French Toast for the soul

Oh, man.

This weekend was hellish. Our old, blind, deaf, declawed cat was accidently let out of our home Friday afternoon, and I spent Friday night and Saturday in hysterics over it. Tim, who was in Texas, flew home early to help find her. We both missed our dear friends' wedding because of it (D & R, we love you guys TONS, congrats!), which just added more hurt to the wound.

The good news is that Adina is home safe and sound, thanks to the goodness of people in our neighborhood. By the time I realized she wasn't in the house, she'd already been picked up, so she wasn't scared or alone in the rain. And our dear friends are off to Hawaii on a well-deserved honeymoon, and I'll just have to settle for watching the video as soon as it's done--with any luck, that will be less time than the 15 months my wedding video took!

So, since everyone is safe and happy and all is right with the world, here's a recipe for french toast that I made a couple weeks ago. It was delicious!

You will need:

Bread

Six tablespoons butter

One cup milk

One egg

Two tablespoons sugar

Two teaspoons vanilla extract

One teaspoon cinnamon

One-quarter teaspoon salt

Half a cup of flour

Place the bread slices on a cookie sheet and dry them in the oven at 200F for about 15 minutes.

Melt two tablespoons butter in a shallow dish in the microwave, and whisk it together with the milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Slowly whisk in the flour until smooth.

Melt one tablespoon of butter per batch in a large skillet. Soak two slices of bread in the batter, about 15 seconds per side, and transfer to the skillet.

Cook over medium heat about two minutes per side, until golden brown. Keep warm in the oven until all slices are complete.

And make sure your pets are tagged and microchipped! If your pets ever go missing, call this guy first: http://www.k9sardog.com/. His dogs came out yesterday and tracked our cat. They didn't find her, but they did help alleviate our fears--they were able to tell how far she'd gone, that she hadn't been killed, and that a person had picked her up. Big thanks to Harry, Willow, and Tyler!

Cinnamon Bread

So, PW posted a recipe for cinnamon bread a couple of weeks ago, and I was dying to try it. BUT, my boss told me that I wasn't allowed to make it until I worked 12 days in a row. Slave driver!*

At any rate, this bread is excellent. Here's what you'll need:

One cup milk

Six tablespoons butter

Two and a half teaspoons active dry yeast

Two whole eggs

One-third cup sugar

Three and a half cups all-purpose flour

One teaspoon salt

Melt the butter and add the milk, then nuke it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so to warm it up. Add the yeast and let it sit for a few minutes.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine eggs and sugar. Add in the yeast mixture and stir till combined.

Add the salt and half the flour, and stir, then add the rest of the flour.

Switch to the dough hook and knead for 10 minutes or so. If the dough's still very sticky, add a little more flour.

Heat a bowl until it's warm, and then drizzle in a tiny bit of vegetable oil and toss in the dough to coat it. Cover it with plastic wrap and place it in a nice, warm place to rise for two hours.

When it's risen, dump it out on a clean surface and roll into a flat rectangle no wider than your loaf pan. Smear the dough with two tablespoons softened butter, sprinkle with a quarter cup of sugar, and douse liberally with cinnamon.

Smear your loaf pan with butter. Roll it up verrrrrry tightly, pinch to seal, and place it seam down in the pan. Let it rise another hour or two, and when you're ready, bake it for 40 minutes at 350F.

Yummmmm.

*Kidding. Stacie's totally lovely in every way, and I was the one who made the decision to work 12 days straight. It was a long road, but warm cinnamon bread at the end of it was a delicious reward!