Lazy French Toast

In an oven dish, put slices of bread and throw the egg mix on top. Let soak and turn over. Then put in the oven, and broil them on high. Careful, they will broil in one to two minutes! Turn them over once more and broil for another minute or so. That’s it!

Top with creme fraiche (or sour cream) walnuts, a seasonal fruit compote and a dash of maple syrup.

Recipe courtesy of Andrea Ramirez, SoulTerra Holistic

shameless self promotion: New York Garlic Festivals article

My article (and my boyfriend's photos) in the new, June issue of Chile Pepper magazine!

Japanese Food for your Computer

via Cool Hunting: Japanese company Solid Alliance offers some whimsical interpretations of USB drives. This shabu shabu-esque meat business card holder is theirs also.

The Way We Were

via Slashfood: An amazing look back at some of the most outrageous fads, Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads could make our avant-garde molecular gastronomy look like meat and potatoes.

Here's a taste of the "The Worst Salad of the Twenties."

Banana and Popcorn Salad

1 banana, peeled and cut in half, length-wise
1 lettuce leaf
Popcorn
Mayonnaise

Place banana on lettuce leaf. Scatter popcorn over banana and place dabs of mayonnaise here and there. Makes one serving.

DO Try This At Home

Over at New York Magazine's Grub Street they've put together a list of NYC's best PB&J's. The good news is that it doesn't take much to try your own version of a chef's version.

1. The Elvis at Peanut Butter & Co.
“Excellent peanut butter, honey, sliced banana, and optional (but recommended) bacon on white toast.”

2. Chunky Peanut Butter & Jelly triple-decker at ‘Wichcraft.
“They grind their own peanut butter, make their own seasonally inspired jelly (rhubarb in the spring, Concord grape in the fall, and currently plum), and ingeniously layer it between three slices of Pullman-style bread with the jelly on the top and the peanut butter on the bottom, preventing this lofty concoction from becoming a soggy mess.”

3. Peanut butter, banana, coconut, and ginger at City Bakery.

4. The Memphis at Swich.
“Amy’s golden-raisin semolina bread lends this variation on an Elvis (peanut butter, banana, and honey) an unusual flavor profile thanks mainly to the fennel seeds in the bread.” (served warm from a panini press)

5. CB&J at Bouchon Bakery.
“… made with rich cashew butter instead of plebeian peanut…layered with apricot jam between two thick slices of brioche and meticulously squooshed in the sandwich press until the lavishly buttered bread acquires a St. Tropez tan.”

Casserole Beautiful

Via The Kitchen: "Beautiful oven-to-table dishes help me to serve baked sides with more confidence. I find that with these nesting bakers from Michael Chiarello's NapaStyle ($128, set of three), I am more likely to think about making roasted vegetables, shepherd's pie, and casseroles. Before I had this set of bakers, I would have plopped something like this into a practical but not pretty Pyrex bowl. Since the NapaStyle bakers are flat-bottomed, casseroles and squash purees cook evenly and get a perfect crust."

Chinatown: Decoded

Click on the image for answers.
Photo: Kang Kim for New York Magazine

RECIPE: Pound Cake Waffles

via OldCookbooks.com, from the Ceresota Cookbook: "This recipe is reprinted exactly as found from a charming product promotion cookbooklet circa 1910 by the Northwestern Milling Company, Minneapolis. Make these "Pound Cake Waffles" for Valentine's Day breakfast and let us know how they turn out!"

Pound Cake Waffles

1 1/4 cups Ceresota flour
1 teaspoon lemon or vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt

Beat the butter and sugar till light and creamy; add the well-beaten yolks of eggs, then the flour, salt and baking powder sifted together; add the flavoring and beat till smooth and light. Last of all fold in the whites of eggs, stiffly beaten. Bake the same as ordinary waffles.