Brunch!

I have new neighbors! Well, they moved in maybe a month ago, but still! They are very nice, they fit in well with the rest of us, and they fall into the "20's" age-range...all ideal. The only downside is that they often work weekends. One of my neighbors happened to have this past weekend off and suggested we do brunch. As you might have guessed, I love brunch and breakfast, so I was totally game. She made huevos rancheros which were excellent, I made a baked french toast (recipe follows), another neighbor brought some lovely garlic-cheese biscuits (alas, no recipe), and my other neighbor brought champagne and carrot-pineapple juice (which is not only the most fantastic shade of neon orange, and actually tastes quite good plain and with champagne.

Baked French Toast (aka easiest brunch dish ever), barely adapted from Smitten Kitchen:
-one loaf of cheap supermarket white bread (I used an "Italian" bread although she calls for Challah)
-butter (enough to grease a 9x11 baking dish)
-2 and 3/4 to 3 cups 1 % milk (or whatever you have on hand, also I used the lesser amount)
-3 eggs
-3 tablespoons sugar
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 mini bottle of baileys (think airplane-size)
-a few splashes of triple sec (*next time I will just use orange zest or lemon zest, as I couldn't taste the triple sec)
-a splash vanilla (I don't think I even used a teaspoon considering how strong the baileys is)
-cinnamon (on top)

*This is one of those nifty things that you prep the night before and roll out of bed and shove in the oven the day of...ideal, in my mind!

The Night Before:
-Butter a 9x11 inch baking pan well
-Add two rows of tightly packed bread (her directions tell you to cut the bread into one-inch slices and it didn't occur to me until the next day that she meant bread that wasn't pre-sliced...so apparently being an idiot I cut my pre-sliced bread into one-inch slices. Upon eating it, I do not regret this because having slices of crust kind of scattered all through the french toast gave it awesome texture. It is extra work, and frankly probably wouldn't matter if you were feeling lazy)
-Whisk the milk, eggs, booze, vanilla, sugar, and salt in a bowl and drizzle evenly on top of the bread
-Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar to taste on top
-Tightly cover and stick in the fridge overnight

The Next Morning:
-Preheat the oven to 425
-Bake until puffed and golden (about 30 min) and eat immediately with syrup!

*Note: it puffs up a lot in the oven, so really wait until it's gold on top. If you don't eat it immediately, it will fall, but fear not, it still tastes glorious! It also keeps at least 2 days covered in the fridge.