In the beginning, there was french toast

Yes, this is my first post, but let's skip (most of) this introduction business and get straight to the good stuff. I'm a fashion design student whose alternate passion is for cooking. This blog is my way of chronicling my creations; clothing and cuisine. You'll find out what I do, how I do it, and perhaps even why.

Time for show and tell:

I feel like my culinary skills are getting to the point where I can start making up recipes on my own, and they won't necessarily suck ass. Experimenting in the kitchen is something I've been doing since I was far too young. When I was in around 8, we used to have "special drink day" every Sunday, where I was allowed to raid the fridge and attack the blender with whatever sickeningly sweet ingredients jumped out at me. One drink that will always stick out for me I called "Fruits of the Okanagan Sunrise". The name isn't bad... but unfortunately, this drink consisted of green apples (unpeeled), mini marshmallows, granola, ice cream, and syrup. Even my 8-year old self was repulsed by this crunchy disaster. Another failed experiment was "Potato-Pistachio Surprise" which involved boiled-cubed russets (which don't hold their shape), drenched in coconut milk, and sprinkled with crushed pistachios and sweetened shredded coconut. Blehh. Experiences like these have put me off of inventing recipes for a while, but my spark has been re-ignited.

My idea was to take french bread, cut thick slices, and cut the centre away from the crust. I would then slice the centres in half, horizontally, and fill them with goodies before putting them back together and drenching the whole thing in egg. Unfortunately for me, my french bread was hard as rock. There was no slicing through this sorry sonofabitch.

So I compromised the integrity of my toast, and opted for plain, pre-sliced whole wheat bread. Once it was soaked it egg, cooked to a nice golden brown, and loaded with syrup and ice cream, whole wheat toast didn't seem too bad at all. This was pretty damn tasty.

So, here's the Recipe:

Pear & Cream Cheese-Stuffed French Toast

(with Ice Cream!)

Serves 2

4 Slices of Plain Bread (or you can do it the french toast way, but probably use 6 pieces)

3 Tbsp Cream Cheese

1 Tbsp Jam or jelly, any kind will do

2 Pears, sliced (really only need 1 1/2, just eat the rest or something)

2 Large Eggs

1/4 Cup Milk

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1 Tbsp Triple Sec (or any Orange-flavored liqueur. Orange juice will do too)

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

A couple scoops of Ice cream

A Drizzle of Syrup, any kind will do

How to execute:

Start by dividing the cream cheese evenly between the 4 slices. Spread the jam on 2 of those slices, and arrange the sliced pears on the other 2. Put them together, to make 2 sandwiches.

Turn a skillet on to medium, and melt some butter in it. Whisk the eggs, milk, cinnamon, triple sec and lemon juice together in a bread-sized bowl. One-by-one, dunk the sandwiches in the bowl, making sure they soak up all the liquid. Transfer to the hot-buttered skillet, and fry on each side until golden brown, and the egg is cooked all the way through.

Cut each sandwich in half, transfer to a plate, and arrange attractively... topping it off with a couple scoops of ice cream and a drizzle of syrup.

Now that's breakfast.