Bread pudding is my favorite!

Using some of the leftover whole wheat bread from yesterday’s chili party, I made a French toast-inspired bread pudding this morning. 
I topped my portion with banana slices and maple syrup. Holy, holy, holy yum!

My portion may look small, but this bread pudding was soooo filling! It is sitting like a rock in my stomach right now. I hope it digests before I hit the Y for a workout later this morning.

How to:

• Preheat oven to 325*F
• Cut bread 2-3 thick slices of bread into small cubes and place in a greased baking pan
• Combine in a small bowl: 
  • 1/3 cup liquid egg whites
  • 1/2 cup vanilla hemp or soy milk
  • 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
  • Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
• Pour liquid mixture over bread cubes, coating throughly
• Bake (uncovered) for 15-20 minutes
• Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before enjoying

Isn’t this polka-dot bowl cute?!? Heather gave it to me for the Valentine’s Day swap. I love it! 
With iced coffee… 

Happy Sunday, bloggies!!!

Sabrina described our Boston Blogger Meet-up perfectly: “Small Plates, Big Mouths!” The 13 of us talked non-stop while at dinner! We all had so much in common and our conversation flowed naturally for nearly 3 hours. Our mouths were chatting so much, I’m surprised we were able to eat at all!

The chatting began almost immediately as people arrived to dinner. Our poor server must have been so annoyed with us because she tried to take our orders a number of times before we finally took a break from talking to look at the menu.

I started with a glass of Raymond Chardonnay Reserve. I drank two glasses over the course of the evening.

The tapas menu at Small Plates was seriously to die for! Even with recommendations from our server, I still had such a difficult time deciding what I wanted to eat for dinner. I honestly wanted to try everything on the menu!

The first tapas that I chose was the Warm Squash ‘Fettuccine’ with Tomato Romesco. When it was served to me, I was immediately impressed by the colors. I never expected squash to look so vibrant and the presentation to be so beautiful! (I was expecting a plate of spaghetti squash.) The serving was topped with fresh basil leaves and a crostini. The visual aesthetics added so much to this dish!

The flavor and texture of the Warm Squash ‘Fettuccine’ was wonderful, too. The ‘fettuccine’ was basically long, soft ribbons of different kinds of squash, and its consistency was very much like actual pasta. The tomato sauce actually had a little kick to it, which was a nice flavor contrast to the more mild squash. Both the tomato sauce and squash tasted extremely fresh.

My second dish was the Blue Cheese Raclette with Seared Tomato and Fingerling Potatoes. The cheese was basically blended into a soft “patty,” which was topped with a breadcrumb-like crust and a thick slice of seared tomato, surrounded by thinly sliced baked fingerling potatoes and drizzled with a thick balsamic dressing. The blue cheese raclette had an intensely rich flavor, which was AMAZING! I slowly savored each and every bite.

I spread the soft cheese onto the tomato as well as the potato slices before smearing them in the dressing for a number of different flavor variations. The Blue Cheese Raclette was easily my favorite tapas of the evening. Delish!

When it was time for dessert, I didn’t have trouble deciding (1) if I wanted dessert; (2) what to order for dessert. The tapas portions were obviously small, so they left room for a sweet treat at the end of the meal, and I absolutely LOVE bread pudding, so the decision was easy. Katie and I split the Ginger Apple Bread Pudding with Southern Wild Turkey Sauce.

The Bread Pudding was a heavenly dessert! The thick bread was perfectly firm-on-the-outside and soft-on-the-inside and covered with a sweet, slightly sticky sauce. Bits of apple and a subtle ginger flavor were infused throughout, and the dessert was finished off with a pair of strawberry slices and a fresh mint leaf on top.

My portion…

I love this quote that was on the bottom of the Small Plates dessert menu:

“Who is to say that ‘bigger is better’?
I’ve often wondered that.
Can you not fit more kumquats in a jar than you could, say, spools of twine?
Flavors are similar.
Give me small plates any day & an extraordinary bottle
of wine and I will be happy forever.”

Nanthida Bernardeau, 1946

Boston bloggies! We totally forgot to snap a photo until the very end of the night, and by then, some of our crew had already headed home. Here are the remaining ladies!

(l – r) Elina, Shannon, Bridget, Kelly, me, Sabrina, Sarah, and Lauren

Missing from the photo: MacDuff, Karley, Sue, Inna, and Katie

It was so, so, so nice to meet these lovely Boston bloggers and readers. I love knowing that so many intelligent, friendly, and beautiful women live right here in the same city. I can’t wait to get together soon. Ladies, perhaps a potluck dinner is in our future?