French Toast Casserole

So you might be wondering... just fruit before a full day of drinking? That's what I thought too... ludicrous. We need something of substance!

I made this recipe, had one bite, and was hooked. It's easy, portable, and you can make it the night before so it doesn't get in the way of your horrible drinking habits. Sounds like my kind of recipe.

Here's what you'll need:

-a loaf of french bread or challah bread, cubed
-1/2 cup of butter
-1 cup of brown sugar
-1 tsp of cinnamon
-1.5 cups of milk
-5 eggs

First things first, cube up your french bread. It'll make a mess using the good crusty bread, but it absorbs so much more of the egg mixture that you'll definitely want to just go for it.


Butter up a 9 x 13 ish inch pan.


Place half of your bread in the bottom of the pan.


Mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle half of it over the bread layer.



Layer the last of the bread on top of that, then sprinkle the rest of the sugar mix on the very top.


Measure out the milk in your measuring cup, add in the 5 eggs and the vanilla extract directly into the measuring cup


andddd WHISK


Now pour this all over top of the casserole.


Cover with tin foil or plastic wrap and let it sit and soak overnight. The next day, just pop it in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Take it out and uncover, then cook for an additional 15 minutes to brown up the top. Hollllyyyy cow. Serve it with some maple syrup. Die.

I don't have the sweet finished product because we went and ate it too fast. But let's just say...this picture sums it up.


Sorry John, I had to.

Happy St. Patty's day!

<3
Courtzilla

Balsamic Fruit Salad

Simple, easy, fast, delicious, and healthy. Is there a better way to start off an entire day of drinking?? Today starting at dawn is U of Illinois' Unofficial, a crazy celebration centered around green shirts and a free for all drunk fest. The best times to see it are from 8am to about 2 am when everyone passes out, then ralleys at 8pm to go at it again. The breakfast of champions usually includes kegs and eggs, and to throw probably the only fruit or vegetable these people are going to eat all day, I made some fruit salad!

This ain't your grandma's fruit salad. It's got a couple unique twists.

You'll need:

-1 case of strawberries (is that a pint? i have no idea)
- 2 smallish things of blueberries
- 1 smallish thing of raspberries.
- 1/4 cup of white sugar
- 2 Tablespoons of aged balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper - sounds weird, but TRUST me

Man I sound so technical today. Smallish thing? I hope you guys know what I'm talking about.

Alright first off wash all your fruit, cut up the strawberries, and combine it in a medium sized bowl.



Add the sugar...


Add the balsamic vinegar and pepper....


Mix... and VOILA!!


You are instantly a gourmet chef! This is good if you let it sit for like an hour for the sugar in the fruit to break down... it's even BETTER if you leave it over night. It makes this transcendant syrup... holy cow. Know what this syrup could take the place of? Grenadine. Helloooo tequila sunrises. Delicious, and so easy!

Have a safe Unofficial, you nuts.

Enjoy!

Courtzilla

Huevos Rancheros

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite styles of food is Mexican. Simple ingredients, inexpensive, simple preparation, BIG HUGE flavor. Does it get any better?

One thing that's always weirded me out a bit was huevos racheros. Ranch eggs? Basically an egg taco? Whatttt? Then, I tried making it. Holy cow. It's super tasty! It's a fast breakfast/lunch/dinner too, and nice and light. Basically....I just got done eating it and I think I want 4 more.


Here's what you'll need (for one serving):
- 2 eggs
- 2 corn tortillas
- 1/4 cup cheddar cheese
- tbsp of chopped cilantro
- 4 tbsp of your favorite salsa
- 1/2 lime
- salt, pepper
- dollop of sour cream
- re-fried beans (optional)

First, you'll want to get all your ingredients ready to go - the cooking process takes like 5 minutes. Heat up your pan. Chop up the cilantro, grate your cheese, cut a lime in half, get everything in a little assembly line.


Ok, spray some cooking spray on your skillet, and throw in your tortillas. This will crisp them up a bit, and warm them up too.


When those have heated, I just put a thin layer of re-fried beans on the tortilla and nuke it for 30 seconds at the end. Totally optional, I just like the creamy texture.


Looks like dog shit, tastes dddeeeelicious.

Ok, now spray the pan again, and crack a couple of eggs in the pan.


I broke a yolk. CRAP. Courtzilla, strikes again.

Once the bottom sets up, flip it over, and put some cheese and salsa on top of the eggs.


Throw a cover on top of the pan. This will melt the cheese without over cooking the eggs. At this point I take the pan off the heat and just let it sit for about a minute.



Ohhhhh yeahhhhhh.



Throw it on your tortilla, put a dollop of sour cream, a squirt of lime, and some cilantro on top and you are solid.


Andddd... dig in.



UGHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Excuse me, I need to make some more.

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Criminal Pumpkin Muffins

Why are these so criminal? How can a muffin be classified as dangerous?

It's not really the muffin that should be outlawed, it's the fact that I'm posting this recipe.

You see.... these pumpkin muffins....

have...

two ingredients.

THE SECRET IS OUT.



You'll need:

- 1 30oz can of pumpkin puree - NOT PUMPKIN PIE FILLING
- A box of spice cake mix.

Ha, you think I'm joking.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.



Combine.



Plop into muffin tins.



Bake for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Or until you can't wait any longer, pop one in your mouth, and it doesn't taste like dough.



HAHAHA.

Impress all you friends with your "home-made" muffins. Seriously, it'll be a hoot. And what perfect FALL timing?? You could even say these are low fat - no added oil, eggs, or butter. Some would call these muffins revolutionary.



Some also need to stop getting so excited about 2 ingredient muffins.

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Dimply Strawberry Cake

This is kinda less of a cake, and more of a fat kid breakfast. It's not super sweet...and yet you find yourself craving milk. I loved it! Clearly, I belong in fat kid camp. Who wants to watch Heavyweights with me??

But seriously. This was originally going to be the cake to show off my uber cute baby plums... but they went bad before I could use them. And I cried. For DAYS. And then I ate cake and got over it.

You'll need:

-1 1/2 cups of flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
- 5 tablespoons of butter
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 tsp of vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- zest from one orange (which I didn't have, and I didn't think lime zest would be the best alternative....)
- 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
- cute baby plums.... orrrr whatever fruit you've got.

First thing's first... preheat your oven to 350 degrees!

Then, butter and flour your pan. Seriously, it's exactly how it sounds. You rub butter around the inside of the pan, then sprinkle flour over it. It helps the cake to come out of the pan clean!


Ok, in a medium sized bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.


Perfect, you're doing so swell.

Alrighty then. Take your softened butter, and put it in another larger bowl. You'll want to mix the butter until it gets light and creamy. Once it's at that stage, add the brown sugar. After a couple minutes it'll look like so...


SUPER appetizing, right?

Ok, now you'll want to add your eggs, one at a time. Afterwards beat each egg on high for about 1 minute. This will thicken up your batter.

At this point, add in your vanilla, zest, and oil and beat until incorporated. I bet this would've been great with the zest. Sighhhh.

Ok, now slowly add in your flour, until it looks like this:


Beautiful! Now pour it in your pan, and level it out so it'll bake evenly.


The swirlage is not necessary in the least.

Now you'll want to add the fruit. As I said, all I had were strawberries... so I wanted to make the most of it. I made this.

Not bad right?

Ok, now you just throw it in the oven, and let it sit for about 40 minutes.

Or at least it should be that simple.

If you used less juicy plums.

If you used strawberries or another juicy fruit (remind me to tell you about my blackberry scone failure), let me show you a trick.

So, I peeked in the over at about the 20 minute mark.


Action shot blur, that's when you know this is getting intense.

Basically what was happening, was 1) my strawberry flower was doomed, and 2) the outsides were cooking way quicker than the middle where all the juicy strawberries were keeping things moist. Moist. What a gross word.

Here's what you do. Make it a foil jacket. It'll totally thank you later.


Just look at it! All dressed up for it's first day of school.

But seriously, the foil will help protect the outsides, while allowing the middle to cook all the way through. How I bombed chemistry, I'll never know.

Twenty minutes later, BAHAHAH!! Perfection.... other than my fail-tastic strawberry flower thingy.


Look how cute and dimply it is.


You'll want to let it cool for about 10 minutes, by the way.

To take it up a notch, I sprinkled a bit of powdered sugar on top.


Beeeeeautiful. Ain't she pretty?

Then cut it up into squares, and serve!



AND DEMOLISH.




Nom nom nom.

Enjoy!

<3 Courtzilla

Restaurant Style French Toast

AKA Holy shit, she's posting.

Here it is folks, a quick post about one of my favorite Sunday morning breakfasts. Or Tuesday night dinners. Or... okay, I admit I'll eat this anytime. It's French toast! You can't really go wrong.

First things first, you'll want to mix together (for eight pieces), 4 eggs, 1 tbp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1 cup of milk.

Whisk together until it looks slightly gross, like this!



Then, dip your bread in, letting it soak for about 30 seconds.



Once that's soaking, spread some butter in a skillet until it melts, and plop your bread in. It only takes about 2 minutes on each side to brown up nicely.



Once that's done... all that's left to do is smother it in maple syrup. If you're Canadian, use ketchup. For the purpose of this post, I used syrup. Didn't want to scare away more people than necessary.



That's it!! Enjoy anytime. It's too good just to waste on breakfast.

<3 Courtzilla