When celebrity chef Katie Lee purchased her five-bedroom home in 2011, the kitchen was already picture-perfect. “It was what attracted me to the house,” she says of her place in the Hamptons. Her favorite feature: the island with a soapstone counter. “That’s where I do all my chopping,” the Endless Summer Cookbook author, 34, tells Us Weekly. “I have bar stools so friends can talk to me while I cook.”
Lee, who cohosts Food Network’s The Kitchen (Saturdays, 11 a.m.), always keeps a cast-iron griddle on her six-burner Wolf oven. “I make pancakes and fry eggs on it!” Her great-grandmother gave her cast-iron pans and tins to whip up “crispy” cornbread, she says. As for organization, each kitchen drawer is labeled with its contents. That way, the West Virginia native explains, “when my friends are on cleanup duty, they have no excuse for putting things in the wrong place!”
Some of her favorite kitchen activities are preparing ice cream (“I love chocolate peanut butter”) in her Cuisinart gadget and storing it in “cute” HomeGoods tubs and whipping up paella — “it’s one of those showstoppers that everybody is excited to eat,” she says.
The TV personality highly recommends her nectarine and cream-cheese French toast sandwiches for an “indulgent weekend breakfast.” She tries to incorporate peaches and nectarines, which are at their peak in August, whenever possible.
Try out Lee’s recipe below or a seasonal breakfast treat:
Nectarine & Cream-Cheese French Toast Sandwiches
Serves 4
Ingredients:
3 tbsp. salted butter
2 nectarines, cut in half, pits removed, thinly sliced
8 ¼-inch slices challah or brioche
6 tbsp. cream cheese
4 large eggs
¼ cup milk
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar
Directions:
1. In a small skillet over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp. of the butter. Add the nectarines and cook until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Spread each slice of the bread with the cream cheese. Divide the nectarines evenly among four bread slices and top with the remaining bread to build sandwiches.
3. In a shallow dish, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla together. Carefully dip the sandwiches into the egg mixture and turn to coat.
4. On a griddle over medium heat, melt the remaining 2 tbsp. butter. Cook the sandwiches until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
