Monday, October 5, 2009
Bourbon Vanilla French Toast
I know what you’re thinking… Where’s the food? Where’s something to eat? I’ll get to that… But first, for some reason my wacked out sleep schedule had a little meeting with my body clock and decided it would be cool to wake up at 6am on Sunday morning. Did I go to bed early? No, went to bed around 1:30am. Since I was awake, I thought I’d take the opportunity to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I live near a large hill that overlooks all of Nashville, called Love Circle. Ever since my first visit to this place, I fell in love with it. It’s one place I’m always advising people to go. I’d been at different hours of the day, and at sunset, and it’s pretty. But the sun doesn’t set over Nashville. From this hill the sun rises over Nashville. I’d always wanted to see the sun rise from there.
For some reason The Boy actually agreed to go up there with me. I figure, if I can talk him into this I can talk him into anything. Though we never actually saw the sun, the earliest pre-dawn minutes gave us a beautiful show. There’s just something so breathtaking about seeing a deep navy sky above with fiery red and oranges on the horizon.
Once we made it back down to the apartment, I knew I was hungry! I wasn’t quite sure what to eat for breakfast, but it needed to be something easy to fix, yet different from what I eat on a weekday (apples, oatmeal, cereal, breakfast sandwiches), and something I could fix just for me (The Boy ate a bagel). I knew I had some evaporated milk leftover from making this pumpkin pie fudge the day before. And we also had one of the small white french baguettes from Panera; the little serving size you get with your soup or salad. I did some googling for “leftover evaporated milk”, and saw suggestions for french toast. It was a perfect way to use up the day old bread, and the evaporated milk.
Sometime back mid-summer I bought a bunch of vanilla beans. I also bought some bourbon so that I could make bourbon vanilla. I’m thinking bourbon vanilla will be a great addition to any fall baking I hope to do! I keep checking the bottle, and giving it a good shake every week or so. Finally I think my vanilla is just about ready to use.
French toast is something that I usually consider to be somewhat decadent. I never want to order it in restaurants as it’s just way too much sweetness and carb-overload for me. But this was a perfect portion. I felt satisfied, but not stuffed. It was sweet and rich, but not overly so. A chicken sausage rounded out the meal nicely, and gave me the protein I need in the morning.
Bourbon Vanilla French Toast
serves 1
Ingredients:
demi french baguette (approx 2 oz), day-old preferred, sliced
1 egg
1/4 cup (2 oz) milk (I used evaporated milk)
1 tsp bourbon vanilla (or just whatever vanilla you have on hand)
cinnamon (as always, I used my freshly cracked cinnamon from this grinder)
dash of butter or cooking sprayconfectioner's sugar (optional)
maple syrup (optional)
fruit preserves (optional)Directions:
Combine egg, milk, and vanilla in a wide shallow container. Beat lightly to combine; add cinnamon. Soak bread for approximately 20 minutes, flipping over halfway through.
Heat skillet to medium high and melt butter. Cook french toast on skillet, 3-4 min; flip and cook another 2-3 min. Top with confectioner's sugar, maple syrup, or fruit preserves.
***And this time last year I was blogging about these great Chocolate Cookies with White Chocolate Chips, and my very FIRST experience with homemade Marshmallows***