Ja cię kocham…

Hello you sinfully satisfying sandwich.  Thank you for being so sweet and creamy, melting in my mouth with every delectable bite.  I have never truly believed in love at first sight, but you have proven me wrong.  I fell for you the moment I laid eyes on you.  And I fell hard.

You didn’t disappoint.

The Travel Channel has this awesome show that the hubby and I watch called Man vs. Food.  Have you seen this show?!?  Adam Richman (the host) goes around to different towns to tackle the most monstrous food challenges from the insanely spicy hot wings to the largest hamburger platters the world has ever seen.  And he eats it all.  Adam is the man, and he has conquered food.

During one episode he visited Pittsburgh.  Now I’m from PA  (and if you’re from PA, you say “PA”, not “Pennsylvania”.  It’s a state law, I swear), and I’ll be honest, I have never had the desire to go to the Burgh.  (Sorry Steelers fans. )  I visited the Burgh during my tour of the University of Pitt during my high school years… and subsequently went to Temple University because I have a love affair going on with Philly.  Anyway, what I DID NOT know during my tour of Pittsburgh was that the people eat LARGELY.  When you order breakfast, you get a meal for like 6 people!  They even serve ICE CREAM on their french toast and pancakes.  Oh Pittsburgh, why I have I neglected you?!  A french toast sundae?!?!  Can I start drooling now?!?

I decided to make my own Pittsburgh breakfast with the help of food blogger Burghilicious.  She turned my absolute FAVORITE sandwich (PB and banana) into something so heavenly that I HAD to make it – a PB and banana french toast sandwich.  It was outstanding!  And it was so simple to make.

I used cinnamon bread from the local Amish Market and boy was that a smart move.  Nothing beats homemade cinnamon bread, especially from Shady Maple.   Make sure your bread is sturdy otherwise the sandwich will turn into a droopy, soggy mess.  Lauren, from Burghilicious, used thick slices of challah bread.

If you decide to serve this sandwich with a healthy scoop of Vanilla Bean ice cream, please be sure to invite me over to your house because I want some.

Peanut Butter and Banana French Toast Sandwich

Source: Slightly adapted from Burghilicious

Serves 4

Ingredients:

8 slices cinnamon or challah bread, 1/2 inch thick
2-3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2-3 ounces peanut butter, at room temperature
1-2 bananas, sliced no thicker than 1/4 inch
2 eggs
1 Tbs. half and half
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons butter for the pan
confectioner’s sugar for topping
maple syrup

Directions:

Spread 4 slices of bread with a nice layer of cream cheese and other 4 slices with peanut butter.  Add banana slices to the peanut butter slices.

Close the slices to make a sandwich.  In a large skillet warm butter on medium-high heat.

Mix eggs, cream, cinnamon and vanilla in a bowl.  Generously dip the all sides of the sandwiches into the egg mixture and place in buttered skillet.  Cook on each side for about 3 minutes or until golden brown.

Place sandwiches on serving dish, pour maple syrup on them, and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.

Enjoy!

Happy 100th post, Ja cie Kocham!  This blog was started merely for me to keep track of my own recipes.  I’m notorious for cooking something and not being able to find the recipe for future use so this blog was initially meant to serve as a private food diary for me.  Well, that lasted all about a month when my friends and family kept asking to see it.  So I gave in and made my Ja Cie Kocham visible to the public.  And here I am 100 posts deep.

To make this post even more special it happens to fall on my beautiful puppy’s 1st Birthday.

We don’t have children of our own (yet) so Noodles gets all of our energy and love.  We HAD to celebrate her birthday!  What kind of parents would we be if we didn’t?   I know it sounds corny and quite frankly even ridiculous – I have seen those crazy Dog Moms on Oprah and Dr. Phil that treat their dogs like humans and even chew their food for them – but rest assured that we’re not THAT crazy.  We just love any excuse to celebrate.  And yes, we love our Bean!

And Bean loves her Peanut Butter!  (I let her lick the spoon after I was done scooping the peanut butter…)  She also loves getting presents…  she waits patiently… well, as patiently as a birthday puppy can!

When we first got Noodles, she was so little and had lots of black hair.

As you can clearly see in her more recent posts, her dark black hair has turned a whitish-gray.  She’s half Maltese and half Yorkie so I guess the Maltese in her is coming through!

So let’s talk about these dog cookies.

1. They are so simple to make.
2. You can’t screw them up.  It’s impossible.
3. The original recipe CLAIMS to yield 10 “biscuits”, but mysteriously I ended up with 36!
   
4. And you can eat them, too.  They are not sweet at all so I added some chocolate
   

Please note that Noodles is watching Mommy partake in a cookie….

Peanut Butter Banana Doggie Cookies

Source: Allrecipes

Yields A LOT of cookies…

**Feel free to make the cookies really thick to cut back on the amount and to appease your larger doggies.  My dog is little (10 lbs) so I made the cookies thin so she could easily consume them.**

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup mashed banana
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 egg white, lightly beaten, for brushing

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.

Stir together the egg, peanut butter, banana, and honey in a medium bowl; blend thoroughly. Stir in the flour and wheat germ; mix well.

Turn dough out onto a floured board and roll to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter, place on prepared baking sheet, and brush tops with egg white.

Bake biscuits in preheated oven until dried and golden brown, about 30 minutes, depending on size. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.