PPF ~ Peeping Toms

Every day he watches ... Every night he comes down to look in the windows ...

JALAPEÑO FRENCH TOAST

Jim gave me a call ~ he'd decided it was his turn to cook dinner and said he wanted to make French toast. I grimaced at the thought, but said okay. Then he told me that a friend had given him a loaf of day-old jalapeño bread from a local bakery and he was going to make a savory version. Now he had me on board! 

He had some ideas, but said he wanted some technical help and we ended up creating it together. It was great for dinner but would be equally delicious for breakfast. Think huevos rancheros flavors. Many specialty bakeries and some supermarkets offer jalapeño bread. Great Harvest, which has many national locations, makes one and also makes "Popeye bread" with red pepper, spinach and Swiss cheese which would work very well, too. If you can't find anything like this, just add some minced jalapeño chiles to your egg mixture and you'll be there. 

The toast was particularly good with the chipotle based salsa on the left, but also good with a basic, store-bought salsa. Just depends what you like! 

JALAPEÑO FRENCH TOAST

One loaf jalapeño bread, sliced

3 large whole eggs

2 large egg yolks

2 Tbsp. minced onion

1/4 t. salt

1/8 t. ground black pepper

1/4 c. milk

Butter for pan

Cilantro leaves

Salsas or chile sauces of your choice

Combine eggs, onion, salt and pepper in shallow bowl and whisk completely. Add milk and whisk until combined.  Heat a cast iron skillet (preferably) or a non-stick skillet on medium high heat. Soak bread slices in egg mixture until saturated, about 20 seconds per side. Add a dollop of butter to the pan, swirl until sizzling, then place two to three slices of soaked bread in pan, depending upon how much room you have. Fry until browned on one side, flip and brown on the other. Serve with salsa and cilantro leaves on the side. Sour cream is nice, too. 

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DIRTY DASH ~ A Few More Pics

Little did I know that there were Pro photographers along the course! I got an e-mail from the DD crew, telling me to go enter my bib number at a photo site to see if I had any photos there to find. Well, I did! I guess it says everything that I was smiling the whole time. Except for when I knew better and kept my mouth shut to avoid a smiling mud grill! The run was SOOOO much fun! 

~ Letting It Be ~

Why is it that allowing events to unfold, stepping back from the control panel, being present and breathing are so damn hard to do? On the one hand, it seems a natural state to just ... BE. But then Captain Brain steps in to muck it all up. 

'What ifs' turn into scenarios that keep me up at night. Planning elaborate dances around imagined problems, vacillating between positive and negative thinking, hopeful then fearful in turns ... it's exhausting and pointless. Fitful sleep and tortured dreams leave me far from refreshed in the morning. 

An entire year of warring, roller coaster emotions has left me without many reserves. And although the past months have been very much on the upswing, I'm still pulled way back from many of the people in my life. I've shared more here than I have with most people in my day to day existence this past while ~ perhaps because I don't feel the obligation to keep everyone up to date or the pressure to be engaged and ever supportive even when I'm crumbling to pieces. I can share here as much or as little as I please and I don't get a bloody guilt trip. Some of you have been incredibly supportive and loving to me and you know who you are. All of you have been kind, funny, helpful and interested and I appreciate that so much.

God, I'm getting maudlin. So, enough philosophizing. The good most certainly outweighs the bad and that keeps me smiling more often than not. Tonight, I'm playing the music LOUD, cooking things that make me feel yummy, creating some arty projects in my mind and hangin' with my purry and barky peeps. 

A friend asked my advice recently and I responded without really thinking. I said, "Life comes in hundreds of colors, not just black and white. That Crayola box lets us color our lives in a way that matches no one else's. But sometimes, pictures collide and create a whole new piece of art that can change the hues of who we are. No one but you can tell you what to paint." Once I said it, I thought, Now where did that come from???

Guess I'll get out my papers, paints, pencils, ribbons and findings and see what I create. Thanks for indulging me.