Pumpkin French Toast Casserole with Buttered Rum Sauce

This is my new favorite breakfast. It’s cozy. It’s sweet and spiced. It’s got crunchy pieces and gooey pieces. It’s perfect for a 46-degree Saturday morning when you’re still trying to make it another month before firing up the furnace.

For the French toast casserole part, I pretty much followed a halved version of a recipe on Buns in My Oven. Though honey oat bread is my favorite French toast base, so I used that instead of French bread. I also decided to cube my bread instead of slicing it and doing two layers in the pan. Mostly because I didn’t start the bread soon enough the night before and wanted desperately to go to bed. So cutting the fresh hot bread into cubes was how I could make it cool more quickly so I could assemble the casserole. I’m pretty happy with my decision, though I suppose maybe this should be called bread pudding since the bread is cubed. (?) In fact, if you need a good dessert idea, call this bread pudding and—voila!—you’ll have a dessert instead of a breakfast.

For the sauce, I combined elements of Paula Deen’s praline topping recipe as seen on Buns in My Oven, with elements of the buttered rum sauce from this Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread recipe that a friend shared with me (yes, I will be making that recipe soon).

Part way through baking, I was worried that the cubes on top would turn into croutons and be unpleasant. But the texture was great! Pouring the buttered rum sauce on top part way through baking helped moisten the top layer. Parts of the top layer were definitely more crispy (though not quite crouton consistently, thankfully), which provided a nice contrast to the gooeier layer below.

This casserole reheated really well, though the texture was not quite as nice and varied when reheated.

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole with Buttered Rum Sauce

Adapted from Buns in My Oven

Yield: 4 servings (one 11 x 7 dish)

Ingredients

About 8 oz. bread, cubed (I used honey oat bread)

1 Tbsp. melted butter

3/4 cup milk

2-1/2 eggs (2 eggs + 1 egg white)

3/8 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ginger

Pinch of cloves

For the sauce

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1 Tbsp. rum (or substitute vanilla extract; or substitute 1/4-1/2 tsp. rum extract)

Directions

The night before: Spray an 11 x 7 inch glass pan and arrange bread cubes in the bottom. Whisk together remaining ingredients (through cloves). I find that the whisk attachment on my immersion blender is great for whisking eggs and leaving no globs behind. Pour over the bread cubes; cover and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

The morning of: Remove casserole from fridge. Preheat oven to 350. Bake, uncovered, for 40-60 minutes, until casserole is browned and heated through. Mine took 40 minutes, but the recipe I was following said 50-60 minutes.

For the buttered rum sauce: About 20-30 minutes into the casserole’s bake time, put butter into a microwave-safe dish. Microwave in 20-second intervals until melted. Stir in brown sugar and stir until mostly dissolved. It may require a couple more 20-second trips to the microwave. Stir in pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum/vanilla/extract. Remove casserole from oven and drizzle with sauce. Return to the oven for the remainder of the baking time.

When it’s finished baking, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before digging in. You can eat it as-is, or add a drizzle of honey or syrup and/or a dusting of powdered sugar.

Ideas for next time

• For extra rich and gooey, I might make twice as much buttered rum sauce—half of it for pouring on top of the casserole for the last 10-20 minutes of baking time, and half saved to drizzle on right before eating. Especially if serving as a dessert rather than as breakfast. 
• I wonder what this would be like with light coconut milk instead of regular milk. And/or coconut oil instead of butter in the sauce.

Pumpquinoa

What, you may ask, is pumpquinoa? An excellent question, my friends! It's what you get when you stuff a pumpkin with a quinoa mixture. Pumpkin + quinoa = pumpquinoa. My friends Angie and Elizabeth deserve credit for coming up with the term. I'm still struggling with which syllable to stress (PUMP-keen-wah or pump-KEEN-wah). Neither one sounds exactly right rolling off the tongue, but this pumpquinoa tastes pretty good landing on the tongue.

At this year's pumpkin party, I got to make the big stuffed pumpkin dish that has become a staple at these annual pumpkin parties. For this distinct honor and distinguished occasion, I adapted a tasty-looking Quinoa-Stuffed Squash recipe from Cooking Light.

This is my favorite recipe I've made in a while, and I hope you like it as much as my fellow pumpkin party goers and I did!

Note, October 2016: I've been tinkering with this recipe every year and have decided it's time to incorporate those changes into this original recipe. Additions include celery, fresh sage, fresh rosemary, white wine, less quinoa, and a different kind of pumpkin.

Pumpquinoa

Yield: 16 servings
Adapted from Cooking Light
Printer-friendly version

Ingredients
1-1/2 to 2 cups dry quinoa (yields ~4-1/2 to 6 cups cooked)
1 pumpkin (mine was 13 lbs.)
2 lbs. ground turkey sausage
2 cups finely chopped carrot
2 cups finely chopped onion (I used yellow)
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup white wine (I used cheap chardonnay)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup fresh parsley
2-4 Tbsp. minced fresh sage
2-4 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary
Generous 1/2 tsp. dried thyme (or 1/2 Tbsp. fresh)
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. pepper
Cayenne pepper, to taste
6 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (reduced fat, if available)
6 oz. pepper Jack cheese, shredded (reduced fat, if available)

Directions
Cook the quinoa according to package directions, but use a 1:1.5 (rather than 1:2) ratio of quinoa to water. This will result in less mushy quinoa. Also be sure to include a pinch of salt in the cooking water.

Cut the lid off the pumpkin, being sure to cut at an angle so that, when the pumpkin shrinks while it bakes, the lid will still stay on. Clean out the seeds and stringy parts and set the pumpkin aside.

Brown the turkey sausage; drain and remove sausage to another dish. Sauté carrot, onion, celery, and garlic in the skillet for a couple minutes over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Stir in 1/2 cup water and white wine; increase heat to high, and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated and the veggies are tender but not mushy.

Preheat oven to 350 (and arrange racks to accommodate a tall pumpkin).

In a large bowl combine sausage, carrot mixture, cooked quinoa, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper, cayenne, and all but 1/4 to 1/2 cup of cheese. Taste--savor the moment!--and add more salt, pepper, or cayenne if needed. Taste some more, just for kicks.

Pour the quinoa mixture into prepared pumpkin, top with reserved cheese, and place the lid on the pumpkin. Put the pumpkin in a roaster pan or on a cookie sheet with sides.

Bake for about 2 hours, checking every 15 minutes once you reach the 1-1/2-hour mark.* You want the pumpkin flesh to be soft enough that you can scrape it out with a spoon when you dish up the quinoa filling, but not so soft that the pumpkin collapses.

Carefully remove from the oven (this was a two-person job for me and my co-hostesses). Transfer to a serving platter and, if desired, dress up the platter with some fresh parsley sprigs. Serve straight from the pumpkin, scraping out some pumpkin meat to go with each serving.

*Note: I've made this with basic jack-o-lantern pumpkins, as pictured here, but I like it better with Cinderella pumpkins, which are more flavorful and prettier. My first Cinderella pumpkin was extremely tender after just 1 hour in the oven, and my second one was still a little al dente after about 1-1/2 hours. So I recommend that you plan for 1-1/2 hours but check it after 45-60 minutes. The good news is that, if it cooks quickly and is done earlier than you need it, it does hold really well. Just take it out of the oven and keep the lid on, and it'll stay nice and hot.

Comments
This was phenomenal! Savory with the sausage, with a bit of kick from the cayenne and pepper Jack cheese, and delightfully autumnal and festive. The carrots were still a bit crisp which complemented the soft quinoa and chewy sausage. I don't say this very often with it comes to recipes, but I don't think I'll change a single thing next time I make this for a big group. When I make it for just myself I'll obviously scale it down and cook in a little pie pumpkin or some other squash that strikes my fancy. But as far as flavors, ingredients, and ratios, I think this was just right! (2016 me here. Well, those comments about not changing a thing are ironic.)

A little peek inside before baking.
Sorry about the blurriness of the iPhone photo.

Blueberry-Peach Overnight French Toast

I made this overnight French toast months ago, drafted the blog post, and forgot all about it. Which is a shame, because it's a nice, tasty breakfast dish--and blueberries and peaches are so very photogenic. So without further ado, I bring you Blueberry-Peach Overnight French Toast!

While touching up this blog post for publishing, a random guy in Starbucks came up and asked me for my opinion on a really deep, emotionally-weighted ideas that "came to him intellectually." The conversation ranged from racism, theology, psycho-sexual development, abuse, politics, and murder. Interesting coffee shop conversation.

Back to lighter, tastier topics . . . I really enjoyed this breakfast--both straight out of the oven, and reheated the next few days. It needs a few tweaks for next time, but I've covered those in the comments below the recipe.

This dish is definitely wet and custardy, so if you have a strong aversion to soggy bread texture, this recipe may not be for you.

Blueberry Peach Overnight French Toast

Adapted from Prevention RD
Yield: 4 servings

~4 oz wheat bread, cut into 1/2-inch slices
3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 cup coconut milk, divided
2 Tbsp. white sugar
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 15-oz. can peaches (in juice or light syrup), drained and chopped
1 cup blueberries
1 Tbsp. honey

The night before: Spray a 7 x 9 pan with cooking spray. Arrange bread in a single, flat layer on bottom of pan, packing it in as tightly as possible. Whisk together milk, 1/4 cup coconut milk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Pour over the bread. Top with chopped peaches and rinsed blueberries. Drizzle with honey. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or 8+ hours.

The morning of: Remove from fridge 30 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350. Pour reserved 1/4 cup coconut milk evenly over the top. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 30-45 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. After removing from oven, let the dish sit for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Nutritional Information per Serving (compliments of My Fitness Pal):
323 calories; 11.7 g. fat; 340.2 mg. sodium; 43.9 total carbs (2.9 g. dietary fiber; 26.6 g. sugars); 12.1 g. protein.
Note: It didn't give me an option to plug in (to My Fitness Pal) 1 can of peaches, drained. So I plugged in 3/4 of a full can, figuring that 3/4 can peaches plus juice would be close to the nutritional value of 1 can peaches minus juice.

Result and Comments:
This was very good, but I'll make some changes next time. I really wish I'd had a lemon or orange to zest, as that would have brightened the flavor. I'd recommend mixing the zest in with either the egg/milk mixture or the coconut milk that gets poured on the top right before baking.

It was ever-so-slightly under-sweetened, so I'll add a little extra sugar and/or honey next time.

I've made this once before with just peaches, and with cinnamon and brown sugar on top (closer to the original recipe from Prevention RD), and probably liked that version better than this trial run of the blueberry version. Perhaps I like cinnamon more than I like blueberries. Though with the addition of lemon/orange zest and a bit more sweetness, it might put them on an equal level for me.

Pumpkin Chai Latte

I have nothing profound to say about this chai latte. Just that it's good. If you make it, I hope you enjoy!

Pumpkin Chai Latte

Adapted slightly from babble.com
Yield: 1 large mug

1-1/2 cups milk (I used skim)
2 chai teabags
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1-2 packets Truvia, or sweetener of choice
2 Tbsp. pumpkin puree
Scant 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. maple syrup

Pour milk, teabags, vanilla, and Truvia into a small saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until milk is just about to boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and discard teabags.

Meanwhile, in a large mug, whisk together pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and maple syrup. Add milk mixture to mug and whisk to combine. Taste and adjust sweetness or spices if desired.

Notes:

• More often than not, one or both of my teabags manages to break. If this happens, just pour milk mixture over a fine mesh strainer when adding to your mug.
• You could heat everything in the microwave rather than stovetop. I feel like the chai steeps better on the stove, and it feels a little more like a treat to warm the beverage on the stove rather than zap it in the microwave.

Nutritional Information (compliments of My Fitness Pal):
163 calories; 0.9 g. fat; 29.7 g. total carbs (1.4 g. dietary fiber, 5.5 g. sugars); 13.1 g. protein

Fall (Happy Sigh)

I can't wait for fall. For the crisp nights, cozy meals, and frosted windshields. I wish I could say I've always loved fall, but in actuality, I used to view fall as simply cooler weather (good), going back to school (blah), and gearing up for the main event: Christmas. But within the past few years, fall has become my favorite season. One year, in an attempt to keep myself from breaking out the Christmas music in September, a friend and I wrote a blitz of fall-themed parodies of Christmas carols and church songs. Another friend invited me to her All Saints Day pumpkin parties (yes, we're theology nerds even when it comes to food-themed parties). Starbucks' pumpkin spice lattes happened. And I discovered the exquisite joy and versatility of cooking fall/winter squash and roasting vegetables.

This year, I'm especially ready for fall. My heart skips a beat every time I see predicted high temps below 85. I love the sound of the marching band practicing during lunch. I've been drooling over pumpkin recipes that keep appearing on my Facebook feed and favorite food blogs. And a couple weeks ago the smell of roasting garlic nearly drove me to tears (not exaggerating; yes, that was a particularly tough week with some emotion that seriously needed to be acknowledged).

But more than the lower temps and nutmeg-infused baking, I'm looking forward to the start of a new season in my life. This summer was hard. Sure, there were bright spots like taking part in a childhood friend's wedding and vacationing in New Mexico. But I spent the first half of the summer watching (and walking alongside) my boss and friend as his health rapidly deteriorated, while fully expecting him to not live through the summer. And I spent the second half of the summer mourning his death and dealing not only with my own emotional upheaval, but also with all the practical upheaval at the office. Someone had to cancel his five thousand email subscriptions, break the news to people who called the office asking for him, go through hundreds of his files, and help empty his office while not knowing who would be moving into it or when.

So I'm ready to close the chapter of summer 2012. Sure, there will still be grief for a long time, and nothing will ever fill the Charles-shaped void in my heart and life. And there are still days when I need to cry over something as emotionally neutral as roasting garlic. But the grief is becoming less intense with each passing week. This week I get to help move a new boss and friend into the office next to mine. A new semester is underway. And soon I will be burning my favorite Pumpkin Carnival candle and cooking my way through recipe lists like these.

Avocado Egg Stacks

Sometimes it's hard to cook when you're sad. For me, cooking is an artistic outlet. It's a chance to explore new ingredients, techniques, and flavor combinations. And it's hard to do that when someone you love has died and there's a big hole in your life. It's less fun to create, and it's often less fun to taste.

I discovered this recipe shortly before Charles died, and this proved to be a great go-to meal that week when he was in hospice and died. I think I made these Avocado Egg Stacks six times in the span of a week and a half to two weeks. It's a pretty balanced meal--complete with whole grains, protein, healthy fat, fruit (isn't avocado technically a fruit?), and veggies if you count the salsa. It's filling. It's tasty. And it comes together very quickly and easily. This was a good meal to throw together when I didn't want to think too hard or spend forever cleaning up my kitchen. And it was good in that I knew it would taste good with very little effort, but it's simple enough that I didn't care if it ended up tasting blah because I felt blah.

The full recipe is on A Couple Cooks, but here's the basic gist: toast an English muffin; add sliced or mashed avocado, salt, and paprika or chipotle seasoning; top with a fried egg and salsa; eat. I've made it with and without salsa, and actually like it a little better without. I used paprika every time since I don't yet own any chipotle seasoning. And I typically used half an avocado rather than a whole one.

Peach Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Lavender Balsamic Reduction

Confession: I get really frustrated with recipes that have summery ingredients and advertise themselves as summery, but require the oven. When it's over 100 degrees outside, I refuse to turn on the oven. Yet here I am sharing a oven-requiring recipe with summery ingredients. To my credit, it was only in the 90s the day I made it . . . and one of the two inspiration recipes was actually grilled rather than baked. I unfortunately don't have a grill, so I was stuck with waiting for a cooler day that could handle the oven being on for a bit. But if you're interested in grilling this baby, be sure to check out The Healthy Foodie recipe linked below.

Peach Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Lavender Balsamic Reduction

Adapted from The Healthy Foodie and Cooking Light

Yield: 3 servings (2 slices each)

1 medium to large yellow onion, sliced

1/2 Tbsp. butter

Salt, pepper, and sugar to taste

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 scant tsp. dried lavender flowers

1 whole wheat pizza crust (cooked, not dough; I used Boboli)

2 tsp. olive oil

1/2 cup reduced fat grated mozzarella cheese, divided

1/3 cup reduced fat bleu cheese crumbles

1 medium peach, thinly sliced (peeling is optional)

To caramelize the onions, heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the onions and butter and reduce heat to somewhere between medium and medium-high. Season with a bit of salt, pepper, and sugar. Cook for 20-30 minutes, until onions are very tender and golden brown. As needed, add a Tbsp. or two of water to deglaze the pan every so often. Note: for better caramelized onions, cook them on medium-low for close to an hour; I just didn't want to wait that long this time.

For the balsamic reduction, use the smallest saucepan you have. Bring balsamic vinegar and lavender to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently with a whisk. Reduce heat to medium-low-ish and simmer for around 15 minutes, stirring often, until vinegar is thick and syrupy, and has reduced to 1-2 Tbsp. in volume. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Preheat oven (and pizza stone if you have it) to 400 degrees.

Drizzle olive oil over the pizza crust and, using a pastry brush or your fingers, spread it around evenly. Layer 1/4 cup mozzarella, caramelized onions, bleu cheese, peach slices, and remaining mozzarella.

Bake for 5-12 minutes, until crust is browned and cheese is melted. Mine took about 7 minutes on the pizza stone in the oven. Remove from oven, drizzle with balsamic reduction, and cut into 6 wedges to serve.

Nutritional Information Per Serving (compliments of My Fitness Pal)
415 calories; 15.5 g. fat; 58.8 g total carbs (10 g. dietary fiber, 13.3 g. sugars); 18.3 g. protein 

Comments:

• This was excellent. The mozzarella toned down the bleu cheese and kept it from overpowering the other flavors, as bleu cheese is very capable of doing. The cheeses and onion complemented the peaches beautifully, and the lavender balsamic reduction was the perfect final touch.
• If you don't have lavender, you could definitely leave it out and the reduction would still be great on this pizza. I was just excited about finding another way to use dried lavender.
• I didn't time my balsamic reduction well, so it cooled completely by the time the pizza went into the oven . . . and it got really thick--turned into more of a solid than a liquid. I was able to kind of re-liquify it by putting it back on low heat while the pizza baked, but it was still hard to drizzle. Next time I'll start the reduction later.
• I imagine gorgonzola would be good on this, as in the Cooking Light recipe. I was even planning to get gorgonzola, but the bleu cheese was about 1/3 the cost and came in a reduced fat option. Sold.
• There are a lot of "z"s in this post. With the mozzarella, the pizza, and the drizzle, we've got a lot of "z"s going on. Just thought I'd point that out.