Tuesday, April 5, 2011

I am combining April 4&5-my bad for not writing yesterday!

Monday I was up early to make breakfast at the B&B. I made Nutella Stuffed French Toast with bacon. I used challah bread and Carl's recipe for Creme Brûlée French toast. I tried cutting the bread thicker, then slicing a pocket in the bread, but it was difficult to press the Nutella in it without ruining the bread. So I sliced it thinner, dipped the challah in the French toast mixture, cooked it on both sides, then spread the Nutella on one piece of French toast then topped that slice with the other piece of French toast. Carl found some Fig and Chocolate Hazelnut spread at the store so I added a dollop of that on each slice then sprinkled some powdered sugar on top. It was rich but not too sweet, which I was concerned about. And everyone got two pieces of French toast (for one sandwich), sliced on the diagonal so it was just enough. There was bacon to serve on the side, which also helped counter the sweetness of the French toast. Every enjoyed it. Carl took pictures and posted them on his Facebook page, featuring ME as a guest chef-too funny!

After breakfast a shower and some reading. My friend Cris picked me up at 1pm and we headed to the 16th street mall to walk around and look at a kitchen store we had seen the other night called Equipment. There was some nice things in there, high end. Then on to a late lunch at Mt Fuji Sushi. Cris excused himself for a minute then came back with a birthday card and a box, from Italy! The box contained a bracelet I had helped him pick out, lol. He gave one to his aunt and thought he would wait for my birthday and give the other one to me. I was quite surprised! It's a beautiful sterling silver bracelet made up of tiny flowers. We had some nice sushi and conversation then he dropped me off. I spent a quiet evening in my room then bed.

Tuesday, today, I was also up early to make breakfast for the guests. Today I made Tuscan Eggs. I was going to make up prosciutto "bacon" but Carl was up before me and made regular bacon. And you work with what you have! For four people, take 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil, one clove of minced garlic, one diced yellow onion and saute until soft. Then add one 28oz can of diced tomatoes, 1 tsp dried thyme or three sprigs of fresh thyme, salt and pepper and simmer to reduce and thicken for about ten minutes. At that point, the easiest thing to do is line a small baking dish (and Carl has some great souffle and gratin dishes) with the tomatoes, making sure to get some juice. Make a well in the middle of the dish and crack an egg into the well, sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese on top and bake in a 425 degree oven for about ten minutes, or to your desired level of doneness. I took the dishes out of the oven, sprinkled on a little more Parmesan cheese and sprinkled the top with thinly sliced chives. Mmmmm, good! I used olive bread toast to serve on the side, but if I had my drothers, I would rather have used ciabatta toast. You could also add spinach to this when you cook the tomatoes. You could also add diced prosciutto to it to make it more "meaty but it tasted quite substantial on it's own. Again, everyone seemed to like it. Carl kept wanting to take pictures of everything!

I met Jordan's CPA after breakfast for a consult (he's only a few blocks from here). Then decided to take myself out for lunch to Charlie Brown's, a local pub. I had a small pizza and Greek salad and if you go in on your birthday, they give you a $30 bar tab, lol. That's a LOT. Then it was back to the B&B. I'm not used to getting up at 5:30am!

Kim W. and her husband, Dave took me to Olivea, a restaurant over on 17th Ave, which is pretty much restaurant row here in the Capitol Hill
area. We had a charcuterie platter to start, then moved on to the main dishes. I had wide pasta with a wild boar ragu, Kim had duck meatballs on polenta and Dave had a skirt steak. Side dishes are ordered separately. Carl dropped by but wouldn't stay, just wanted to say hello and happy birthday. Kim andmI had dessert. I had a chocolate sel de fleur caramel tart and she had pistachio semi-freddo. And they would not let me pay! They took me out for my birthday. :-)

Now I am back and will probably go to bed early. I am cooking breakfast again in the morning!