Follow me and recipe of the week!

Whitney reminded me in her recent post that I hadn't checked my analytics lately to see how many people are visiting, from where (apparently searching for "bandages on my fingers," "puppy car seat" or "my baby grew 3 inches in 2 months" will get you to our site), how long they read, etc. It's pretty fun to spy on your account.

That said, since I signed up for the analytics a little over a year ago there have been 813 unique visitors to our blog. Crazy! A little scary too, but I like keeping our blog public and will for the unforeseen future.

Anyway, one way to let us know that you are one of those many visitors (other than comments) is to become a "follower." You can do this by clicking on the follow button in the right hand column. You can login with an existing account from Google, Yahoo, AOL, or OpenID. Or you can make a free account with Google.

So I hope at least a few of you will join me as a follower. And especially if you have a blog...I love to read other blogs!

Ok, on to recipe of the week. I was planning to make fish tacos tonight, but I am feeling under the weather and spent the afternoon on the couch. So I will share an awesome Bread Pudding recipe that I made yesterday. It is REALLY good and will definitely not last a whole week in the house.

Ingredients:

• 12 slices day-old baguette, cut into 3/4-inch
  cubes
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• 4 cups milk
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins
• Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Directions:

Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Spread the bread cubes in it.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well blended. Pour in the milk and whisk until combined. Pour the mixture over the bread cubes. Let stand, pressing down on the bread occasionally, until it is evenly soaked, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 350°F.

Scatter the cranberries evenly over the surface of the soaked bread and press to submerge the fruit. Set the baking dish in a large, shallow roasting pan. Add very hot tap water to the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish.

Bake the pudding until a knife inserted near the center comes out almost clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Generously dust the top of each slice with confectioners' sugar. Serves 8.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Collection Series, Dessert, by Abigail Johnson Dodge (Simon & Schuster, 2002).