Panettone French Toast

Mmmm....I always loved Panettone as a kid. We ate it at breakfast, toasted with cream cheese on top. I remember one Christmas I gave a box to my teacher and she said "Is this from your Italian grandma?" I made sure to tell her it was actually my grandpa who is Italian.

I didn't know until I bought this particular loaf at a small shop here in Madrid that they also eat it in Perú. It's exactly the same, except that it's spelled "Panetón" and it's normally eaten dipped in hot chocolate.

This was an eye-opening and amazing discovery, but with it came an even more delicious discovery: Panetón makes excellent French Toast.

-6 thick slices of Panettone (or Panetón, depending on where you buy it from)
-3 eggs
-3/4 cup milk
-Cinnamon
-Butter
-Pinch salt

Beat eggs, milk, cinnamon and salt in a wide, shallow bowl. Melt butter in a frying pan. Let the Panettone slices soak in the egg mixture longer than you normally would for french toast, especially if the slices are very thick. You don't want them dry inside, or do you? It's best to let some slices soak while others are cooking, first coating on both sides and then flipping them as you flip the slices in the pan.
Cook until golden brown on each side, and then serve with maple syrup (hard to find here...boo!) and strawberries.

Cocido Madrileño

Cocido is a chickpea stew made from a collection of different meats. It's one of my favorite Spanish dishes. I can't think of anything more perfect that a hot plate of Cocido with some crusty bread on a rainy winter's day.
This is going to be a difficult recipe to write since the amounts of everything are all to taste. Apologies in advance if it's hard to follow, because I'm not going to write exact amounts at all. Basically, meat + stew vegetables + chickpeas=cocido. I hope you're good at math because that formula is key here.

you will need:

-cooked chickpeas
-chorizo
-chicken
-morcilla (blood sausage)
-fatty, streaked bacon in a block, or lard
-cured ham bones with some meat still attached
-sliced cabbage
-cubed potatoes
-cut carrots
-onion
-garlic
-salt
-pepper

cover meat in water in a large pot and cook slowly for about an hour. remove ham from bones.

add chickpeas, onions, and garlic. simmer for about 30 minutes and add vegetables. continue cooking until vegetables are done.

drain off all the broth. Save the broth or cook noodles in it to be served as the first course (as they do in restaurants here).