The Pioneer Woman’s French Toast

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It was about this time last year that we were getting ready to head out to see Corby’s friend’s Ladd and Ree- otherwise known as Marlboro Man and The Pioneer Woman.  We stayed on their ranch for a few days and helped wrangle some cattle- it was pretty awesome.  Since that time, I have to say that I have done no wrangling, ranching or cattling.  However, I have of course been reading Ree’s blog and keeping up with her cooking.  I really enjoy reading her recipes because they are so tasty, but I also just have to laugh at her extensive use of butter, sugar and all things good.  I was looking at her recipe for Baked French Toast, and while I couldn’t (well actually I could because it is so delicious, but I would be very unhealthy and fat which I am not a huge fan of) eat this for breakfast every morning, on the occasional Saturday or Sunday, it is a huge treat!  Sugar, butter, heavy cream, more sugar, more butter, and bread- awesome.  While we are probably not going to make it out to the ranch this year, that will not stop me for enjoying her decadent Baked French Toast and all of her other wonderful recipes!

The Pioneer Woman’s Baked French Toast

Ingredients:

1 loaf Crusty Sourdough Or French Bread
8 whole Eggs
2 cups Whole Milk
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract
Topping:
1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Freshly Grated Nutmeg, Optional
1 stick Cold Butter, Cut Into Pieces

Directions:

For the French toast: Grease the baking pan with butter. Tear the bread into chunks, or cut into cubes, and evenly distribute in the pan. Crack the eggs in a big bowl. Whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Pour evenly over the bread. Cover the pan tightly and store in the fridge until needed (overnight preferably). Or you can make it and bake it right away—delicious no matter what!

For the topping: Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and some nutmeg in a separate bowl. Stir together using a fork. Add the butter and with a pastry cutter, and mix it all together until the mixture resembles fine pebbles. Store in a plastic bag in the fridge.

When you’re ready to bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the casserole from the fridge and sprinkle the topping over the top. Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture or for 1 hour-plus or more for a firmer, crisper texture.

Scoop out individual portions. Top with butter and drizzle with warm pancake syrup.

My attempt at baking bread

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My mother’s homemade bread is the best.  I am not kidding- everyone loves it.  She gives it away as presents for Christmas, birthdays, new babies, house warmings- it is perfect for every occasion.  She makes loaves and loaves of it at a time and then freezes them so that she always has bread to pull out if she needs it.  She could make it in her sleep.  The first time I tried to make it when I lived up in New York, I had her on the phone with me walking me through the steps.  I thought it was going pretty well, then she said, “Now just add some flour until it is not sticky.”  I am the kind of person who needs more specific directions than “some flour”.  My bread turned out okay but not great, and I definitely added too much flour.  I gave up- it was just much easier to have her make the bread and send it to me or make a bunch when she would come to visit.  Both my sister and sister-in-law have mastered the skill of my mother’s bread.  My sister, who just moved to Vietnam with her husband and two little girls, even can make it over there.  She did have to improvise since she did not have a rolling pin, but apparently a wine bottle works just as well.  I, on the other hand, have never tried to make her bread again, but I think it might be time.  Le Creuset has just come out with an on-line series called “Le Creuset Technique Series with Michael Ruhlman”, and the first one is about bread baking.  You can watch it here- it is fantastic http://lecreuset.com/ruhlman!  It has some wonderful ideas, and I can’t wait for the next story to come out- so inspiring.  Anyway- here is my mother’s bread recipe.  I will be trying it this weekend and actually measuring the flour I use so that if and when I get it right, I will know how much and then can add it to the recipe for future generations to not struggle like me.  At the end when the dough is made, you can put it in a loaf pan and bake it, but my mother breaks it into three balls which she then rolls out into a rope and braids the bread.  It is very pretty.  And while this has nothing to do with bread- here is a fun picture of Walker I took last weekend.

My Mother’s Bread

Ingredients:

1 package yeast

½ cup sugar

2 cups warm water

 3 tbsp oil

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tbsp salt

¼ cup dry milk powder

unbleached all-purpose flour (see how there is no amount to this- I am going to find out and fill it in!!)

Directions:

Mix yeast, sugar  and water in a big pot or dutch oven. After yeast, sugar and water have reached bubbling stage, whisk in the oil, eggs, salt and milk powder.  Gradually beat in flour, a cup at a time, until you need a spoon to stir flour in.  Continue to add flour until you can work with the dough and your hands are not sticky.  Let rise until double.  Beat down and add more flour.

Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 min.

Atomic Blue- A new dipping sauce that will blow your mind!

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Clearly one of the best things about fall is football season, and if you aren’t really into football, at least you can enjoy a good tailgate or “football watching” party.  However, I have found that these things tend to get a little repetitive in their food choices.  Wings, beer, chili, you get the idea.  Until now- this dipping sauce is really the perfect blend of spicy and cool blue cheese that makes whatever you dip into it a million times better.  It is so flavorful and interesting- I am completely hooked.  I also love the story behind it.  Three high school friends back in the late 80s and early 90s were tired of ketchup, mustard, mayo as their only condiments and came up with the recipe.  Then college and life got in the way, and it has taken them almost 20 years to get back together and realize that it is still the best dipping sauce and that there still is a need for it today.   Right now, you can order this at www.whatisatomicblue.com, and I have no doubt that you will be able to find it in grocery stores soon.  They will soon offer Atomic Salsa, Atomic Q, Atomic Ranch and Atomic Marinara which I know will be awesome.  So, if you want to add something special to your next tailgate or any event- give this a try!

 

Turtle Candy and Real Turtles

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I have a very weird fear of small animals like mice, fish, lizards, frogs, etc.  I am really only afraid of these things, which lets be honest, can not hurt me really at all, when they are close to me and move unexpectedly.  Then I freak out.  Take fish- I love fishing and catching fish, it is super fun, but when said fish that I caught gets put into a bucket and starts jumping around and trying to get, I run screaming.  I really don’t know why.  Walker had a pet fish for a while, and I dealt with it pretty well until the day I was cleaning the fish bowl, and the fish was in a glass on the counter next to the sink.  And then the fish jumped out of the glass and into the sink, and I started screaming.  Did it even occur to me to pick up Walker’s beloved fish with my hands?  No.  And we were out of paper towels and the fish was getting closer to the drain.  So I grabbed a spoon- not quite sure what I was going to do with that, but anyway- sad story, the fish went down the drain.  Maybe not my best moment and definitely won “Worst Mother of the Year” award for that one.  It turns out that my fear of little animals extends to turtles as well.  We went kayaking last Sunday which was so fun.  Walker and Corby were in a kayak together, and Walker spotted a turtle in the water.  I thought- neat- and kept on paddling.  A few minutes later, Walker and Corby paddled up and Walker thrust his new friend at me.  I screamed and nearly fell out of my kayak.  This was the funniest thing that Walker had seen in a long time.  Before you get the entirely wrong impression of me, I am not completely girly.  Spiders, cock roaches, insects, I have no problem with these things.  I can kill spiders all day long, but rodents and small aquatic and amphibious creatures not so much.  Anyway, as with most things I do, I immediately starting thinking about what fun recipes I could get from this experience.  Turtle soup- no.  But turtle candy- yes!  This is a fun easy recipe from www.allrecipes.com

Pretzel Turtle Candy

Ingredients:

20 small mini pretzels

20 chocolate covered caramels

20 pecan halves

(or however many you want to make- doesn’t have to be 20)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Arrange the pretzels on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and place one chocolate covered caramel candy on each pretzel.

Bake for 4 minutes, and while the candy is still warm, press a pecan halve on each candy covered pretzel.  Cool completely before storing.

National Biscuit Month= Awesome

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September is National Biscuit Month which clearly makes it my new favorite month.  It is also National Honey Month, National Rice Month, National Mushroom, All American Breakfast, Better Breakfast, Chicken, Self-Improvement, Courtesy, Hug a Texas Chef, Cholesterol Awareness, and Organic Harvest Month just to name a few.  Clearly, the need to have a month dedicated to ridiculous things is pretty popular.  October has 38 things that it celebrates including National Toilet Tank Repair Month.  I think having a month dedicated to something is a really great idea, but maybe we could limit it to 12 special things- just one for each month- not 38.  And I am going to go ahead and throw out there that September should really lose all of those other things and just be solely National Biscuit Month.  Who doesn’t want to celebrate biscuits?  I am reposting my favorite biscuit recipe to date- Cracked Pepper and Cheddar Biscuits, but I am making it my goal if possible (and it very well might not be possible) to find a new favorite biscuit recipe.  What is your favorite biscuit- buttermilk with jelly, ham and cheese?  I love them all.

Cracked Pepper and Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup of cold butter

3/4 cup of buttermilk

1 tablespoon of cracked pepper

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions

First, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and mix together. Next, cut in the butter- it is important to use cold butter. Cover the butter lumps with flour and squeeze them between your fingers to break them down into smaller bits and rub the butter into them. What is left in the bowl looks like break crumbs.

Stir in the buttermilk and mix up the dough until the liquid is all absorbed by the flour. At this point, you add the cheese and pepper or whatever combination you choose. With your hands, knead and shape the dough until all the flour is worked in and the dough is of a single consistency. It should be still be slightly sticky to the touch, but not so sticky that it clings to your hands and the side of the bowl.

With a rolling pin, roll out the dough on a board until it is between a half and inch and an inch thick. Cut the dough with a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass or cup. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and crispy. So delicious!!!

Southwest Chicken in a Crock Pot

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Despite the fact that it is still hot, it is September which means cool weather and sweaters are around the corner, and I am kind of ready for it.  Granted, it will probably be 6-8 weeks before that happens in Charleston, but something about school being back in session and the hope of fall makes me want to pull out the crock pot and cook easy hearty meals.  Wednesday is fairly busy at our house- Walker gets home from school, does his homework, has an hour or so of down time and then heads to football practice at 5:30. Football is supposed to be over at 7:00 pm but it is usually more like 7:15-7:20 and then we rush home on our bikes for Walker’s piano lesson at 7:15.  We were late last night.  By the time piano is over it is very close to 8:00, and Walker is starving.  Fortunately, yesterday I pulled out the crock pot and made southwest style chicken- microwaved some minute rice (please don’t judge!!)- cooked up some green beans, and dinner was on the table by 8:02.  I was pretty pleased with this effort, and I had forgotten the ease of crock pot dinners- throw everything in the pot- turn it on, and it is done 4 or 5 hours later, and it is really delicious.  So, here is my Southwest Chicken recipe.  Basically, you are making soup in the crock pot with chicken breasts thrown in. I got the southwest soup recipe from www.tasteofhome.com, which I just love!

Southwest Chicken in a Crock Pot:

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups water

2 8oz cans tomato sauce

1 8oz can kidney beans drained and rinsed

1 can chicken broth

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup salsa

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp basil

Directions:

Put chicken in the crock pot- cover with the rest of the ingredients and stir.  Turn the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.  Serve over rice.  Yummy!