Caramelized Banana French Toast

I loved making french toast when I was younger. It was wonderfully satisfying and delightfully simple to make. Something so decadent about it. That lovely custard sopped up by a previously forsaken slice of stale bread... vanilla and cinnamon... sometimes some nutmeg... some sort of fruit, if I was so inclined... otherwise a healthy smear of butter and dosing of maple syrup. Perfection.

The sheer simplicity of this breakfast favourite almost made (and makes) me giddy with excitement. It's almost laughable how stale bread, some eggs, cream and some seasonings can transform into a ~$15 brunch item at a restaurant. This past weekend's brunch at home reminded me how easily I could compete, not pay $2 a cup for my much-needed gallon of coffee and eat in my pajamas!

Salted Caramel Fudgy Brownies

Ummmm…. speechless. Dubbed #sexonaplate… #foodporn… just plain good. My ever-obliging taste testers at the office swooned over these. “I would get fat for these.” “They’re rich… but not. I love the salt.” “…..mmmmm…..” Yeah.

Honestly, these started as an “I would like something sweet but not too sweet.” I love those salty-sweet combinations. It’s the best middle ground between the sweet and savoury war, which I wage internally on most every day. Yes, there are two distinct processes involved with this dessert but I promise that it is worth the effort. I made one 10”x10” tray of thin but still rich and gooey. I think that three times that many could have been eaten. The only things grateful, when the bottom of the container was reached and only a few crumbs remained, were our waistlines.

“I will make some man fat and happy one day.” Heads nod.

Foodie Crush: Last Night's Dinner

I have a crush... on Jennifer Hess and her blog, Last Night's Dinner. I only found her a few days ago after a twitter recommendation from @TOfoodie. Once again, I will praise twitter for adding another link to my #foodporn favourites.

Case and point would be her blog post today:
"I am a home cook. I’m not a writer or a culinary professional, I’m just a girl who works long days, comes home exhausted, and looks forward to sharing a meal with her husband. And whether he’s cooking dinner, or I am, or it’s a joint effort, by and large I want what we eat at home to be good, honest, real food, even if it’s just a simple bowl of pasta and vegetables."

It just seems so honest and wonderfully simple... as though what she is doing is the most obvious thing in the world. And it is just that - obvious.

Lots of photos... less on the recipes. While my own little bubble here is recipe after recipe, I truly appreciate (and subscribe equally) to her philosophy that there really isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to cook.

Anyway, add Last Night's Dinner to your own #foodporn list... or twitter @lastnightsdinnr

Blue Carbonara

If it isn’t obvious enough, some of my ingredients repeat themselves over several recipes for the simple reason of trying not to waste. This whole cooking enterprise could be infinitely more expensive if I were to be buying blue cheese or special cuts of meat or buttermilk or whatever else for each recipe individually. Instead, and more realistically, I made Blue Burgers, then crumbled blue cheese on a few salads, then decided to see if blue cheese could work in a carbonara in an attempt to use that last little bit. I hope that is ever so slightly reassuring… so that when you look at a recipe and want to try something out, you have another two or three recipe options to use up those ingredients. Waste not and all that jazz…

Ok. Back to the recipe at hand. Spaghetti carbonara. As long as you don’t have egg issues, you likely have had and enjoy this dish. I always found it to be a wonderful dose of #foodporn, in its slippery-salty-sweet decadentness (not a word, I know… but I like it anyway). In Feast, Nigella Lawson only reinforced it to me as food porn when she described it as being “so right for that chin-dripping, love soaked primal feast, the first time someone actually stays through the night.” You’re speechless too, aren’t you?

An OMG Raspberry Souffle

Well… this could have been a COMPLETE overly ambitious disaster. A souffle and I was making it with an audience… nothing like a good challenge. :)

The first time I ever attempted a souffle, I was around sixteen years old and was experimenting in my Food Studies class in high school. I had an incredibly supportive teacher who broke the financial restrictions on my “per student, per dish” budget and encouraged me to try more challenging and advanced recipes in every class.

I can’t quite remember what kind of souffle it was that I made. What I do remember was her coaching, my careful consideration of each step in the process, our excited anticipation and the complete thrill of a successful result.

So, just as with the fish, I just wanted to make something wonderful and didn’t want to over-think it.

#foodporn

I haven't been home so I haven't been able to cook... *tear* To fill that void, I am trying to satisfy my cravings visually. Enter: Food Porn Daily. This is pure visual excitement... I'm salivating just looking at some of these creations. You can get these images delivered directly to your inbox and even submit your own photos!

I hope this satisfies your cravings too.