Jack Daniel's Bread Pudding

So the entry a lot of you have been waiting for...Jack Daniel's Bread Pudding. Everyone knows how much I love bread pudding.

This first appeared during my birthday week....amazing. We've obtained the secret recipe, and I added some of my own secrets. Personally I really liked my version because the sauce was not as liquid-y as the one from my birthday.

But here is the recipe:

- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 2 tablespoons vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups milk
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups sourdough bread cut into 1 inch cubes

It's important to get really tough and crusty sourdough bread, so the final pudding isn't mushy or slimy.

Preheat oven to 325. Beat the eggs and add the butter, vanilla and milk.

Gradually add the sugar and mix until sugar is dissolved. The butter will lump up a bit when the cold milk hits it - don't worry about it. Place bread cubes in bottom of round baking dish. I save the bits with the most crust on them to use at the top for presentation. The crust gets golden and is more visually appealing. Pour liquid over bread , making sure all pieces are saturated. Bake in the oven for 50 or 60 minutes. It's supposed to serve about 8 people. Or if you eat like me, maybe only 4.

Whiskey sauce:
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 cup cream
- 1/2 cup Jack Daniels (I used a honey jack daniels which was AMAZING)

Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan. Stir constantly over low heat until mixture reaches a low, rolling boil for about 30 seconds, then take off the heat. When it cools, put it through a blender for a few seconds, so it won't separate (I did not do this so well but oh well).

This photo shows the bread pudding without the sauce. I forgot to take a picture when I put the sauce on. Got too hungry I guess. When I was ready to warm up the bread pudding again, I actually poured some of this sauce into the bread pudding and baked it in. Then I warmed up the sauce and stirred it together before serving it to people.

Pour a hearty amount over each serving. Or drink the sauce. Enjoy! If you try this let me know!

Birthday Bonfire

What an incredible night. There was about 20 people in attendance. Laying in the sun, eating, talking, and playing music with my friends was more than amazing. I even went swimming in the Puget Sound. The only food related item I have to share is the legendary Jack Daniel's Bread Pudding you see above. My friend Jenn said her coworker has this secret recipe. We all shared this amazing bread pudding over a fire and jam session with some of my favorite people. Jenn later found the recipe for me, and I recreated this amazingness with my own additions. Check it out!

Lunch at Matt's in the Market!

Dinner was so fabulous I had to come for lunch. Jenn and I are might start making this a monthly treat...although there are quite a few other places we would like to try. So after a crazy stressful work week, I was definitely looking forward to a Friday off. And what better way to start your Friday than with stuffing yourself silly at Matt's?

I am a huge mimosa fan...I find it pretty difficult to turn down a mimosa no matter what time of day. It was how I started every "morning" in New Orleans and the thought of sweet fruity bubbles always gets me excited. We sat at the bar and chatted with the bartender a bit and said they served two kinds of mimosas (an orange one and one with cranberry apple juice). Being that we felt you could get an orange mimosa anywhere we went for the latter. It was not as bubbly as I'm used to but yummy just the same.
We started with the chips and dip...basically homemade potato chips and a dip that is so delicious and creamy, it makes you want to not think about what is in it. The bartender told us anyway. Something along the lines of cream cheese, bacon, scallions, sour cream, parmesean, grana cheese (never heard of it but it was tasty in it!). But yeah fat city.

Jenn ordered the Ragda. Potato-grabonzo bean cakes, roasted egglant puree, papdum and cucumber yogurt. In non fancy terms: pan-friend falafels. The cakes had a really strong curry flavor to them. Personally I wasn't a huge fan of the strong flavor with the super soft texture. It reminded me of a reduced curry paste. However, Jenn loved it!

I ordered the Lamb Burger. It was topped with goat cheese, bacon, herb aioli, onion jam on brioche served with a garbanzo-sultana salad. The burger was great but not exceptional. However I think the shining item was the salad. It was light and fresh with a sweet vinegar mint taste. It almost reminded me of a very sweet less fishy vietnamese fish sauce but not as smelly. The fresh mint was a great touch and smelled great. I think that is what reminded me of the vietnamese thing.

At this point we ordered our second mimosa, this time we went for the "regular" orange one. Except this orange mimosa was nothing less than spectacular. Incredibly unique in taste and served with a slice of orange confit that was simmered in simple syrup for hours and hours. It was so tender you could just eat the rind. It was great.


And even after all that, I of course had to top it all off with the bread pudding. That bread pudding is seriously just the definition of "Food-gasm". Every bite is so incredible and I wanted to savor it but then I didn't want the salted caramel ice cream to melt!

As we were eating I noticed there was a large percentage of people that ordered the cobb salad. I wish I had known they were going to used deviled eggs because I would've probably got that! The special that day was beef tounge tacos which also looked heavenly...but once again - a great time at Matt's. The food was quite reasonably priced for fine dining lunch (Average $11-$14 an entree) so I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nicer longer lunch. Like those things all those people in the private sector get to do for free. (ok - not ranting about working in public service) I'll need to take a break from this place for now though because there are so many other places to try!

Coming up next: My first copper river salmon bbq experience.