Recipe: French Toast

Is there a particular food that you love eating but are nervous about preparing yourself? For me that has always been French toast. I like to order it when Nick and I go out for breakfast, but until recently I never thought of making it myself. I don't know why. It's a little different at each restaurant, so in theory it is probably difficult to mess up. Sunday morning I tried my hand at making French Toast for the first time, and I have to say I will be using this recipe again very soon! It was extremely easy to prepare and Nick and I both really enjoyed it.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup flour

1 cup milk

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (my addition - I also add this to pancake batter)

1 pinch of salt

12 thick slices of bread (even better it they are a little stale)

Directions:

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and slowly whisk in the milk. Next, whisk in the eggs one at a time. Add the seasonings last. Lightly oil / spray a skillet and place over medium heat. Dip each side of the bread until thoroughly coated and cook in skillet until golden brown on each side. That's it - super easy! (I made the entire batch of batter this time even though we only made four pieces of toast because I was nervous about making adjustments the first time around. Next time I will only make about half this much batter.)

The finished product!

I sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar on the French toast while it was still hot and drizzled on some pancake syrup. you could top with powdered sugar or add fresh fruit as well. Enjoy!

Recipe: Homemade Pizza

Last night, Nick and I enjoyed some delicious homemade pizza for dinner. It turned out so well that I thought I would share the recipe with you. I have made pizza a few times, but this was my first time making the dough from scratch. I was very pleased with the results.

First things first...the dough

You will need:

3 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 package dry yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

Step 1 : Pour the warm water in a bowl and sprinkle the dry yeast mix on top. Allow this to sit for 5-10 minutes until the yeast dissolves. ( I forgot to take a picture of this stage, sorry.)

Step 2: Add all of the other ingredients and mix on low speed for about a minute with a hand mixer. Then knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or so, until it is smooth and stretches easily. You don't want it to be too sticky. If it is, add a little more flour. If you have a KitchenAid mixer, you can mix with the dough hook attachment for 10 minutes instead of kneading.

  

Step 3: Form the dough into a ball. Place the ball of dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Roll the ball of dough in the bowl so it is lightly coated in the oil. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. You can let it sit longer if you want to; some say this enriches the flavor, but the dough will only rise so much.

Step 4: While the dough is rising, fold a load of laundry, unload the dishwasher, and most importantly, have a snack!

Now, get ready to assemble your masterpiece...

Step 5: Lightly coat whatever pan you are planning to bake the pizza on with corn meal so the dough does not stick. Slowly spread the dough to the desired dimensions and thickness and brush with olive oil. This recipe makes enough dough to form two 12" round thin crusts. Nick and I like a thick crust, so I just used a regular baking sheet.

Step 6: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. If you are going to use a baking stone, you want to preheat it along with the oven and assemble your pizza on another surface before transferring.

Step 7: Spread on your pizza sauce. I used spaghetti sauce jazzed up with a little oregano, parsley, and basil.

Step 8: Add a layer of cheese.

Step 9: Add your toppings and another layer of cheese. Make sure you cook any meat toppings ahead of time. We added sausage, bacon, pepperoni, onion, and bell pepper. Next time we are going to add black olives as well. Top with a little garlic salt and pepper. 

Step 10: Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until it smells divine and looks like this.

Enjoy!!!

* This recipe was adapted from www.simplyrecipes.com*