Baked Raspberry French Toast

Are you dressed up right now?  What are you?  I want to see a picture.

I don't have a costume this year, but guess who does?!  That's right the Dingo does!  She's going as a giraffe this year.  It's pretty adorable and she loves wearing it...as you can imagine.

Halloween is a pretty fun holiday...I guess.  I just kind of lost interest when people stopped giving me free candy just for ringing their doorbell.  Once you're older, you're expected to dress up like some sort of themed slut - not only not my style, but also, it's cold the last day of October.  In the past, we have done some Halloween climbing competitions, we have gone to Halloween parties and we've carved pumpkins with spiked apple cider (actually, we did that last weekend).

It's all good stuff, but what I really like about Halloween is that it means we're getting dangerously close to the "holiday season!"  It's that time of year for lots of sweets and carbs...and big sweaters (coincidence?).

I love to start my day out with sweets and carbs and then just continue that trend right on into bedtime.  Don't judge me with your smoothie.

This french toast is definitely sweet.  It's also got raspberries, so it's, um, healthy.  You can make it the night before, let all the custard soak in and then bake it in the morning.

If you are a weirdo and you don't like sweets for breakfast, then you could just swap out the words "french toast" and plug in "bread pudding" and you can have dessert!  Problem solved.  You're welcome.  What I'm saying is, there's no reason you shouldn't be pinning this recipe maybe for Christmas morning or Christmas dessert...or a lazy Sunday morning.  Just pin it.  Just eat it!

Vanilla Caramel Apples

Saturday night, 6 cars in our neighborhood (including our friend's) got broken into.  It feels like a pretty safe neighborhood and it's in a safe town.  And while I'm not really concerned for my safety, I don't like the idea of people inside Sheldon (my car) without my permission.

I don't know if I just watch too much Law & Order or if the world really is more dangerous, but I wish it wasn't.  When I was little, my grandma used to make caramel apples to hand out to the kiddos in the neighborhood on Halloween.  Granted, it was a very small town and everyone literally knew everyone else, but still no one was afraid the little old lady at the end of the road was hiding razor blades in their apples.

I'm not at all suggesting that you should stop being concerned about little old ladies, I'm just saying if someone handed me a caramel apple, I wish I could eat it without concern of being poisoned or cut.  That's all.

And since at this point in American history, we cannot go around accepting food from strangers, we have to rely on ourselves to satisfy our own caramel apple cravings.  I left my caramel apples plain, but especially if you are making this with or for kids, you'll probably want to dip them in candy, nuts, crumbled cookies or chocolate.  It's choose your own adventure style.

Project 365: Week 43

October 21 | Working & planning.

What to Bring to a Party?

This morning, my sister asked me what she should bring to a Halloween party this weekend.  I don't think I helped her out that much, but maybe I can help you if you're in the same position.  Sure you could buy some dip and pour it into a fancy dish, pretend like you made it yourself, and accept all of the compliments.  Or, you could actually make it yourself, display it on a fancy dish, and accept all the compliments.  Doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is :)

If you're looking for a snack or appetizer that goes a little beyond onion dip, try some homemade spinach artichoke dip, or maybe this hummus.  Or maybe dip's really not your thing?  How about some crostini?  You could assemble these nachos ahead of time and throw them in the host's oven for a few minutes!  Hot, melty nachos!  People will definitely talk about you (in a good way) on their way home!

Sometimes you're given a task though.  You don't get to just pick whatever sounds good to you.  It definitely has it's positives and negatives - you don't have to think about it as much, but also maybe you don't like salads?  If "Salad" is the task you've been assigned, think about making this kale & brussels sprouts salad which you could make hours beforehand.  I don't think anyone could not like Justin's Salad.  If you want something more seasonal, how about a fresh, green salad with cranberries and pears?

And then, if you have a food blog and you've really made yourself known for your baking, you are only asked to bring dessert.  Which is usually a problem of too many options, not a problem of coming up with an idea.  So really it depends on the type of party.  Are people sitting down, are they gathered around a TV watching football or are they going to be standing, holding plates of food in their hands?

Let's start with hand food: there are always cookies and brownies.  Never a bad option.  Lemon Pie Bars are definitely portable.  So are Pumpkin Bars.

You will for sure impress with Maple Bacon Cupcakes (which now that I think about it, people could probably eat while standing up too).  Because it's October, you better be bringing a pumpkin pie.  You just better.

And then what if you're hosting?  I don't know - it's overwhelming.  I'm sorry, I've got nothing for you.  Just don't forget the cocktails!

Crispy Marshmallow Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the type of cookies that are really good right out of the oven - like every cookie.  But, unlike every cookie, these are also really good later.  Once they've cooled down, they stay crispy but not hard.  The marshmallows keep the centers a little chewy, the Special K cereal keeps the outside crunchy.  The chocolate chips keep them from going stale (they'll never last that long!).

These are exactly the type of cookie that I make around 10:00 at night.  A while after I've had dinner, watching TV, I usually get the feeling that I need something sweet.  Just so, you know, I can go to sleep satisfied.

Rarely will a piece of chocolate or a store bought cookie do the trick.  It's not just anything sweet, it has to be sweet and delicious!

So at this point, I will get up from whatever I'm watching, quickly mix up a batch of cookies, finish the show while I'm waiting for the oven timer to go off, then I eat 1 or 2 or 3 and go to bed totally, completely satisfied.  (I think this is something I picked up from my dad.)  The next day, eat a couple more and love them just as much!

Chicken Stew with Cornmeal Dumplings

Mondays are hard.  I think we've established that already.  This Monday has been even harder than normal.  Largely due to the fact that I took allergy medication before going to bed last night.  I had some seriously crazy dreams, slept through my alarm, was already running late to work and then ran out to the car to find it encased in ice.

After scraping and scraping and scraping, I finally made a big enough porthole that I could see through.  Made it to work safely and then the drowsiness from the allergy meds kicked in.

There's plenty of time left for things to get harder or easier, but I'm really hoping that it gets easier.  For that reason, we're having leftover soup for dinner.

Luckily, this soup is pretty easy the first time around too.  I don't mind spending some time in the kitchen, getting dishes and my hands dirty a lot of days, but Mondays rarely inspire me to stand over the stove or wait for something to come out of the oven.  Weeknight meals need to be satisfying and easy...that's it.  Hence the number of tacos Austin and I consume :)

Project 365: Week 42

October 14 | Said goodbye to the whole Coates clan before Dingo and I drove back home by ourselves.