baked apple french toast

 

this is definitely not a "quick-throw-something-in" dish.  but it would make a great snow-day or holiday breakfast because you can make it the night before and bake it first thing in the morning.

modified from a recipe from martha stewart living, november 2010

martha's recipe called for "thick slices of brioche" for the french toast.  after haunting the bakery departments of three stores, i could not find such a beast, and the only recipe i could find (in my house - i did not travel the interwebs) showed me that brioche is made like dinner rolls, not a loaf.  so i used my favorite bread machine recipe instead... and i added 1 diced roma apple at the end.  due to my dietary restrictions, i used milk alternatives: powdered non-dairy creamer for dry milk, 1/3 C coconut cream for heavy cream, 2 C almond milk for regular milk.

apple cinnamon granola bread
(1.5 pound loaf in the bread machine)

1 C warm water
1/2 C applesauce
1 T melted butter
4 tsp brown sugar
1/3 C dry milk
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
2-1/4 C whole wheat flour
1-1/4 C bread flour
3/4 C granola ( i use 2 packages apple-cinnamon nature valley granola bars, pummeled)
1-1/2 tsp yeast

add to bread machine bucket in the order listed by your manufacturer, or in the order listed here.  set bread machine to the whole wheat cycle with a light crust.  cool completely, slice ~10-12 and let air for a day or so.  you want it to be firm.

 

baked french toast

(yields ~8-10)

6 large eggs, beaten senseless
2 C milk
1/3 C heavy cream
1/3 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 C coarsely chopped pecans (i prefer walnuts)
1 sm-med peeled & diced roma apple
2-3 T cinnamon sugar mix

1.  beat the eggs and whisk in the next 6 ingredients until the batter is smooth.

2.  dip thick slices of bread into the batter and over lap them in a greased 9x13 non-metallic baking dish.  pour remaining batter over the top.  cover & refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

3.  preheat oven to 375.  top the french toast with chopped apples and nuts.  sprinkle 2-3 T cinna-sugar over the top.  cover with parchment and foil and bake x 25 minutes.  remove foil and continue baking x 20 minutes more or until golden brown.

serve with warm syrup.

rants of the 15th

 

     so i drive to work every day at about the same time; who doesn't?  imagine my astonishment this workweek that EVERY DAY i have been trapped in the tunnel behind Zippy the Wonder Slug, chugging away at under 50 mph in a 55 zone.  and every day, Zippy is driving a different car.  he was even heading northbound yesterday after work.  what privilege, to crawl through the tunnel for no other reason than someone lost their cahones!  this morning, we were flying at a spectacular 35.  so i broke the law.  i crossed the double solid line in the tunnel and passed that bastidge like a pork barrel extension on capitol hill. 

      once upon a time, there was a mommy and a daddy and a baby.  mommy and daddy loaded up a stroller and several bags with everything they would need on a five-day wilderness hike and headed to the airport.  at least that is what it looked like.  mommy pushed the baby in the stroller through the metal detector.  kate watched while the metal detector screeched.  "um, ma'am? you'll need to take the baby out of the carseat and put the carseat face down on the x-ray belt, fold the stroller and send it through as well, and carry the baby through the metal detector."

     'you're kidding.'  mommy turned to daddy.  'well.  i don't know how they expect us to do all that.'

      kate thought to herself: did you not take all of that out of your car this morning?  hm.  there's two of you.  i'm sure you can  figure it out.  you're not the first mommy to come through. you're not the first mommy of a newborn to come through.  you're not the first mommy of a newborn with someone along to help out.  you're not the first mommy of newborn twins to come through by herself; you whine far more than she.  grow the eff up.  pack less.  enable yourself.

      a man emptied his pockets into a bin, tossed his laptop into another.  next he threw his coat and belt into a third.  he appeared to be in a tearing hurry.  i looked him over and asked the x-ray operator to take a good look at all the shoes coming through.  and to test them.  the man kicked his shoes off and bent to pick them up... paused... smacked his own forehead and looked at me.  "i did not do that," i giggled. 

     he was wearing one red and grey tennis shoe and a brown business shoe.

     looks like someone will be making a stop when they land.

      people who travel often want a 'checkpoint-friendly' laptop bag.  these bags are ones which have a SPECIAL separate laptop compartment.   SPECIAL means that in that part of the bag, ONLY the laptop goes there.  you may be able to put cords and files and magazines and your ipad there also, but then, you have defeated the friendliness.  this SPECIAL compartment can be laid flat on the x-ray machine, usually via a pair of zippers that enables the bag to butterfly open.  imagine a butterfly with a laptop sitting on one wing and the rest of the bag sitting on the other and the body of the butterfly is the only part of the bag that connects the two together. you have imagined a checkpoint-friendly bag.

      there are pictures out front in the queue area.  pictures of bags that ARE checkpoint friendly are drawn in green.  pictures of bags that are NOT checkpoint friendly are drawn in red.  (association of red = bad and green = good have been instilled in us through our public schools since the beginning of time.  or, at least since the beginning of public schools.)  regular backpacks, briefcases, satchels, purses, grocery sacks, diaper bags, and MANY office-in-a-bag bags are not checkpoint friendly.  let's put it bluntly: if you open the zipper all the way and can't see the entire laptop lid..... you are not in possession of a checkpoint friendly bag.  with my flagging language skills, i was simply unable to communicate this today.  at.  all.  especially to the guy who insisted that his briefcase was checkpoint friendly because "the laptop IS in it's own compartment.  look for yourself."  i just might.  and indeed, there was nothing in between the pieces of cloth but the laptop.  but.... on the other side of the little cloth divider.... was the rest of the office.  thank you.  have a seat.

pay it forward

 

that phrase has special meaning to me, and although initially it had nothing to do with the movie, i stole the title to suit my needs.  it is something i have tried hard to live by for these past nine years.  i think i feel so compelled to write because today is that day.  and i just now noticed.

 nine years ago we lived in arizona.  it was not nearly the fun park ride we thought it would be.  we separated from the military, determined to settle down near family for the first time in our marriage - seven years.  we left the air force with nowhere to live, and no income.  boy was that stupid.  we tried several things, a few avenues panned out.  i worked as a security guard at night and took care of the kids during the day while tad was in school.  and no.  i didn't sleep.  i got a dozing-nursing-nap with then-infant lars when i got home at sunrise until it was time to get bria to first grade.  a second hard-core nap when seamus and lars slept in the afternoon.  if they both slept at the same time.  then pick-up from school, fix dinner and off to work.  that was a long six months.  i walked away from that job with an eye-twitch and a stutter.  and some very good friends.

 these friends didn't have daily contact with me after i left my job at christmas, but came to take care of me and my babies when tad was out of town.  i landed on the floor of the bathroom, calling people out of my address book for help.  two of my co-workers took turns at my house between their shifts.  i drove myself to the ER, stopping to be sick three times on the way there.  and one of them stayed with me when i got home.

 one night in february, they showed up at the door with a trunk full of groceries.  i hadn't called.  i wasn't part of any kind of community anything.  we were literally down to our last crumbs.  i had no idea how i was going to feed my three kids and newly-discovered-pregnant me.  between the last paycheck from one job and the first paycheck from the next... we were stuck in a bad way.  these women showed me what it meant to be a friend.  they walked right in the front door with two bags of groceries each arm and another four in the car.  they hugged the kids while i tried not to cry.  they hugged me and then i cried. 

 i don't have a religion. 

i don't pray.

i don't own special clothes or trinkets or books.

i don't find it necessary to sit in a special building on a certain day and chant and sing things in a particular order.

 i simply pay it forward, every chance i get.  i have learned that no matter how small your actions are, it could be the biggest thing for someone else.  i try to be kind, helpful, i try to anticipate and then act.

 thank you, ladies.  for everything.