Lemonade

I made myself a glass of lemonade by juicing two lemons, added five crushed spearmint leaves from my garden, water, ice, and 3/4 tablespoon sugar.

Blueberry Crumb Bread Pudding

My daughter seems to have the plague we've all been harboring, so I gave her some trail mix with extra cashews and dark chocolate powder-coated almonds to tide her until I got something hot and comforting whipped up.

This is what I thought I'd make, the apple crisp bread pudding, but with blueberries as we have a big bag of frozen blueberries from the warehouse club. Here is the original recipe:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/11/apple-crisp-bread-pudding.html

But, as one should anticipate, I have a tendency not to read the entire recipe before cooking... I ended up improvising more than I thought and what should have been a nice 11 x 13 pan of pudding ended up filling a cake pan.

So, here goes:

In a large skillet, combine

• 3 cups blueberries
• 1/4 cup blue curacao
• 3 tablespoons butter

Let come to slow boil and reduce heat.

Now, I used a good 14 cups of bread chunks, because I started with a two-day old baguette from Wegmans, ran out, and used the remaining breadchunks I had in the freezer... the same ones I used for my homemade stuffing.

I buttered the bottom of my cake pan and sprinkled with about 1 tablespoon sugar. Then I added the bread hunks from the baguette. I poured most the blueberry mixture over this and spread it around as best I could.

Then I added the frozen bread to cover it and sprinkled about 1 cup of frozen blueberries on top.

Now, the custard:

My custard was...

• 7 eggs (it was what I had)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup 2 percent milk
• almost 2 cups vanilla soy milk

Whisk until a nice even texture. Pour onto bread, pressing down with a spoon to make sure the bread absorbs the liquid.

Now, the oven should be preheated to 350 degrees. I layered a thin layer of brown sugar on top and then added about a cup of my mother-in-law's pie crumbs on the very top. She always makes extra when she makes a pie and usually throws them away, but I freeze them.

Bake for 40 minutes or until set.

I hope it works...

We had the first serving after 40 minutes in the oven and it was incredible! I put it back it for another 15 minutes because it didn't seem quite set enough...

More of an update:
Now what? I have made a ridiculous amount of bread pudding. This is where 'cheap' comes in. We each had about 1.5 cups for breakfast. It accounted for about 1/6 of this pan. I scooped an equal amount into a Tupperware container for tomorrow's breakfast.

There are several approaches for the rest...

1. Eat until we are disgustingly full. (Wouldn't be cheap or healthy.)
   
2. Share. (No one really to share with)
3. Store.

I opted to freeze. Bread pudding is already mushy, so it shouldn't affect the texture too negatively to freeze it. And I placed approximately three servings in each one quart freezer bag. So each bag will serve my whole family for breakfast. I ended up with four bags, which I will place inside a large freezer bag once the little ones cool. I have them in my unheated mud room so it shouldn't take long.

Now, a dessert that required a lot of eggs, bread and blueberries will serve a family of three for six comfort food breakfasts. Serve with a side of vegetarian sausage and I think that's a great start for a winter day.

Apple platter breakfast

Apples with dippings this morning.

My five-year-old sighed and asked for something special for breakfast. I don't have a whole lot of special these days.

So, I did my best.

My girlfriend sent some Harry & David apples and pears. I took a big old red delicious apple and sliced it. Made some cinnamon sugar. I put the cinnamon sugar in a tea cup, put the tea cup on a coaster. Arranged the apple slices on the coaster and put a hunk of peanut butter on a plate. I gave the child the plate and a butter knife and told her to coat the apples with peanut butter and/or cinnamon sugar.

It's a hit.

Cinnamon sugar toast

It's a snowy, slushy day. And we have next to no everyday items like milk and eggs. I made some gorgeous multigrain bread yesterday (and brought it to class where the professor very adeptly sliced it into equal slices for the entire class).

My bread is one of my wheat-white-rye concoctions...

My daughter asked for something hot for breakfast so I made my stepmother's specialty: toast with cinnamon sugar. My stepmother does not cook, and when I first visited their house she would offer me toast with cinnamon sugar. I had never had it before so it was an incredible treat.

Today, I made the same thing for my daughter, with real butter, on homemade multigrain bread.

Modified Ugly Bean Dip

We needed a quick vegetable-rich dinner, so we made ugly bean dip. We modified the recipe based on what we had on hand:

Sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
(I did not use it all)
Boil and cool.

Dip ingredients, mix in bowl:
red onion to taste, finely diced (about 3/4 cup for me)
3 small tomatoes from the garden, diced
about 1 cup finely diced cucumber
about 1 cup yellow corn
one can black beans, drained

Pour sauce on ingredients and stir.

We didn't have the fancy scoop Fritos so we ended up dumping the fritos on top of our dip on the plate and spooning it into our mouths instead of dipping.

Fish Sugar Cookies à la Husband

My husband wanted to make roll-out cookies for his sister, Beth, who breeds tropical fish. I have to admit that I have never made a successful batch of roll-outs. But I haven't tried in years. My mother-in-law and grandmothers-in-law make incredible cookies so I have had no reason to try.

My husband dug this recipe out of the Betty Crocker cookbook. He prepared the batter by himself and something didn't seem right. So he called me in. The batter resembled pebbles. I asked him if he remembered all the liquid. He nodded. I washed my hands, removed my wedding ring and dumped the pebbles on the dishwasher. I began working the dough. It was sticking, but still seemed brittle. There was no way this would roll. Especially once chilled. If there's one thing I've learned from my bread making is what dough should feel like.

"Get me butter."

He does.

"Two-and-a-half tablespoons, soft, not melted."

He prepares it. I flour my hands and smear the butter onto the top of the dough, just like folding butter into brioche dough. It's wet, and I'm nervous. I keep my hands dry with flour and keep working. As I get the butter incorporated, the dough takes a nice shape. I dump the last tablespoon of granulated sugar from the sugar bowl onto the dishwasher and roll the ball over it to keep it from sticking to the bowl while it chills. Now we wait.

The recipe.
Sugar Cookies from the Betty Crocker 25th anniversary cookbook
1.5 cups powdered sugar;
1 cup butter, softened;
1 teaspoon vanilla;
1/2 teaspoon almond extract;
1 egg;
2.5 cups flour;
1 teaspoon baking soda;
1 teaspoon cream of tartar;
granulated sugar.

Mix powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract and egg. Stir in other ingredients except granulated sugar. Cover and refrigerate at least two hours.

Heat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheet lightly. Divide dough in half. Roll each half 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shape. Sprinkle with sugar. (Decorate?) Bake seven to eight minutes until edges brown.

Now the question becomes: Will I make colored icing? Or will we just use sugar?