Thursday, December 31, 2015

Drunk Banana French Toast

For the New Year, I felt like we needed a breakfast that'd help numb that hangover everyone has today.

We have brioche french toast with a loaded banana sauce.


Whisk together 3 large eggs, 4 large egg yolks, and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar until it's smooth.


Then whisk in a cup of milk, half cup of heavy cream, and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and vanilla extract.




Make 1/2 inch thick slices of your bread. Notice my fancy new ceramic knife I got for Christmas.


To cook the french toast, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 2 tablespoons of canola oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Once melted, place your bread into the batter on both sides until it's soaked. Then move the bread to the saute pan and cook for about 2 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
(If you need to keep some slices warm, put them on a baking sheet in your oven at 250 degree)


The sauce is really easy, and can be done at the same time as the toast.

First, melt 4 tablespoons of butter over high heat. Once it is melted, whisk in 1 cup of light brown sugar and  a pinch of ground cinnamon until the sugar has melted and it has thickened, approximately 5 minutes.


Add 2 sliced ripe bananas and cook until slightly softened ... a minute.


Remove from the heat and add 2 tablespoons of banana liqueur and 1/2 cup of dark rum or whisky if you don't have rum (mini bottles work as perfect substitutions). Add the sauce back to the heat for about 2 more minutes (your choice) to cook the alcohol off.




This was sweet, but the alcohol helped cut the sweetness and give you that kick to get your day going.


What Happened In Vegas, Ain't Staying In Vegas - Part II

Since we moved The Peppermill up, we now had a vacant spot for Friday's breakfast. One of the other places I had found that was nearby was Eat..

It's a little bit of a hipster kind of place, but the food is fresh and delicious. I went for the basic scrambled eggs, REAL bacon, and home fries. While she did the cinnamon biscuits with Turkey Bacon. Everything was delicious. I don't usually go crazy over home fries, but these were some of the best I ever had. One of the other great parts of this was my orange juice. The juice itself was really good, but the best part was, they put it in a real glass. Usually you just get a little Dixie cup of OJ.




After breakfast we did some shopping (aka went to a bunch of dog shops and spoiled Rhett) and road out to John Mull's Meats and The Road Kill Grill. The drive out was absolutely amazing. We're used to seeing green everywhere, so the bare Sierra Mountains (I'm assuming) were a gorgeous change to take in.


Ok, back to the good part, the food ... and boy was it good. If I lived near Vegas, I would visit John Mull's every single week. They were originally a meat/butcher shop and started cooking some for close friends/customers. The word got out and boom. While we were there, there were some that came in for lunch and cuts of meat for dinner.

Another neat thing they have is a map behind the counter with push pins to mark where customers have come from. We were the first ever from Greenville, SC on their map.


We ordered the 3 meat sampler, so we got the brisket, ribs, and sausage links with mac 'n' cheese and baked beans. The beans I thought were a little meh, but she loved them. The mac 'n' cheese was killer, the brisket was great, the ribs were a hair tough but had great flavor, but the homemade sausage was absolutely amazing.


Fancy close up picture ...


Food Network has a new show called Guilty Pleasures, and one was focused on desserts. Duff introduced us to the Party Like It's Your Birthday cake from Serendipity 3. I will just let the pictures do the talking ...




It's sprinkle birthday cake between layers of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream.


We gave it a very valiant effort, but it was just too much for us.
(Apparently neither of us like strawberry ice cream)

For all my car fans out there, the SEMA show was also in town. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time that I could fit it in. Not that this had anything to do with the show, but it was super sweet. I was waiting to see Vin Diesel step out of it.


Being the huge fan of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that I am, I had to play and get a picture of the slot machine. No, I didn't win a golden ticket ... but I did win $.75 from my $20 I put in.



Just outside of our hotel, this small car club met up as we were heading out for dinner.



If you look to the left, you can see the owner dressed up like an Ice Cream man.






For dinner we went back down to the Strip and to Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen & Bar. We're not major appetizer people, but when we heard Brisket Nachos, we caved.


She had the Southern Smothered Chili Bowl, and I don't know if it was the warmth on a chili night (see what I just did there?), but she "mmmmd" about every bite.


I wasn't starving since we just had nachos, but I couldn't say no to The Mac + Cheese Bacon Burger with waffle and regular fries. The burger was actually a little dry, but the flavor with the bacon and the mac was amazing. The fries are as good as you could get.



Our final meal in Vegas was breakfast at Hash House A Go Go.

She's been on this Southwest Scramble or whatever kick the past few months since she feel in love with Another Broken Egg's. She did the House Hash with chorizo, jalapenos, cheddar cheese, and fresh tomato.


I was bouncing around the menu when Dawn says, "Did you see the bacon waffle?"

So, the bacon waffle was ... it was a bacon waffle, do I really need to explain further?


After breakfast we went back to the room and finished packing for our farewell.


We kept forgetting to actually take pictures of The Strip, so we left with plenty of time so we could do that and make a few more stops on the way out.


The Stratosphere




Circus-Circus



Wynn


Treasure Island



The Mirage


Caesar's Palace
(Note: Not the one real Caesar's Palace)



The Bellagio


Paris


MGM Grand


Diablos Kitchen



New York-New York




The roller coaster that it was way too cold to ride.






The Chocolate Statue of Liberty






Excalibur




Luxor






Mandalay Bay





Las Vegas was an absolute blast, but as much as it sucked to leave ... somebody had a cupcake we had to deliver.








Eat.


John Mull's Meat & Road Kill Grill


Serendipity III


Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen and Bar


Hash House A Go Go


Sprinkles Doggie Cupcakes