Breakfast, New Orleans Style

 When you want to blog at least once in February but haven't got a clue what to post, you turn to food because even an inactive blogger still takes pictures of her meals.

Breakfast is my favorite meal so here goes...

I bought Cook with Marie Louise in 1968 for $3.50 and you can still find it fairly cheap on Amazon. Those chewed edges were done by my firstborn's pet chinchilla back in the early 1970s. I've written about him here before, the male chinchilla who knew he was a male and proud of it. Don't ask.

Marie Louise Snellings was quite a character, the first woman to win a law degree at Tulane University. If you're fond of New Orleans food you might like her cookbook, especially if, like her, you love horses and dogs. The drawings of Myster, her favorite horse, and her hounds are touching and entertaining.

[The magnifying glass is not a prop. I must get a chain for my neck to attach my reading glasses to.]

Marie Louise's extraordinary Pain Perdu (Lost Bread) is my favorite recipe for french toast, even better than the one I use for croissants in Silver Palate. And it's all about the method. 

When you gather your ingredients, set out a large shallow plate because you're not going to drown your bread in milk.

"Put about 2 tablespoons of milk (cold) on a plate and sprinkle about two-thirds teaspoon of sugar in it..." [stir the sugar around in the milk] "and turn each piece of bread over in it once." 

"Meanwhile, take 2 eggs and beat the whites stiff...

...add the yolks in and beat it up...

 ...and dip the pieces of bread into this having added to the eggs a little bit of grated nutmeg."

 "Then have the same old black iron skillet with an inch of grease very hot in it [unsalted butter for me] and drop the pieces of bread into it."

RH had maple syrup on his and I had powdered sugar and honey. Bacon, of course. I managed to cook RH's perfectly golden but didn't get a picture of his. Tried to multitask while mine were cooking, unloading the dishwasher, and got mine too dark. They were still wonderful, or I was just very hungry.

 Some strawberries and whipped cream would have been wonderful with it but this was a Sunday January 8th breakfast when our local grocery store had been cleaned out as snow was predicted and that's what people do in middle Tennessee. For once the weather prediction was right and we ate looking out at this...

If you've never tried separating the eggs for making french toast I hope you will as it gives a scrumptious flavor.

These pictures are also a way of showing off some new dishes I was given by my brother-in-law. For two or three weeks RH helped his brother get his house ready for an estate sale and he kept urging me to pick out anything I wanted before the sale, that he wanted them to go to family before strangers.

 [I must have forgotten to crop off this picture at the edge of the table and who knows what it's showing up!] I love these winter scene dishes! They're made in England and are by the North Carolina artist Bob Timberlake. The pattern is called Riverwood and those of you who know how special the Canada geese who visit us are to RH and me will understand why I love using these dishes after my Christmas china is packed away. Can you see them flying across the top of the bowl?

Did I need any more dishes or rugs or Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations, etc.? No, but I and our kids and grandkids are enjoying them and will treasure them.  This kind man is also the one who helped RH build kitchen shelves and two floor to ceiling bookshelves for me when we moved here AND helped RH to construct our large carport and workshop out back. 

So there you are, a post from a blogger who really has nothing much to report but wants to keep on blogging.

Happy breakfasts to all!

[next day: please forgive me for not replying to any comments for a few days. a trip in ambulance to er just as this post went live because i pitched head forward over open dishwasher and smacked top of head on cabinet. bloody but cat scan was clear. left wrist took weight of fall and swollen and painful plus sore arm from tetanus shot plus sore head and neck. but very grateful when i think of how bad it could have been, thanks for reading and being my friend!]