Pumpkin Bread French Toast

While living in Asheville, North Carolina Scott and I frequented Sunny Point Cafe in West Asheville, often on the weekends for brunch as a nice treat. And last fall they had a particularly excellent item on the Specials menu ... Pumpkin Bread French Toast. Not just French Toast with spices to taste like pumpkin bread - Pumpkin Bread (delicious, dense, moist) made into French Toast. Served with maple pecan whipped butter and syrup. Words escape me to describe the amazingness that was this meal.

So, naturally, Scott and I decided to recreate it. He came up for a couple of days, and we had decided already that, it being fall and all that jazz, it was high time we made some pumpkin bread! So I pulled out my cookbook, in which I have a recipe for pumpkin bread from The Taste of Oregon cookbook (the best pumpkin bread ever), and together we made the scrumptious bread. One loaf chocolate chip pumpkin bread, one loaf plain, unadulterated pumpkin bread. Then the following morning we used the French Toast "recipe" (er ... general guidelines of ingredients) that my mom uses to make our pumpkin bread into a splendid little breakfast of champions. Add into the mix that I had seen it suggested somewhere to try baking French Toast once it was already browned on both sides ... so we did! And let me tell you, it was deeeelish! Baking it for 10ish minutes at about 400 warms the toast from the inside out, and it makes it practically melt in your mouth.

[ browning on the griddle. ]

[ a little butter and some maple syrup ... and coffee, of course. ]

[ and we decided to be daring and try it with cream cheese and syrup ... and it was amazing! ]

So keeping in mind that this meal takes some advanced preparation, it is entirely worth the yummyness in your tummy that is sure to follow! It was so good we had it for breakfast, and elevensies a little bit later!

Cheers!

Soft Pretzels: A Recipe

I've made these soft pretzels a couple of times, and I'd like to thank Tablespoon for the inspiration. For those of us from Carrboro, NC who miss Katie's Pretzels, which used to be in Carr Mill Mall right next to Elmo's Diner and Alleycat Toys, this goes out to you. Because I miss those pretzels, and because I always wanted to know how to make them! And now I can, and I have! So here's the recipe for soft pretzels:

INGREDIENTS:

[ dough ]:
3 3/4 to 4 1/4 cups flour (you'll be adding some at the beginning and some later as you knead the dough, so don't worry too much about the exact measurements)
1 T* granulated sugar
1 1/2 t** salt
1 package regular or fast-acting yeast (2 1/4 T)
1 1/2 cups water
2 T vegetable oil

[ pretzel wash ]:
1 cup water
2 t baking soda

*T = Tablespoon
**t = teaspoon

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, stir 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, salt, and yeast with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Heat 1 1/2 cups water in a saucepan until just before it boils. Add warm water and oil to the flour mixture. You can either use an electric mixer at this point to mix the dough, or continue using the wooden spoon. (My experience with the electric mixer was that the dough simply spun above the beaters and it was entirely pointless ... so I just used the spoon.) With the wooden spoon or your clean hands mix in the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough is soft and leaves the sides of the bowl. It should be easy to handle, but may also be quite sticky.

2. Sprinkle flour on clean countertop, large cutting board, or in the large bowl you are using and knead the dough for about 5 minutes, adding flour as you need it to keep it from sticking terribly, until dough is smooth and springy. (Knead by folding the dough toward you, then pushing it away with the heal of your hand, then turning it a quarter-turn-ish and repeating.) Lightly spray a sheet of plastic wrap and loosely cover dough, let rest for 10 minutes.

3. Pre-heat oven to 425 and mix 1 cup water with baking soda to make pretzel wash.

4. Divide dough into even pieces and roll each piece into a long, thin rope - about 18-24 inches long. Form pretzels by making a loop with the dough and then crossing the ends over each other a couple of times, then pinching them slightly to the loop. Stir pretzel wash and, with a pastry brush, lightly cover both sides of the pretzels. Set them on the baking sheets and cover them with plastic wrap. For thin pretzels, let rest about 5 minutes; for fluffier pretzels, let rest 15-20 minutes.

5. Just before baking brush pretzels with remaining wash and sprinkle with coarse salt or sea salt to taste. Bake 10-13 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool about 15 minutes before serving. Note: they do keep nicely in a plastic container, and re-heat nicely in a toaster or toaster oven if you have any left over. They are quite tasty served with marinara sauce, queso salsa, warm peanut butter sauce, Nutella, or whatever else you'd like to try them with! You can also make them with cinnamon sugar instead of salt for a sweet variety.

I've used this recipe a couple of times and had lovely results both times.

Enjoy!

Pedro O'Hara's

Scott and I have been coming to Maine together for quite some time, and to Freeport more specifically. And every time we came we passed by Pedro O'Hara's restaurant on Main Street in Freeport, and every time we would look at it and say, "We should definitely try that place some time! Mexican food and Irish pub food at the same place! What a great combination." And then we would leave again without trying it.

Well now that I live here we decided it's about darn time that we go ahead and try it out. It's moved from Freeport to Brunswick, just north of Freeport, and it's now on Maine Street. (Those Mainers are so darn clever with their names of places - Mainely this, and Mainely that, on Maine Street.) It's a bit hidden, so you have to know just where to look. It's essentially in the basement of Richard's, which is a German food place, where you will get bratwursts, not burritos and burgers. You park in the back and walk through the (at this point in the evening) dark parking lot to a small lit stairwell that leads down to the door into Pedro O'Hara's. You go in and there's a cheerful host to your left who asks you how many there will be eating tonight, and then asks whether you'd like to sit up high or down low. (Some of the tables are regular height and others are bar-height.) There are festive decorations all over the entire restaurant: artful skull cut-out paper flags hanging from the ceiling, as well as the Mexican flag, chili peppers on the walls and on the aprons, sombreros, chili pepper lights, and then over in the bar there are beer signs everywhere, as well as street signs, the Irish flag, Guinness posters galore, and various other Irish paraphernalia. And last night they had Halloween music playing. Including, but certainly not limited to, Thriller. Huzzah! I had a sweet potato and black bean burrito, which was spiced perfectly and covered in cheese, served with beans and rice. Scott had a burger with cheese, lettuce, and avocado with fries on the side. They serve chips and salsa as the starter for everyone to munch on while waiting for food. And they have any number of margaritas, Irish-themed mixed drinks, beers, wines, and soft drinks to choose from. To see their entire menu click here.

Needless to say, I'm glad we finally went! I'd go back again!

Cheers.

picking back up again

I made this blog a while ago, and I've decided to pick it back up again and keep writing! Now that I have more time to explore with cooking and baking, and go on restaurant adventures, I should have more to write about! The two posts before this are from when I first started this blog, but I thought I'd leave them here just for old time's sake.

Just to clarify, I am currently living in Maine, so the restaurants and beers and foods and details that will be referred to in the next few posts will be somewhat local to this general area. I'll let you know when I move locations. Or heck, maybe I'll just let you know exactly where I am in each blog post! We'll see! I have yet to decide exactly what to I'll do.

So enjoy! And please let me know what you think! I'll be posting recipes on here too, so feel free to use them and love them and try them and let me know what you think! Some of them are ones that I have found and some of them are ones that I've made up! Huzzah!

[ Above: a delicious meal Scott and I enjoyed this summer of local beef made into burgers with sweet local corn on the cob. Local zucchini and summer squash minced in the burger meat for moisture and flavor, kudos to my Aunt Shay for showing me that trick! ]

[ Happy eater! ]

Cheers!