Nigella & My Daughter: Doughnut French Toast

Tonight is my baby girl's fifth birthday. Yes, I know if she's five she's not a baby. Tough. To me, she's the little just over 4 pound dynamo we brought home from the hospital who cried non-stop for oh, 10 months. Now she smiles most of the time and her stated goal most days is to be happy and dance. Who can argue with that?

We had a rather fun birthday weekend full of healthy food (I'm serious) so today, after a long day of work and childcare, what is the perfect thing to celebrate five years of smiling, dancing, and Barbie? Why, Nigella Lawson's Doughnut French Toast.

It is terrific. Run to your kitchen and make it now. It is the perfect foil for fruit, which we had in the form of two pints of strawberries pureed in the blender with a dash of powdered sugar and vanilla. Get it? Like the strawberry jam filling inside a sugar doughnut. It's just like Nigella made on this week's episode of Nigella Express. Even my son, who is a professed fruit-hater licked his plate.

Doughnut French Toast: Picture and recipe from Food TV.com

My Brudda: Pork Champion

So My Brudda is famous. It's true. He was in a cook-off, a very special cook-off, and it made the East Coast papers. Well, it made the Central Jersey Community Newspapers, but Central Jersey is a good hour or two away from where my brother lives, so hello, that's like getting a Hollywood Star while residing in Nebraska.

I do believe I have mentioned before how talented My Brudda is with pork. Do read the article and you will see that pork let him down by becoming a bit overcooked, nevertheless, to beat this pork My Brudda's competition had to use pastry, sausage, and fois gras. I mean, just look at that picture (courtesy of the Central Jersey Community Newspapers @ CentralJersey.com). Does that pork not just cry for your plate?

Kudos to the Pork Master for his expertise not just with pork, but also for his stellar frittata and a heavenly salad. Recipe at the end of the article. Here's the link:

In the kitchen: Showdown in the sacristy

My Brudda notes, by the way, that his wife, Lady Pate Sucre, made an absolutely stunning key lime pie for the competition. I haven't yet met a key lime pie I haven't fallen deeply in love with, and I regret that I was not in attendance for what would have been the beginnings of yet another illicit affair with pastry and lime curd. Maybe next time.