look in my heart and let love keep us together, whatever

Last night, my housemate/friend/lover Sabina escorted me to the excellent film Valley Girl, starring Nic Cage, at the Parkway for $0. God, what an awesome film. The soundtrack is teeming with New Wave classics and the script contains some of the most realistic dialogue ever recorded in a Hollywood film.

This morning, I was tired of the usual poached egg on toast and orange juice routine and I had a couple of slices of stale bread just sort of lying on the top of my fridge. So I decided to make pain perdu, aka Freedom Toast, following the Joy of Cooking's classic recipe:

Whisk together in a shallow bowl:

1/3 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

One at a time, add:

3 slices white bread

Turn the slices in the egg mixture until thoroughly saturated but not falling apart. In a skillet, melt over medium heat:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Add as many slices of bread as will fit without crowding and cook until the underside is golden brown. Turn the bread and cook until the second side is golden. Serve immediately.

Instead of topping the toast with traditional syrup, I used Knott's Berry Farm Boysenberry Preserves. I decided that preserves would be a more healthy--and perhaps tastier--option than syrup, and I happened to have a 1-serving jar of Knott's Berry Farm Boysenberry Preserves in my cupboard thanks to a magical Friday evening spent in the company of room service and Kelly Lowenberg at the SFO Marriot Hotel. While the Knott's Berry Farm preserves contained high fructose corn syrup, this was something I was willing to overlook because, hey, it's Freedom Toast.

In conclusion, the vanilla is what really makes the Joy of Cooking recipe authoritative.