The Yum Yum Factor

It's no secret that I am a lover of all things custard and caramel. Creme brulee? I'm there Creme caramel? Can't stop me. Dulce de Leche? Hold my earrings

In today's admission of food snobbery,  I had convinced myself that I hated the idea of a make ahead breakfast casserole type dish. Monkey bread could go take a hike and if you thought I was going to eat soggy white bread french toast in a casserole dish, you had another thing coming but when it was time to whip up a few brunch dishes at the request of a friend's husband that I could drop off the night before, it kept creeping into my brain. I made a frittata, which is always good the next day but everything I thought I wanted to make that would be more on the sweet side of things worked best made on the day. I was pretty sure my friend would love a french toast bake though and since it was her birthday brunch, not mine, I set out to make one that would make me happy as well. I used croissants in place of bread and, trust me, this is the one time that those doughy, bread like grocery store croissants work better than a really well made, flaky croissant, so get those. They...

Like any normal human being, I love caramel corn. I also love my roasted lentils AND I love gochujang, that magic, sticky, sweet, spicy Korean hot pepper paste. I bought my first tub of gochujang in a mall called K-Town so, naturally, I am calling this confection "K Corn". Props to my Korean grocery store peeps who are responsible for igniting my love affair with Korean food. This candied popcorn is sweet, it's spicy and it's crunchy, thanks to crispy roasted french lentils and nutty sesame seeds. I had to hide this stuff just so I could have enough to photograph because both of my guys wouldn't stop wandering into the kitchen to sneak handfuls of this caramel corn all night. This is the only snack you will ever need again. It took me a few tries to get the caramel just right but using the base recipe from The Kitchn  as my foundation, it finally all came together. You can find gochujang  at any Korean or Japanese grocery store as well as most general ...

Shack has been asking me to make him a bread pudding for about 18 years. Believe it or not, I am finally getting around to doing that now. I don't know why it has taken me two decades to make something I know would make him so happy but better late than never, right? Although I had dreams of making a pumpkin bread pudding with dark chocolate or some sort of exotic concoction,  I was shot down at every turn. He said I could add cinnamon and he liked the idea of dulce de leche or caramel but that was it. Oh, and raisins. He wanted raisins in it. Yeah, whatever, like that is ever going to happen. Pretty demanding for a guy who has been waiting his entire adult life for one of these desserts. Maybe I do know why it has taken me two decades to make him some bread pudding.