Orange and Raisin French Toast

Yesterday was a busy day. We had a birthday in the house. So starting with a great breakfast and ending with a fun evening in downtown Delray Beach, with probably the most perfect weather day we've had in months, it was an all around great day.  Here's the recipe that I whipped up using Pepperidge Farms Raisin Swirl Bread.  It was buy one get one at the store a couple of weeks ago, so there was a surplus of raisin bread around.  It came in handy this morning. I usually recommend a thicker sliced bread, like a challah (or egg bread) for making french toast, but the thinner sliced raisin bread was delicious. You gotta try it!

ORANGE AND RAISIN FRENCH TOAST

Whisk Together:

4 eggs

2/3 cup of milk

3 Tbs. orange juice

Grated peel of half an orange

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt

Place your slices of bread in a baking dish (13x9). Eight slices fit pretty okay but will overlap slightly. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, turn once, and allow them to soak up the mixture for a good few minutes, turning occasionally.

My tip for turning and getting them out of your baking dish in one piece is to use a spatula. If you use your hands, they're going to tear and fall apart. Use a spatula and save yourself the aggravation!

In a skillet, heat equal amounts of butter and vegetable oil, a spoonful or so of each. Fry four at a time if it's a large pan on medium to medium high heat until golden brown, a few minutes each side. Remove to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Add extra butter and oil for the next batch. This makes eight slices. 

Now I know I've made jokes about using a good old jar of Spice Islands orange peel or lemon peel in some of my recipes, but I gotta say that when you've got the real thing around it's so much better, and pretty easy to do.  That's what I did here. Tammi and Marvin were right, "Ain't Nothin' Like The Real Thing Baby...." 

Enjoy, and let me know how it turned out.

P.S.  This recipe and more than a hundred pages of other great recipes, stories and pictures can be found in my book Singingirl Cooks! If you don't own a copy and would like to, let me know.  Thanks!

Candied Cardamom and Orange Mixed Nuts

I've got a great new recipe for your nut dish this holiday season. Don't buy Planters or any other kind of store bought nuts this time. Get yourself some oversized bags of nuts at Costco or Sam's Club or whichever store of that type is popular in your area, and make your own! Perfect for gift giving, if you can manage to put any aside before devouring them all yourself. And great news.... I've found yet another use for that expensive jar of cardamom that I bought a while back!  These are sweet, crunchy and downright addictive.

CANDIED CARDAMOM 
AND ORANGE MIXED NUTS

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup plus 3 Tbs. sugar, divided
1 cup unsalted pecans
1 cup unsalted walnuts
1 cup unsalted almonds
2 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. or more orange peel       

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium high heat. Add the 1/2 cup of sugar and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Meanwhile, mix the remaining 3 Tbs. of sugar with the cardamom and orange peel and set aside. As you can see, I took the easy way out and used a jar of Spice Islands orange peel. But if you like grating, by all means grate away! When the sugar is dissolved, still over the medium to medium high heat add the 3 cups of nuts, cooking and stirring for about 5 minutes until toasted and well coated with the butter/sugar mixture. Don't allow the nuts to burn. Pour the nuts into a large bowl and add the reserved sugar and spice mixture. Stir well to coat evenly.  Dump this mixture onto a foil lined cookie sheet and break apart with the back of your spoon or spatula to, well, to break them apart.... duh me.  When they are cooled, they will separate, yeah, that's the word I was looking for... they will separate easily and be ready to fill a nut dish or add to a container for gift giving. Yum.... wait till you taste these!