Yes my friends Bacon French Toast!

I'm not a breakfast gal for it tends to make me sleepy. Oh I enjoy all the foods associated with breakfast (especially Eggs Benedict & country fried steak with biscuits and gravy) and will once in a while make it for dinner but as a early morning meal I'll usually pass for a nice huge cup of strong hot coffee. Moe on the other hand acts as though he's dying if he doesn't eat a hearty breakfast and lunch. . .and dinner. Yep he's a 3 square meal type of man and yet he stays in perfect shape. The last time I indulged in making breakfast for us, I decided to make an easy French Toast. As I'm happy dipping my bread slices into the egg batter and buttering my skillet, Moe bellows from the other room like I'm across a soccer field "HEY HON! CAN YOU PLEASE PUT BACON ON IT!!!!! I walk into the living room with my eyebrow raised "seriously?" Moe replies like a little boy with a big smile on the verge of getting a big pancake sized lolly "Yep I like mine sprinkled with bacon bits and cooked into the batter." I do one of those "hmm okay" and shrug going back into the kitchen to do my mans bidding. Usually I'm a peanut butter, syrup and powdered sugar girl, might be blog worthy. . . and it is. Oh I know it's not for everyone but I'm starting to believe bacon really is good in everything. :)

Ingredients:
6 slices of bread (I use whatever I have on hand, but I know it's great with slices of thick french bread.)
4 large eggs
dash of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup of milk 
1/2 cup of prepared real bacon bits (I use Costco's)
butter for pan

Directions:
In bread size container or bowl beat the eggs, cinnamon, milk and vanilla.  On medium heat, melt butter in large skillet, making sure the whole bottom of the skillet is buttered. Plop your bread slice into the batter and flip--totally saturating both sides with the batter but not making it fall apart soggy. Place the slices onto heated pan. Sprinkle bacon bits on the top of uncooked side. Once the bottom is golden, flip and cook the topside. Sprinkle additional bacon bits on cooked side. Flip again once the other side is golden, this ensures both bacon sides are cooked. Repeat the process until all 6 slices are cooked. 

Serve with a pat of butter, maple syrup, peanut butter, powered sugar, banana slices, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries--the choices are numerous and all so good! If you want a big breakfast great sides would be sausage and eggs--truly a fall back into bed worthy meal! 

Chinese Chicken Salad

I'll tell you now that I'm not much of a salad person. I'm not the order a salad type of gal at a restaurant. . . I know it's good for me and I really should eat more of the green stuff but..... :/ On occasion I'll eat a salad but it has to be fully loaded! My friend Paul who's a chef in Las Vegas posted a quick recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad the other day. I've had this type of salad many times before but usually with raman noodles for the added crunch and not deep fried wonton noodles. I had most of the ingredients on hand with a few substitutions and made it--that's the great thing about cooking on the fly is adapting recipes to what you have already and to your own taste buds. Paul's recipe called for candied peanuts using a simple syrup. I had a bad of Trader Joe's Sesame Honey Almonds and used that instead. I used a bottle Asian Sesame dressing but think next time I'll make my own--how hard could it be right? I'm thinking this would be great with a honey poppy seed dressing too. Quick, easy and great for potlucks and hot summer nights. 

Ingredients (Recipe adapted from Paul. Makes 6 servings): 

1 small head green cabbage, shredded

2 large carrots, shredded

3 large boneless chicken breasts or 6 boneless thighs, cooked and cut into strips or cubes

8 wonton wrappers, cut into strips and deep fried

honey roasted sesame almonds, chopped or chopped peanuts

1 1/2 cup pineapple chunks

1 tablespoon black pepper

Asian dressing

Directions:

Shred the cabbage and add to a large mixing bowl. 

Add the black pepper, cold cooked cubed/stripped chicken to cabbage and 2 cups of the dressing, mix. Taste, add more dressing to taste. Shred the carrots and set aside. In a food processor chop the almonds or peanuts and set aside.

Remove a stack of10 wonton wrappers from package and slice into 5 sections.

Heat Canola or Vegetable Oil in deep cooking pot or deep fryer. Add the wonton strips and fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels or wire fryer basket. 

Plate up the salad, place some shredded carrots on top and pineapple chunks, garnish with almonds and fried wontons. You can keep the wontons in long strips or slightly crumble. I like the presentation of the long strips. 

Pistachio Cream Puffs...Can you say mmmmm?!

Great news! Finally a pastry cream filling that holds up as well as the ones in the fancy bakeries!!!! I owe it all to Sarah from the Curry Cooks fb group, Sarah formerly managed a restaurant which included a bakery. I've attempted many variations of fillings and although the flavors were great I felt the fillings were never quite thick enough. Sarah, bless her heart came up with the answer--unflavored gelatin! The perfect thickener and why didn't I think of this? I have packets of it in my pantry at all times yet never put the 2 and 2 together. After playing around with the different measurements of ingredients to create the consistancy I wanted, I finally found the one for me. Not too thick and not at all thin. You'll notice I used only 1 package of pudding mix, it gave the cream a nice gentle flavor. I'm a happy woman!

Mighty Moe and I were enjoying these last night and he asked me what I did differently, when I told him, he commented that punk rockers use gelatin to make their mohawks stand straight up.....who knew eh?  

Ingredients Pastry Cream filling (adapted from Sarah Myers recipe):
2 packets unflavored Knox gelatin 
2 tablespoons hot water (to help dissolve gelatin)
1 package Pistachio instant pudding (use any flavor you want)
3 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (plus more for dusting cream puffs)

Ingredients for Cream Puffs (makes 9 large or 12 medium ones)
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
4 large eggs

Directions: 

In small cup stir together gelatin and water. It's important to quickly stir in the hot water and then slowly add it into the cold whipping cream--you don't want the gelatin to harden. Combine all the other pastry cream ingredients. 

Beat on medium high until thickened. 

If it's too thick for your preference, add more milk or heavy cream alittle bit at a time. 

Cover bowl with plastic wrap to avoid the filling skinning over. Place in fridge for at least 3 hours before serving. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a medium nonstick pan, add the water, butter, vanilla and salt and bring to a boil. Stir and remove pan from heat. With a wooden spoon stir in the flour. You'll notice the dough will easily form a ball. 

Get ready to beat. At this point you can remove the dough from the pan or beat the eggs in directly in the pan (I use a hand mixer). Beat in the eggs until smooth and thick. 

Line a baking tray with tin foil and drop generous dollops of the dough onto the foil at least 2" apart. 

Bake for about 40 minutes or until puffy and golden. Let completely cool on wire rack.

To assemble cut the cooled puffs horizontally with a knife being careful not to tear the delicate tops. Fill frosting tube with the cold pastry cream with a large sized tip. Depending on the size of puff--pipe out about 2/3 to 1 cup of filling onto each bottom puff. Cap it with the top and dust with powered sugar. You can drizzle with chocolate or caramel. For pistachio I kept it simple with the powered sugar.