a recipe

Creative post title right?  I don't usually do recipe posts, but I made something this weekend that I really liked, and I thought I'd share.

French toast is one of my all-time favorite breakfast foods, but one that I don't usually make for myself.  It's messy, and I can burn grilled cheese, so I tend to stay away.  I've been eyeing some french toast bakes on pinterest, so I combined a few recipes, took a look around my kitchen, and came up with this:

Ingredients:

1. (1) medium loaf/baguette of sourdough bread
2. 4 eggs
3. 1 cup almond milk
4. 2 tablespoons of vanilla
5. 1 tablespoon-ish Alchemy Spice "Wake & Bake" (Cinnamon, nutmeg, good stuff blend)

Prep:
Wisk everything except the bread together in a large bowl.  Slice the bread into 1"-1.25" slices.  (Since I was doing finger foods for brunch, I cut them again into stick size slices.) Gently place the bread into the bowl, folding it once after all the bread is added, and let it soak for about an hour.

This is where I thought I was going to have a pinterest fail.  The bread quickly became mushy, and wanted to fall apart in the bowl, before I even finished adding all the bread.  I think this is because my bread had dried out some, but I had a small freak out.  I ended up with some small-ish pieces, but it came back together as it baked....and they were still really good.

Bake:
Place in a greased (and floured if you feel so inclined) 13"x9" pan, and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes, or until brown.

ta-da - french toast sticks

This turned out really good.  Good enough for me to type out a post just so I can pin it, and have it for future reference good.

Some notes:  I have started keeping almond milk around because it lasts longer in my fridge.  It's thicker than regular milk, which I think works well here, but you can use whatever you have in your fridge.  Vanilla is always good, and the Wake & Bake Sweet Spice is worth keeping around.   I used it in an apple sangria last fall, and my mom puts it on apples.  A little goes a long way, so use it to taste.  Alchemy is a local Chattanooga Company, so gotta love that too.

bored or resourceful...you decide

I can't tell whether I'm just bored, or being resourceful, but either way I have started canning. I borrowed my mom's canning equipment, and I'm starting to take advantage of all the awesomeness that the farmers markets and fruit stands in Chattanooga have to offer.  The good news is, that while I have started small, it's really not that hard.

I started off very safe, with a "I think this should work" recipe in small quantities, and it went well enough that I'm about to enter the 'go big or go home' phase.  I made just over 1.5 pints of strawberry/peach preserves, and did one pint size jar of pickled onions.  I really like having the onions around to put on salads, or toss in with green beans.

The preserves taste great.  I didn't add anything to help it gel up, so it's a little runny compared to traditional preserves, but I just couldn't add any more sugar.  I'd love to know if you 'can', and what your favorite recipes are.  Please let me know in the comments!

If you're interested, here are the recipes I started with:

Strawberry/Peach Preserves:
 Ingredients:
1 medium package of strawberries
1 large basket of peaches
1 lemon, juiced (or concentrate)
2 oranges juiced (or concentrate)
2 cups of sugar

Yield:1.75 pints

Instructions:
Dice your fruit and place in a saucepan with lemon and orange juice.  Bring to Boil over medium heat.  Drain, and set fruit aside.  Bring the liquid back to a boil and slowly add the sugar so it fully dissolved.  Reduce heat to a rolling boil.  Cook down the liquid for at least 20 minutes or until the foam has dissipated, stirring occasionally to prevent the sugar from burning.  When you are happy with the consistency, add the fruit, bring back to a boil, then fill your jars.

Pickled Onions

Ingredients:
2 medium videlia onions, thinly sliced
* 3 parts vinegar, 1 part water mixture
3 gloves garlic, chopped
Yield: 1 Pint

Instructions:
Confession: since I was only making 1 jar I cheated on my measurements. I stuffed the onions in the jar, and then added the vinegar & water until the jar was completely full.  
In a saucepan, bring vinegar water mixture to a boil.  Add the onions and garlic, bring back to a boil.  Then fill your jar, leaving 1/2 an inch at the top.  I want my onions to stay crisp, so they don't have to boil long, just enough to kill any bacteria that was on the outside layer of the onion.

Canning:
The principles behind canning are sterilize your jars and your lids, fill your jars with hot (boiling) contents leaving a little room at the top for the air to collect, then process in boiling water so the air escapes, and you create a vacuum seal as everything cools.

How exactly you process what you're canning varies based on what it is, and rather than go into the details I'm going to share this link from Ball.

Again, let me know if you're a canner, and what you preserve!

tomato sandwich season!!

One of the best parts of summer for me right now is tomato season.  I've discovered heirloom tomatoes over the past few summers, and I look forward to the time of year that they're in season.  Never in a million years would I have thought I would eat a tomato sandwich, much less crave them, but now I do.

As part of the Garden to Table Challenge at the Greenish Thumb, here is my go to summer sandwich.  I eat it for lunch, dinner, or whenever I have a few good heirloom tomatoes around.  My favorite heirloom last year was a Yellow Brandywine, they're hard to find, but they're worth it when you get one. Yesterday I picked up some Glaciers and some Cherokee Purples at the Chattanooga Farmers Market to tide me over until mine start to come in...I'm thinking two more weeks : )

Ingredients:

• your favorite baguette or bread
• olive oil
• fresh mozzarella
• Sliced tomatoes
• salt & pepper, to taste
• fresh basil

 Instructions:
I toast my bread first with a little olive oil, then add mozzarella, tomato, salt & pepper, and basil.  I put this back in the broiler for just a few minutes to soften up the tomatoes & melt the cheese.  If I'm feeling fancy I drizzle some balsamic vinegar on top, but it's good just the way it is.

Simple, easy, and tasty.  Pretty much sums up how I like to cook.

fun with pop rocks

I know that posting this on July 6th isn't much help for anyone, but these really made me happy, and I wanted to share...I mean come on, who doesn't love pop rocks.

This is a pretty easy recipe, it just takes some time.  The only thing I learned is that water and chocolate just don't mix...and that includes food coloring.  I always wondered what paste or gel food coloring is all about, and I learned the hard way that it's for chocolate.  The regular food coloring drops do not work with chocolate.

Ingredients:

• 1 package strawberries, rinsed & dried
• 12 oz White Chocolate (10 oz white, 2 oz colored with blue paste food coloring)
• Pop Rocks - My pop rocks came with 3 flavors packets, strawberry & watermelon (red) and tropical punch (blue-ish).  I found them on the candy isle at the Dollar store, and they were, in fact, a dollar.

Instructions:

• Melt Chocolate in microwave safe bowl, stirring every 30 seconds
• Dip strawberries in white chocolate & then decorate with pop rocks.
• Add any additional colored chocolate decoration
• Chill for 10 minutes in freezer. 

File this one away under Next Year.

garden to table challenge - pizza

Confession: this is inspired from one of last weeks recipes (Pesto Pizza) on the Garden to Table Challenge at Greenish Thumb.  Mine is different, but the idea to make farmer's market pizza's definitely came from Lindalou.

The great thing about a farmer's market pizza is that everything is going to be fresh, and you can pick what you like.  My group vetoed peppers, but there were a few I had my eye on.

The great thing about the farmer's market is interacting with the farmers.  I knew I wanted sausage for the pizzas, and when I asked Cloudcrest Farms what would be good, they were able to recommend what they used on pizzas the night before. When I picked out mixed tomatoes, the farmers from Pocket Farms were able to show me a low acidity yellow tomato named 'taxi' to try along with a more traditional looking (ie red) heirloom tomato i forgot to ask the name of.

If I had been smart, I would have gotten my cheese at the farmers market, but I had some store bought in the fridge, so I used what I have.  Next time, I'm still a newbie.

Ingredients:
(1) andoille sausage - farmers market
(6) small heirloom tomatoes, 1/2 diced 1/2 thinly sliced - farmers market
Basil - my garden
(2) medium pizza crust - store bought
Mozzarella - store bought
feta - store bought
olive oil w/italian spices - Alchemy Spice

I brushed the pizza dough with my olive oil, layered the tomatoes, toppings, cheese, and basil and baked according to the crust instructions.  This is the first pizza I have made with heirloom tomatoes, and it was ah-may-zing.  Having two different types of heirlooms was just so good.  I am convinced that I will never go back to regular tomatoes, and I am kicking myself for not putting my tomatoes in the ground earlier...it's going to be at least another 3 weeks before I have any tomatoes of my own.....but that's what the farmers market is for!
 

Raspberry Sweet Tea Cocktail

Best surprise ever!   I took a walk around my yard yesterday and I found raspberries!   

This was such a good surprise, and it didn't take me long to decide what I wanted to do with them...a sweet tea vodka cocktail as my first entry into The Greenish Thumb's Garden to Table Challenge.  (Check out Wendy's site for weekly lists of recipes with in-season food...so good)

Here's the recipe:

• 2 oz Sweet Tea Vodka (Firefly, Jeramiah Weed, etc)
• 4 oz water
• Splash of Sprite
• 1/2 handful of fresh raspberries

If you have a shaker, you can combine all ingredients, add ice, and shake to release the juice.  If you don't have a shaker or muddler, just add the berries into your glass, squish with a fork, add the rest of your ingredients, and stir.

Cheers Everybody!