Breakfast!!!

Seems my blog has been sorely neglected for the last little while (MONTHS!!!), so I thought I'd give myself a little kick-start by introducing a different subject to my blog: COOKING!
Now, my disclaimer is I'm not a chef, but I AM a foodie! I love food, I love cooking it, preparing it, and most importantly, EATING IT! My favorite ingredient is Love (I know, cheesy, right?), and I strongly believe this is what makes my food taste so darn good. And I'm not just sayin' that! ;)
So, for my very first foodie installment, I thought I'd share my own French Toast recipe with you. This is one of our very favorite breakfast foods, and I've got a long list of friends and family members who'll vouch for their absolute deliciousness! (I'm not kidding, I've had personal requests for this breakfast...) Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients:
4 large eggs (5 if you like your toast a little more on the spongy side)
1 cup of milk (give or take, depending on the amount of bread you have, you may need to add a tad more...)
*About* 1 heaping tablespoon of brown sugar
A dash of vanilla extract (I only use the real stuff)
A dash of ground cinnamon if you like
1 full focaccia loaf

Tools:
serrated knife
cutting board
large mixing bowl
mixing tool (egg beater, fork, doesn't matter...)
skillet
spatula
one seriously hearty appetite!

My one 'secret' ingredient, is the focaccia. My absolute favorite being the Ace Bakery Cranberry Raisin Focaccia. The one thing you want to make sure of when making French Toast is the density of your bread. When I was little, my Mom used to toast her bread slices ahead of time, this ensured that your bread would soak up more of the batter, and lessen the chances of your slices getting too soggy and breaking apart before you could get it in the pan. The reason I like to use focaccia is that it's already a dense bread, it's got a lovely thick crust, and the texture is akin stale bread. This acts like a super thirsty sponge and soaks up a LOT of the batter, making for the most deliciously moist 'cakey' bread on the inside that stays crispy on the outside.

Start heating up your skillet ahead of time, keep it at a medium-high heat. I use a non-stick skillet, with a touch of melted butter.

Cut your loaf in 1/2 inch thick slices (I usually get about a dozen or so slices at that thickness).
Thinner slices won't give you the (re: MY) desired texture.

Whip all of your ingredients together

*You like my little "Eggy"? ;)*

Then comes the messy part. I hope you're not squeemish, cause your fingers will get soaked! Push the focaccia slices down into the batter so they'll get nice and soaked, but don't soak them so much that the slices start breaking down.

Then just brown your bread in your pan, keeping a close eye on them to avoid burning them. If you keep the heat at medium, it should take about 4-5 minutes on each side for a lovely crispy brown toast. You want to make sure the exterior is nice and brown, but you also want to cook the interior thoroughly (no sogginess!).

Mmmmmmmm, can't you just smell it?????

Take two. At this point I've got two seagulls flying around the kitchen trying to snag a slice on the go!

The beauty of using this particular focaccia is that you don't really need any maple syrup with them, but you can if you want to! :) Another way to sweeten them up would be to lightly sprinkle them with powdered sugar. They're very hearty, so would stand alone very well for a full breakfast, but if I was going all out, I'd add bacon, potato patties, some lightly seasoned (sea salt, fresh cracked pepper and thyme) eggs, and a freshly brewed pot of coffee or tea.

Care to join us for breakfast? :)
There's more than enough!

I hope you like my very first 'recipe' installment, and look forward to sharing more with you.