half into a beard. Using scissors or a pizza cutter, cut into strips to within 1 in. of top. Position on Santa's face; twist and curl strips if desired.
6. Use the remaining dough for the mustache, nose, hat pom-pom and brim. Shape a portion of dough into a mustache; flatten and cut the ends into small strips with scissors. Place above beard. Place a small ball above mustache for nose. Fold tip of hat over and add another ball for pom-pom. Roll out a narrow piece of dough to create a hat brim; position under hat.
7. With a scissors, cut two slits for eyes; insert raisins into slits. In separate small bowls, beat egg each yolk. Add red food coloring to one yolk; carefully brush over hat, nose and cheeks. Brush plain yolk over remaining dough.
8. Cover loosely with foil. Bake 15 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-12 minutes longer or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 1 loaf.

For more, check out Taste of Home (not my home, though). They're better at this than me.

Recipe -- Cornish Hens

This year, Thanksgiving turkey was enough for me, and since I've already tried duck (disaster 2011), I thought I'd go for a slightly different bird. Enter cornish  hens. They are so small, I figured they'd be tough and gamy, but I was so wrong. They came out great. I will be making them with this recipe for many more holiday meals.

This whole holiday meal took me less than two hours to make, and since there were only four of us, we still have tons of leftovers. Here's the best recipe I found for the tiny hens.

• 
  3 Cornish game hens
  salt and pepper to taste
  1 lemon, quartered
  4 sprigs fresh rosemary
  3 tablespoons olive oil
  6 cloves garlic
  1/3 cup white wine
  1/3 cup low-sodium chicken broth
  4 sprigs fresh rosemary, for garnish

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).

Rub hens with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Lightly season hens with salt and pepper. Place 1 lemon wedge and 1 sprig rosemary in cavity of each hen. Arrange in a large, heavy roasting pan, and arrange garlic cloves around hens. Roast in preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a mixing bowl, whisk together wine, chicken broth, and remaining 2 tablespoons of oil; pour over hens. Continue roasting about 25 minutes longer, or until hens are golden brown and juices run clear. Baste with pan juices every 10 minutes.

Transfer hens to a platter, pouring any cavity juices into the roasting pan. Tent hens with aluminum foil to keep warm. Transfer pan juices and garlic cloves to a medium saucepan and boil until liquids reduce to a sauce consistency, about 6 minutes. Cut hens in half lengthwise and arrange on plates. 

Spoon sauce and garlic around hens. Garnish with rosemary sprigs, and serve.


This is just from allrecipes.





 

Recipe: Christmas Jello Shots

These took a while, and tasted...okay. They looked great though, even though I messed up like a million times. Shows it can be saved.

1 3-ounce box cherry gelatin dessert

1 3-ounce box lime gelatin dessert

3 packets unflavored gelatin

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 cups vanilla vodka

36 dollops whipped cream (for garnish)

36 mint leaves (for garnish)

72 small red candies (or 36 if using just one for garnish)

DIRECTIONS

Lightly coat a square dish with cooking spray, and then using a paper towel, wipe out the dish. It will leave a light residue to help unmold your shots, but it won’t affect the taste.

For red layer, sprinkle half of a packet of gelatin over ¼ cup of water. Allow it to soak in a minute or two. Add one box of the cherry gelatin, along with 1 cup boiling water. Stir until everything has dissolved. Add 3/4 cup of vodka. Repeat the same process to make the green layer.

To make the white layer, sprinkle two packets of gelatin over ½ cup of water. Allow it to soak in a minute or two. Pour in 1 cup of boiling water and one 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk. Stir until everything is thoroughly mixed and gelatin is dissolved. You’ll have approximately 3 cups of liquid. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Pour half of the red mixture into the prepared pan. Place pan in refrigerator to set, about 20 minutes or so. Once set, add 1/3 of the white mixture to the top of the red mixture. Pop any air bubbles and return to fridge to set for about 20 minutes. Repeat with half of the green mixture. Then white, then red, then white again, then green. Allow finished pan to set another 2-3 hours, or overnight.

When you’re ready to serve, gently pull the edges away from the pan, and invert onto a cutting board. Slice into even squares. (Alternately, you can just cut in the pan itself, but it might be harder to remove the first few squares).

Place on serving platter and top with whipped cream, using a piping bag or can. Top with a small mint leaf and a red candy (or two) to simulate a holly leaf.

Fail Kitchen -- Apple Crescent Rolls (NOT a fail!)

Go ahead and google 'shiny bacon vaginas' and you'll see what I'm talking about.






 

Fail Kitchen - Apple Roses Cream Pie

Yeah, no. "You're stupid dough hook."









 

Recipe Monday: Ham and Spinach Casserole

My husband hates ham, but my kids love it. This dish, they all enjoyed (even though I totally burnt it...a little).

• 1 pound cavatappi, corkscrew pasta with lines or macaroni with line in any short cut
• Salt
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive (EVOO), divided
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• Black pepper
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole or 2 percent milk
• 1/2 pound sliced capocollo (hot ham), halved then sliced into thin ribbons
• 1 box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and excess liquid squeezed out
• 1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (a few large handfuls), divided
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground or freshly grated (eyeball it)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (a couple pinches)
• 1 pound ball fresh mozzarella – buy a piece wrapped, not packed in water, then cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup plain or Italian breadcrumbs
• A generous handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Directions:

Pre-heat the broiler.

Place a large pot of water over high heat and bring to a boil. Add the pasta, salt water and cook to al dente, with a bite.

While the water is coming up to a boil for the pasta, heat a medium, deep skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon EVOO, 1 turn of the pan, and the butter. When butter melts into the oil, add onions and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes then dust the onions with flour and continue to cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in milk. Gently bring milk to a bubble, allow the milk to thicken a bit, then stir in the capocola, spinach and 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano. Season sauce with nutmeg and cayenne and remove from the heat. Taste and add a little salt, if you like.

Combine the cooked pasta and the cubed mozzarella with the sauce, stir to coat completely by turning over and over. Transfer dressed pasta to a baking dish.

To make the breadcrumb topping, combine the breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons of EVOO and the remaining 1/2 cup Parmigiano. Sprinkle the breadcrumb mixture over the top to cover the pasta from edge to edge. Transfer the baking dish under the broiler and broil until golden brown and crispy. Garnish with chopped parsley.