Stuffed French Toast!

As if lemon curd wasn't good enough on it's own, try stuffing it inside two pieces of French toast and then topping it with blueberry sauce!  And just to try something different, put it in the panini maker.

 On the first try, I had to learn, DO NOT PRESS DOWN! That was some mess. It still tasted great!

 Got the hang of it on the second try, they were really good. Even squished. Loved the French Toast panini, will definitely use the panini maker, even for plain French Toast! Just cut the bread slices thick, and don't press down too hard.

French Toast Stuffed with Lemon Cream

Source: Bed and Breakfast Foodie Blog, original recipe from The White Oak Inn
adapted by There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

1 loaf of Brioche or Challah Bread, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup of lemon curd (click here for an easy recipe)
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
8 eggs
1 can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup of frozen blueberries
1/4 cup sugar or less if you like
1/2 cup water
small squeeze of fresh lemon
1 tablespoon butter for pan, more or less

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place a baking sheet in oven.

Mix together the cream cheese, lemon curd and powdered sugar. Divide this between half of the slices of bread and spread to almost the edge of the bread, leaving about 1/4-inch. Top with the remaining slices of bread. Beat the eggs with evaporated milk, sugar and almond extract. Dip each sandwich in the egg mixture to coat both sides.

Working in batches, coat the bottom of a skillet or griddle with some butter and heat over medium-high heat. Cook until golden brown. Then turn the French toast over and cook until golden brown on that side. Add butter as necessary to the griddle. You can also use a panini maker, but don't press down hard or the lemon cream will squish out, just close the top enough so both sides cook! Transfer French toast to baking sheet in a low oven to keep warm. Serve with warm blueberry sauce.

To make the sauce, combine berries, lemon, sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer and cook over low heat for about ten minutes or more to thicken. To get the sauce a little thicker, you can add a little cornstarch dissolved with water, and mixed into the sauce, bring back to the boil. Serve over French Toast.

Joining Sweet as Sugar Cookies for Sweets for a Saturday!

and joining Sweet Tooth Friday hosted by Alli n Son!

 and

 Food on Friday at Carole's Chatter 

 

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Lemons!

I love lemon, lemon ices, lemon pie, lemon chicken. And my favorite lemon has to be the Meyer Lemon. They're even getting a little easier to find these days. At least around here. They are a softer lemon than the regular ones and have less of a pucker! More orange yellow, and rounder, that's how you can tell you have a Meyer Lemon! If I can't find any, I'll add the juice of a clementine to the juice of a lemon to soften the pucker. Similar flavor to a Meyer. Good sub, but you can use any lemon you like for this recipe. It's Meyer season and I managed to find a bunch. When I do find them, I buy a lot and freeze them whole. So we can have them any time of year!

The LA Times had an article that mentioned 100 things you can do with a Meyer lemon. So many great ideas! I decided to make lemon curd. My friend Linda had mentioned it recently and gave me a craving! You can use it on a cookie, in a tart, as a topping, or just eat it with a spoon. That's what I did. Spoon! I did find a really good use for it after all. Lemon-stuffed French toast! Check back, that's in my next post! But even so, I'll have to make another batch, just for the spoon!

This is the easiest lemon curd recipe I have tried. Practically foolproof. Because even if you screw it up and cook the eggs you can just strain those little bitty pieces out. Won't affect the flavor at all. Or you can eat it lumpy. But straining works. Or resist the temptation to put it in for the extra 30 seconds, this time I resisted and it came out fine!

But is it lemon butter, or lemon curd? I always called it curd, but butter sounds much nicer. Call it whatever you want, I'm calling it good!

Microwave Lemon Curd
Source: ColleenOz, CF
Printable Recipe

4 oz butter (NOT margarine)
3/4 cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons' worth)
all the rind from the lemons, grated
1 cup sugar
4-5 eggs, thoroughly beaten

Put butter, sugar, lemon juice and lemon rind into a microwave-safe bowl. Cook on high about 3 minutes, stirring halfway through. Butter should be melted and sugar dissolved. Let it cool for a minute or so before you stir in the eggs. Add the eggs and microwave in 30-second bursts until it thickens, about 2 minutes. Whisk after each burst. Cool and pour into sterilized jars. Cover immediately. Store in refrigerator. Makes about 3 medium sized jars.

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Joining Mary's Mosaic Monday. For more mosaic's stop by the Little Red House!

Also linking up to Lisa at Sweet as Sugar Cookies for Sweets for a Saturday

So it's a Sunday when I posted, it's never to late for sweets!

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Spaghetti Squash with Pesto and Tomatoes

This was a nice change from the spaghetti squash we usually have on the side. The kind I always make, marinara sauce, or buttered. Wanted to try something new. The kids aren't overly fond of spaghetti squash, but they'll eat it, I like it and the Griller loves it, so once in a while it's on the menu. I draw the line at Lima beans, he loves them, not me, not the kids. Not making them. Ever. He's fine with that. I did finally come around to asparagus and once in a while I do love it, roasted mostly.

So anyway, I googled "spaghetti squash" recipes and found this one at Gina's Skinny Recipes. Double bonus, I don't mind a skinny recipe! This time I had to use what was on hand and had to adapt! So I cheated a bit and used a Knorr's packet of pesto. hey, I'm big on spur of the moment cooking, had no fresh basil here in the middle of this frozen land in Suburbia, and I wasn't bundling up to run to the store. Knorr's pesto is really good.  If I had pine nuts, I'd have sprinkled some on top! But I wasn't running out. Next time. And there will be a next time. It was really good.

Spaghetti Squash Pesto with Tomatoes
Source: original recipe, Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
adapted There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

1 spaghetti squash
salt and fresh pepper
2 tomatoes, diced
Parmesan, for serving

For the Pesto (or you can use your favorite Pesto sauce)
1 cup, packed, large fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
4 tablespoons Parmesan
handful of pine nuts or walnuts (optional)

Cut squash in half lengthwise; remove seeds. Place squash cut sides up in a microwave dish with 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook on high for about 15 minutes, more or less, depending on size of squash. Add more cooking time if necessary. Let stand covered, for 5 minutes. It will be very hot, be careful!  With a fork pull out and separate the strands.

In a small blender combine basil, garlic, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and puree until smooth. If you like pine nuts or walnuts, you can add them.

Combine the pesto (as much, or as less as you like) with the spaghetti squash. Add the tomatoes and season with additional salt and pepper. Serve with Parmesan cheese. And top with pine nuts if you like.

Make ahead - you can prepare the squash ahead of time, heat it when ready to use!

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Wordless Wednesday: Bagels

My perfect bagel!  Plain, toasted and dripping with butter!

More Wordless Wednesday can be found here!

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Stir-Fried Honey-Ginger Chicken

Short post because this was really easy, really good and I didn't screw it up at all. ha! 

We all loved it! And leftovers were great the next day.

Anything goes. Used Martha Stewart's recipe as a guideline and added whatever was in the frig. Broccoli, snow peas, bell peppers. Threw in some roasted cashews, and called it a great dinner! I cheated and got some frozen egg rolls and some potstickers from Trader Joe's. They are excellent if you have a Trader Joe's in your area!

 

Stir-Fried Honey-Ginger Chicken
Source: Martha Stewart Recipes
adapted by There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken
breasts or thighs, sliced into 1/4-inch strips
1/4 cup minced peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 red, orange, or yellow bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), thinly sliced
2 cups broccoli florets, steamed
1 cup snow peas
1/2 cup roasted cashews
Cooked rice, for serving

In a small bowl, stir together honey, vinegar, and soy sauce. Heat a large skillet or wok over high until hot. Add 1 tablespoon oil to coat skillet. Add chicken and stir fry until opaque but not cooked through, about 3 minutes; and add 1 tablespoon oil, ginger, and garlic to skillet and stir until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add vegetables and stir fry another 2 -3 minutes. Add soy mixture and bring to a boil. Stir until sauce thickens and chicken is cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add cashews and stir to combine and heat the cashews through. Serve over rice.

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Spicy Black Bean Soup!

Joining Mary's Mosaic Monday. For more mosaic's stop by the Little Red House!

Any time is good time for soup as far as we're concerned, so this was as good a time as any to make Black Bean Soup. Spicy Black Bean Soup! I had a recipe from way back that we loved. Trouble was I couldn't find it. Asked around, looked on the internet and just threw stuff in the pot! And we have a winnah! Garnished with fried polenta, thought that would be good. Since it's made from corn, maybe it would be a nice change from tortilla chips. I was wrong. They sunk. Not stunk. SUNK! To the bottom of the bowl. Tortilla chips were much better in this instance. But the polenta cut-outs tasted great fried up in the pan!

We liked fried polenta, but they'd be much better dipped in marinara instead. I used a star pastry cutter to make the shape, from sliced polenta in a tube.

 If it's too spicy, just mix the sour cream right into the soup, to make it a bit creamier. 

Garnish with chips, lime, salsa, jalapeño rings, whatever you like!

Spicy Black Bean Soup
adapted: There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 15-oz cans black beans, do not drain
1 medium onion, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 to 1 whole jalapeño, chopped (without seeds)
1 whole poblano pepper, seeded and sliced
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon ground cumin
4 cups chicken stock or broth

cilantro, to taste
sour cream
tortilla chips
fire-roasted salsa
pickled jalapeño rings

Heat the oil in heavy, large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, shallot, garlic, poblano, jalapeño, and cumin. Sauté until onion and pepper are tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the stock, and bring to a boil. Add the beans. Bring soup back to boil, then reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer until flavors blend, about 20-30 minutes. Puree soup with an immersion blender. Be careful, it'll be very, very hot. Mix in some cilantro. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Squeeze in the juice of one lime. Stir. Ladle soup into bowls. Top with dollop of sour cream, salsa and tortilla chips. Sprinkle with cilantro. Garnish with lime slice and jalapeño rings.

And joining Torview's Food Palette Series in Black!

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Flan or a Cheesecake? or both?

Always remember that looks aren't everything! Because this flan came out a little squished from the frig, a lot lopsided and so much for amber colored syrup! I didn't have the patience to wait for the amber color, no surprise there, but the taste, the taste was absolutely fantastic. Like a custard cheesecake.

Highly recommend this one. Just make sure you have room in the refrigerator. And if you don't want it to squish, don't put it in a tin foil disposable pan. And don't close the door to the frig on it. I'll make it again for sure. I'll wait for the syrup to turn amber color and I won't use a disposable pan. And it will look as good as it tastes. Because it really does taste really good. It just doesn't look so good. Not this time anyway.

Cream Cheese Flan
Source: Sandra Lee, Semi Homemade - Food Network
Adapted by There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup water

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

5 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.

Arrange 8 (6-ounce) oven-safe custard or dessert cups in a large roasting pan. Stir sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and boil without stirring until liquid is a deep golden brown, brushing down sides of saucepan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar from crystallizing, about 12 minutes. Quickly pour syrup into prepared cups.

In a blender, combine condensed milk, cream cheese, eggs, and vanilla. Blend until smooth, about 30 seconds. Transfer to an 8-cup measuring cup or large bowl. Whisk in evaporated milk. Divide custard equally among prepared cups. Transfer roasting pan to oven. Pour enough water into roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the custard cups.

Bake until sides are firmly set and only the very center of custards jiggle slightly when cups are gently shaken, about 45 minutes (custards will firm up as they cool). Remove cups from pan, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours. Run small sharp knife around sides of custards. Invert each cup onto a dessert plate, shaking gently to release custard from cups. Drizzle caramel sauce over custard. Serve cold.

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Macaroni and Cheese!

ok, so I really stink at Mac and Cheese. I admit it, I really do. I did get a few really great sounding recipes by email that I have saved, thank you all so much for sending and helping! and I will get to them, but first I thought I should really try my hand at the simplest and most easiest for me and see what happens.

Last time we needed a saw to cut through the clump of too much cheese, milk, everything else I dumped in that pot. So I went for the Quick and Easy Velveeta recipe. Doesn't get much easier than that. One step away from the powdered mac and cheese in the blue box that I had way more than I care to admit in college. And my kids requested that blue box all the time when they were little. I like the blue box. Miss Picky will still stop at Burger King occasionally to get a cup of that stuff.  they actually sell it at Burger King!  But I wanted to try to make it myself. And no powder. So I used Cheese Product instead. Go ahead and laugh at me. It came out good! Really good.

One box of elbow macaroni cooked according to the package, Velveeta cheese product cut in cubes, I love how it's called Cheese Product, I guess they can't really call it Cheese! And now I am on my way, it came out perfect. The family loved it. It was creamy, and cheesy and good.  I'm ready to try again, another recipe, one of these days. We're a little cheesed out for now.

We had it with a Spiral Ham. While I really don't mind cheese product at all, I drew the line at the brown sugar glaze that came with the ham. It just didn't appeal to me in that plastic packet. Making a glaze takes no time, so I looked online and found a nice mustard-apricot glaze that sounded really good! It was but I screwed that up and forgot to put the glaze on until almost the end. So no crunchy sweet crust. Still moist and really tasty. I'll definitely make the glaze again. The ham was big though, we'll be eating it for years. I bought it for the bone. There's Split Pea Soup in our future.

THIS WAS LAST TIME...

Terrible!

and this was this time...

creamy, cheesy and just the way my kids like it. Now if I can just get it right again. And again!

The ham was good, I need to learn how to cut the slices off the spiral, I made a big mess out of it, but presentation isn't everything. It tasted great! And sandwiches the next day were super good! Now to make that split pea soup!

Velveeta Macaroni and Cheese
Source: Good Morning America recipes
adapted by There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked  (I used the whole box!)
3/4 lb. (12 oz.) Velveeta cheese product, cut up
1/3 cup milk
freshly ground pepper, to taste

Cook macaroni as directed on package; drain well. Return pasta to the pot.

Add remaining ingredients; mix well. Cook on low heat until the Velveeta is all melted, stirring frequently. Serve.

Maple-Mustard Ham Glaze

Source: Martha Stewart Recipes

adapted by There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

1 (18-pound) whole bone-in, fully cooked, smoked ham, room temperature (I used a much smaller ham)
1/2 cup champagne vinegar
1 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup country-style Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons apricot jam (I used more, about a 1/4 cup)
Pinch of coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a roasting pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Rinse ham under cool running water. Pat dry and wrap with parchment paper-lined aluminum foil; place in prepared roasting pan. Transfer to oven for 4 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat vinegar over medium-high heat until reduced to 2 tablespoons, about 6 minutes. Add maple syrup, mustard, jam, and salt; season with pepper. Cook, whisking, until well combined, about 2 minutes. Set glaze aside.

Remove ham from oven and uncover. When cool enough to handle, cut off rind using a sharp knife. Slice off most of the fat, leaving a 1/4-inch-thick layer. Score fat on top of ham in a pattern of 1- to 2-inch diamonds.

Brush ham evenly with one-third of the glaze and return to oven. After 20 minutes, brush ham again with half the remaining glaze. Cook for 15 minutes and brush with remaining glaze. Continue baking ham until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of ham reaches 145 to 150 degrees, about 15 minutes more.

Transfer to a cutting board. Let ham cool 30 minutes before carving.

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I'm joining Suzy over at Kitchen Bouquet for another Flashback Friday!

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