fall break goal 2: new recipes

Today, I'm taking a break from social media (with the exception of this blog post) & e-mail writing to focus on my graduate school applications. So close! I'm also doing day two of the One Hundred Push Ups challenge, which I've now challenged Joe & my sister to join in on... we'll see what happens.

As I mentioned in my previous post with the new pasta recipe, I'm really trying to teach myself some new recipes.

I'm a nervous person. I get anxious, stressed & over-worked on a regular basis. I create to-do lists, goal lists, grocery lists & lists of lists. I'm so good at list-writing that I tend to make them too long, stressing me out before the day has even begun.

To balance out the frightening, heavy things on my to-do lists, I give myself baking & reading breaks. Pouring myself into a story or pushing my hands through the dough of a recipe work to calm me down like nothing else can. So when I'm frustrated with reading in French, I get more frustrated that I can't bake anything. I curse our two hotplates.

I've been looking for new ways to calm myself down–yoga, 100 push ups, knitting. So far, I got too busy for yoga & didn't want to spend the money on yarn. I'm failing at keeping myself calm. I knew that nothing was going to replace my traditional meditative activities, so I've been researching dessert recipes & even knew meal recipes (though making desserts & treats for people is the best feeling to help me lower my stress level). Here enters recipe number two of our fall break: pain perdu, or French-style French toast.

Pain perdu literally translates to "lost bread." French bread has no preservatives, so after a day without eating a baguette, you've made yourself a nice doorstop. To use the old bread, the dip it in vanilla-infused sugar, milk & eggs. Sound familiar? It's similar to our French toast, but that recipe is traditionally Spanish*. You guessed it. If it says "French," it's probably not. (Like French fries, but who would want to say "Belgian fries"* and lost the nice alliteration?)

This is the recipe I used. It's in French, but it's simple: 1/2 liter of milk, 2 eggs, 50 g of sugar + 2 packets of vanilla sugar (or 60 g of sugar + 1 tsp vanilla), 6 chunks of old, thick bread, 100 g of butter. You know what to do from here.

Now, I don't even pretend to understand how much a gram of anything is. I do know that I make a mean batch of French toast, so I cut the proportions in half, because 1/2 a liter is way too much for six pieces of bread! I just guessed until it look about right.

Similar to the milk, you're looking at a lot of butter.

A lot.

Do not be alarmed. It is France. You've watched Julia Child. You knew this was coming. Cut the butter back, but make sure you've left enough to leave a decent layer in the bottom of the pan so that these soggy chunks of sugary, milky flour are really frying.

Joe was still asleep when I turned on the coffee maker & dropped in the first slices of bread. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm hoping the sweet butter scent mixed with the coffee that wafted up at me made the early morning wake up pleasant. I know that it was pleasant for me.

People tell you this, but you don't believe it until you really do it for yourself: everything cooks better with real butter. Everything. Joe & I have been cooking with a lot of butter lately, because it's easy to find fresh, inexpensive & unsalted, unplayed-with butter here. The creamy, sweet flavor & golden brown coating it gives foods is unparalleled.

I bring this up, because I hate the debate about which is better for you: margarine or butter? While it's true that margarine has no cholesterol*, it also true that most margarines have a long list of ingredients that aren't found in nature.

I wish I could find links to the studies I've read that support this, but stay with me for a minute. It's touched on here. The problem with these miracle, low-calorie, zero-carb replacements filling the shelves is that their put through long chemical processes to get that way. We haven't had time to study what these products do to the human body. Our body is working on them in some way, but if it's not burning calories to turn them into energy, then is it storing them? Can they be converted into energy, since calories are how we measure a food's energy potential?

This is all I'm saying for now: Look at the perception we have of French obesity rates versus American obesity rates. Look at the prevalence of fast food in each culture. There is a lot to be said for focusing on moderation & natural foods with shorter, comprehensible ingredient lists instead of opting for the trendy packaging that says, "Don't you look smart? This candy has no sugar & no carbs!"

Remember: Those frozen TV dinners were once fashionable, too.