French Toast Arrangement

Ok I make french toast so often that it's basically my signature dish.  Well, it would be, but I think having a "signature dish" makes you sounds douchey.  Anyway, I love it, and I make it all the time.  It's kind of hard to dress up french toast I think, it always just looks like brown rectangles.  But witness this fanciness that I took to a brunch awhile back!  So fancy, so presentable!  So delicious.

Fancy French Toast

I've always loved french toast. I'm not sure why but it is a supreme comfort food for me. Plus so easy to make - I just use 1 cup of milk, one egg, a few spoons of sugar and a bit of vanilla. In fact, in 6th grade we had to make a speech, on anything, and mine was how to make french toast. It was a hit. So anyway, I've been experimenting a little with other variations. None so far have beat Mom's delicious combo of cream cheese and brown sugar spread on them but they have all been good.

Here's one with blackberries (my second fav fruit after strawberries) and cream.

And this one, while it looks pretty normal, is actually quite weird. Ruchir makes these purees, usually of banana, that he mixes with milk to make an odd (to me) drink. Anyway, he had a banana and blueberry puree in the fridge that looked like it was starting to lose it's appeal. So i dumped it in with the leftover french toast mixture, stirred it up, dunked my bread, and cooked it like normal french toast. If you look closely, you might notice that its a little darker than normal and that's from the blueberries. Cover in syrup and add some pecans on top. It actually didn't taste too different from normal french toast, but it did have that certain something to it that couldn't be placed.

I'm going to keep thinking for other variations, but you know what, plain old french toast is usually good enough for me!

Healthy Omelet

Ok so the problem with creme brulee is that is needs a bunch of egg yolks.  So what to do with all the egg whites?  Well two options really, the dessert route (meringues etc), or the healthy route.  And surprise! This time I went the healthy route!  Egg white omelet for two, coming up! 

I cleaned out the fridge and dumped it all in there.  Mostly green peppers, onions, mushrooms but a few other random things as well.  Sauté everything first in a little butter first.  Then add the egg whites, do the usual omelet swirl, poorly attempt to flip and spill a large chunk on the ground.  And then, voila!

Looks better when it's sliced doesn't it?  Actually for a healthy breakfast, this was pretty good. I'd make it again, if only so that I'd have leftover egg yolks to make creme brulee again!

Pilar's Tortilla de Patatas

I never had the pleasure of knowing Pilar, but Priya and her friends got to meet her and make this delicious dish. I was always jealous when they described that wonderful night, filled with exceptional food and delightful company. Pilar recently passed away and Priya forwarded me this recipe. I am only too happy to make it and finally get to experience a small piece of that happiness from their special night in honor of Pilar.

It starts with heaps of onions and potatoes, sliced as thin as you can. They are thrown in a pan with some olive oil and sauteed at high heat for a couple minutes. Then the heat is turned down and the onions and potatoes are slowly cooked to a soft golden brown before a little salt is added.



Then come the eggs. Scramble them well with a fork before adding them to the skillet. After pouring in the eggs, settle the potatoes and onions around so that it all forms one even layer. After a flip, your delicious Spanish tortilla is ready!



I added some chopped up tomatoes and green onions for color. This was one delicious breakfast and would be great for any other meal of the day as well. Here is the official recipe - hope you enjoy!

Tortilla de Patatas

3 onions – sliced thin (I half and quarter them before I slice them thin)

3 potatoes (prepared as above)

4-6 eggs (depending on how big the onions and potatoes are or how you like the proportions.

2-3 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt to taste

Put oil in a non-stick frying pan. Heat the oil. Add onions and potatoes, cook on high for 2-3 minutes. Lower heat and cook slowly till onions and potatoes are soft and starting to turn brown. Usually 35-40 minutes. Add salt. Scramble eggs and add to frying pan. Gently work the eggs into the potatoes and onions so the eggs cook. Place a flat lid on top of the frying pan, flip, then slide the ‘pancake’ back into the frying pan so that the top can cook. Cook for another couple of minutes then slide the tortilla onto a serving plate.

Leaning Tower of French Toast

Well no sooner than I wrote that I was in a bagel sandwich rut did I realize that we are out of bagels and out of bananas! So I had to turn to my old standby … french toast! I thought this would be a little off because I only had potato bread but it was as good as ever! The way I make French toast is simple, 1 egg, one cup of milk, some vanilla and sugar and voilà! I spread some of my cream cheese brown sugar mixture on top and the rest is delicious history!

Mini Cinammon Bagel with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese, Nutella, and Banana Sandwich

I get in these food ruts quite often where I'll eat the same thing over and over again. Recently it was french toast and then it was bread pudding. While I am currently having a minor obsession with mashed potatoes, what I'm really fixated on these days is this little breakfast sandwich that I created. I get these mini cinnamon bagels which are then toasted. I have a little container of cream cheese that has been mixed with brown sugar in my fridge at all times. And then there's the Nutella. Obviously if you had it, then there's no need or explanation on it's virtues. And then one day I was about to chomp down when, out if the corner of my eye, I saw some bananas that were almost on the cusp of spoilage. And the perfect breakfast was born! At least until I move on to something else!