Ellie Krieger is known for preparing delicious “light” versions of favorite comfort foods, and for a post-Christmas brunch I made up a pan of her peach French toast bake. This oven-baked French toast is a pretty good substitute for the pan-fried stuff you’re used to, so you can save a few calories and some time with this easy recipe.

Peach French Toast Bake

I made this using my copy of Ms. Krieger’s The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life, but it is also available on foodnetwork.com.
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Last weekend was full of graduation parties and holiday celebrations, but Mario and I wanted to sit down for a quick “real” dinner instead of filling up on hors d’oeuvres. We decided to try out Rosebud in the Virginia-Highland area.

Rosebud

Photo from Rosebud’s Facebook page

It was a cold, rainy evening, but Rosebud was nothing but warmth, from the host to the bar to the food.
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I made this salad a few weeks ago when I was on my oyster craving kick and am just posting it because I wasn’t totally in love with it. But, cooking comes with successes and failures, so I’m putting it up after all.

Fried Oyster Salad

The salad overall was ok, my issue was with my Gorgonzola vinaigrette–in hindsight, I think a creamy dressing would have paired better with this salad than a vinaigrette. However, I had to make do with what was in my pantry at the time.

I’m currently experimenting with frying batters on different items, and for these oysters I chose a seasoned mix of cornmeal and flour (probably about 50/50). I really liked the texture, flavor, and crunch.
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The 2nd Bite post was previously reserved only for Flip Burger Boutique, but I had to come back to post on Noon Midtown’s breakfast offerings, particularly their special, The Stack (fried chicken, benton’s bacon, cheddar, sausage gravy, fried egg on a biscuit). Or maybe it was just to show off this awesome photo I took, and with my cell phone to boot:

The Stack

Yes, it tastes as amazing as it looks. And it was so huge, I ended up skipping lunch.

Check out Noon for lunch and breakfast, which I can now vouch for, and they even deliver around Midtown now (though not to GT )!

www.noonmidtown.com

I’m sure we all know and have a love/hate relationship with (or at least I do) the most Southern of Southern cooks, Paula Deen, y’all. I do a spot-on impression of her where I turn up the country accent and say something along the lines of “Ok y’all, we’re gonna start with 3 sticks of butter…”. Anyway, it’s finals week and I was craving some good comfort food, and this incorporates many flavors I like (which I’m sure you know by now if you follow the blog). I’ll warn you now, this IS a typical butter-laden Paula Deen recipe, but I think you would be safe subbing extra-virgin olive oil for the butter when sauteeing your mushrooms. It just won’t be quite as delicious when you sop up the drippings with a hunk of bread

Chicken Georgia

Don’t worry, I only at one chicken breast half with a giant salad on the side!
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Mario and I found a newly opened (October) and judging by the number of people seated, apparently as-yet undiscovered dining gem in Charlotte. Terrace Cafe is located in the Southpark area near the mall (I’m not up on my Charlotte geography enough to be more specific than that). We were looking for a brunch spot one Saturday morning and I surfed a few reviews, browsed their interesting-looking menu, and made the choice. Man, am I glad I did.

Terrace

Though I can only speak for the breakfast items, I can’t imagine that the rest of Terrace’s menu would disappoint either. I ordered the Red Velvet Waffle topped with cream cheese drizzle (can’t believe no one in Atlanta has done this!) and Mario threw together a meal from the sides menu of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon:
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Ok, so my family only served one of those dishes for Thanksgiving, but isn’t that a great song anyway? I’ve been MIA since Thanksgiving because finals are next week, so I’m stopping in to share a few pics of my family’s spread, starting with some homemade Muscadine Wine from my aunt and uncle:

Family Wine

I don’t know what they did with this wine, but it was delicious and had a ridiculous alcohol content.

I was with a bunch of aunts, uncles, and cousins at a huge cabin we rented out on the Louisiana side of the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Hilarity ensued.
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