Mastering the Basics: French Toast

French toast seems so simple, yet I seem to have issues with it. I didn’t eat French toast much growing up, we were a pancake household, and I rarely order it when I’m out to eat (I blame the horrible so-called French toast at the restaurant I worked at in college – it ruined me). So sometimes I forget French toast even exists.

But we like to have breakfast for dinner fairly often since we never really get to make a real breakfast in the morning. And after a few weeks my waffle maker starts begging for a vacation and I just don’t want another pancake but I also don’t quite want an omelet and I’m stuck wondering what to have until my brain goes – French toast! Yes!

So I searched some blogs and allrecipes and determined the basic French toast formula and a little while later we had some delicious French toast for dinner. The consensus that night was that French toast is muy bueno (no hablo frances!) and will definitely be making many appearances at our house from now on.

 

French Toast

From allrecipes.com

Ingredients

6 Bread Slices (thick slices work best)

2 Eggs

2/3 Cups Milk

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Directions

Whisk together all ingredients except bread in a large, wide pan (rectangular Tupperware works great).

Heat a skillet over medium high hear. Lightly spray with no-stick spray.

Place bread into the egg mixture and allow to sit for a few seconds before flipping over to allow the other side to soak up the mixture.

Place in the hot skillet and cook until golden brown. Flip and cook the other side until golden as well.

Serve warm with your favorite toppings (syrup or fruit with whipped cream are awesome!). You can give a quick dusting of powdered sugar if you wish.

Mastering the Basics: Waffles

One of my favorite kitchen items is definitely my waffle maker. I love being able to quickly make a batch of waffles for breakfast – or even dinner! I don’t always get to make waffles as often as I’d like but when I do I usually double the recipe and then put the extras into the freezer to pull out when we’re having a waffle emergency (you have those too, right?
This recipe was so quick. I actually found it through Pinterest and then browsed the comments on Allrecipes. This recipe has lots of rave reviews, so I was pretty confident it would turn out ok. And did it ever! The waffles were fluffy and delicious and we loved them. I doubled the recipe and have quite a few in the freezer now. Yay! To freeze I just place two waffles into a ziplock bag, push out as much air as possible and freeze.
Definitely give this recipe a try. It took no time at all and I think it will become a regular in our rotation.

Easy Waffles
From Allrecipes via My Missouri Kitchen and found on Pinterest
Ingredients
2 Eggs 2 Cups AP Flour 1 3/4 Cups Milk 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil 1 Tablespoon Sugar 4 Teaspoons Baking Powder 1/4 Teaspoon Salt 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract Directions Heat your waffle maker per the machine’s instructions. Spray with no cook spray if necessary. In a large bowl beat the eggs until fluffy. Mix in other ingredients until smooth. When the waffle maker is ready pour in the batter (whatever amount goes in your waffle maker). Cook until golden brown. Top with syrup or your favorite toppings. Enjoy!

Mastering the Basics: Omelettes

One of my kitchen related goals for this year is to master what I consider to be cooking basics. These are things that I think make up the basis for a great kitchen repertoire and a very happy cook. I'm really late in getting started with these posts, but expect to see them over the rest of the year.

The first basic I decided to master is the omelette. I love omelettes. I order them pretty much whenever we eat breakfast out. And I'm a total purist when it comes to what I want in mine, just a couple of items is all I want, I like to still be able to taste the eggs and enjoy whatever is in the omelette. So, with as much as I love these breakfast menu mainstays, it is rather surprising, at least to myself, that I've never made one before. I mean there was even a recipe for an omelette in my cookbook for kids I had growing up. But for some reason I always went with scrambled eggs when I wanted a break from plain ole eggs.

But not anymore! Now that I've made this awesome item at home it is definitely going to become a kitchen regular at our house!

First Attempt

When I decided to make these I turned to my usual source for enlightenment, the Internet. I ended up reading a number of omelette recipes and then just going into the kitchen and throwing things in a bowl. This is my take on an omelette.

Second Attempt

Simple Omelette

3 Eggs

1 Tablespoon Water

Salt and Pepper to taste

Fillings of Choice

Mine had: a little more than 1/4 cup of Mozzarella cheese and 2 strips of bacon, crumbled

Doug's had: the same amount of Cheddar cheese and 3 strips of bacon, crumbled

Spray a skillet with nonstick spray and put over medium heat.

Whisk eggs and water until thoroughly combined, add salt and pepper.

Pour into skillet and let cook until the egg mixture is firm and not runny (some cooks swear by keeping the egg just a tiny bit runny and shiny, but I'm a bit of an egg freak and like to make sure mine are completely done).

Place toppings on one side of egg, fold other side over.

Leave alone for just a minute or two.

Carefully slide out of pan and onto a plate.

I topped Doug's with salsa, which he said was great.