Mmmm... puddingy.

I'm baking. This is why I love weekends... it's Saturday night, 9 pm; I'm sharing a very boozy hot chocolate with HD (Bailey's Irish Cream: The Reason For the Season), and I'm concocting dessert when we didn't even eat dinner (lunch at 3:00, don't worry, Dad).

Yesterday was the 2 year anniversary of HD and my first date at My Thai in San Rafael. To celebrate, I made reservations at Pesce in Russian Hill. Our seafood dinner was delicious, and for dessert we had a limoncello tiramisu and some kind of amazing apricot bread pudding. I was inspired; at any given time, we have 2-3 partial loaves of extremely stale bread in the fridge. We always have eggs and milk. So after decorating the tree, I got to work.

Step 1: Nearly sever fingers by trying to cube a 2-week-old loaf of sourdough batard from Bovine Bakery. Put cubes in casserole.

Step 2: Dice some dried apricots, sprinkle in casserole with dried cranberries and golden raisins. When HD is sufficiently engrossed in a rerun of Reno 911, sneak some Ghirardelli white chocolate chips out of the pantry and sprinkle right in there. Go ahead, he can't hear you over his disturbing laughter.

Step 3: Basically make french toast batter, but add some extra fun: a teaspoon of allspice, a teaspoon of Madagascar vanilla bean paste, some organic sugar, a quarter cup of pure maple syrup, and last but definitely not least, a tablespoon of Jack Daniel's. Mmmmmm. More booze. Definitely not driving anymore tonight.

Step 4: Combine the batter with the bread mixture, let sit in the fridge, covered, for 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400.

Step 5: Bake.