Today I was preparing to make my famous favorite pasta salad for dinner and blog about it. I opened the fridge, pulled out the mozzarella and was appalled to find a spot of red mold right in the middle of it. RED. I even called Mom & Dad to see if mold could be red. Dad and I had a conversation just yesterday about how often college kids get sick by cutting mold off of bread and cheese and eating around the “safe parts”. As a paranoid food eater, I toss out everything at the first sign of spots, stink, or expiration date. Regardless of what Lars Eighner may have told me about food’s everlasting powers , I am conservative in my decision of what to eat and not to eat. (See here if you haven’t had the chance to read his “Dumpster Diving”; M-ville people: I had a blast when I taught this essay! http://www1.broward.edu/~nplakcy/docs/dumpster_diving.htm)

As my planned dinner was thrown out the window, I decided to improvise and try to make French toast for the second time. I made it for the first time a week or so ago, and the results were okay, but the meal was not necessarily a success. Last time, I followed the instructions in Cooking: a commonsense guide to a tee. I really enjoy this cookbook because it contains a lot of basic information, like how to cut up a chicken, how to cook an egg over easy—simple stuff that I’ve never necessarily tried but want to do! I recommend adding it to your collection if you’re a mostly beginner cook like me.

So this time, I decided to Rachel-ize the recipe, and it turned out fantastic.

Commonsense Cholesterol-Free French Toast ala RayRay

Serves: 2 Prep Time: 7 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites (I just buy a carton of it to keep around the house)

• 1 cup skim milk

• ½ teaspoon liquid vanilla

• 1 BIG spoonful of SmartBalance butter substitute

• 4 slices of refrigerated honey wheat bread (I always keep bread in the fridge, both to keep it fresh and keep it safe from hungry Bogie!)

• 3 dashes cinnamon

• Aunt Jemima’s Maple Syrup

• 1 spoonful of powdered sugar per serving/person

1. Put egg whites, skim milk, vanilla, and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl. Whisk until liquid isn’t 100% white anymore. It should have a brown hue to it.
2. Turn oven to medium high. I put it on 7. Put large skillet on, and begin to melt butter. Use a spatula to smear butter all over the pan.
3. Cut toast diagonally…or across if you like rectangled toast! But I’m a fan of triangles.
4. When butter is completely melted, dip two halves into the liquid mixture quickly. Like pretend that the liquid is hot lava that will burn off your fingertips in 2 seconds kind of quick. After dipping, hold toast over “volcano” and let any excess liquid drip out.
5. Put two halves in pan. Turn the bread after 3-5 minutes. Aim for a golden brown color—basically the same color you would eat toast toast.
6. After the first batch, reduce head to medium/5. Check butter level. If you need more butter, or if your skillet has a slant to it where butter slides to the sides, add more/use spatula to move butter around.
7. Repeat steps 4-5 with “pairs” of toast until complete.
8. Place toast in a row across the plate. Top with zig zags of syrup and 1 spoonful of powdered syrup.
9. I drank a glass of chocolate milk with my French toast, and it was delicious!