Saturday, April 21, 2007

Easy make-ahead breakfast

One of the staple breakfasts that I serve is a make-ahead French Toast casserole (scroll down a little) that is easy and delicious. I used to half the recipe and that cut the cooking time to about 30 minutes. Now that the boys are eating more, I make 2/3 of the recipe and it does take the full 45 minutes to cook because of the deep casserole that I put it in. So, it is a very flexible recipe and very tasty. A great recipe to serve to guests because you can do all of the work the night before. (Just in case you want to try it, here's one more tip: I usually add double the amount of sugar that the recipe calls for and also serve it with maple syrup. We like our French toast to be sweet!)

This morning, we had it with fresh strawberries on top and it was amazing. I don't think we'll eat it again without fruit on top after how good it was! I prepared the strawberries the way I remember seeing my mom doing it growing up.

  1. Cut the strawberries into small pieces. The more tart the strawberries are, the smaller you should cut them.

  2. Add sugar to taste.

  3. Using the back of a spoon, crush the strawberries against the side of the bowl. Stir and crush for a few minutes.

  4. If time allows, let them sit on the counter for a while to give the berries time to mix with the sugar and release their syrupy goodness.

This is also the way that I make strawberries for strawberry shortcake. The sugar (even if you only use a little) and the crushing make a nice syrup or juice that soaks into the shortcake.

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