French Bread and French Toast and Sweet Potato French Fries... Oooh la la

These recipes are the extent of my "French" cooking but they're all fun, easy and yummy real food recipes, so I thought I'd share. ♥   I bake two loaves of the French Bread at a time to make sure there is some left over for French Toast the next morning.  Thinking ahead and preparing for upcoming meals is a huge time saver in the kitchen for me.  So, whenever you can, make an extra batch of dough and freeze it or bake it right away and freeze it for a later date.  If you wrap this bread up well, it keeps for a couple days on the counter.  Enjoy!

French Bread
makes 1 loaf

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 T white sugar (can substitute honey)
2 T vegetable oil
3 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
cornmeal
1 egg white
1 T cold water

Place yeast, warm water, sugar, oil, flour and salt into bread machine.  Set to "dough" setting.

When done rising in bread machine, turn dough onto floured surface and punch down. Shape into a 16 - inch long loaf, tapered at the ends.  Sprnkle greased baking sheet with cornmeal and place loaf on top of cornmeal.  Cover loaf with a damp cloth and let it rise until doubled in size.  When it is done rising, make a diagonal cuts across the top of the loaf.  Beat egg white and cold water. Brush the top of loaf with egg mixture.  Bake in a 375* oven for 25 - 30 minutes.
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French Toast

8 - 10 slices day old French Bread
5 eggs
3 T half and half with 1 T. white sugar dissolved in it
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Whisk eggs and half and half, whisk in cinnamon.  Lightly oil and pre heat a griddle over medium heat.  Dip  bread in the egg mixture and place on heated griddle. Flip when the bottom side is golden brown and cook until other side is golden.

Serve immediately topped with maple syrup or cinnamon sugar.
Wonderful served with baked apples.
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Sweet Potato French Fries

3 large sweet potatoes
kosher salt
course ground pepper
olive oil

Pre heat oven to 450*.  Peel sweet potatoes. Cut pointy ends off of potatoes.  Cut potatoes into 1/2" - 3/4" slices and then into french fries.   On a large cookie sheet, sprinkle fries with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.  You want the fries to be glossy, but not soaking in oil.  Mix all the yumminess together with your (clean, preferably) hands.  Spread fries out into a single layer, fries not touching each other.  Bake for about 12 minutes, then flip fries and bake for another 10 minutes or so.   Let fries sit for a couple minutes before serving.  Serves 5-6.