Quiet Kitchen Day

So I had intended for today to be a boring, quiet, no-real-cooking day. After the week my kitchen has had, I thought it deserved a break. And... well... I don't have enough containers or counter space to store too many more baked goods... So we did all kinds of other fun things today.

We painted a sun-catcher:









We played Play-Doh:









We gave each other mani/pedis:









But you gotta eat, right? In the spirit of being kind to the kitchen, tonight's dinner was a crock pot specialty - stew. Perfect for a cold winter day, not too tough to assemble early in the morning (though I do always find it funny to be browning beef at 8 AM...), always delicious.

The thing is, I still wanted to make French Toast out of those baguettes from yesterday. But that doesn't use the oven, so it was fair game, right? And it doesn't make any leftovers, so I figured I was safe. We didn't have time to be that involved for breakfast, so lunch it was, which meant we could get a little more creative. I decided to try stuffed French Toast. I looked up a couple of recipes, and really wanted to use some of the strawberries we have in the fridge... so I decided to improvise. A little cream cheese on each piece of bread, some sliced strawberries in the middle, then dip the sandwich in the milk/egg dip. I have to admit... I was a little worried about all of the egg cooking all the way through, since the egg soaks into the whole sandwich, yet only one side of each piece of bread cooks directly on the heat... but slightly lower heat than usual French Toast and keep each side of the sandwich on the pan a little longer than usual... no raw egg left. And it turned out pretty yummy! The sandwiches fell apart a bit when we cut into them, but it was a pretty tasty lunch.

And as for our crock pot stew? Delish. Served over polenta, it was the perfect dinner for a freezing winter night.

I hope my kitchen enjoyed the day off.