Recipe Friday: Childhood Memory

I realized today that I haven't talked about one of my favourite things in a good while: Food. So I have decided to reinstate Recipe Friday.

During my parents' visit last week end, we ended up being snowed in (nothing new so far). So I spent a lot of my week end cooking for everybody (and to be honest trying to impress my mum with my cooking skills). On Sunday afternoon, after a snowball fight and the building a snowman, we decided to do a bit of baking for an afternoon snack. Marie and myself had baked some cookies on Saturday and had frozen 2 thirds of the dough for future use. So, in the oven, went the cookies. And in comes my mum. I have to say she is an expert at reusing leftovers and reinventing dishes. Although you might be eating the same ingredients two days in a row, it never feels like you are eating the same thing.

As the cookies are baking, she asks me: 'What are you going to do with that stale bread?'. Panic sets in: 'Emm, emm, I, emm, give it to the birds?'. Obviously, wrong answer. She says: 'Have you got some milk, one egg and some sugar?'. Staples, I mean, unless you're allergic who doesn't have milk, eggs and sugar?. 'Yes, I do'. 'Right, get out of the way, I'm going to make something you haven't had in years'. And how right was she. She produced in less than 10 minutes the most wonderful snack. She was right, I hadn't had it in years and why, oh why did I never make it before. It is so simple and tasty. And it brings back memories of winter Sundays afternoons, coming home after half freezing to death watching my dad play football. For a moment, after I took that first bite, I was 10 again. I only got to have one slice though, as Marie fell in love with it and ate the whole lot! The smell of vanilla, the crunch of the sugar on top, hummmm, so good I made some today, just for myself. And cheap as chips too. So here is my mum's recipe for making 'Pain perdu' (Lost Bread or French toast as it's called here). Well, I can tell you, it's not lost on us!!

- Slices of stale bread (a couple of days old)
- Some milk
- Some vanilla sugar (if you have some, normal sugar will do though)
- 1 egg.
(I am afraid my mum is as bad as I am with measures).

1) In a pot, heat up the milk and sugar.

2) In a large bowl, beat the egg.

3) Heat up a bit of butter in the pan.

4) Dip the bread in the warm milk (letting it soak up some of the milk but not too much or it will fall apart).

5) Dip it quickly in the egg.

6) Place on the pan.

7) Turn around when golden.

Sprinkle with some sugar before serving.

Eat hot or cold.

And there you are, Pain Perdu! Hope you get to try it, and love it as much as I and Marie do!

X

Foodie Mummy