eats & interests seattle

Oh that dreaded, daily question: “What’s for dinner?” Do you eat out or do you buckle down and cook something for yourself? I’d say that I’m about half-and-half on those. I really should cook more than I do, but there are so many good places to eat in this city!

Last night was a “stay in and watch TV in your pajamas” night. My options were ordering pizza or making something for myself, and I chose the latter. The meal? Savory Cheddar French Toast and tomatoes (recipe below). Only problem? No bread!

Solution? The Essential Baking Company (www.essentialbaking.com)

The Essential Baking Company uses organic ingredients for their breads, pastries, and desserts. They have cafés in Madison Park and Wallingford and their breads can be found all around town. The Wallingford location is open til 6pm on most days, except for Fridays when they are open until 9pm (happy hour from 4-7pm!). The Madison location is open til 7pm on weekdays and 6pm weekends. You’ll know when you’re close to a cafe, because you can smell the fresh bread from blocks away. Mmm.

For normal breakfast french toast, I’d have gone with their Challah bread, but because it was a savory French toast, I ended up purchasing a loaf of their Rosemary bread (~$4). Although my goal was to ONLY by a loaf of bread, their Bleu Cheese & Mushroom Crossaint caught my eye — and my stomach.

Once home, I pulled all my ingredients together and began cooking.

The fresh tomatoes you see in the picture are organic and were delivered last week by New Roots Organics (www.newrootsorganics.com). New Roots’ base is in Phinney Ridge, and they’ve been delivering fresh produce to Seattlites since 1999. I love New Roots — it simplifies shopping, challenges me to cook with & eat more veggies, and it doesn’t bruise the pocketbook! New Roots will deliver a bin of fresh, organic produce right to your door either every week or twice a month, your choice. They also have 2 bin sizes, personal ($25) and standard ($35). Check out what’s in the bin this week.

The bins aren’t tiny either — I get the personal bin twice a month, and share it with a coworker/friend. It’s still enough vegetables that it’s worth the $, but not so many that they go bad before I can cook/eat them.

The best part is that you don’t have to be home when they deliver! They leave the bin on your porch (or other designated place), and pick up the bin with the next delivery. Super easy.

Tip: the Chinook Book has a coupon for your first delivery!

Recipe for Savory Cheddar French Toast w/ tomatoes

• 2 slices of bakery bread
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt & a pinch of pepper
• thyme
• 1/4 cup or so of sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1-2 small, fresh tomatoes, thickly sliced

I eyeball everything, so you might need to modify the ingredients to your own taste.

1. Whisk egg & cream together in shallow pan with salt, pepper & thyme
2. Add most of the cheddar cheese to the batter
3. Dip/coat bread in batter, leaving in dish for about 1 minute each side
4. Heat non-stick pan & melt a tablespoon of butter
5. Transfer one slice of coated bread to the pan (making sure there’s a lot of cheese on each side — add more if needed)
6. Cook for a couple minutes on each side, until golden brown
7. Repeat steps 4-6 for other slice(s) of bread
8. Keep toast warm & wipe out the pan; reheat w/ olive oil
9. Salt & pepper both sides of sliced tomatoes & transfer to pan
10. Cook each side for 1-2 minutes, until they look a bit “grilled”
11. Enjoy!

Here’s how mine turned out. It was incredibly tasty!

What’s your favorite easy, tasty dinner to whip up? Do you have any favorite local ingredients you keep on hand and/or love to use?