Chocolate French Toast. yes, it's just as awesome as it sounds.

1 cup milk
4 eggs
2/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 slices of bread

1. beat together milk, eggs, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
2. heat a lightly buttered skillet or griddle over medium heat.
3. dip each slice of bread into egg mixture until well soaked. place in pan, and cook on both sides until they are no longer gooey or shiny in the middle when cut in half, about 3 to 4 minutes per side.

REVIEW
so, the kids have dubbed this "Mommy's Masterpiece" and were begging me to make this more often. i served it with strawberry sauce (homemade, of course; see "recipe" below), icing sugar and syrup. it was, in a word, fabulous! honestly, it's my new favourite comfort food, and i will definitely be making this again and again.

but a word about the cocoa, and some adjustments i made. first, the cocoa doesn't mix well with the milk. probably using chocolate milk would work better. but, since i was lacking choco milk, and because it doesn't have enough fat, i used the cocoa. i also added some vanilla (i just drizzled some into the mixture, so i have no idea how much), because sometimes straight cocoa can be a little strong, and vanilla heightens the flavour while also "mellowing" it somewhat. it turned out really well like that.

also, given that asher is currently on a high-fat diet, i didn't use milk for this recipe. i used table cream, with 18% fat. it worked just as well, though probably in the future i'll use regular milk, and just make his pieces last, adding polycose (fat/carb additive) to the mixture.

but honestly, it was amazing. seriously. you have to try this!!

Strawberry Sauce
4 cups frozen strawberries, cut up
some white sugar
some vanilla

toss it all into the slow cooker, and cook on high until it's done. there's no magic to it. just keep an eye on it, sampling every now and then to check temp and taste. if it needs more sugar, add more sugar. more vanilla? no prob; just add some more. you will have to stir it occasionally, anyway, since the strawberries have a tendency to stick to the side of the pot and burn a bit, so just make sure everyone is floating around the way they should be.

and in case you're wondering how i know it was 4 cups i used...

a while back (last summer?), i picked up a flat of jam strawberries, and my mom and i made freezer jam. it was fab. but i didn't have enough jars to use up the entire flat. so we cut up all the berries anyway, and since the recipe called for 4 cups, we measured out 4 cups and put that into freezer bags, so that when i did make the jam, i could just toss in the berries and not have to worry about cutting and measuring. brilliant, no? i'm hoping to do this again this summer, along with other freezables like zucchini, green peppers, various berries, and so forth. it's the same idea as what i did with stew at one point, which i plan on doing again. sure, it's more work up front, but when all you want in the entire world is stew or freezer jam or strawberry sauce or whatever, all you have to do is pull it out of the freezer and the hard part is already done! i've also done this with those big bags of frozen berries that you can get at the grocery store; i divided it into the amount of berries i need for smoothies, and froze that instead of having to just guess every time. honestly, this process really works!

so, that's that. a couple "recipes" and some time- and sanity-saving tips. have a great weekend! :)