Birthday Bread Pudding

As it's the spouse's birthday, there was his choice of breakfast, Bread Pudding. Starting with an allrecipes version, we ended up with this.

In a 9"x9" pan that's been sprayed with cooking spray:

 8 slices of day-old farmer's bread ripped up in small bits and put in the pan.
2 generous soup spoons (kinda like tablespoons) of vegan marg, melted. Drizzle over the bread.
Sprinkle liberally with raisins.

 Mix together: 4 eggs
2 cups almond milk
1/3 c packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 T cinnamon (I really like cinnamon. adjust to your own taste)
Whisk it up well, and pour over the bread.

Forget to pre-heat the oven to 350, so let it all soak while the oven heats. Bake for 40 mins or so.

Eggplant bread

We still get a garden box once a month, and while our household is generally very open to eating damn near anything, there's a couple things that neither of us are fond of. Eggplant is one of those things. So when faced with a lovely eggplant in the last garden box, I did what any self respecting person would, and took to the internet to figure out how to add enough sugar and fat to make even eggplant edible. We shredded it with the food processor and then put it aside in 2 cup amounts in  baggies in the freezer (after trying one eggplant bread recipe from online that was.. enh. Alright, but not wow.)

So I took one of these frozen baggies of eggplant and said 'I can do better than that', and then did.

Eggplant bread

255g flour
90g sugar
3t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt 
90g raisins

Mix all of the dry together in one bowl. 

2c thawed grated eggplant
1/4c vegetable oil
3/4c milk of choice (I use almond)
1/4 jam (random jam I'm trying to use up.. in this case, unsweetened plum)
1 egg

Mix together in the super handy 4c measuring cup.

Pour wet into dry, mix just enough to combine. Pour into greased loaf pan, bake at 350 for anywhere from 45 mins to an hour, depending on when it smells and is done based on a solid poke with a pokey stick.

Dairy free Eggnog

As I start to explore all the ways to go dairy free (at least on a trial basis for now), and on Christmas Eve, there is no soy nog to be found in the stores. It's been sparse on the ground this year, at least anytime I've gone looking. So, I made my own. Easy peasy, and not half bad. It's not vegan (I'm not vegan at all), just dairy free.

Soy Nog

3 eggs
2 cups vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup vanilla soy cream (Silk for coffee is what I found)
3/4 cup icing sugar
tiny pinch salt
Nutmeg
Rum (extract if you are booze free as I am, or the good stuff)

I'm lucky enough to have a stand mixer, so I tossed things in there. Eggs first, mixed until they were pale. Then slowly add the sugar, milk, cream and salt. Mix for a while before adding in about a tablespoon of extract (real rum to taste) and a generous dollop of fresh grated nutmug. Perhaps a couple of teaspoons, but I'm bad at judging. Mix well and store in the fridge. Yes, this uses raw eggs. You have an immune system, make it work. (if you don't, then be careful) I expect it'll be even better tomorrow, if it lasts that long.

If you dont have vanilla soy milk and/or cream, then add a dollop of vanilla extract to touch up the flavour.

Enjoy!