recipe: almond french toast

Ben and Mandy came over for brunch a few weeks ago, and I wanted to serve something light. We ended up having almond French toast and yogurt with berries. This French toast is fantastic. I mean, I always love French toast - but the addition of the almonds elevates this version.

Almond French Toast

Via Cook's Illustrated

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar, divided
• 8 slices Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White. (Original recipe also recommends Arnold Country Classics White, Thomas’ English Muffin Toasting Bread or a challah loaf sliced into 1/2-inch pieces.) 
• 1 1/2 cups milk, warmed to the touch
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons melted butter, plus 2 tablespoons for cooking
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Triple Sec
• 1 teaspoon orange zest

In a food processor, combine almonds and 1 tablespoon brown sugar until coarsely ground, about 15 pulses.

Place bread on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet. Place in a 300-degree oven for 16 minutes to dry the bread, flipping halfway through. The centers should remain slightly moist.

(The first two steps can be done the night before.)

Place the wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet in the oven and warm oven to 200 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk milk, yolks, remaining 3 tablespoons brown sugar, cinnamon, 2 tablespoons melted butter, salt, vanilla, Triple Sec and orange zest. Pour mixture into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

Soak bread in milk mixture for just 20 seconds per side. Pick up bread with a slotted spatula and allow excess milk to drip off. Transfer slices to a baking sheet.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture over one side of each slice of bread.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat. Place two slices of bread in the skillet, nut side down. Cook until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip bread and cook 3 to 4 more minutes.

Transfer cooked toast to the wire rack in the warmed oven.

Repeat with remaining butter and bread.

Serves 4.

the backyard: raised garden bed

I've told you guys before about how Tony and I are tackling our backyard transformation in a no-rush, piecemeal way. Our latest project has been putting in a raised garden bed. Tony spent a few weekend days this spring on demo and prep work. Then he and my dad did the bulk of the construction over Easter weekend. And on Sunday, Tony put a coat of stain on it, so I finally have some photos to share! Ta da!

Isn't it beautiful? Don't you just want to ... grow things in it? And then eat those things up?

Tony was the braun behind this project, and I was the brains. I spent a lot of time brainstorming, sketching, and pondering the placement, size, and other logistics.

As for placement, our backyard has a sunny side and shady side, so obviously the garden bed goes on the sunny side.

For shape and size, I got a lot of ideas from the book Square Foot Gardening, which I checked out from the library last year. The idea is simple: You divide your garden into square-foot sections, and you grow a different vegetable in each section. You might be able to grow one pepper in a square foot, but you could fit maybe nine spinach plants in another square foot. The concept makes a lot of sense, especially in urban gardening, where space is a premium. Based on the book's advice, I decided I wanted the surface of my bed to be two feet wide. I wanted it to run much of the length of the fence, which turned out to be 18 feet long. I also wanted the bed to be sufficiently tall, so I wouldn't break my back when I was working in the garden. The whole thing ended up being 20 inches tall. And I wanted to build a ledge where flower pots could sit. Here's a draft version of my schematic:

You probably can't make that out very well, but here is a side view:

So we had a plan. This is where the braun comes in.

The project started with demo. Tony used a sledge hammer to break up a large chunk of the concrete patio:

He hammered away until all the concrete was in golf ball-sized pieces, and we saved those pieces to put at the bottom of the bed for drainage. Two birds, one stone: We didn't have to pay to haul the concrete away, and we didn't have to buy drainage gravel.

Then Tony had to excavate the entire area, which involved digging out a whole lotta dirt. Again, we saved this less-than-quality stuff for filler dirt toward the bottom of the bed, where the plants' roots probably won't reach. We hung a line level on a string between two stakes at either end of the demo'd area to make sure the whole thing was flat.

And that was just the prep work. Then came the construction phase, starting with the post holes. You can see from this photo how the excavated area looked as Tony and my dad got started on the construction. Tony appears to be smiling in this shot - probably because he's only on hole No. 2. He dug a total of eight holes, 30 inches deep, which appears is the frost line for this area. He slept well that night. There's a reason the post hole digger's nickname is "Tool from Hell."

Here he is in action, bringing dirt to the surface:

And here is some of the yucky clay soil he was bringing up:

And then the assembly started. My dad was kind enough to pick up the boards in Ohio, pre-cut them, and drive them down in his truck, so we didn't have to arrange for delivery. How's that for a great dad?

Here's the corner of the bed. In each post hole, Tony and my dad poured a 50-pound bag of fast-setting concrete, which is good for post holes because you don't have to mix it. They sprayed it with the hose and then filled the holes back up with that clay.

Here's the work zone and all those empty concrete bags:

The project also involved running a flexible elephant drain down half of the bed. The idea is to eventually move the gutter to the side of the house and connect it to the elephant drain at the end of the garden bed. The water then will flow down the drain and out the side of the garden bed right near the stormwater drain that's already in the backyard. Tony and my dad drilled two large holes in the bed for the drain to come in and out - and the entrance hole is a couple of inches higher than the exit hole, so the water drains downward.

As a bonus, that pipe's also going to provide some extra drainage for the bed itself. Tony perforated the top of the drain with dozens of holes, so extra water could flow there.

I should mention here that we decided to use pressure-treated wood for the garden bed. I had researched buying cedar, which also holds up well outdoors, but holy guacamole is that stuff expensive. I did a lot of research on the chemicals in pressure-treated wood, and the Internet is not the most reassuring place for good information. We know that arsenic is no longer used to treat wood, but there still are other chemicals. So, for some peace of mind, since we're going to be eating food that's grown in this garden, we covered the inside of the bed with a sheet of heavy duty plastic. Here are Tony and my dad getting the plastic in place. They stapled it to the wood, then attached the ledge to hide the staples.

And here's a photo of Tony using a grinder to smooth out a few screws that poked their way through the bed. So I don't cut my fingers while I'm gardening. Aww.

Now here's the garden bed with two inches of concrete pieces for drainage.

And I threw in a copy of that day's newspaper, protected in a plastic bag, to let future generations know when we were here. This was Uncle Mike's idea :)

Next step: landscape fabric. Water can pass through the fabric, but soil won't be able to get down there to clog things up.

And then came the soil. I made up my own soil recipe here. I mentioned that we re-used some of the excavated top soil. Other ingredients include compost, peat moss, garden soil and top soil. And a little bit of sand and mulch.

And banana peels. Because we were all eating bananas and just threw them into the bed for the hell of it.

By the way, it was cheaper for this project to buy the soil in bags at Home Depot, rather than having it delivered in bulk because of the bulk delivery fees.

Over the next couple of weekends, Tony and I made progress cleaning up the mess in the backyard. And on Sunday, he got out the tinted protectant stain and gave the bed a coat. We used the same color for the bed that we used for our farmhouse table in the backyard, so the two will be tied together.

And the best part is that things are growing now! We didn't really get a good spring growing season in D.C., so I have both cool-season and warm-season crops in the ground now, and we'll see how that shakes out.

Perhaps the coolest-looking plant I have growing are fava beans:

My cucumbers are coming up:

As are a whole bunch of radishes:

And lots of other little things sprouting:

I'm using trellises for the cucumbers, tomato cages for the tomatoes, and poles for the pole beans and to support the peppers. I'm ready for you, summer!

recipe: grilled cornmeal mush

Tony and I got a grill for Christmas from my parents, and we have been using that puppy regularly all spring. Food just tastes better with that grill flavor, with some char on it.

The weather was perfect last night, so of course we grilled. I read in the newspaper that you can grill cornmeal mush, so I decided to try my hand at it. I made up this recipe, based on my previous experience with mush and quick Internet research on cooking techniques. It turned out to be a fantastic side dish. Grilled mush is definitely a keeper recipe. (Oh, if you're fancy, feel free to call it grilled polenta.)

It's crisp on the outside and creamy inside with a great charred flavor.

Grilled Mush

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• pepper to taste

Bring water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Add salt.

Slowly pour cornmeal into boiling water, whisking constantly for 2 minutes to remove lumps as mixture thickens. Be very careful to avoid splattering yourself. (I've been burned before by mush.)

Turn heat to very low and cover. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring bottom and sides of pan every 5 to 10 minutes. Season with pepper.

Pour cornmeal mixture into a greased mini loaf pan.

Refrigerate until firm, at least two hours or overnight.

Before grilling, remove mush from pan and slice into 6 pieces.

Place directly on grill and cook 10 minutes per side over medium heat.

Serves 2 to 3.

the garden: flowers blooming

So it appears we got exactly two days of spring. It's been cold and wintery for months, and then we had a beautiful spring weekend, but this work week has been hot! And the forecast for today ... 94?!

Jessi is not so pleased with Mother Nature. But Jessi's flowers? They're loving it.

Last fall, I planted some pansies in the front yard. In our climate, they're supposed to be beautiful during the fall, die back a bit in the winter, then bounce back to life with the warm spring temps. And they've done just that in the past few days.

In the tree lawn in front of our house, this was my plan:

• Crocus would come up first. (Check. They were here by mid-February.)
• Daffodils would come up next. (Well ... they came up. But I messed them up somehow because no flowers came out of the greenery. I'll have to ask my mom what I can feed them in the fall to give them some extra energy over the winter.)
• Then tulips would come up. (And they're here! The warm weather has prodded them along nicely. Those flowers should bloom any day now. And my medicated foot powder technique appears to have successfully warded off squirrel enemies.)
• And finally, five giant hostas would emerge from the ground, covering all of the decaying bulb leaves and filling up the garden bed with beautiful greenery all summer and fall. (All five hostas, which my parents divided from their own plants, are coming up, doing just fine, and seem to be loving the warm weather, too.)

Here's a shot from yesterday evening that shows an about-to-bloom tulip in the foreground with a hosta sprouting behind it. And lots of daffodil and crocus greenery all around.

The only other flower I have at my house so far is this sweet alyssum, which I bought over Easter weekend at Frager's. It smells awesome. I put it in a big pot by the front door, so hopefully it'll grow to fill the pot and smell great every time we walk past it. Here's a picture of the alyssum, which includes a bonus cameo of Francois, who came over to visit last night while Tony and I were working in the front yard:

Actually, Tony was doing the work, and I was taking photos. He sprinked some Holly-tone plant food around the evergreen plans in the front yard. I don't know what, exactly, Holly-tone is or does. I just know that my dad delivered a bag of it to us last fall with instructions to feed the evergreen plants twice a year. Yes, sir.

And I've been seeing all of these beautiful photos from the Tidal Basin of all the cherry blossoms. Seems our tree is a little cherry tree is a liiiiitle slow in blooming this year.

My herbs also have made a big resurgence in the past week or so.

Thyme and tarragon with my celery in the middle:

More tarragon and oregano with some strawberries in the background.

I thought the chives were dead all winter, but they're baaack!

I also have a great big rosemary plant, but that didn't die back at all during the winter.

And now that the garden bed is in the backyard, I've finally been able to plant my cool-season crops. Last night I spied some turnips, radishes, spinach, romaine and arugula coming up! Hopefully the hot weather backs off a bit, so the cool-season crops survive for at least a little while! And tonight I looked at the notes I made to myself when I planted my garden last spring and realized that I already had my tomatoes and peppers in the ground by mid-April ... so I gotta get on that. Maybe this weekend?

the garden: romaine

I'm pretty sure I've made a great new discovery: It looks like you can grow a brand new head of lettuce from the butt of a head that you buy at the grocery store. The technique is identical to what I used in my attempt to grow a new celery stalk from kitchen scraps.

I bought a head of lettuce recently, and I cut the bottom off. I let it sit in water for about a week until new leaves started growing from the middle, like so:

And then I planted the whole thing in a pot, leaving only the new growth exposed.

And it's looking good so far!

And last night, my friend Lily and her boyfriend Zach stayed with us for the night, and we took advantage of the nice weather by grilling out. With a salad on the side. And guess what I did with that lettuce butt? I'm trying to get another one going.

I'll keep you posted on how this experiment goes.

As for the celery, I'm happy to report that it's still alive. I brought it inside for most of the winter and set it in a sunny window. And it was actually thriving, growing shoots like gangbusters. But then I was reasonably sure I saw bugs on the plant, which really freaked me out, so the thing went outside immediately. The cold didn't do it any favors, and a lot of the growth turned brown. But things have turned around in the past few days with the beautiful weather. Here's a shot of the plant yesterday evening, and all of that dark green stuff is brand new. So hopefully things keep going in the right direction.

I also have a bonus celery growing, which I planted earlier this year. It's not thriving yet, but I have not given up hope.

life: easter snapshots

Over the weekend, Tony and I hosted my family at our house for Easter weekend. Having holidays at our house -- how's that for being a real grownup? The family also came last year for Easter, so Easter in D.C. is becoming a real tradition. My parents came down from Ohio with my Grandma Mary, and my Uncle Mike drove down from Pittsburgh. When Tony and I told friends of ours about the weekend plans, they seemed really shocked that we'd want to spend so much time in such close quarters with our family. But I'm lucky to have a great family that I actually want to spend time with. Close quarters = cozy in situations like that.

In preparation for their visit, Tony and I gave our house a thorough cleaning. I'd say there are five levels of tidiness in our house:

1. Just Tony and me, day-to-day.
2. Guests come over for dinner.
3. Guests spend the night.
4. New York Times comes to photograph your house for the Sunday magazine.
5. Grandma Mary comes to visit.

Actually, Grandma coming to visit was a good excuse to give the whole house a good spring cleaning. I estimate Tony and I could reconstitute approximately 2.5 cats from all of the cat hair that we cleaned up from Victor's hiding places, particularly under the bed.

Tony and my dad spent about a day and a half working in the backyard on the next phase of our backyard makeover project, building a raised garden bed. I still have to take more photos of the finished product, so stay tuned for a separate post on that.

My mom and I collaborated on Easter dinner, which turned out very well. She was in charge of the ham and kielbasa. I made some pierogies earlier in the week and cooked them for dinner. And I whipped up some of my famous scalloped potatoes, green beans, and hard boiled eggs.

Here we all are, about to dig in. Well, except for Tony, who is taking the photo.

My Easter basket from Uncle Mike included these cute little guys, who served as a nice centerpiece on a table crammed full of food.

And then Tony had fun trying to eat the bunnies with an alligator candy dispenser from his Easter basket. 

Moving on to dessert. This is a 3-D bunny cake, an edible work of art by my mom.

She found an antique mold at a thrift store and baked a lemon pound cake in it. She made the frosting textured like bunny fur, gave the little guy pink ears and a nose, put it on a bed of green coconut grass and added some flowers. Oh, and how about those eyes!

And then we devoured that guy. The aftermath:

 And after dinner was the second annual Easter egg hunt in my backyard in which Tony and I hid the eggs and let Mom, Dad, Grandma and Uncle Mike hunt for them.

If you thought watching children hunt for eggs is entertaining, you have to see four grown ass adults push each other out of the way when they've been told one of the eggs contains a Macys gift card.

See? That's my dad pushing his wife out of the way in pursuit of an Easter egg.

Mom had the height advantage over Grandma:

Oh, and one of the eggs contained a certificate for one free hug from Tony. Dad won. I have no idea why he's wearing a particle mask on his head, but it's cute otherwise.

Happy Easter!