Baked Challah french toast

There are pros and cons to shopping at bulk retailers like Sam's Club or BJ's. The best part is that you can often save money in the long run. The worst part if you are like me and you buy actual fresh food from BJ's, you have to use that food before it goes bad, or you'll have wasted all the money. I usually shop for nonperishables at these retailers, but sometimes the deals are so good (or the food looks so good) that I grab that 24 pack of Italian sausage or indulge myself with two giant loaves of golden Challah bread. I've stretched that sausage from a cookout with the fiance's coworkers, to a sausage, cabbage, carrot and potato soup, to sausage and cabbage pot stickers. I've even added a few chunks to an omelet and some more to a rendition of the Spicy sausage and rice recipe I posted in February.
The Challah has done little except sit on the sidelines as a slice of toast or half a grilled cheese sandwich to accompany the soup. But no more. I decided to honor the slightly sweet and soft bread by making it into french toast.
I love french toast. But, by the time it takes to grill all the slices (grilling them two at a time in my not-so-giant pan) seems to take forever. By the time I'm done I'm usually hot, hungry and at least one of my pieces has gone cold. This recipe is the best solution to that.

Baked Challah French Toast
Adapted from a recipe by My Italian Grandmother

1 loaf Challah bread
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3 cups milk (I used soy)
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 cup butter
1 tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

1. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. Cut up Challah into 1 inch cubes. Place into pan. You will have to squeeze the bread together to get it to lay in a single layer. Sprinkle cranberries on top and press them into between the bread cubes.
   
2. Whisk together the eggs and milk until combined. Mix in the sugar and spices until the mixture is frothy and well combined. Pour over the Challah. Press the bread down and make sure the milk is soaking all the bread. Cover and put in the fridge at least four hours or over night.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add syrup, brown sugar and walnuts. Mix to combine.
   
4. Pour mixture over the bread. Spread evenly. Bake in the oven for about an hour. Bread is done when a tooth pick comes out mostly clean. Baked french toast is closer to bread pudding. If you want to the mixture more done in the middle, cook longer but know that the outside will eventually burn.
   
5. Serve warm, covered with more syrup.
   

Wednesday wedding inspiration: Mason jars galore

When I think of my wedding flowers I've been imagining bunches of simple flowers placed in mason jars. Like these:


But though I've been planning on white flowers for my bouquet, I'm all about the fun pops of color I could work into decorations.


There's just something homey and amazing about mason jars. And there's a bit more natural feel to the fact that you can see the stems in the vase.



My final photo I discovered is this ridiculously cute metal fly guard. I just want this for my normal life. This is so much better than a paper towel because it won't fly away and you won't be wasting the paper.

Sausage and cabbage pot stickers

Remember that blog called Budget Bytes, which I mentioned when I posted about enjoying good food while saving money? Well I finally got around to trying one of her recipes and I am super excited that I pulled this off with only spending around $7. I made pot stickers!
These little guys happen to be one of those Asian foods that I refused to eat as a kid but now absolutely love. But man do they cost a lot. And, wow, are they easy to mess up. I think the last time I had edible pot stickers was a few years ago at an upscale Chinese restaurant in Florida.
So, I decided to try and make them myself. This recipe is super easy, it just takes a while. Not something you want to do when you are really hungry. So without further ado, here goes (with more photos after the recipe):


Sausage and Cabbage Pot Stickers
I modified the recipe to fit what I had and my time constraints. Feel free to use the original recipe for Ginger and Pork Pot Stickers from Budget Bytes.

1/4 onion, chopped
2 Tbsp of minced garlic
1/4 head of cabbage, sliced thinly
4 links of Italian sausage (I picked this protein cause I had some leftover from a cookout. The meat in pot stickers is supposed to be uncooked, but these were already grilled and they worked perfectly and added a alight smoky flavor. If you want to use raw meat, just refer to the Budget Bytes version because I skipped steps you need to follow for the raw meat).
Approx. 2 Tbsp cumin
soy sauce (no measurement here. It's kind of up to your taste buds)
Approx. 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Approx. 1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 package of won ton wrappers
1 bowl of cold water (to use as glue for wrappers)

1. Saute onions and garlic in a pan with oil of your choice over medium heat. As these are cooking, slice cabbage and chop up sausage.
2. Season onions with spices, brown sugar and soy sauce (The sugar adds a lovely teriyaki flavor to the sauce). After onions have softened and turned translucent, add cabbage. Add more soy sauce (to assist in steaming) to taste. Cook until cabbage is translucent and soft.
   
3. Add sausage. Cook Just until flavors are incorporated. Remove from heat and transfer filling to a bowl. You will need the pan later, so don't clean out the yummy flavors just yet.
4. Put a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Add 1 cup of broth (we had frozen leftover stock from last week's corned beef and cabbage) OR season the water with salt.
5. As the water is coming to a boil, set up your won ton station. You'll need a bowl of water, a place to fold your won tons and a place to put them when they are done boiling. Place a 1/2 of Tbsp of filling on each wrapper. Fold into a triangle, and then fold the outer tips together, as if the pot sticker is hugging itself (aww! I think I said "That's so cute!" every time I folded one. Seriously.)
   
6. Place folded pot stickers into the boiling water. Cook for about five minutes (Remember, our meat was already cooked, so we were really just cooking the wrappers and further meshing the filling flavors). As the first batch is bowling (we did about 7 - 10 pot stickers at a time), put a little more oil in the pan that you cooked the filling in and put it over medium-high heat.
   
7. Pull cooked pot stickers out and place on a grate over a cookie sheet to drain the excess water. I even dried the super soggy ones with a paper towel. **This is a crucial step. If you just dump the sopping wet pot stickers into the frying pan it will turn into a sausage and cabbage stir fry with gooey won ton wrappers all over the place. Not so awesome.**
8. Place pot stickers into the pan, fold side down and cook for about 7 - 9 minutes, or until the bottom gets a gorgeous golden brown crust that is slightly crispy. Don't let the pot stickers touch each other, or they will stick together. This means you can really only cook 6 - 8 in the pan at a time, depending on the size of your pan.
   
9. Serve with more soy sauce. Eat with chop sticks. Watch an old Jackie Chan movie and enjoy life.
   

A note on using grilled Italian Sausage in my pot stickers: I know it is not traditional. That being said, the light smoky flavor was awesome with the teriyaki-inspired sauce. When it comes to having good food on a budget, you have to be willing to compromise the "traditional" aspects of a recipe with what you can afford. Why not tweak a classic based on what you have on hand and what might add a delicious twist? People who yell about me not using plain raw meat can go spend $10 on 5 pot stickers at their Chinese restaurant. I'll stick to these, which cost somewhere around $7, made 48 pot stickers and taste better than almost any other pot sticker I've had. Alright, there's my rant.



One last note. My won ton wrappers were not perfectly square. So, when I folded them to make a triangle there was extra wrapper hanging off. The good thing is the second fold (to make the "hug") pretty much seals the extra wrapper off and helps keep the yummy package together. Also: If they do happen to get little holes in them, don't sweat it. These will taste great no matter what they look like.






Easy, right? A little time consuming, but wow, these are totally worth the wait.
I'd have a picture of the final product, but I got hungry and started eating instead of taking photos. Looks like you caught me!
Have you ever tried to make something that seemed too complicated to be worth the effort? What is your favorite pot sticker filling, or do you just hate pot stickers (don't be afraid to admit it. My 6-year-old self is encouraging your irrational hatred)?

We all live in a yellow submarine...

This might be the best thing I have ever seen.



It's a yellow submarine, which you then fill with tea and it works as an infuser. Super cute, right? I've been in more of a tea mood lately. Don't get me wrong. I still need my first cup of joe in the morning, but there's nothing quite like curling up with a good book and sipping a soothing cup of tea. Get it here and see what else they've got.

Dispatches from the job search: Networking

The following is from a new blog I've created to record and cope with the trials and tribulations of my job search. Follow it here.

I wanted to get this topic out of the way because I've always found it to be sort of a confusing subject. And yet the No. 1 thing you're told as you begin any job search is network, network, network.
Here's the main principle: Introduce yourself to as many people as possible. It's so simple it almost makes you feel silly, right? I've never been big on networking. A lot of searching for a job, as Joe Grimm (recruiter extraordinaire and one of Poynter.org's job experts) explains it, is selling yourself to possible employers. That's not really my style. I prefer to let my actions speak for themselves. But here's where that philosophy doesn't hold water in a job search: Potential employers have never seen you in action and they can only base their decisions on what they've heard about you, whether their source is you or one of your references. And that's where networking comes in.
Back in the day networking required putting a lot of miles on your car and shaking a lot of hands.
Now, like almost anything else out there, the process has gone high tech. But in the end, you're still doing the same thing. Your connection to your boss connects you to everyone else they've worked with, which connects you to everyone those people have worked with and so on. And this doesn't even need to be just with your boss. Say you volunteer at an animal shelter (guilty). The volunteer coordinator might be able connect you to someone else in your field.
The most exciting and well-known tool for networking is LinkedIn. Think Facebook for professionals. It's a place where your profile includes your recent employment and your qualifications rather than your favorite movies or those embarrassing photos from that one party. You know the one I'm talking about.
Thursday morning, the day after I learned I was joining the ever growing ranks of the unemployed, I logged onto my little-used account with LinkedIn and "connected" with every person I could find at my company. By that afternoon I had received four recommendations (these are posted on your profile, which can then be viewed by your connections and anyone else you allow to see your profile). Recommendations can also be read by the connections your boss or coworkers have, thereby exposing you to professionals you have never even met. Essentially this is almost effortless networking.
It's actually kind of exciting when you get right down to it. So there you have it: A quick and simple way to network. Of course that's only the beginning, but at least it is a beginning. And every job search has to start somewhere.

Want to join my network on LinkedIn? Click here to see my public profile, or click on the LinkedIn badge on the right side of this page.

I will post the first few posts from "Dispatches" here, and then I will discontinue. I'll continue to do my normal posting here. Please follow both, if that's what interests you.

~Beth