ricotta toasts, three ways.

it allllllll started when this piece o' bread convinced me it was a donut.

this rustic campagnolo bread (the brown one below) seriously takes on donut-like properties when toasted and buttered.  the key here is butter.  it was the wildest thing.  i honestly felt like i was eating a donut, on two separate occasions.

i put these cherry preserves (thanks greg & rebecca!) on this buttered slice of 

grand central bakery's campagnolo

 toast, aaaaaand it was so mega delicious and mysteriously donut-like.  later... i made a regular ol grilled cheese sandwich with the same bread...and it tasted like a donut, too!  like whaaaaaa!? 

i began researching this magical bread straight away.  all i know is that its made with honey and yellow polenta, so maybe thats where it gets its sweeter characteristics.

howeverrrrr, when not buttered, the campagnolo bread does not take on donut-like properties.   its very earthy and more like a rye when plain...

rye bread and donuts do not go hand in hand for me...

its all so puzzling.

sooo, then i went on a toast making spree!

here's how it all went down.

grand central baking company campagnolo

on the left, a plump baby loaf of pugliese on the right.

the pugliese is most delightful and seems like a middle of the road bread, somewhere between the likes of sourdough and white as far as texture and flavor.

sometime a few years ago, i was seriously pondering how badly i just wanted there to be a place where i could get a good piece o toast in the morning with a fun topping......

fast forward to 2015, and its alllllllllll about the damn toasts with fun toppings.

uggghhh, why didn't i execute?!? 

nobody wants to shut up about avocado toasts or ricotta toasts right now.  i'm personally very into these types of toast because they are scrumptious.  so i won't shut up about it either!

so anyway.  here you have ricotta toasts.  in three different variations.

campagnolo toasted well, buttered (!!!), ricotta, cherry preserves, topped with fine espresso powder

the espresso powder was such a lovely addition!  it just boosted up the flavor of the cherry.

[ps. i don't even usually like cherry flavored things at all... so apparently i dont like the classics, according to

my last post about grape flavors

.  but i DO like these cherry preserves that peter's friends made and gave to us]

i don't know what it was, y'all.  but it really tasted like some sort of fruity donut!!!

i don't get it either.  just believe me.  it was a toasty miracle.

now here's "the classic" in the trendy toast trends.

pugliese with ricotta cheese, avocado, fried egg, black pepper, & red chili flakes

last, but not least, is the ricotta + nutella and raspberries.

pugliese with ricotta cheese, nutella, & raspberries

[i would switch it up with whatever fruit you see fit, like nanners.]

toast toast toast toast toast toast everyboddddyyyy.

all three toasts are delicious and flavorful in their own special ways.

mmmmmm! good mooooorrrrrning, toast lovvahhhs.

qp

fresh concord grape juice.

who am i?

i nevvverrrrr ever liked grape juice and/or grape flavored items of any sort.  however, i love grapes.

what?  

we bought these concord grapes at our local produce stand recently, not really knowing what we were buying.  when i got home and smelled and tasted them, i was like GASP this tastes like artificial grape!  i then had a real epiphany that "artificial grape flavored" things actually are accurately flavored after a type of grape......i had always thought it was a big made up sham flavor, like the way that watermelon things don't reeally taste like watermelon, ya digg??

anyhoo.  i forgot all about

those adorable welch's grape juice commercials

from back in the day that clearly state that their grape juice is made from 100% concord grapes.  durrrrrrr, quinn.  i guess i didn't care to pay attention to them because i never thought i liked grape juice.

oh, what a treat! they conveniently play the entire little rascals movie after

this video

 on youtube.  spanky is sooo dang cute in this commercial and he makes me extra excited about my grape juice.

sidenote, i'd be prettyyyyy dang confident entering a little rascals movie trivia competition and/or line-reciting contest.  this might be the movie i watched the absolute most growing up.   none of that old tymey little rascals stuff, just the 1994 version with all the cute kids.

i still say,

"thank you, my good man"

to pretty much everybody.

ooh ooh, watch

this video too

if you give a hoot at all about these rascals.  makes me feel old as the hills.

these grapes parade around looking a lot like big fat blueberries.

 we decided to put them through the juicer and see what happened.

good things happened.

we ran the grapes through the juicer maybe 3 or 4 times until it seemed like most of the juice came out.

 and we were left with a delicious and beautiful fresh glass of frothy 100% grape juice!

it was perfectly sweetened.  we didn't add anything except a little bit of cold water.

we've been keeping it in a jar in the fridge and i go take a big swig every now and then.  its just so flavorful and juicy! 

the frothy stuff settles on the top after being refrigerated for a while, so you could scrape that off if you don't want the foam.  there's just pure grape juice down below.

100% juice for 100% kids, like meeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

qp