Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Do Over!

I apologize. This blog sucks.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but whatever it was, it didn’t work. Too instructional, too long. I wasn’t inspired to sit down and write the posts – how could I expect anyone to be inspired to read them? A sad story, for sure.

But “if at first you don’t succeed…”, so I will try again! Welcome to the new face of “Feed Your Face” where I will narrate my adventures in eating. It’s the same basic concept but more casual and hopefully more successful.

I’ve been trying to change this blog for months now, always fiddling with new ideas in my head, but I was truly inspired when talking with friends about eating healthy and dieting while sharing a big bowl of cheese-and-bacon-smothered french fries. My friend said something along the lines of “Oh, well I just try my best to be active, because I love to eat” with a shrug. And I looked at her in wonderment.

Who ever says “I love to eat” anymore? What courage! What valor! What fine words in the defense of food! Because I love to eat, too! And better yet, SO DO YOU! We eat every day. When we’re happy or sad or for no reason at all. And, damn it, I LOVE to eat – may I never lead anyone to believe otherwise! And eat I shall, and I’m going to tell you all about it.

In the past year, I learned a lot about life as an adult. Life is hard and BUSY and I have a lot of obstacles in the way of splendid eating bliss: a hectic schedule, a long commute, a picky-eater husband, and oh, I don’t know, a MORTGAGE. Mortgages get in the way of my purchasing obscenely expensive epicurean cheeses. I don’t recommend them.

Hmmm, but I suppose that mortgage has also kept my waistline down by limiting my purchase of cheese, so nevermind, I take that back. Epicurean cheeses in moderation. Also, my mortgage changed my kitchen from this:



To this!



Beautiful, ain’t it? Look at that counter space! Look at the windows! Look at the stainless steel! I’m about ready to move a cot in and sleep there.

In conclusion, I hope that you will join me in this space as I attempt to post much more often. I am on a mission: to enjoy food to the best of my foodie obsession in spite of all of the obstacles that life throws at me. Hopefully we can teach each other how we eat because, besides loving it, we all have to do it, so we might as well be in on this together. Don’t you think so? Oh, good!

And now, just for the sake of eating, I want to share with you a tried and true recipe that I find both easy and impressive – and how often do you find one of those? I’ve entertained guests several times with this recipe and the reason it is so impressive is because of a few added steps which, I find, don’t really take up much time. Hooray! I give you the most delectable French Toast you've ever eaten.

French Toast
Adapted from Alton Brown's recipe

You will definitely have custard left over but that's okay - more is better than not enough!

2 cups half-and-half
6 large eggs
4 tablespoons honey (coat your tablespoon with cooking spray before pouring in the honey and it will slide right back out again into your custard!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 loaf day-old or stale country loaf, brioche or challah bread, cut in 1/2-inch slices to yield 11-12 slices total (no ends, please)
Butter to coat the pan

Directions

The night before, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, honey, and salt. Store in the refrigerator in a tupperware container overnight. (If you are clever, you'll use a tupperware that's big enough so that you have room to whisk the ingredients inside it before sealing for the night, saving yourself a dish to clean. You are so smart!)

The next morning, pour custard mixture into a flat vessel with tall sides, such as a cake pan or large serving plate, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Dip the stale bread slices bread into mixture, as many as the pan will allow for complete contact with the custard, and soak for 30 seconds on each side. Then remove to a cooling rack that is sitting on a sheet pan covered in foil, again for easy clean-up, and allow to sit for 1 to 2 minutes.

Over medium-low heat, melt butter in a nonstick frying pan. Place bread into the pan, again as many as the pan will allow for complete contact with the pan, and cook until golden brown, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. With two large burners, I actually have two of my largest pans going at once for speed. Once browned to your liking, remove from pan and place back on the cooling rack resting on the sheet pan. Don't worry about any raw egg custard remaining on the cooling rack - it will cook in the next step. Once all the slices have been browned and moved to the cooling rack, put the rack and pan in the oven for 5 minutes, which will give you plenty of time to set the table for brunch!

1 comment:

  1. As the third party at that lovely brunch spread I must admit this french toast recipe is unlike any other-delicious! Partnered with some fresh summer watermelon, this brunch was perfection! Thanks love!

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