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Crème Brûlée Croissant French Toast | The Perfect New Year’s Day Brunch!

I love traditions, especially when they involve food. One of our fam favourites for years now has been to wake up on Christmas morning, opening stockings and then feast on this total decadence. The time it takes to bake is about the same amount of time it takes to get through unwrapping all those little treasures stuffed into that knitted sock, so it’s perfect. But let’s not kid ourselves, friends. This is totally dessert for breakfast. And you know what? On Christmas morning that seems just about right to me.

{Side note: This is clearly not a gluten free recipe, and I don’t actually eat it myself. I’ve made a gluten-free, eggless version for myself the last couple of years but it’s…errrmm…not so photo-worthy if you know what I mean. Truth is, most of my enjoyment comes from the groans of glory coming from my guys as they eat theirs.}

Confession: This IS the perfect New Year’s Day Brunch dish, but I have NOT styled a perfectly pretty table to present it to you. I had planned on taking the holidays off with my family to just relax and connect, but when so many of you saw my Instagram photo and asked for the recipe, I knew I had to oblige. So without further ado…

Here is my recipe for:

Crème Brûlée Croissant French Toast

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick unsalted butter {grass fed is ideal}
1 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 cups whipping cream {Have I mentioned this is not a “start your diet today” kind of dish?!}
2 eggs
2 TBSP ground chia seeds
1 TBSP cognac {optional}
4-6 flaky croissants, the size will determine the number required {the ones at Colette in Toronto are as close to Parisian as it gets ’round these parts, so head there if you can when picking up your supplies. You’ll want to stay for brunch, trust me!}

METHOD:

Add butter and maple syrup to a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour into the base of a 9×12 baking dish.

Cut the croissants in half and line the pan with croissants {cut side down} so as to absorb the caramel sauce. Cut small pieces to fill in the gaps after you’ve layered in the whole pieces so that the entire dish is completely covered in croissants.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream, eggs, ground chia and cognac. If you don’t want to use chia {or you don’t have any} just use 2 more eggs. And if you want to go totally eggless, just use 2 more TBSP of chia and skip the eggs. See? Options.

Pour the cream mixture evenly over the top of the croissants and cover with cling wrap. Refrigerate overnight. In the morning, preheat the oven to 350˚F and bake for 30 minutes. Cut into slices and serve with fresh fruit, bacon and really good coffee. It is New Year’s Day, after all!

I have to take just a moment to reminisce with you about 2014. If I were to sum it up in one word, for me it would be beautifully unexpected. OK, so that’s two words. But if I had just said unexpected that wouldn’t have quite captured it. Tate was the most beautiful surprise we could have asked for and he’s completely changed our lives for the better. He’s been a bit like a “restart” button after some really hard surprises with family and health. And so as I head into 2015 I’m celebrating the beauty of the unexpected as I see it crawling around my living room and cruising furniture getting ready to walk.

Seems like a bit of a metaphor to me.

If you’ve had a hard year – if some of your unexpected’s have been less than beautiful – I feel you. But our dreams, our potential and our futures are all bright, friends. Their beauty hasn’t faded, and just like Tate, my gut tells me they are on the verge of getting their feet underneath themselves and not just learning to walk,  but learning to run.

Look out, 2015. Here. We. Come.

xx
s.

By |December 30th, 2014|0 Comments

Thanksgiving-Inspired Homemade Baby Food | Baby Brezza

I don’t know about all the other mamas out there, but transitioning Tate to solids has been  s  l  o  w. Seriously, I joke he is a part of the slow food movement. It’s totally foreign to me because Noah was always a great eater. But Tate? Tate has chosen his own pace and his own timing, as he seems to do with many things.

Of particular challenge has been finding proteins we can get into him. The store bought baby foods with protein are just plain nasty – they stimulate his gag reflex in about 5 seconds flat. Honestly, I can’t blame him! I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get over this hurdle together…until recently when I received a Baby Brezza. With the technology to make finely puréed, organic baby food right at my finger tips I found myself suddenly at an advantage in this mealtime game of chicken.

Sorry, bad pun.

Anyway, armed with my Baby Brezza and the steely determination of a loving mama, I found inspiration in my Thanksgiving stuffing recipe and set about winning this little battle. Turns out it wasn’t mealtime {or protein} that was the problem so much as the food just needed to taste good. Go figure! I can handle making things taste good, and the Brezza can handle steaming and purée-ing things to a baby-approved fine texture, so together we are kind of unstoppable.

Here’s what I did:

I started by sprinkling some dried herbs on an organic chicken breast and sautéing it on high heat very quickly just to brown it slightly. My goal wasn’t to cook it, because the Baby Brezza fully steam cooks the food for you. I just wanted to give it some flavour, and a bit of caramelization on meat is pretty much magic, right?

I then sliced the chicken breast up and added:

1/4 c. organic pumpkin purée
1/2 an organic fuji apple
5 organic dried apricots
The teeniest touch of salt

I clicked the Baby Brezza into place {this requires a firm hand} and hit the steam + purée button and then chose the 25 minute cycle to ensure that the chicken would be fully cooked. I pressed the round green button and walked away.

25 minutes later I came back to perfectly puréed, actually tasty, totally healthy baby food. Yes, I did try it myself and yes it was indeed quite yummy. But the proof’s in the pudding, as they say, and Tate was the ultimate taste tester.

The great news is, he approves! Such a huge relief to feel like I can get balanced nutrients into this sweet little nugget. I’m still experimenting with recipes, but my creativity is really the only limit. I’m sure it goes without saying that the Baby Brezza would make a really thoughtful gift for any parents-to-be on your Christmas list. And if you are a mom struggling to get your little one to eat their protein and greens, don’t wait! Just pick one up for yourself right here.

Three cheers to winning that mealtime battle! Baby steps, right?

xo
s.

*Many thanks to Baby Brezza Canada for sending me this little baby mealtime wonder!

By |November 29th, 2014|0 Comments

Our Family Photos + Some Gorgeous Custom Christmas Cards from Minted

As my sneak peek from Tuesday suggested, we just had our family photos done by the fabulously talented Gabriela Hansen. Unbeknownst to her, Gaby is the first photographer to take our family photos for us two years in a row. With many portrait photographers, once you’ve done one session with them, you’ve pretty much captured their aesthetic and there’s not really anywhere else to go with it. Gaby, on the other hand, just keeps growing and evolving and I knew she would do a brilliant job of capturing the essence of our family in a fresh new way again this year.

And I really think she nailed it. I mean, just look at these shots of Noah for starters!

Somebody call Kinfolk Magazine, because I think I just found their next photographer/model team. I know I’m biased, but is this kid not irresistible?
I’ve loved this man for almost half of my life, and I’m going to love him for the rest of it. He makes me laugh and supports me and loves me through thick and thin. I am truly blessed. 
I love how Gaby captures the feeling of family. One of my favourite things in life is holding hands with my boy. I didn’t tell her that, but she seemed to know it intuitively, and she captured it beautifully. In fact, I would say her editorial style captures moments and creates memories, even as you’re enjoying the shoot with her. Noah loved the afternoon just as much as the rest of us, despite the chilly temperatures. If you can make a 10 year old happy and get him laughing while taking his photo on a freezing cold day, you’ve succeeded in my book!
We actually laughed a LOT, and there may or may not have been some photobombing that took place. 
The truth is, there were so many great shots to choose from that we had a really hard time landing on just one to use for the front of our custom Christmas cards from Minted. Pretty great problem to have, right? And we had the same awesome problem when it came to choosing the card style! 

I was beyond thrilled when the creative team at Minted generously reached out to me and offered to provide us with our cards for this holiday season. Minted is a crowd-sourced design company based in San Francisco that draws upon design talent from all around the world with monthly competitions to find the most creative and refreshing designs and designers going. The winning designs are then printed in a variety of products, including totally customizable holiday cards.

Just take a look at some of the gorgeous options available:

And they can all be customized with seemingly endless options, from super thick paper to folded cards to laser-cut shapes and even Christmas ornaments like the first image above! I guess I’m a bit of a traditionalist, but I still like writing inside a folded card, so here’s what we chose:
And here’s how we customized it inside. I love that there’s still room for us to write a personal message while having our broader family holiday wishes captured for us ahead of time with the customization of this layout. Brilliant! 

If I’d been a tad more organized, I totally would have taken advantage of the free option to have them print all of the addresses on the envelopes as well. How awesome is that?! Even the liner of the envelopes and the Skinny Wrap return address stickers are adorably detailed:
In the spirit of generosity, Minted has offered my readers a 15% discount on all holiday card orders now until the 27th of November. That’s one whole week to make it happen, and then you can kick back and relax with a good cuppa knowing your gorgeous custom cards are on their way to you, lickety-split! {Shipping and turnaround times are super fast.}

Just use the discount code CURATED15 when you check out, and let me know how your cards turn out! This is probably the most excited I’ve been yet to send mine to family and friends. Thank you Gaby for the gorgeous photos, and thank you Minted for the incredible cards! 
I’m a grateful girl.
xo
s.
By |November 21st, 2013|5 Comments