breakfast

French toast

French toast
French toast

Favourite breakfast #14 is French toast.

You might say it is my up-and-coming, new favourite breakfast, not because I’ve never had it before, but because quite possibly I’ve never made it myself before.

The impetus for the eggy-bread this morning was a fridge that was ripe with some traditional french-toast accompanying fruit that was already cut up and prepared (peaches) or just generally on standby (huge blackberries) or half-gone-bad (strawberries). Then there were 2 & 2/3 slices of bread from a Greek bakery that I had taken to work one day (but didn’t eat lunch that day) and then taken it to Ontario, but again, ignored it. It was good bread – it just needed a new get-up. French toast would be that vehicule.

I checked one cookbook for a recipe and then I just Googled it and chose the simplest recipe – though I only read one. Besides the bread (white is best, in my experience) all you need for the most basic French toast is 1 egg and 1/4 cup of milk per each person. (example 2 people – 2 eggs, 1/2 cup milk – lest there be confusion due to the conjunctivity). Then the author of the recipe I was using suggested nutmeg and cinnamon could be added. I grated a very small part of a nutmeg and sprinkled a very modest amount of cinnamon into my solution. You need some grease in the frying pan. The fridge wasn’t swimming in butter so I chose sunflower oil.

I won’t give the rest of the instructions – I think you can figure it out.

This isn’t a breakfast that needs sausage or bacon, but I had some previously-barbecued old-fashioned maple-smoked sausage taking up fridge space. I cut it in thirds longitudinally and laid it in the still hot frying pan to warm. I didn’t want anything too smoky with my peaches, strawberries and blackberries. the maple-smoked that Dettweiler’s make is milder and fit the bill perfectly.

If I had posted a picture of the finished plate of french toast, fruit and sausage (with several pours of maple syrup on top) it wouldn’t have pleased anyone but a hungry truckdriver. Let me just say that I put 2100 km on my Sierra pickup in the last 4 days and this truckdriver was just too hungry to take a picture.

Four: 17 Favourite Breakfasts Series

Saturday.

This is most often my BIG breakfast day. Number 4 in 17 favourite breakfasts celebrates the very traditional bacon and eggs (no photo required). Since I had some VERY fat bacon I decided to fry up some potatoes avec. But if you want to take this traditional breakfast and do it up Dr. Seuss style, “I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them, Sam-I-Am”, then Applewood Hollow in Niagara-on-the-Lake is the place to actually try green eggs and ham (or maybe Dettweiler’s Sausage). “I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere”. Put it to the test – Jane (née I-Am) Andres your host at Applewood Hollow has her own chickens and there is at least one of them that lays green eggs. which Jane serves up for your breakfast. Such a great place to stay – and since one wing of the house was conceived specifically to be a b’nb, you’ll enjoy sleeping in a loft bedroom above a living room with gas fireplace. Privacy, yes, and green eggs and ham for breakfast!

One two:17 favourite breakfasts series

In the summer of 2014, I began my 17 favourite breakfasts postings on Facebook.  I posted them 1-at-a-time as Facebook status updates.  I think this series (still on-going as of August 18, 2014) was the main impetus for starting this “Ted’s ideas on Food and more” blog.  I created material that is original and I think “yummy and nutritious” – why not post it on a blog so that it is easier to access with Permalinks and the like. This isn’t a list of breakfast recipes.  Some of them describe an environment where a breakfast was just perfect-for-me.  Others describe a regular routine that I’ve maintained most of my life – like sabbath-respecting favourite #5.  Feel free to post your comments on any of these “17 favourite breakfasts postings” or better yet, start your own breakfast postings and I’ll post the link to your show.

Some of the initial 17 favourite series are short (like Status updates ; ) ) so I’m listing one and two here together in this one post:

ONE:  My 17 favourite breakfasts list begins today with perhaps the simplest one: a crusty roll, the ones the Portuguese bakeries in my neighbourhood make, along with marmalade and a café allongé (make mine Nespresso). This breakfast inspired by a first “continental breakfast” experience when I was age 16 and my high school band traveled to West Germany and Austria.  Since then I have come to appreciate both coffee and the simplicity of marmalade on a bun.

TWO:   Second in the 17 favourite breakfast series: Ackee and saltfish. This is not one I’m going to fix up in my own kitchen. I miss my mother-in-law’s great breakfasts but if I am in Montego Bay, you can find me at the Pelican in the morning eating ackee and saltfish.