Triple Berry Baked French Toast

If you want an easy, but elegant dish to serve for breakfast or brunch, try this baked french toast recipe. I used frozen berries and made it the night before which made it even simpler. Please note that I almost always use skim milk and I save the ends of bread loaves, freeze them until I have enough to make this recipe!

(No good photos I'm afraid, these are just from my iPhone!)

Triple Berry Baked French Toast

(made in a 13x9 pan)

Butter for greasing the pan
6 eggs
3 C milk
3/4 C maple syrup
2 tsp cinnamon + 1 Tbsp for later
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Zest of 1 lemon

Day old or left over ends of bread cut into cubes (maybe half a loaf?)
2 C fresh or frozen berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries)
6 Tbsp sugar


DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the 9x13 pan and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs until frothy. Add milk, maple syrup, cinnamon, salt and lemon zest. Add bread cubes until fully coated. Stir in frozen berries and pour into prepared pan.

3. In a small bowl mix sugar and 1 Tbsp of cinnamon, sprinkle on top.

4. You can bake this right away, or refrigerate overnight. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

5. Drizzle with extra maple syrup when serving.

Adapted from Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis' recipe.

Thanks to all the bloggers who emailed me or left a comment about wanting this recipe. Enjoy!

The Dog Days of Summer

Aside from work and summer vacation for Husband and the kids, we've been pretty busy this month. I've still managed to paint a door, try some new recipes, take a few mini vacations and do a little shopping...

Right now I'm in the midst of planning our first beer tasting party. I'm kind of excited because we never really had a housewarming (with couples, that is) at the lakehouse, so it will be nice to have people over.

I've designed the invitations, we've decided on the menu and Husband has been busy growing his hops and making his beer. Life is never boring around here.

Here's my Instagram dump of what else we've been doing:

• Husband starting to condition our two swimmers
• I made Triple Berry Baked French Toast
• Our laptops lined up and ready for duty
• Husbands hop are growing
• A trip to Wisconsin Dells
• My stop at the Coach Outlet store
• Ingredients for delicious Zucchini Brownies
• New throw pillows for the living room
• Bucket-o-Salsa (homemade and delicious!)

Two weeks left until school starts in our neck of the woods! What's going on where you are?

Zucchini Brownies With Chocolate Frosting

Wow, August has been busier than I thought it would be. Fortunately I've been able to paint, bake and squeeze in a trip to Wisconsin Dells with the family between working.

Anyway, one of our neighbors gave us a huge zucchini which prompted me to make these brownies. I have to say, in general, I'm not a big brownie fan, but these are the best brownies I have ever made from scratch.

I added frosting because you could kind of see the shredded zucchini on the top, (didn't want to scare our children) so I added the frosting! Delicious!

Zucchini Brownies

(made in a 13x9 pan)

1/2  cup canola oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2  teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini

Chocolate Frosting

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4  cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 13x9 cake pan with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, mix oil, sugar and vanilla extract.

3. In a separate bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add this mixture into large bowl that has oil mixture. Fold in zucchini, mixture will seem dry and doughy but there is enough moisture in the zucchini to make these brownies moist.

4. Spread into prepared cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until brownies spring back when touched.

5. Allow brownies to cool, melt cocoa and butter in a small pot set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Add this to pot of butter and cocoa and spread over cooled brownies.


This recipe was adapted from Rachel's recipe.

A Quick "Hop" To Madison, Wisconsin

Although I am very much a planner, sometimes it's fun to be spontaneous. Husband is that kind of person who doesn't mind mixing it up a little. He pooh-poohed all my travel books and decided where we were going as we sat in our car. (If you are a Type A personality, this kind of thinking will kill you...and makes packing impossible.) As I wrestled with what direction, north, south, east or west, we ended up in Madison, Wisconsin where we did a lot of walking, a little shopping and of course some beer sampling.

Madison is as eclectic as any other big city, but since this is also a college town, it's filled with university students too. Makes us old people feel young, heh heh.

On State Street (the main drag) we cooled down with a pint of beer called "Hopalicious" from Ale Asylum and a vanilla cupcake from a local bakery. Yum. I don't know, I kind of like beer and cupcakes!

What's also nice about Madison is that it still has that midwest charm of a smaller city, but has enough in it to entertain the tourists, like art and music venues, a variety of eateries (from traditional bratwurst to Asian-fusion dishes,) state capitol tours, shopping and of course, some really great micro-breweries.

Which is why we had to stop at the new location of Ale Asylum, a craft brewery and "tasting room," which has a tremendous local following. What I like about this brewery is its "hoppy-edge." Everything from the taste of their beer, to the cool decor, this place definitely has it's own unique style. This isn't your typical brewery. You can eat there, lounge upstairs on their couches or sit outside in their beer garden and see how their hops are growing!

Most of our friends know that Husband and I are intent on creating beer and coming up with unique food pairings. It's our thing, in fact I'm in the process of designing the invitation for our beer tasting party that we're planning right now.

So if you're ever in Wisconsin, you won't regret your stop in Madison. Whether you explore the five lakes that surround the area or go just to taste the beer, you won't be disappointed.

Fruit Pizza From Scratch

Every summer I usually make fruit pizza. Even though there are a lot of recipes out there, this one is completely from scratch (no pre-made sugar cookie mix here.) The crust is more like shortbread and is delicious!

FRUIT PIZZA

CRUST

3 sticks of butter
1 C powdered sugar
3 C flour

In an extra large bowl, beat butter and powdered sugar. Slowly add flour. Pat onto a pizza pan, stone or baking sheet. Bake at 325 degrees approximately 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely.

TOPPING

8 oz light cream cheese
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

In a small bowl, beat all ingredients until creamy, spread on cooled crust, top with the following fruit suggestions:

Strawberries
Blueberries
Raspberries (any wild berry)
Grapes
Mandarin Oranges
Pineapple
Kiwi

No matter what combination of fruit you use, I'm sure you'll love this recipe! :)

Planning A Surprise Getaway

I'm having an internal debate about whether to plan a surprise getaway with Husband. There's this fine line when it comes to saving money and living a fulfilled life. If I wait until we have the money, will we even be able to go? Will the money go to a new fridge, a child's needs or a possible emergency?

I talked to someone I work with and she said "I don't want to be 80, using a walker at the Grand Canyon! What kind of vacation is that?!"

Our last getaway was a wedding in Chicago. It was so wonderful.

I totally get it.

So I'm perusing the deals on the internet, giddy with excitement about this potential trip. Googling "Two night three day cheap getaways," (hoping we don't end up in Tijuana.)

Where? When? How? My first three choices were: Philadelphia, because Husband likes history; somewhere in Maine, because I love the east coast and Seattle, because it's far enough to fly to and I've never been there, even though I lived in Vancouver for a year.

Seattle, yes, birthplace of my beloved Starbucks, the Space Needle and Pike Place Market that looks amazing. I've also found a cool hotel, I'm kayak-ing, hot-wiring etc. all the airfares and dreaming of all the cool places to see and foods to eat (thanks to Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives!)

Husband knows I'm planning something, he just doesn't know what exactly... so do you have any ideas? Have you been to Seattle, can you recommend places to visit? I would love to hear your ideas!