Day Two Hundred Six

FINE. I ADMIT IT. I MISS TRAVELLING.

I honestly never thought I would piece those words together to form a sentence.

Four score and a million years ago, I was a road warrior. The first probably 5 years of my professional career were spent 100% travelling all over the place. I visited just about every state plus Canada as I wandered all over the place to support ERP implementations. I used to leave on Sundays and be back Thursday night and ... I kind of loved it.

But that was before 9/11. I lasted as a road warrior about 9 months after that because NOPE. I mean, I remember driving up to the airport 30 minutes before I had to be on a plane and it was no big deal. It was plenty of time to get on board. But then it became a risk to be anything less than two hours early to the airport and all fun was gone. Travel was nowhere near as convenient after the changes to security made air travel tedious and time consuming.

So I got a real job with an office and all of that. I still travelled, but nowhere near as much. And it stayed that way for a very long time, across multiple jobs. I have always travelled for work, but generally only around 20-25% of the time.

My current job has me travelling internationally, even. There's long trips, but then I'm home for a long time, and it all balances. Those long trips, though. They're ... rough. I'm never ever going to be a fan of being on a plane for 20+ hours. So it's possible that I was kinda sorta maybe not disappointed when my planned trip to China was cancelled because of COVID-19 earlier this year.

Okay, so I was super happy. I do eventually want to get to China, but I just can't convince myself that it sounds fun to be trapped on a plane long enough to get there.

But then we got to election season. I have always purposely planned travelled in the month of October so that I wouldn't be in the lovely battleground state of Pennsylvania in the weeks leading up to an election and OMG THAT WAS SO SMART LET'S DO IT AGAIN.

So many ads. So many commercials. So many signs. So much drama.

PUT ME ON A PLANE, COACH. This being home stuff is definitely not fun, at least not right now.

Day Two Hundred Five

Both of the girls have decided that Stuffed French Toast is peak awesomeness. I don't really know why, but if they're going to consider it to be a very special treat, I'm going to let it be a very special treat. The toppings change each time I make it based on what I have on hand, which right now happens to be apples. Lots of apples. And, of course, pumpkin because 'tis the season and all that.

The two go together so well.

Pumpkin Apple Stuffed French Toast

4 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs
1 tablespoon milk
Brioche bread
Butter
3 small apples, cleaned and sliced
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract.

2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and milk.

3. Slap a layer of cream cheese between two pieces of bread then dip the "sandwich" in egg.

4. Melt a little butter in a large, nonstick skillet over medium heat. Toss your egg-coated "sandwich" into the pan. Cook until the bottom is lightly browned, flip, and cook on the other side. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you're all cooked up. BTW, the one lesson I've learned about making french toast is that the temperature you cook it at is the most important part. My gas stove has to be on exactly "medium." Too hot and I burn the french toast and too cool results in rubbery french toast.

5. Toss the water in a saucepan. Whisk in the cornstarch and then begin to boil on high heat. Immediately add the apples and allow to cook until the apples are just about soft. Make sure to stir a lot.

6. Stir in the pumpkin, nutmeg, and cinnamon. If you want the topping to be more syrup-like, feel free to add water until you're happy with it. Also, give it a little taste test and add sugar if needed. It's done when you're happy with the crispness of the apples - I like them to still have a little shape, but not be crispy. It's your choice, though.

7. Toss a finished stack of french toast on a plate and top with the pumpkin apple mixture.

Day Two Hundred Four