For as long as I can remember and beyond Saturday night suppers back home in Nova Scotia and indeed all down the Eastern part of Canada and the US, Saturday night baked bean suppers have been the tradition.

 

What is Pain Perdu.  Translated from French into English, the words mean Lost Bread.  It is a fancy name for French Toast, which was a great way of using up stale bread in the past. French toast is normally seen as a breakfast dish, and this certainly could be served for breakfast, but when you choose to make it with Brioche bread it becomes a bit more special and actually makes for a very fine dessert.

 

Brioche bread is rich and sweet and lends itself beautifully to dishes like this.  Soaked in the egg and milk it takes on an almost custard-like texture, very similar to bread pudding  . . .

 

But of course, cooking it this way is a lot faster than making a bread pudding.  So,  if you are looking for a hearty dessert that is quick and easy, as well as being delicious, this is the dessert for you! 

 

Our Brioche bread here in the UK is actually only about 4 inches square in size, so when sliced the slices are not overly large.  I cut my slices about 1 inch thick to use, which was absolutely the perfect size of thickness for this.

 

They were dipped in a simple mixture of eggs, milk and vanilla paste. I toasted each triangle on both sides in foaming butter, and I confess,  I also toasted the cut edges as well, along the centre, for an even nicer finish. Not necessary of course, but I thought it looked pretty.

 

You could serve this with syrup or chocolate sauce if you wanted to.  Chocolate sauce with vanilla ice cream would be very nice. In that case I would use sliced bananas instead of berries.

 

We enjoyed it just plain with a dusting of icing sugar and a mix of blueberries and raspberries.

 

You could use sliced peaches and a raspberry coulis sauce, which you could call Peach Melba Pain Perdu.

 

Caramel sauce would also be nice, again with bananas,  resulting in an almost  Banoffee-like  touch!

 

Of course a dusting of icing sugar really sets it off nicely.

 

I can't think of too many people that would turn their noses up at this dessert. Of course, it goes without saying that it is a semi-hearty dessert, which makes it the perfect dessert to serve after a light supper.

 

And yes, it would also make for an excellent breakast.  Personally speaking, I coud eat this any time of day or night.

  

You can save any leftovers, wrapped up, and stored in the refrigerator, simply reheating them briefly in the toaster.  You can also freeze them for serving at a later date.  Just thaw and warm through gently in a frying pan. Easy peasy.

 

We are bracing ourselves for yet another wind and rain storm this weekend. My heart goes out to all who are affected and living in flood zones. I am not sure how much more we can cope with this.  Thankfully where I live in Chester we are quite high up.  My back yard however is a quagmire. I am not complaining.  Better that than that our house be under water.

 

I saw this fabulous casserole on Half Baked Harvest one day and I fell in love with the photograph and recipe.  I mean . . . . croissants, jam, cream cheese, eggs, fruit  . . .  what's not to love about that!  I thought to myself, I'm IN!

 

However it was far too large of a casserole for me to justifiably bake for my husbnd and myself, and it will be about a month and a half before my kids come over.  

 

I didn't want to wait that long.  I wanted to taste this gorgeousness NOW!

 

I also happened to have 3 large stale croissants here in the house leftover from when my husband bought some at Costco the other day. We had eaten as many of them that we could.

 

 I couldn't bear throwing any of them away.  This breakfast casserole was really calling my name.

 

Her recipe serves 8 people. We are only 2. What to do, what to do.

 

I reduced it by half and then by half again and crossed my fingers.

 

Just look at that.  It turned out perfectly!  Amazingly scrumptiously perfect!

 

You get flaky butter bits of croissant . . .  along with souflee-like bread pudding bits  . . .  interspersed with pockets of wild blueberry jam and nuggets of rich cream cheese  . . .  oh my goodness . . .

 

I love wild blueberry jam . . .  and fresh blueberries of course.  I just love blueberries and they work wonderfully in this. 

 

Raspberry jam and fresh raspberries would also work, and here's a thought  . . .  peach or apricot jam with raspberries, kind of like a peach melba . . .

 

She served hers with whipped cream.  I just happened to have a lovely tub of extra thick Jersey cream in the refrigerator.  You can't beat that.  Its perfection.

 

And so I dolloped a bit of that on each serving, about a tablespoon full  . . .  scrummy yummy . . .

 

Real Maple syrup  . . .  fresh blueberries   . . .

 

I am definitely going to make this for my children when they come over.  They are going to love LOVE it!

  

I just had a thought that would also be very good . . .  Orange Marmalade along with black berries  . . .

  

Oh my the possibilities are truly endless.  One thing is certain, I am making this again, and you deffo need to make this!

 

I am enjoying reducing recipes and trying them out in smaller sizes.  Its a bit of a challenge, but a most delicious one.  One thing I have learned is that its well worth it.  Don't ever let the size of a dish daunt you or make you think that you can't possibly remake it as a smaller  recipe.  What are some recipes/dishes that you would like to see me try to make smaller?  I am up for the challenge! 

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Our Camelia bush is already in bloom. It seems really early this year, but I saw daffodils blooming this morning and there are buds all over our bushes. The greening of England is about to begin and Spring really is just around the corner.  I look forward to Spring every year, but it also heralds the end of Comfort Food Season which I mourn just a tiny bit . . .  okay, MORE than a tiny bit. I am a comfort food lover at heart. I thought that it would be fun today to share ten of my favourite Home Style Comfort Dishes. Oh, to be sure we will have a lot more blustery days before Spring finally lands, but its definitely time to get in your last tastes of your comfort foods before its too late. Every single dish I am sharing here today is one that we love.

 

Stewed Brisket & Potatoes.   Crusty, buttery little drop biscuits . . .  tender in the middle and going oh-so-well with that beautiful rich gravy, potatoes and those tender chunks of meat!  

Macaroni Shepherd's Pie.  Shepherd's pie with the delicious twist of a layer of macaroni and cheese on top instead of the usual potatoes! Scrumdiddlyumptious!

 

Beef Casserole with Horseradish Dumplings.  Hearty and delicious! My own oven stew recipe with a lovely dumpling recipe borrowed from Mary Berry, and adapted to my own needs.  

 

French Onion Chicken.  All the flavours of your favourite soup  baked into a deliciously saucy chicken casserole beneath golden cheesy croutons. What's not to like!

 

Irish Stew.  Tender lamb and vegetables beneath a thatch of potato cobbles, in a flavour filled broth. Simplicity at its best.  

 

Chicken Savoyarde.  Tender pieces of cooked chicken beneath a rich and creamy taragon sauce, topped with crisp bread crumbs.  Delicious!

 

Beef, Ale & Parsnip Pudding. Kind of like a steamed meat pie, filled with lovely flavours.  Beef, parsnips in a lush ale gravy, served with cabbage and boiled potatoes. 

 

Chicken Rarebits with Melted Leeks.   A deliciously rich and indulgent chicken dish, which is simple to make and uses simple ingredients.   

 

Stuffed Cabbage Trou Style.  Layers of cabbage and the sausage meat create a magical taste combination that is unbeatable . . . the long slow cooking breaks the cabbage down until it is almost buttery . . . the juices of the cabbage and sausage melding together into a melting deliciousness that is just the best flavour in the world. 

 

Cottage Pie with Potato Cobbles.  This may be the most delicious Cottage Pie you've ever eaten and I don't make that claim lightly!  A really tasty meaty base topped with sliced rounds of potato and a layer of cheese baked until the potato cobbles are golden brown and everything is bubbling up nicely. 

Oh, I could have easily done 20 or more of my favourites.  This really is just the tip of the iceberg! 

 

Ham and Cheese Casserole. I am th Queen of leftovers. I hate waste and love to use everything up.  I especially love leftover ham recipes which make great use of any ham you have in the house. 

You don't always have to use leftover ham though, as you can also purchase a chunk of boiled ham at the shops which is great for things like this.

 

Today, however, I had some baked ham leftover from the holidays the other day and so I decided to make a delicious casserole with them.  

We were all sandwiched out! Mom always made sweet and sour ham with her leftover ham, but we weren't feeling much like that either.

 

Plus I had some fresh noodles whose sell by date was looming.  I hate waste and so decided to take advantage of both these things and make a tasty casserole.

 

It was pretty basic, and I did use a tin of cream of chicken soup.  You could however make a basic cream sauce, flavouring it with a bit of chicken bouillon if you wanted to.

 

I am not a soup snob and I do use it from time to time, especially when I am wanting to make a quick and simple casserole.

 

I also had some cheese leftover from the holidays, Cheddar and red Leicester  So I used up some of them as well.

 

They have very similar flavours so you could use all cheddar if you want to.  Both are hard cheeses and the red Leicester has been coloured orange. Most of our Cheddars here will be found in their natural, white state.

 

Both cheeses are produced in a very similar manner, but red Leicester has a moister, crumblier texture and a somewhat milder flavour.

 

I added thawed frozen green beans for a bit more colour and some texture.  Just cover them with boiling water, let them thaw and then drain well before using.

 

Mine were whole beans and so I used my kitchen scissors to cut them down into a more manageable size.

 

You could use any vegetable you wanted to use or even a combination of vegetables. Corn would be nice as would peas and carrots.

 

I topped the casserole with some cracker crumbs and a bit more cheese.  I find casseroles are always nice when you have a bit of a crunchy topping to enjoy!

 

This was quick, easy and delicious.  You could double the recipe if you had more ham you wanted to use up and freeze one casserole for a later time.

It is supposed to be 2 to 3 servings, but I'll be honest, for our appetites it is more like 4 servings. 

 

It all depends on how big of an eater you are. We are small eaters.

 

A tossed salad would be very nice on the side. My pictures are not so great as we have had some very dark and gloomy days. 

 

I like to use natural light for my photos if I can, so I apologise if they are a bit dark!

  

We enjoyed it simply with some buttered bread (for my husband) and pickled beets. I do so love pickled beets!

 

So that's all of the Christmas leftovers gone now.  We still have Christmas Cake, but that is a good keeper and my husband will make short work of that over the next weeks.  I also have some Christmas pudding, which he will also enjoy. 

 Those types of things never really go off.  I am relieved that I never did more baking and that I kept things simple here over the holidays and didn't go overboard!