Hello French Toast

Being in class for the last three weeks has been a wonderful and incredibly worthwhile experience, but it has kept me from Yankee Belle, specifically my summer food series. Tonight my attempt at cooking returned.

Last night Chad and a couple buddies traveled to his parent's house in the Blue Ridge mountains to wake up to a very early, yet peaceful, morning of fishing. Not my kind of fun, but the boys seemed to have a great time! When Chad returned home he was pretty tired. As he caught up on some sleep I decided to make breakfast for dinner-an easy fix, but for some reason I got caught up on the French toast. French toast! Who gets caught up on French toast? Well, the French toast is certainly not blog worthy, but it did ignite a curiosity in me for creative and savory French toast recipes. Here are a few scrumptious looking ones I dug up.

French Toast with Maple-Apple Compote sounds so, so delicious.

The Best French Toast You'll Ever Have by James from Bluebird Vintage

Texas Toast Style

A different spin on a classic: French Toast Muffins

Cannoli French Toast  takes notes from an Italian pastry staple

An indulgent Peanut Butter and Banana French Toast recipe

Emma and Elsie from A Beautiful Mess weigh in with Baked French Toast Sticks

Fresh Strawberry Lemonade

Once a month a group of young women from my church (all moms, sans my expectancy) gather together to glean wisdom from more seasoned mothers. Each month an invited guest shares what she has learned about being a wife who honors and respects her husband and a mom that directs her children to the Lord. The night starts with dinner, usually followed by dessert, and then sweet fellowship. I'm so thankful for the time these women take to pour into my life. As Titus 2:3-5 instructs (ESV):

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 

Monday night I volunteered to bring the beverages. So, true to my new, ambitious spirit I thought I'd try a drink recipe I found on Pinterest. I was skeptical that 

this recipe

, as simple as it seemed, would turn out to be good, but it was quite delicious. Here's what I did:

I took the following and blended it on low for approximately 5 minutes.

1 1/3 pounds of fresh strawberries, halved

2 lemons washed and cut into thin pieces (yes, leave the skin on)

2 cups of water

I paused every so often to make sure the blending was actually occurring. I then poured the mixture into a pitcher and added 4 more cups of water.

The recipe called for a strainer, which I didn't have, so I made some rather silly attempts of my own to "strain" the drink through two different colanders and then by way of searching out the parts needing to be strained. Don't do this. I then called Sarah, our group's host, to see if I could come over early and make use of her strainer. With help from her husband, we ended up using a flour sifter-of all things-but it worked! Hooray for ingenuity!

After "straining" I added some honey, to taste, to sweeten the drink and garnished it with a few sliced lemons. In the end, there were probably 8-10 servings. The second time around I might double the batch to ensure the drink lasts longer. In the end, I thought the lemonade was great! I'm assuming others did as well because there was nothing left to take home. :)

*Next time I promise I'll get better with the photos!

Tomato Sauce from the Garden

I've long been a fan of Italian cuisine. This love can be traced to growing up in a predominantly Italian New York community full of family-run restaurants with amazing menus. Perhaps inspired by my trip home, today I made homemade tomato sauce with tomatoes from our very own garden!

To be honest, I was not very confident as to how this was going to turn out. 

Here's how it all went down. The ingredients were simple:

6 medium to large tomatoes 

3 cloves of garlic, diced

1/2 one medium onion, diced

4 ounces of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 pinch of crushed red pepper (more to if you like it spicy)

1/3 cup freshly chopped basil

flour to thicken (as you see fit)

To start, and I was a bit excited to try this, hence all the photos: peeling the tomatoes. 

You simply and shallowly score the tomato skins. Then drop the tomatoes into boiling water for approximately 90 seconds.

Remove tomatoes and place into a bowl of ice water. 

I was shocked to find that the recipe didn't lie; the skins fall right off! After this, dicing the tomatoes was a breeze.

The following steps are so easy I moved through them rather quickly and forgot to snap photos. In a saucepan I heated the olive oil until hot. Then I sautéed the garlic and hint of crushed red pepper until the garlic was golden brown. I then added in the onion for approximately 2 minutes. Next, I stirred in the tomatoes with some salt and pepper and allowed the sauce to cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. 

In the meantime, I ran out to the garden for some fresh basil. 

After the sauce cooked for 10 minutes, I combined the basil and let the sauce simmer for another 10 minutes while the pasta cooked. In the end, I added about a handful of flour to help thicken the sauce. 

Chad suggested some Italian bread and olive oil and balsamic vinegar and we had ourselves an amazing meal!

I added just a hint of parmesan cheese to my dish, which I recommend. 

Even the roses were from our garden. :)

In the end, I thought the sauce came out really well. It was very light and fresh and every flavor I added really was detected in each bite. If I try this sauce again I may add a bit more crushed red pepper. 

Chad approved, so another successful food endeavor in the books!