Sometimes you want the flavor of cinnamon in your french toast, but you don’t want to sit there with a microplane with a keen eye for splinters grating. Yeah, I know, you can get the ground up stuff from the supermarket, but anybody who has grated their own nutmeg or cinnamon would likely tell you that grating it fresh is the better way to go. You have no idea how long that stuff has been sitting on the grocery store shelf and how much of the oils that give the spice its flavor have drifted out into the plastic or through the faulty seals in the jar. Another alternative is to make a little tincture or extraction. Put a cinnamon stick or nutmeg nut or both into a saucepan with a cup of water and a 2 tablespoons of sugar and boil it until the sugar dissolves completely. Pour this into a mason jar or other airtight container. Get yourself a fairly neutral flavored clear liquor, like rum or vodka and pour about a cup of that into the jar and seal it up. Put that in your cupboard for about a week, giving it a good shake once a day. by about the end of the week, its ready to use, but if you want the flavor more intense, leave it alone in that jar for another week.

I added some of mine to two eggs, a half cup of milk, and a half cup of cream, and some of the bourbon vanilla extract I made using the same method as the cinnamon, but sub in Kentucky bourbon for the vodka or the rum. Get some of those leftover parker house rolls from the fridge, cut them in half, and let them sit in the egg and cream mixture while you are heating up your waffle iron. Once a drop of water sizzles but does not dance off the iron, spray it with a little canola or peanut oil and load in your soaked dinner rolls. Close up your waffle iron and let them cook for a minute or two.  They make some very tasty French Toasted waffles. I like mine with a bit of butter and some maple syrup and a nicely sliced orange.

Dig in.