Food Friday - Breakfast. It's What's for Dinner!

from Tracey G.

This week's recipe has really been a trial to get accomplished! LOL I didn't plan on 90+ degree temperatures when I picked out a new recipe to try that needs to be baked...poor planning on my part! I thought for the fun of it I'd find something new to make, always looking for new stuff. So, I picked this recipe, sounded super simple and super yummy. Well, it was simple, until you have a grocery store than doesn't quite have the bread you need. Then the frozen blueberries I'd bought for it (as you can use frozen or fresh with this one, which was another appealing thing about it!) somehow never made it to the freezer. I found them on the dining room floor, still in the grocery bag - the next day. I have NO idea how that happened, how does one miss a grocery bag??? I guess though, that's what happens when you're not the one who puts the groceries away - Harry wanted to be helpful and since the Cool Whip had made it to the freezer, I figured so did the blueberries, lol. I was wrong. So, I had to get some more blueberries which also set me back, ugh.

And even the photos were a challenge this week as well, hence the reason there's so very few, I did what I could, and had to just admit defeat and call it good enough, lol. So, let's get to it... ;-)

Here's the ingredients to get started with - butter, bread, sliced frozen or fresh peaches and frozen or fresh blueberries. The bread is supposed to be a long loaf of French bread, cut into 20 slices. Of course my grocery didn't have any baguette style bread - just an already sliced loaf of Italian bread, and not very thickly. So, I ended up improvising, which proved be a bit troublesome down the road, lol, now, looking back, I see a few ways differently I could have done it, but oh well, next time I will when they don't have the right bread, lol. As for the other ingredients, I didn't get any shots of them, lol, it's definitely been a challenge getting this one accomplished! 

First you melt the butter and pour it into a 9x13" baking dish, I tilted the pan to coat the bottom. Then, you layer in your bread slices. You're supposed to layer half the slices, which if you have the correct bread, would be 10, lol. Since I had the Italian loaf to work with, I put mine in this way, as shown in the above photo. And since they were pretty thin, I doubled the bottom layer. (This whole thing was trial and error for me since I didn't have the proper bread - it really threw a bunch of things off! LOL).

This photo, above, shows the dish a few more steps into the process....after putting your first layer of bread in, you top with some of the peaches and some of the blueberries. You then top it with another slice of bread (in my case I used only one slice for the top layer) and then you top that with the rest of the peaches and the blueberries.

Now you mix up the custard part - milk, eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and salt. Once you have that mixed well, you pour it over top of the prepared bread and fruit. At this point you cover and refrigerate 2 hours to overnight.

Pull the French toast out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 350°. Meanwhile, you make the caramel sauce :-) This is a super simple little recipe on it's own, and I am going to use it for other things I think down the road, lol, vanilla ice cream for one thing! But anyway, you melt 1/2 cup butter and together in the microwave with 1/2 cup brown sugar, and cook it for about a minute. Then you add 3 tbsp heavy cream and 3 tbsp corn syrup and cook for about a minute longer until bubbly.

You take a 1/2 cup of the caramel and drizzle it over the French toast, then bake it uncovered for about 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. For me, I ended up going about 60 minutes, but that's because of the bread configuration I'm sure, lol. You let it stand about 10 minutes, then drizzle with the remaining caramel sauce before serving! It's really yummy no matter what it looked like, lol.

I hope the next time I make it I have the right bread, but if not I have a few ways, now that I know how it comes together, that I think will make it a better turn out than this first run, lol.

Peach-Blueberry French Toast

courtesy of Taste Of Home

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 loaf (1 pound) French bread, cut into 20 slices 3­1/2 cups sliced peeled fresh or frozen peaches

1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

6 eggs

2 ­1/2 cups 2% milk

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

CARAMEL:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, cubed

3 tablespoons corn syrup

3 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1) Pour butter into a greased 13­in. x 9­in. baking dish. Top with half of the bread slices. Layer with 2­1/2 cups peaches, 1/4 cup blueberries and remaining bread.

 2) In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and salt; pour over bread. Arrange the remaining peaches and blueberries over top; cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

 3) Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Place brown sugar and butter in a small microwave­safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 to 1­1/2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved, stirring once. Add corn syrup and cream; cook 1 minute longer or until bubbly, stirring once.

 4) Drizzle 1/2 cup caramel over top. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35­40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving; drizzle with remaining caramel. Yield: 10 servings.


from Kris B.

What I have to offer this week seems more about reminders and resolutions than it does a recipe.  Here are my somewhat random thoughts in a random order that will eventually result in a recipe...sort of.

First of all, breakfast is my favorite meal.  Or perhaps more appropriately stated, breakfast foods are my favorite foods.  Oatmeal, eggs, bacon, potatoes, pancakes, fruit, French toast...it doesn't matter.  I love them all.  Therefore, when I am stuck for what to eat for whatever meal, I will usually reach for something "breakfasty."  This is how we arrived a this week's theme.

Though having breakfast foods for dinner sometimes feels like cheating as far as meal preparation goes, they really do make for a perfectly reasonable anytime meal.  Who decided that eggs are a breakfast food, anyway?  It is the perfectionist in me that somehow drew the conclusion that dinner should be well-planned, painstakingly prepared, and beautifully served.  I don't know where these ideas originated.  What I do know is that no matter how tasty, oatmeal or an English muffin with peanut butter doesn't really count as dinner in my mind.  Believing that dinner should be a more elaborate meal than the others sometimes keeps me from preparing a simple, but really perfectly acceptable to most, meal.  I share this week's recipe as a way to help myself shatter my own unrealistic expectations.

"Hash," as used here, means whatever you happen to have in the veggie bin in the fridge, a potato, and a fried egg on top for a little protein.  There are many different ingredients that can be used in this and equally as many seasoning variations that you can vary it every week and make it your own.  The ingredient that makes it worthy of being called hash is the potato.  Hash does not need to be well-planned or painstakingly prepared.  Quite the contrary.  It can be thrown together at the last minute with whatever ingredients you have on hand and the preparation requires nothing but dicing the ingredients.  It can, however, be beautifully served.

Here is my simple version.

INGREDIENTS
1 russet potato
1 sweet potato
1 zucchini
1 red bell pepper
1/2 medium yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Microwave the russet and sweet potatoes for 8-10 minutes, depending on size.  You want them to be "not quite done."  This is a lesson I learned late in life.  Any kind of fried potatoes need to be partially cooked before they are fried or the outsides burn before the insides get done.  

While the potatoes are in the microwave, dice the other vegetables.  When the potatoes are done, dice them as well.  I leave the skin on the russet potato, but remove it from the sweet potato.  

In a heavy skillet, (I am partial to cast iron.) heat the olive oil.  Add all of the vegetables, but no potatoes yet.  Saute the vegetables until they are tender.

Add the butter and the potatoes to the veggies.

Cook the potatoes until they start to brown on the edges and have a little bit of "crunch."

While the potatoes are cooking, prepare a fried eggs sunny side up in a non-stick skillet.

Serve the egg on top of the hash.  And that's it!

Like i said, the variations here are endless...add herbs, spices, different veggies, or meat to create a meal that is suitable for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!