Eggnog and Whiskey French Toast

There's nothing complicated about making French Toast despite what you see here with Dustin Hoffman in the movie Kramer vs Kramer. He's, understandably, just a little bit rattled -

But if you aren't rattled it's a cinch.  It's just bread dipped in a slurry of eggs and milk then pan cooked in a little oil or butter and sprinkled with cinnamon or powdered sugar or a drizzle of maple syrup or topped with fresh fruit. That's it, just watch over things and don't get distracted. I love French toast. The other day on the way to work I was listening to a talk radio show. The subject was comfort food. This guy called in and said one of his favorite comfort foods is French toast. He then proceeds to tell us about making it with eggnog instead of milk. That caught my attention. I thought - damn that sounds pretty good! So this past weekend I decided to try to make it. This time of year eggnog is readily available in grocery stores so that part was easy. Personally I like rye whiskey so that's what I used. This really makes a very tasty French toast on it's own with just butter but it would be great with a little spread of peach preserves.

Here's what you need for  6  pieces of French toast (increase in this proportion for more) -

6 Thick slices of crusty country bread
2 - 3 large Eggs
1/2 cup Eggnog
1/4 cup Rye Whiskey or Bourbon or Rum - your choice

1 Tablespoon+ canola oil
Butter

The basic ingredients - 

Eggs, eggnog, whiskey - 

Eggs, eggnog, whiskey whisked together - 

Make it a nice good soak so the flavors get into the bread

With peach preserves!

ENJOY!

Shrimp Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I traded some end of season figs from our fig tree to a friend at work for some end of season peppers he grew. Some of the peppers were poblanos. We wanted to do something different and possibly exciting with them. Well, exciting as far as poblano peppers go. They do have a flavor we enjoy but can be quirky by by sometimes tasting as mild as a bell pepper and other times having a nice punchy unexpected heat. So, we gave it some thought and poblanos really cry out to be stuffed but stuffed with what? Cheese? Good but too typical. Beef? Maybe. Chicken? Possibly, but with what else. Some kind of seafood? Hmmmm, yes but what? Crab, shrimp? Yes, shrimp but with what else? What seasonings? Lisa looked at a number of shrimp stuffed pepper recipes on line and we came up with few we could work with for poblanos. The result was amazing.

Ingredients for two people -

 4 poblano peppers, roasted and peeled

 1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled, and chopped

 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil, divided

 1 Tbsp butter

 ½ sweet onion, diced

 4 cloves garlic, minced

 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

 1 Tbsp ground cumin

 1 tsp salt

 freshly ground pepper

 ½ lime, juiced

 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

 ½ cup sour cream

 ½ cup whole milk

 1 cup shredded 5-cheese Mexican blend

 To roast the peppers:

There are a number of way to roast and peppers. The best way is to roast them on the grill or under the broiler in the oven. But we chose to do them in a cast iron skillet. Remove from the skillet and immediately place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow them to cool and rub the skins off. Chop the red bell pepper and slit the poblano peppers on one side, leaving the stems intact. (You can remove the seeds at this point if you want your poblanos a little less spicy.)

To make the filling: 

Preheat the oven to 350℉.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large pan. Add the red bell pepper and onion. Cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute, being careful not to burn the garlic. Remove the vegetables from the pan and set aside.

Next, sprinkle the salt, pepper, cumin, and lime juice on the shrimp. Melt the butter in the same pan that you used to cook the vegetables and add the shrimp. Cook until done, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the vegetables back to the pan and mix with the shrimp.

Place the poblanos in a medium baking pan and stuff with the vegetable-shrimp mixture.

To make the sauce:

Add the flour and the remaining olive oil to the pan (that originally had the vegetable-shrimp mixture) over medium heat and stir until the flour starts to thicken. Add the sour cream and the milk. Whisk until completely mixed without lumps. Cook until the mixture starts to simmer, but do not boil. Remove from heat and add the cheese, stirring until smooth.

Pour the cheese mixture over the stuffed peppers and cook for 15 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned.