French toast on a snow day.

For those of you not in New England, or somehow have missed the pictures of cars buried in snow, and un-shoveled paths all over social media.. we got a TON of snow this past weekend. It’s still there, actually. All of it. I was supposed to go to work on Saturday, but for this already nervous driver, plus the non-stop snow and high winds and no good streets, this chica could not drive anywhere. I actually haven’t driven my car since Friday afternoon. While, I felt bad I was not able to help out at work,  I was overjoyed to get an unexpected 3 day weekend (my days off now, are Sunday and Monday) and even more happy to spend extra time with Tyler.  

I’ve missed our weekend brunches (since, until last week, I had work every Sunday morning for the past 2 months) and just HAD to take advantage of having a slow breakfast together for not one, but two days. While I’m trying to cook more, I have accepted that breakfast is just more of my thing, anyway, so why not keep trying at it.. It is my favorite meal, after all. Saturday I made Challah French Toast (pictured above). I followed an Ina Garten recipe that includes orange zest in the eggy-milk mixture, and I loved it. I made far too much, so I forced Brittany to come in from shoveling, and she shared breakfast with us. 

Over the whole weekend, I had my fair share of productivity, and of course there was a lot of shoveling, but also an unexpected visit with friends, a good number of bundled-up walks and an abundance of time in my slippers and pjs. A car was on fire next door and I was grateful for the firemen (and health professionals, and people who work in residential environments, and safety) who can’t have a snow day, because they’re just too important. I hope they get a chance to relax, and do things that give them joy, and have some french toast, too.

I am one lucky gal. I get to eat wonderful meals all the time. Tyler’s very good at feeding me lots of great foods. Pictured are some snapshots of breakfast this past Saturday. Tyler made scrambled eggs and piles of potato shreds (I don’t know the actual name). We also had grapefruit and oranges, orange juice and sun tea. Sometimes I contribute, lately I’ve been making salads. I even made my own dressing this time with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, grapefruit juice and salt.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes (also a sneak peak at my new kitchen thus far)

Yesterday, Tyler and I were supposed to wake up early to do a 5K but it was pouring cats and dogs so we decided to forefit. Since I was already so awake so early on a Saturday morn, I decided to make pancakes. I approximately followed a recipe found on Martha Stewart, but played a lot with the ingredients and I don’t have a food processor (yet) so the texture was different. I’ve never had an oat-based pancake before (at least not that I can recall), and am glad I found another use for oatmeal. They weren’t super sweet, but tasted great with confectionary sugar and syrup or jelly (even though I halved the recipe, there was still enough to try lots of different toppings). 

If you can’t figure it out, the first picture has my computer resting on a music stand. We picked it up for free on the side of the street a while back, and thought it would be great to use as a recipe stand in our new kitchen. It worked out super for me! The move is going well. We’re officially both out of our old places and all of our belongings are in the new place. We just have a lot of sorting and decorating left to do. 

Mamma’s Bread

I don’t have the recipe that we followed but we made the dough the night before that involved a combination of yeast, flour, sugar and eggs… maybe? I can’t remember. And then we let the dough rise in the fridge overnight.

I then woke up way too early on a Saturday, and found my mother in the kitchen rolling out the first loaf of bread. We spooned out melted butter and cinnamon and sugar, and then added crushed walnuts and dates. After that the dough was ready to be rolled up, sliced and then put in the oven (off) to rise for another couple of hours.

We turned the oven on at the beginning of our family brunch and both my mom and I forgot about it. One of the loaves got a little too much lovin’ from the oven. And we forgot the egg-wash and left out the almond flavored sugar glaze… and it was all very typical to the baking experience that started with a floury mess. But all was well. I’m really glad I got to share that time with my mom. I also got some of her old cookie recipes that I can’t wait to try out. I did get to enjoy my Mamma’s Bread for the following week as breakfast, snack and dessert. 

This weekend Taylor and James were here. They were actually hoping we would bake together while they were visiting, but we didn’t end up getting around to it (they are both big fans of my sweets, and follow along with my blog… I think). We still had a great time… It was quite a treat and I got to pretend I was on vacation (which I’ve been doing most weekends, lately). Yesterday we made a pile of pumpkin pancakes (Trader Joe’s has a great box mix) and my boy made a lovely fruit parfait thing. I meant to take a picture before we started eating but got my camera out and then started into the meal. I have a love/hate relationship with making pancakes because it’s very easy for me to mess up, but overall, Taylor and I managed to make a majority of not-burnt yummy-in-my-tummy pancakes. 

Sunday pancake fest (from 1 week ago). I was happy to find a use for the rest of the buttermilk before it went bad. Usually I have to toss it because I buy it for cupycakes but don’t need a lot of it. I was going to write more, but now I don’t feel like it.

As always, Martha does it! (used was her buttermilk pancake recipe), but be aware, the recipe is way too large for 2 bellies.