Almond Crusted Coconut Milk French Toast

My love for Beth Le Manach's and Randy Sharp's dinner party videos will be put into action this summer - this summer, I plan on improving my cooking techniques by hosting a few dinner parties! 

To warm up, I cooked a simple brunch for my high school best friends last Friday. The menu included coffee from a French press, almond crusted coconut milk French toast (topped with a mixed berry compote and coconut cream), and a strawberry-pecan salad (Jersey grown red bibb lettuce, strawberries, toasted pecans, 12 minute hard boiled egg) with a mustard vinaigrette. We were fortunate enough that the rain held up and allowed us to sit on the patio as we ate and caught up. 

So much happens when we're apart, yet we're always able to pick up where we left off and enjoy both lighthearted and deep conversation topics. If you're lucky enough to have friends like that, go tell them how much you love them!

Recipe: Almond Crusted Coconut Milk French Toast
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Eight 1" thick slices of bread (day-old or stale works best; I used a whole grain/seeded variety from Wegman's)
1 cup of full fat coconut milk (reserve the solid cream on top)
1 egg, beaten*
1-1.5 cups of almond flour

butter/oil to cook with

reserved coconut cream 
2 cups of mixed berries (I used frozen that was defrosted overnight in the fridge)
maple syrup


Preheat the oven to 375*F. Mix the coconut milk and beaten egg in a shallow dish. Place the almond flour in a separate, shallow dish.


Add the berries to a saucepan. Cook the berries on medium heat, until the berries have released their juices and are soft, about 7-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, soak each slice of bread for 30 seconds on each side. Let the excess custard drip off and dredge both sides in the almond flour. Place the dredged bread on a cooling rack set above a baking sheet.

Heat a pan (or griddle) over medium-high heat with a little bit of butter/oil. Once the pan is hot enough (flick some water onto the pan - it should start "dancing" and sizzling), add the bread, making sure to not overcrowd the pan. Just cook to brown both sides. Once browned, remove the bread and place back onto the cooling rack contraption. Bake for 5 minutes.

To serve, top each serving with the berry compote, a dollop of the reserved coconut cream**, and maple syrup.

*To make this a vegan recipe, simply omit the egg! The coconut flour will be more pronounced, but the recipe still works!
**If the reserved coconut cream is too runny, place it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set up. 


Want another French toast recipe? Try this one:

Almond Crusted Milk Bread French Toast with Maple Caramelized Bananas

Princeton Memorial Day Parade 2017

Cascadilla Gorge (with Michelle!)

 

Monkey Run

Two runs: 7 am on a 70 degree, humid, sunny morning, and 4 pm on a 60 degree, windy, cloudy afternoon. No matter what the conditions are, this place will look stunning!

Liberty Hyde Greenhouse (Pt II): with Michelle!

I've mentioned how empty my first 1.5 semesters at Cornell were...sometimes, you just gotta hold out for God to strategically put the right people, the ones who are more incredible than you could ever imagine, in your life. Michelle is one of those people!

What We Ate: BARCELONA

We're ending the Spain blogposts, five months later, with a photo journal of what we ate in Barcelona! I hope you've enjoyed these photos and stories; I hope I've been able convey some of Spain's magic through them. This country is so magnificent, and there's so much more we'll have to see next time. If you missed the "What I ate: MADRID" post, check it out here, and for the full Spain archive, find it under my Travel section. 

Like in my Madrid post, I'll preface this one by saying that this isn't a comprehensive review of restaurants, nor is it an ultimate travel guide. There are plenty of other restaurants on our list (like Taktiki Berri, Flax and Kale) that we missed, so the purpose of this post is solely to share our experiences and a few thoughts :). Enjoy!

Miso Glazed Tofu Medallions over Lemon Herbed Quinoa with an Avocado Chia Cream

What a long name for a fairly simple dish!

These look a lot like scallops, but they're in fact tofu that I free-handedly carved into medallions with a paring knife. Make these for mom as a light and summer-y Mother's Day lunch?

Ithaca Falls

She's a real beauty, isn't she? 

I'm so fortunate to go to a school that has jaw-dropping-ly magnificent gorges, sprawling plantations, and hidden gardens between academic buildings. I took a quick 15 minute hike to Ithaca Falls, the base of Fall Creek Gorge (see here and here), a few weeks ago - enjoy these photos!

Port Olimpic

Pardon the brevity (and the lack of a blogpost on Wednesday!) - hell week part II has struck, and academics are consuming my everything ;) I hope you liked these photos from Barcelona's Port Olimpic - they scream "summer" to me.

Park Guell and Hiking Carmel Hill

Aside from La Guernica, Gaudi was the second big takeaway I left my 10th grade Spanish class with. There's really nothing like seeing the places and works you studied for so long, in person. Nothing! 

My dad really surprised me when he suggested that we hike an off beaten path up this hill (this from the man who doesn't like to rough it). This area of Park Guell (Bunker del Carmel) is free to the public, but since there's no real path, it was pretty secluded - as if it were a secret spot. The hike up wasn't bad, though I'll have to warn you, the hike down can get a little treacherous if you wear shoes without any traction (whoops!). But take that risk - the panoramic view of Barcelona from the top is really like no other. 

TRUST FALLS | Sunday Dialogues

(taken on my iPhone)
Emory University, Spring 2015

Happy Easter, everyone :)!

Right before spring break (about two weeks ago or so), I discovered Little City Mag, an online publication, full of honest, everyday struggles and encouragements written by Christians. Reading through these posts is so soothing, and I was inspired to start writing my own, personal versions of these articles here. I'm titling this series, which you can expect every now and then, "Sunday Dialogues" - not that living a Christian life is restricted to Sundays - that, in fact, is the opposite of what we're called to do - but because I think it'll be a nice way to enter a week full of potential ups and downs. In other words, it'll be a nice way to frame our mindset! What you can expect from each Sunday Dialogue is me sharing a personal story, often one that involves a struggle, that's capped off with encouragement and a song recommendation, something that really speaks personally to whatever I share in that post.

So for the very first Sunday Dialogue, I want to flash back to this very same time last year: Spring 2016.

Caramelized Banana Pecan Oats

Oh how it's been too long since I last posted a recipe/food photos! I think it's one of the biggest trade-offs to living on campus, but I will say that coming home and being able to cook for myself does feel that much more special now. 

I made a promise to myself a while back that any recipe related content going forward would be as high quality as I can manage; though I'm not able to recipe test and ask others to cross check my work to ensure flawless, fail-proof recipe content, it does mean that I'll be sharing the best work that I can manage to produce right now, all technical, artistic, and environmental constraints in consideration. 

This recipe involves the warmth of cinnamon and sweetness of over-ripened bananas, which may remind you of fall, but I think it's good enough that you'll want to eat this year round :) 

The Streets of Toledo, Spain

Toledo  -  Spain, that is! Look no further for charming, narrow, cobblestone streets and a picturesque view over El Rio Tajo. It takes some walking to get from the bottom of the city (where the train station is located at and where most buses stop), but it's worth it. Don't let the gloomy clouds scare you away, either, because they'll be pushed aside by the sun in the afternoon (when the city becomes much busier with tourists pouring in!). Make sure you get some marzipan as a souvenir; you can even go to a monastery to buy some made by nuns. Below are some photos of Toledo's streets and its cathedral; for photos of the bar/cafe we ate at (El Trebol), click this link here.

for more photos of El Rio Tajo (the Tajo river), click this link here

Montjuic (Barcelona, Spain)