Got Eggs?

Poor lonely little blog. I’ve been away so long I wonder if there’s anybody out there?

With weeks of fine spring weather and a fully functional right arm, I’ve been spending lots of time gardening, hiking, working dogs and focusing on other non-computer projects. Most of the garden is in and spring cleaning is mostly done, so I hope to get back to regular blogging this week.

Along with gardening and other chores I’ve also been doing a lot of cooking, which leads to this morning’s non-dog-related post.

With summer weather and almost 16 hours of daylight, each of the girls has been laying an egg almost every day. This means that we’re getting about four dozen eggs a week – a lot more than we typically use and consequently I’ve been looking for ways to use them up. With a bit of experimentation, I came up with a winner this week – Freezer French Toast. It’s simple to make, the recipe uses up a dozen eggs, it stores well – and the results are delicious.

Freezer French Toast

Ingredients:
*   Two loaves of day-old bread (raisin bread is best if you can get it)
. (save the bags the bread came in)
*   A dozen medium to large eggs
*   1/2 Cup milk
*   1/2 Cup maple syrup
*   1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*   2 teaspoons cinnamon
*   1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
*   Oil of your choice (I used bacon fat)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients except bread in a flat-bottomed container large enough to set a slice of bread in.

Heat a large fry pan or griddle – the bigger the better, as you’re making a large batch. I used a griddle set at 350F.

Oil griddle, dip slices of bread in batter to coat both sides and fry about 3 minutes on each side or until browned.

Cool slices on a rack. This is perhaps the most important step in the process because if you cool them on paper towels or a plate, they’ll get soggy and icky. Leave the slices on the rack (I used the shelves from my oven, they worked just fine) until they’ve cooled to room temperature. Then spread them out in a single layer on cookie sheets and put them in the freezer. In about four hours they should be frozen solid. Put the frozen slices back into the bread bags, close them up and store in the freezer.

To prepare, turn your toaster up high and pop them in. With the raisins, cinnamon and syrup in the recipe – these were great as finger food fresh out of the toaster with nothing on them at all. They were absolutely scrumptious covered in applesauce.