Hangover Brunch

My good friend's wedding was last night, and WOW was it fun. The food at her reception....zut allores! She used Food for Thought, who happens to be my favorite caterer - they did an all custom French-Vietnamese menu for my wedding two years ago, and people still comment about how memorable and wonderful the food was...Or maybe I just like reminding them. Nonetheless, hubba hubba. Last night, they served a ginger sesame ceviche in particular that I'm going to try to get the recipe for because it stopped me dead in my peep-toe pumps. I think the bride and I actually spent 10 minutes talking about it.

So we celebrated with great food, terrific wines, a full bar...and I'm up this early why? The hangover. Alcohol is a stimulant after it metabolizes, after all. Which in my case is usually 5:00 a.m.-ish. Yawn. Blink.

For morning-after recovery, breakfast can be a great help once I'm done chugging electrolytes to rehydrate. Is it wrong to want Panettone French Toast with Rum when you're hungover? I'm no believer in hair-of-the-dog remedies. The alcohol burns off, does it not?...I'm going to give it the thumbs up, except that I don't have any panettone at the moment, so I'll just use raisin bread instead. As an extra precaution, I'll make smoothies too. All those antioxidants and fruit juices should undo plenty of damage.

Easiest Smoothie Recipe Ever

1 cup frozen fruit (peaches with either berries or mangoes are great)
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 heaping tbsp almond or peanut butter
drizzle honey

Blitz until totally smooth and frothy. If you don't live in Chicago in the dead of winter and/or you have fresh fruit you prefer to use instead, you'll need to add some ice cubes to froth it up.


Panettone French Toast with Rum
(from Bon Appetit)

1 500-gram (approximately 17.5 ounces) panettone
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 large eggs
2 cups milk
2/3 cup dark rum
butter

Preheat oven to 200°F. Cut bread into 1-inch-thick slices. Cut slices into roughly 5x1-inch strips. Combine sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. In shallow bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and rum.

Dip 5 bread strips into egg mixture; let stand 2 minutes. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Cook bread until golden brown and firm touch, about 4 minutes on each side. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar over French toast, turning to coat on all sides. Cook until sugar melts, turning once, about 2 minutes. Transfer French toast to baking sheet; keep warm in oven. Repeat with remaining bread, egg mixture, butter and cinnamon sugar in 3 more batches. Transfer French toast to plates.

Ok, now my husband really needs to get up...