My favorite dinner to make when I’m cooking dinner for one is breakfast. Apolinaras isn’t a huge fan, so I always jump at the chance to whip up a broccoli cheddar omelet, turkey bacon, and whole wheat toast with jam when he’s out of town or at one of his late night networking events. I normally lean towards savory breakfast options over sweet ones, but I recently thought it would be fun to combine the best of both worlds in a savory French toast.

My idea was to make a cornbread packed with the goodness of caramelized shallots, pancetta, and sun-dried tomatoes, similar to this one, and then stuff slices of it with mascarpone cheese before frying it up as French toast. Now while I had a feeling the flavors would complement each other well, this was one of those experiments that I wasn’t completely confident would work. My main concern was about the syrup – I certainly wouldn’t consider the dish a true French toast if I didn’t enjoy syrup on top! So I hesitantly poured on some pure maple syrup and tentatively took a bite – then I promptly woofed down the entire slice standing in the kitchen without even sitting down at the table….oops. The French toast exceeded my expectations and reminded me of something that would be served in one of my favorite brunch spots, the Bongo Room in Chicago (oh how I miss you!). I will definitely be making this again!

Mascarpone Stuffed Cornbread French Toast
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Cornbread:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped shallots
1/2 cup diced pancetta
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

French Toast:
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup pure maple syrup

Directions:
To make the cornbread, heat oven to 350˚F. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large nonstick skillet. Sauté shallots for 15 to 17 minutes, stirring frequently, or until caramelized; remove shallots from pan. Add pancetta to the pan and cook over medium high heat for 6 to 8 minutes or until browned; remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together butter, eggs, and buttermilk in a large bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until most of the lumps are dissolved. Stir in the caramelized shallots, pancetta, and sun-dried tomatoes. Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch bread pan. Bake at 350˚F for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then use a knife to cut around the edges. Turn pan over and remove the loaf of bread. Let cool completely, about 2 hours. Cut into 8 slices.

To make the French toast, spread 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese on 4 slices of cornbread and place the other 4 slices on top to form 4 sandwiches. Whisk milk and egg together in a shallow dish and dip sandwiches in egg mixture. Heat butter over medium high heat in a large nonstick skillet.  Place sandwiches in the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Drizzle maple syrup over each piece of stuffed French toast. Makes 8 servings.

Nutrition: 438 calories, 24.8g fat, 2.0g fat, 11.0g protein per serving
Cost: $1.03 per serving

Happy New Year! Did anyone else make any foodie resolutions? My goal last year was to get my blog up and running, and I remember spending the first few weekends in January designing the header and side bars for my little site. This year I just want to continue challenging myself in the kitchen and would like to cook at least one new recipe a week. I made a lot of progress in this area last year – I roasted my first chicken, played with royal icing and fondant, and conquered my fear of yeast. But, I have an ever-growing list of foods to master! I want to finally learn how to cook all the different cuts of meat, conquer pasta, and make my favorite Indian dish, saag paneer (if anyone has an Indian cookbook recommendation, please let me know!). Oh, and I’m hoping to convince my family to let me host Thanksgiving! I could go on and on… I spent part of today organizing and prioritizing the long list of recipes I’ve saved from around the blogosphere and my cookbooks, and I’m already looking forward to getting in the kitchen! Things definitely started out on the right track because I braised lamb for the first time last night and it turned out perfectly! I also wanted to make something special for our first 2010 breakfast.

I was inspired by Elly’s delicious moussaka a few months ago and really liked how the potatoes were fried first and then served as the base of the dish.  So, I decided potatoes needed to be used in this way in a breakfast casserole. I topped the potatoes with shredded gruyere, mushrooms, and asparagus, and then poured an egg mixture on top – so good! I made enough for an 8 inch square pan, but the recipe can easily be doubled for a 13×9 if you’re having company. You can also fry up the potatoes and cook the veggies the night before so all you have to do in the morning is whip up the eggs! Yay for 2010!

Egg and Potato Squares with Gruyere, Asparagus, and Mushrooms
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large baking potato, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1 cup shredded gruyere cheese
2 cups sliced mushrooms (8 ounces)
1 cup sliced asparagus (4 ounces)
4 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat and pan-fry the potatoes on both sides until they are light golden brown. Place the fried potatoes slices evenly in the bottom of a greased 8×8-inch baking dish. Sprinkle gruyere cheese evenly on top.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in the same skillet and sauté mushrooms for 5 to 7 minutes until tender. Repeat with remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil and asparagus. Evenly top gruyere cheese with the veggies.

Whisk eggs, milk, flour, and salt together in a large bowl. Pour over the veggies. Bake at 350˚F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cut into squares. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: 355 calories, 21.7g fat, 2.8g fiber, 19.6g protein per serving
Cost: $1.68 per serving

I was super excited when my friend Shannon organized an apple picking field trip the other weekend to Smolak Farms! Not only would I get to check out a local orchard for the first time, I also would get to meet several of my favorite fellow Boston food bloggers, including Nicole, Kelly, Elina, and Lauren. We all had a great time chatting and discussing which apple varieties to use in our future apple concoctions (check out their sites from some great pictures!), and to top it all off I picked up a pack of spiced apple cider and donuts to enjoy after we got home!

So what exactly do you do with 10 pounds of apples? I’m actually not a huge fan of raw apples. I had one daily for years and then suddenly one day I couldn’t bring myself to even take one more bite, so I guess I just overdid it, but my hubby polished off quite a few and I helped by doing a bit of baking! Apolinaras requested a low fat and sugar apple crisp and I also made my favorite apple coffee cake, which is always on our table when we have weekend guests. Since it’s an upside down cake, there ends up being a lovely spiral of apples sitting atop a moist cake layer spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and cloves. The walnuts add an extra crunch! SO good.

Apple Spiral Chai Coffee Cake
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Apple Layer:
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tart baking apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Cake Layer:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.

Prepare the apple layer. In a small bowl, mix butter and brown sugar. Spread sugar mixture evenly in greased cake pan. Fan apple slices in two concentric circles on top of the sugar mixture.

Prepare the cake layer. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and salt. Mix thoroughly with a fork and set aside. In another large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, sour cream, vanilla extract, and eggs. Mix until smooth. Slowly mix in the flour mixture and then the walnuts. Pour batter on top of the apple layer evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake at 350˚F for 35-40 minutes or a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes or until the cake comes away from the edges of the pan, then run a knife around the outside of the pan, and immediately invert on a serving platter, and cut into wedges. Makes 12 servings.

Nutrition: 330 calories, 25.1g fat, 2.0g fiber, 4.7g protein per serving
Cost: $0.55 per serving