The BEST French Toast ever!

What does it take to make killer French Toast? Let me tell you . . .but first, the back story.

When I was in high school, I worked as a cook at Perkins Family Restaurant. They had some great French Toast. If I remember correctly, they used Italian bread dipped in a batter that consisted of egg substitute, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Though their French Toast was good, it definitely left room for improvement.

I was playing around last year trying to make some really good French Toast and stumbled across what I thought was an original idea - using Kings Hawaiian bread. Don't Google it though - you'll burst my bubble.

Amanda loves sugar, so the goal was to make the sweetest French Toast known to man. She puts so much sugar on her fresh strawberries you'd think she thought they were supposed to be white! The secret about Hawaiian bread is that it's sweet. I've since learned that Challah (Jewish) bread, which is also made with eggs, makes a mean FT.

Without further ado, here's the batter recipe:

• Hawaiian or Challah Bread sliced 1" thick
• 1 egg per slice of French Toast, well beaten
  
• Vanilla
• Cinnamon
• Sugar (if needed)
• Milk (if you prefer . . .I don't use it)
  
• Orange Juice (for the adventurous, equal in part to the cinnamon)
  

That's it. I was surfing around and learned that it helps the texture of the finished product if you can leave the bread out overnight. It gives it a stale texture that stays more firm after being soaked in the egg batter.

When you're ready to cook, turn the burner on medium to medium-high, oil your pan like you would for pancakes or eggs and hang on! If you have enough oil in your pan, the edges of the toast should crisp up a bit as you cook.

Serve with butter & syrup or powdered sugar. Enjoy!

I love pizza!

In a previous post, I expounded upon my love for chili. I probably should have posted my love of pizza first. It really is my favorite food. What's not to like? All 5 food groups in one bite!

When making a pizza, adding the toppings seems to be the easy part. Although cheese can greatly influence your end product, I believe it's the crust that makes or breaks a pizza!

I read a recent article on CNN/Money that sparked my interest to improve upon the basic pizza crust recipe I'm currently using:

• 2 cups warm tap water (110-120° F)
  
• 2-1/4 tsp yeast (1 package)
  
• 1 tsp salt (times 2 if you like the taste of Pizza Hut crust)
  
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tb oil
• 3 cups flour (to start with)
• add pepper, garlic, onion powder, oregano, fennel seed, etc, to taste

If you're making a grocery list, add any or all of these to the list above:

• Pizza or spaghetti sauce
  
• Approx. one bag of shredded cheese per pizza (mozzarella or Italian 4-cheese)
  
• Breakfast or Italian sausage
• Pepperoni
• Olives
• Mushrooms
• Bacon
• Onion

Alternate toppings:

• Pineapple and ham
• BBQ sauce, chicken, green pepper and red onion
• Alfredo sauce, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, red onion
  

Back to the dough. There are quite a few dough recipes out there, including this and others. Whatever ingredients you end up with, here's how to combine them:

Combine the water and yeast together for 5 minutes or so until you see the yeast start to work. It will work itself up and get really foamy if you let it sit in warm water.

Note: Do not heat water above the boiling point. This can easily be done in the microwave as water heated in the microwave doesn't appear to be boiling EVEN THOUGH IT IS! There's a scientific term for this . . .it's called superheating, and it can be dangerous!

If you add yeast to boiling water, you'll kill it. When you cook your pizza, the toppings will brown but the dough will remain unleavened. It won't rise, and will stay raw even if you cook your pizza long enough to burn your pizza toppings. I found this out the hard way. Thanks to Chad and Allison for playing along!

Besides that one oversight, it's really not that difficult to make your own dough. Go ahead, give it a shot! After your yeast has had a chance to foam, add your foamy water to the rest of the ingredients listed above. I start mixing my dough in a bowl with a wooden spoon or stiff rubber spatula and, once the consistency gets thick enough so it's not sticking to everything, knead the dough the counter top (or a cutting board).

Be sure to sprinkle a layer of flour down before you do this or it'll turn into a sticky mess. Check out the previous kneading post from Wikipedia if you're not familiar with the process. Once the dough gets smooth and stretchy, it's time to let it sit. Or if you're not going to use all of it right away, now would be the time to put it in a freezer bag and throw in the freezer. This batch makes 2-13" pan-style pizzas, enough for 6 adults on average.

Like with pancakes and pancake batter, if you can let the dough sit for up to 30 minutes, your crust will turn out lighter and fluffier. Once the dough has risen, pull out a rolling pin and some cornmeal and roll it into a shape that will fit your pan.

Add toppings as desired and cook at 475 degrees for 10-12 minutes. I make my pizza on a pizza stone, which must be pre-heated with the oven to prevent it from cracking. If you're new to pizza stones, they're very easy to care for. Clean them by simply brushing off any residue. Do not use soap or your next pizza will taste like it!

Dave's word on . . .

Here begins a stream of posts that may seem to be out of place. Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to research a lot before I make a decision. I also tend to have very selective memory retention.

Since I've spent many hours becoming literate in a variety of things, I thought this would be a good forum to share that knowledge with others and also use it as a reference for myself.

With this blog, you'll notice going forward that I'll be adding posts on things I have researched in the past or am currently researching. This includes things like personal finance (life insurance, annuities, IRAs, mutual funds, etc.), technology, cooking/recipes and where (and sometimes how) to find good deals. Stay tuned!

Curdled Milk in Potato Soup

Our potato soup has little white specks in it, and after doing a little bit of searching online, it was because the milk has curdled.

According to Google, milk curdles when it is heated. Curdled milk is not bad milk. If it were bad, it would taste and smell sour. The process of curdling binds the proteins together to form clumps. The same process occurs when yogurt is made. In yogurt production, milk is heated in order for the proteins to bind.

To avoid this process and the associated lack of visual appeal, we have a couple of options:
(1) Don't add the milk until we're ready to eat the soup. If we do this, the milk has to be heated slowly before it is added to the soup. Cold milk added to hot soup will curdle the milk on contact. (2) Add a pinch of baking soda. This base neutralizes the lactic acid in the milk. It also negates the acidic effect that any salt required by the recipe would cause. One side effect is that it may change the taste of the soup. (Does baking soda taste?)
(3) Don't leave the soup unattended. Keep the temperature on low and stir the soup to avoid heat build-up.

Now the question is, how does a person reheat the soup without causing it to curdle? We'll soon find out . . .

I love chili!

After visiting Chad's uncle in Salt Lake City and trying a bowl or two of his super secret chili recipe, I was inspired to try something different with my "off the box" chili recipe. Here are a couple of recipes I gathered from different places on the internet.

They all tend to have a few common ingredients, including beef, beans, onion, garlic and bacon. To spice them up, they use various ingredients such as cayenne pepper and habanero peppers. Try them out, or make your own using these recipes as a guide!

Arcadian Eight Bean Chili
Texas Style Beef Chili
Chili the Geezer Way