You may not have noticed, but I love my daughter very much. I usually make her pancakes on Saturday, but this morning she apologetically asked if I would make French Toast. I allowed that I’d do anything for her, so she volunteered to walk the dog while I cooked, and she fished out our battered copy of The Joy of Cooking to help me with proportions.
“Hey, look at how you make Garlic Bread,” she said, and headed off to leash the dog.
“I don’t understand why you want Garlic Toast for breakfast,” I observed, “but I’ll make it if you want.”
“No, no, I want French Toast,” she emphasized.
“French Toast with Garlic sounds strange to me, honey, but I’ll make it for you.”
“French Toast! French Toast! Anything with garlic is banned!” she called, as she headed out the door.
La Princessa de Todo’s favorite French Toast:
Have really sour sourdough bread on hand
If you haven’t thought to leave it out the night before, so it is stale, you can sort of dry it out in the toaster.
meanwhile, mix up equal parts of egg substitute (Egg-beaters or the like) and non-fat milk. For 4 slices of bread, I use about 1/2 cup eggbeaters and 1/2 cup milk.
Put the bread in a pan or wide shallow bowl and pour the milk/egg mixture over. Let sit for 10 minutes or as long as the hungry girl can stand. The idea is that the bread really soaks up the liquid.
Fire up the griddle and grease well. Since the egg-milk mixture is low-fat, feel free to use butter.
The bread pieces will be a bit fragile due to the soaking, so use a spatula to put them on the griddle. Turn the heat down to just below medium.
If there’s liquid left in the soaking pan, pour it gently over the pieces on the griddle.
Turn when the first side is golden brown.
Serve with maple syrup (or syrple as it is known here).
You can also make a savory version for a light supper, if your children are categorically flexible. The general idea is a quiche without the crust, or an all-in-one dish. We like it made with this Mexican spicy chicken soup base.