Saturday Morning Breakfast with my Sister

When I was growing up it seems like Breakfast on Saturday morning was my sister's thing. Usually she would make biscuits, pancakes or french toast. Me..being the pesky little sister..would *help* her. So I would have to put French Toast as being one of the first things I ever learned to cook thanks to my big sister Cindy. The first of many recipes she shared with me! Here's a pic when she came up to visit us a couple of years ago. We were on our way to Mount St. Helens and had to turn around at this spot because there was a landslide in middle of the road we were travelling! Do you think we look alike?


Because French Toast is something I've made for most of my life I don't usually follow a recipe....milk, eggs sugar, cinnamon, bread...eyeball it. But while I was browsing cookbooks this morning as I often do on Saturdays when I'm trying to think of what I need to buy at the grocery store, I happened upon an almond flavored french toast recipe that sounded excellent. Only one major problem...I had no almonds or almond extract both key ingredients (on the list they went)!! Not letting that stop me I looked around for some other flavor to replace the almond and came up with orange.

Grand Marnier French Toast

2 eggs
1/2 cup cream or half&half
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1-2 Tablespoons Grand Marnier or 1 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp orange zest
6-8 slices bread (I used some homemade bread I made from the master recipe in the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book)
1 Tablespoon orange peel, small curls
1/2 sugar
butter/margarine for pan
Powdered sugar

Beat eggs in a shallow dish. I use a pie plate because that's how you're supposed to do it with french toast! Add cream, sugar, Grand Marnier and zest and beat together until well blended. Lay pieces of bread in this mixture, flipping over to make sure the bread gets saturated. You will have to soak longer depending on what type of bread you use, but try to get the liquid to penetrate the bread. I soaked mine for about 10 minutes. Regular white bread will absorb the liquid quicker. While soaking mix orange peel with the sugar and toss to coat. Melt butter in a pan at med high to high heat. Drain each piece of bread before putting in pan. Cook a couple of minutes on each side or until browns nicely. Serve sprinkled with powdered sugar and sugared orange peel and a dollop of whipped cream. Because I like overkill I also had a drizzle of maple syrup on mine!



I'd like to take this opportunity to show off a relatively new gadget in my kitchen that made my orange peel curls easy. I picked it up at a little high end grocery store near the hospital where I work. It's a Microplane and it didn't have a price tag, so I was pleasantly surprised at the checkout to find out it was only $7.99. I love it! I have a bigger one too, but this is the perfect size for quickie jobs. I made the little peels by pulling the smallest of the little round "holes" on the right across the orange skin. The bigger one makes bigger curls! Go get you one :-) It's called the Ultimate Citrus Tool.



It was a rainy windy May day, but I did snap a few shots between showers.



I always look forward to these each spring. It's called Darmera Peltata. It comes up like alien hands out of the ground. The hands turn into these flowers. Later the leaves come up and it has a very tropical look to it.


These osteospurnums looked so good last year I bought more this week at the nursery


A little 'Vestal' double anemone hiding


Purple leafed corydalis


The hostas are started to leaf out in my little shady corner


Love the color of these Spanish Bluebells