Oven French Toast, Sausage Gravy

This morning I made the Oven French Toast. Actually, I made the OFT last night and just put it in the oven this morning. It was really good! The recipe is from Florida's Natural Orange Juice.

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OVEN FRENCH TOAST

2 eggs
1/2 cup Florida's Natural orange juice
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
8 French bread slices, cut 1 inch thick
(next day) 1/4 cup melted butter, plus extra

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, orange juice, milk, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Dip both sides of french bread in mixture and place in a buttered 9x13 baking dish; pour remaining mixture over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove cover, pour melted butter over bread, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

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The hint of orange was fantastic! I ate it with some maple syrup - so good! I also had a roll of breakfast sausage to use up, so I made 3 patties and used the rest to make Sausage Gravy. I learned how to make it from Krista's Kitchen, so this is her recipe.

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SAUSAGE GRAVY

1 roll pork breakfast sausage
1 tbsp. butter, optional
2-3 tbsp. flour
2 cups milk
salt & pepper

Brown and crumble the sausage in a skillet or medium saucepan over medium heat. When cooked thru, remove sausage with slotted spoon to a plate. Depending on how much fat your sausage rendered you may continue, or add the butter if you need more fat. Once the butter is melted, over medium-low heat, add the flour, stirring constantly for 1-2 minutes - do not let burn! Then slowly pour in the milk, stirring constantly and turn up the heat to medium-high. Keep stirring and the mixture will thicken into gravy. Season to taste with salt & pepper (I used 1/4 tsp. each), then add back in the sausage.

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I also made biscuits (from a can) in the oven at the same time the OFT was baking, which is what the Sausage Gravy was served over. Why all these different things? Well, I love french toast and my husband loves biscuits and gravy, and we don't really like what the other does, so I made two breakfasts. It really wasn't that much work (cooking to me isn't work because I love to cook) and we are both very happy! And it was fun! I had never made gravy like that before and it was exciting for me to see come together and thicken - I was giggling in the kitchen like a little kid. LOL

Dinner was 'fend for yourself/leftovers', so more tomorrow. I hope you all had lovely weekends!

Happy eating!