Caramel French Toast

I did not have one healthfully redeeming meal on Easter Sunday. I helped to serve the breakfast meal after Sunrise Service this morning at church. We had a family Easter meal after church. And, finally, we celebrated a couple of birthdays with that same branch of the family at suppertime, complete with homemade ice cream and a cake with an entire pound of butter in the frosting. By the end of the day, I didn't even feel treated by the birthday party.

What a fun-packed weekend, though. On Saturday morning I took Ava to the egg hunt put on by the Lion's Club in the wee village in which I grew up. I'm all the more charmed by it because it is exactly as I left it when I last hunted eggs myself nearly 30 years ago.

Ava's age group lined up at the section of the playground which was designated for them. The kids were thick on the end closest to the door from the gym where they had gathered at 9:00 AM. Not being the pushy type, Ava kept moving further down the line until we reached the very end, where there were no other kids. Interestingly, that left her with the entire east side of a playground full of plastic eggs where she might hunt in relative solitude.


...For about 48 seconds...

...Or until the heavily populated west end was picked clean and the swarms descended upon her.


Sunday brought a day of church and family. When we finally got to the family part, I could sit down for a spell and rest my feet. Lawd, those church shoes were not meant for cooking breakfast. Behold, the Easter toes.


While I like to make things from scratch and experiment with recipes, my friend Tammy is expert at feeding crowds. She has done many funeral dinners and Easter breakfasts at our church. We worked together to plan this year's menu. She made biscuits and yummy gravy and an awesome baked egg I'll have to tell you about later. I made French Toast. For weeks beforehand I wondered, should I make traditional French toast (needed: lots of griddle space and time to spend flipping) or baked (needed: lots of oven space that might be in short supply)?

Twenty hours before we were to serve, I decided to do the baked. Here is the recipe:

Caramel French Toast
In a heavy saucepan, combine the following:
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter
2 T light corn syrup

Cook over medium heat until thick. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan. Cover with 12 slices of bread. French bread is better and more dignified, but the sandwich bread here was donated by the parishioners, so beggars can't be choosey.


Combine the following and pour over the bread:

6 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
1/4 t. salt



Cover and chill overnight. Uncover and bake at 350 until set and golden brown. Serve immediately. Serves 6 generously.

Early Garden 2.0

It is time to begin eating lettuce from the garden. We like it with a homemade dressing that we remember from Michael's Grandma Chupp. It's made with sour cream, sugar, salt and vinegar. Very simple and delicious. If we're feeling crazy, we add green onion.

Speaking of green onions, they're ready. I like a sweet onion best. That's all I grew last year, and I've got the end of last year's crop in my onion drawer today, just as this year's crop begins to ready. There WAS some waste last year. Apparently, sweet onions are hard to keep through the winter. Still, I feel proud that I haven't purchased an onion in a year. I'll pull small onions as I need them to use green, the rest I'll allow to become gorgeous, sweet globes.

Lookie! Tiny little heads beginning to grow on our broccoli!

The radishes are ready. I lost some to pests, but I have enough. Good flavor.

I've been SO looking forward to the spinach. I have a hot bacon dressing that I love. I got the recipe from the grandma of a friend in York, PA, and now I use it all the time.

This stage of the garden is tremendously fulfilling to me. We've had some warm, even hot days to enjoy. The long sleeves have been packed away. But, for me, winter is not over until I'm planning meals around whatever the garden is producing and I bypass the produce aisle at the supermarket completely. Happy Spring.

Morel Mushroom.... (wait for it)... RISOTTO!

That's right, Dear Ones, risotto made with the truffles of the Midwest, Morel Mushrooms.

Let's get right to the recipe. I'm terribly busy today so this'll be just the facts. It's Staff Appreciation Day at the school tomorrow. The PTO always provides a meal for the teachers and they've asked me to provide the pies for dessert. Six. Of. Them.

Morel Risotto
1/2 lb. cleaned and trimmed morel mushrooms
2 T butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T minced or green onion
1/2 t. salt, plus more to taste
1 1/2 c. arborio rice
1/2 c. white wine
5 c. chicken or vegetable broth
2 T cream
1/2 c. freshly shredded parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish (optional)
fresh mint for garnish (optional)
fresh chives for garnish (optional)

1. Corsely chop mushrooms. Meanwhile, bring broth to a boil.

2. Melt butter over medium heat in medium saucepan. Add garlic and onions and cook until tender, about 1 or 2 minutes. Add those mushrooms and sprinkle with salt. You'll cook the whole affair until the mushrooms release their liquid... another 2 or 3 minutes.


3. Add rice and stir to coat. (Arborio rice is recommended. Most of us have long-grain rice in our cupboards at any time, but this will not produce good risotti. Long grain rice is meant to be fluffy and we want our risotti to be creamy. Shorter grain rice is starchier and will produce the desired results.) Once the rice has been stirred in, add the wine and stir until completely absorbed and evaporated.

4. Add 1 c. of the hot broth and stir often until it is mostly absorbed. You will continue adding the broth, 1/2 c. at a time, letting it absorb between additions. You will want to stir it a lot. You may not use all 5 c. of the broth. Just keep offering broth for the rice to soak up, until the rice is tender, but still firm enough to hold its shape. All this foreplay should take about 25 minutes.


5. When the dish has gotten to the right consistency, remove from heat and stir in the cream and the parmesan. Give it a taste and see if you want more salt in the dish and adjust it accordingly.

6. Divide the risotto between four wide, shallow bowls. Garnish with more parmesan, chives, mint, whatever you like.


I made this dish on Sunday evening and it was such a good dinner. I LOVE risotto and I LOVE morels and the combination was great. Because morels are so seasonal and so expensive (around $30 per pound, at the stand at my favorite gardening center), I wonder how the dish would be with other mushrooms. I'm tempted to give it a try soon, or maybe some of you will and let me know about the results.

My new friend/reader/fellow food blogger, Chris, told me about the practice of frying leftover balls of risotto. I bet that would be absolute bliss with this recipe.

Must get to those pies...

I Love Fungus!

Every late April or early May, I keep my eyes fixed on the market across the river from our house. Here come the spring offerings... asparagus, check... rhubarb, delightful... and then... what's that in the distance? The fanfare of trumpets? The singing of angels? Yes, all that, and Morel Mushrooms, too.

You think I am exaggerating, but around here the morels are awaited with eagerness and lust. If one finds a place where morels grow, then one tells NOT ONE SOUL, returns to see what that spot has produced year after year, and takes the secret location with them selfishly to the grave.

When I was a sophomore at my tiny rural high school, I sat with my friend Lisa on the bus to a track meet at another school. Behind us sat two farm boys, also on the track team, who talked lasciviously about "gettin' some mushrooms this weekend," with knowing sidelong looks at one another and lopsided smiles. Lisa accused them primly of using it as code for something dirty. They must have been, for all the anticipatory bliss the conversation was producing. Come to find out, really... they were talking about morels.

They are HERE! And they will probably be here only another week and a half, when the fifty week wait until next mushroom season will begin again. I've got mine, and I have big plans for them. I did a morel recipe search online and people definitely seem to have their favorite ways of serving up these wonderful treasures. My usual method is just coating the halves lightly with flour and frying them in butter. My search led me to dip them in egg, then dredge them in cracker crumbs before frying, and bleh... I didn't care for the results. Too much coating, too little mushroom.

I've got half my purchase left and I think the result of my next recipe will be absolute euphoria. I will let you know. Stay tuned.

Early Garden

Prologue: Apparently, I don't know how to rotate photos.

Early Garden, Chapter 1: My mom and dad always had an enormous garden. When Mom got sick and dad was alone, the garden plot shrank and eventually was entirely seeded over with grass. These days Dad has a wife again and has found time for some of the pleasures which he had enjoyed as a younger man, including gardening a tiny area at the back of his property.



Last year, the economy inspired Dad to once again have a crazy-big garden, which we care for together. This year, we continue gardening as a family. The produce is enjoyed by us and shared with those around us. This weekend, we worked our section of early garden.



Ava, Grandpa and I spent about an hour today planting fine little lettuce seeds...



And barely-there wee onion plants...



And tissue-papery yellow onion sets.

Can't wait for some garden lettuce salad with green onions and sour cream dressing.



When we came home, Ava put on safety goggles and ate a string cheese. The end.