French Toast Sausages & One New Year’s Resolution

Want to upgrade your boyfriend's breakfast in bed? Bring him French Toast Sausages dusted with powdered sugar | ibakeheshoots.comOh my goodness! The new year is here! Are you ready for it? I’m not sure if I am, but that is of no consequence. It’s here, so I better get it together.

Around this time everybody starts making resolutions for themselves and their families. I get it. You want to better yourself and your situation. Usually, I promise myself the same things: lose weight, better hair care(gotta keep my ‘fro tight), get myself organized, blah, blah, blah.

Things have changed this time around. This past year I’ve embarked upon an adventure called I bake he shoots and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the level of enthusiasm that I feel for the work that Dave and I have begun.

So this year…I’m making one New Year’s Resolution:

To fully commit myself to this project, this joint adventure, this endeavor. This year will be dedicated to great food + great photography.

…and better hair care. Seriously, I never kid about my ‘fro.

Alright…enough about ‘fros and revolutions resolutions. Let’s talk food. More importantly, breakfast.

The latest issue of Food Network Magazine has a beautiful cover of Christmas cookies, but inside you’ll find a nice spread dedicated to pigs in a blanket. But not any old pigs in a blanket…french toast sausages. What?

Want to upgrade your boyfriend's breakfast in bed? Bring him French Toast Sausages dusted with powdered sugar| ibakeheshoots.com

Normally, I’m not really into french toast. I’m a waffle girl. On occasion, I’m a buttermilk-pancakes-with-a-side-of-bacon girl, but when I saw those sausages wrapped up in french toast? I was a changed girl.

Now, I’m not gonna lie to you. These babies take a little bit of work. This isn’t a everyday recipe. I’d file this under special occasions, like the Breakfast in Bed category. Or, the Mother’s Day Brunch category. Or, the I’m-sorry-I-didn’t-pick-you-up-from-the-hospital category. Well, you might need to dig a little deeper for that one.

Want to upgrade your boyfriend's breakfast in bed? Bring him French Toast Sausages dusted with powdered sugar | ibakeheshoots.com

French Toast Sausages Recipe

Recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine

French Toast Sausages and One New Year's Resolution
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Makes 14 french toast sausages
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 14 breakfast sausages links, about 14 ounces
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup milk(I used vanilla almond milk)
  • 1 heaping T granulated sugar
  • ¼ t cinnamon
  • pinch of nutmeg
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • 7 slices of white sandwich bread
  • 4 T butter, divided
  • Maple syrup, for dipping
  • Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet with foil.
  2. Arrange sausages on sheet and spray with Pam or oil.
  3. Bake for 10 min.
  4. If sausages aren't brown, broil for an additional 4-5 minutes.
  5. Remove from oven and set aside.
  6. Reduce oven temp. to 200 degrees F.
  7. Whisk eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a small bowl.
  8. Pour into shallow pan, like a 9 x 9 baking pan.
  9. With Kitchen scissors, trim the crust from each slice of bread and cut in half, from top to bottom.
  10. Flatten each piece with your hand and starting with the short end roll around sausage.
  11. Press to seal and set in the egg mixture to soak for 5 minutes.
  12. Melt 2 T of butter in a non-stick pan over medium heat. When butter foams add 7 of the wrapped sausages and cook, turning occasionally, for 4-5 minutes.
  13. When golden brown on each side remove to a paper towel lined baking sheet and keep warm in the oven.
  14. Add the rest of the butter and repeat with the remaining wrapped sausages.
  15. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with maple syrup.

Note: I had a lot of egg mixture left over. You could double the amount of sausages and bread slices and dip them in the remaining egg mixture, but you’ll need an additional 4 T butter for frying.

Check out Dave’s photography technique at French Toast Sausages: Behind the Scenes

 

 

Happy New Year!

Happy-New-Year-2014

Happy New Year, Friends! It’s 2014.

How was your Eve? Did you party like it was 2013 1999? Did you stay in, drink a bottle of Bushmills, and watch X-Files reruns? Or did you go out, stain your favorite party dress, and hit Del Taco at 2am?

I’m not saying I did these things, I’m just saying whatever you did…no judgments.

Just color me happy that you’re all safe, taking it easy, drinking a cup of coffee, and thinking about the year ahead. That’s what I’m doing…minus the coffee part, of course.

Pondering the new year, I can’t wait to see what it brings. Hopefully, good things. Hopefully, tons of smiles, friends, and food…and you. Thanks for checking in; I’ve missed you. Dave and I have something new for you. So, come on back tomorrow and bring your appetite.

Peace and Blessings,

Mondo

 

 

All Things Thursday: Christmas Cookie Edition

All Things Thursday: Christmas Cookie Edition

Hey there. Happy All Things Thursday!

Remember me? I know, I know…it’s been a minute. Please forgive my tardiness. I just woke up from a 4 hr nap. Naps are very necessary when you’re crazy busy. Crazy busy doing what, you ask? Making cookies, man…tons and tons of cookies.

Typically, during Christmastime, people are making cookies as gifts or for general snacking purposes. I get it…’tis the season. The thing is…I bake cookies for a living so during the holidays, when I’m baking thousands of cookies for corporate parties and the like, I’m not really into making cookies for myself.

That being said, I do love the holidays and the cookie celebration it brings. If I weren’t up to my eyeballs in dough, these are the treats I’d put on my Christmas table…

When I’m in the mood for sweet and crispy, I reach for these Chocolate Star Cookies. (Williams-Sonoma)

Little clouds of joy topped with icing? Yes, please. Italian Anise Cookies (Food)

Ah…the genius of Dorie Greenspan. Speculoos Buttons (Bon Appetit)

The perfect Sugar Cookie.

Sometimes the perfect sugar cookie needs Royal Icing. (Cupcakes and Cashmere)

What would Christmas be like without Gingerbread Snowflakes? I don’t wanna know. (Martha Stewart)

How cool would your mantle look with this Gingerbread Men Garland? Pretty freakin’ cool, man. (Donna Hay)

That’s it for me, friends. I’m taking my ginger-honey tea and heading back to bed. I hope your holiday is filled with family, friends and Irish Whiskey…and cookies, of course.

 

Nothing wins you friends faster than a full cookie jar.
Mary Hunt Altfillisch

 

 

All Things Thursday: Things are Looking Up Edition

December 2103 Analytics for I bake he shoots

Happy All Things Thursday, People!

Sorry that I missed ya last week. I’ve been sick and then it was finals week, blah, blah, blah…

First things first…I’d like to wish my great friends Marsha and Pauline, the happiest of birthdays today. They’re twins, by the way. And, as it happens, they’re both pregnant. How crazy would it be if they both had twins? Just imagine…uh oh, my head is spinning.

Things are looking up here at I bake he shoots. Did you see that graph? We went from 146 to 992 visitors in one day. Say what, now?

Here’s what happened:

  1. Using the great Alton Brown’s recipe, I made the perfect baked potato.
  2. Dave made said potato look way more amazing than it was in reality.
  3. I submitted Dave’s photo to Foodgawker.
  4. You guys liked what you saw.

What ‘s most important here is you. That’s right, you. You came to our site, took a look around, hung out, and gave us some cool compliments. Without you this would all be for naught. Well…not completely. Even if you didn’t like us, we’d still get to eat some pretty tasty food at the end of the day.

Hold up a second…I’m getting off track.

What Dave and I would like to do is give you a big, sloppy, wet kiss to show our gratitude. However, that might be quite difficult and kinda gross. So instead, we’ll give you a hearty…

 

Thank You!

 

We promise…this is just the beginning.

Cheers,
Dave & Mondo

 

There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Morpheus

 

Perfect Baked Potato & My Bus Adventures

Perfect Baked Potato. An easy recipe for baked potatoes by Alton Brown | ibakeheshoots.com

As I’ve mentioned before, I live in the traffic-choked city of L.A. It’s a cool place, but it’s not perfect. For example, I don’t love trying to get on the 405, taking 45 minutes to get anywhere or screaming at idiots who think they own the road. Well, maybe I enjoy that last bit.

On occasion, I take the bus. How does that go? Well, we have a love-hate relationship, the bus and I.

I love that it’s cheap. I love that I can sit, relax and catch up on the latest from Karen at The Art of Doing Stuff. I love that I don’t have to pay for a wtf? $65 school parking permit. All I have to do is come up with a buck-fifty and enjoy the ride.

Newsflash!

Cheap-ass ride = colorful cast of characters. Here are a few of my favorites/not-so-favorites:

The Smoker: This gent pulled a bunch of papers from his pocket. I figured he was just getting rid of junk; but then he took a bank receipt and used it to create a makeshift holder for the tiniest spliff I’ve ever seen. Waste not, want not…I guess. It was all I could do to suppress my laughter and was nothing but smiles for the rest of the ride.

The Pet Lover: This chatty-Cathy sat next to me and asked her mom to put her puppy on the phone.  She then proceeded to speak baby-talk to it for about 10 minutes. Hey man, I get it. Everyone loves their pets, but what’s with the baby-talk? On the phone? On the bus? Have you no shame? Apparently, not.

The Rastafarian: This guy sat down right next to me which was fine, until his stank wafted over. It was an incredibly offensive mix of chronic and ass. This one was partly my fault because if I know one thing it’s this, “Never sit at the back of the bus”. Sitting there is like asking for trouble….the extremely funky kind.

Perfect Baked Potato. An easy recipe for baked potatoes by Alton Brown | ibakeheshoots.com

I could go on, but I won’t. You’re busy and so am I. So let’s take a break and make a baked potato for lunch. Strike that. Let’s make the perfect baked potato.

It used to be when I wanted to make a “baked” potato, I would stab it with a fork a bunch of times, put it in a plastic bag, and throw it in the microwave. The result would be mediocre at best. The ends would be hard and overcooked, the skin would be soggy, and the inside would have that undercooked crunch which no one desires.

Enter Alton Brown, who puts the potato directly on the rack and then walks away for an hour. No foil, no mess and definitely no microwave. The outside is salted and crispy. The inside is light and fluffy. It’s fantastic!

Perfect Baked Potato Fixins | ibakeheshoots.com

Now, then…are you ready for a perfect baked potato? Excellent. Let’s go buy a 5 lb bag along with all the fixins. I’m gonna take the bus. Does anyone care to join me?

Perfect Baked Potato Recipe

Perfect Baked Potato recipe from Food Network

Perfect Baked Potato
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 russet potato (or up to 4)
  • canola oil
  • kosher salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Position racks in top and bottom thirds.
  3. Wash potato (or potatoes) thoroughly with a stiff brush and cold running water. Dry, then using a standard fork poke 8 to 12 deep holes all over the spud so that moisture can escape during cooking.
  4. Place in a bowl and coat lightly with oil.
  5. Sprinkle with kosher salt and place potato directly on rack in middle of oven.
  6. Place a baking sheet on the lower rack to catch any drippings.
  7. Bake 1 hour or until skin feels crisp but flesh beneath feels soft.
  8. Serve by creating a dotted line from end to end with your fork, then crack the spud open by squeezing the ends towards one another. It will pop right open. Mind the steam.
  9. Enjoy with a pad of butter, dollop of sour cream, sprinkle of cheese or whatever your heart desires.

 

Check out Dave’s photography technique at Perfect Baked Potato Photo Shoot: Behind the Scenes.