Stuffed French Toast

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Intriguing entry title, yes? There's a food photo coming but first, here are a couple of shots from our walk on the beach yesterday afternoon. We ate breakfast at The Egg & I, then spent the morning driving and walking around Ogunquit a bit. It was expectantly crowded for a Saturday 4th of July. A nice thunderstorm came through in the afternoon (we were hanging out in our motel room) and I said to Steve I would love to see an aerial shot of the crowds leaving the beach. Gradually, as dark clouds approached? Holding out until the last minute, getting soaked? Like little ants diving for cover?

This beach is right across the street from our hotel, so after dinner we walked along the sidewalk, amazed by the high tide. (This picture is also from our afternoon stroll, not high tide.) The tides are intriguing us so I'll have to do a bit more research on that. I found a schedule online that tells when high and low tides are each day. Interesting stuff.

We ate dinner last night at Ruby's Wood Grill. I had one of my favorite summer sandwiches, a BLT - but man, there was nothing dainty or light about this sandwich. I've never seen this much bacon on a BLT before. It was a bit fatty for this turkey bacon girl, but once I got rid of most of that and was just left with the thick cut smoky bacon on the sandwich, it was perfect. I couldn't eat all the fries, nor could Steve eat all his Buffalo fries with his burger. We skipped dessert and headed to the beach to walk off our dinner.

But this morning - here's the Stuffed French Toast I had that was To Die For. We headed out to a bagel place we'd seen listed on a map, but the line was out the door so we kept driving. We happened upon The Firefly Diner, which just opened 1 week ago yesterday. The Stuffed French Toast was their breakfast special, choice of strawberries, blueberries or blackberries. I had strawberry and Steve ordered the blueberry version. The waitress took our order then shortly thereafter we heard her tell her co-workers she had to go home and get (something) they were out of. It turns out it was her homemade fresh strawberry preserves that they put on this dish, along with cream cheese. It wasn't much of a wait, but even if it was, it was so worth it.

Unfortunately no one saw me take this photograph, thereby I didn't get to embarrass Steve, so that was a little disappointing. But I had not even tasted the food at this point - little did I know how outstanding the taste was going to be. When the waitress came over to check on us, I was gushing on about how fantastic this was, pointing out I usually finish eating before Steve but I purposely ate slowly because I didn't want it to end.

She brought out a jar of jelly she made to show me - it was kiwi with rum and bourbon (I think?) in it. It looked gorgeous, all green with black seeds. Now there's a PB & J that could kick your butt, huh?

She then sent the owner over so I could tell her how great the dish was. The family next to us turned around to see what we had eaten (too late!) that could be so good. She and I talked about our favorite cooking shows on The Food Network. I returned to going on and on about how great the food was and the family turned around again. I swear I could see their thought balloons, "Geez Louise, lady, we get it - you liked it. Simmer down."

The first time I had Stuffed French Toast was at an IHOP a year or two ago. Now I never pass it up given the opportunity. This homemade version was the best ever. As much as I like it, it never occurred to me until right now, that I could make this at home! Duh!

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