If I only had a brain....I'd be able to tell you on who's blog it was that I read about Marion Cunningham....and I'd be able to thank them for letting me know about her, her wonderful life and her most excellent book that I just got in the mail....Marion Cunningham's Good Eating ~ The Breakfast Book, The Supper Book.
Marion authored The Fannie Farmer Baking Book, and edited the 12th and 13th editions of the classic Fannie Farmer Cookbook. She has written numerous articles for Bon Appetit, Food & Wine and Gourmet - and also writes a food column for the San Francisco Chronicle and the LA Times...and in her spare time she worked along side James Beard for years....no slouch that Marion! So when I read - on that forgotten person's blog - about Marion's Breakfast Book, I immediately ordered it.
Having the time, or should I say, taking the time, for a proper breakfast is something we hardly ever do...oh sure, Sunday mornings we try, but never on a weekday morning - that would just be such a waste of time, right? Wrong! It took about the same amount of time to make Marion's fabulous French Toast as it did to take Caesar Beezer The Wonder Dog out for his morning "constitution." And sitting down to a wonderful breakfast - with silverware and a napkin - seemed to make what lies ahead of me today much less stressful...I almost felt civilized!
J.B.'s French Toast (J.B. is James Beard....not James Brown!) - Adapted from Marion Cunningham's Good Eating, The Breakfast Book, The Supper Book
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups cornflakes
4 tablespoons butter
6 slices dense white bread
powdered sugar for sprinkling
maple syrup for serving
Stir the eggs, milk, nutmeg and salt together in a bowl until well blended. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a shallow bowl in which you can drip the bread easily. Crumble the cornflakes slightly to make each flake about half it's original size and spread them on a piece of waxed paper. Dip (don't soak) both sides of each slice of bread into the milk batter. Then press each slice of bread on both sides into the cornflakes to coat the bread well. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat and fry 3 slices of the bread until golden on each side. Keep warm in a 250 degree oven while you fry the other 3 slices in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Serve hot with maple syrup.
(Marion's recipe calls for 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar for sprinkling over the French toast once it's done - I preferred to use a sprinkle of powdered sugar. Also, while I like the French toast without syrup, I really like it much better with the syrup.)
Marion wrote that this recipe is her favorite French Toast recipe. She also said James Beard told her that they used to serve this in the dining cars on the Santa Fe Railroad...."the crumbled-up cornflakes give every bite a crisp crunch that is mightly good." I would have to agree.
"Life, within doors, has few pleasanter prospects than a neatly arranged and well-provisioned breakfast table." Nathaniel Hawthorne
One last note...on page 53 of Marion's book she wrote the following - and after just having returned from being around my young and energetic nieces and nephews - some would say wild - I read this and thought how very timely it STILL is!! Nothing ruins a meal faster for me that someone chewing with their mouth open....and being a mouth-breather is still no excuse!
This is a very long post - but if you're still with me - I have a question for you...I'm sure you've been asked it before at parties or those interminable "get-to-know-you's"....If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be? Well, I'd definitely put Marion Cunningham on my list - an ordinary woman who led an extraordinary life. Now I'm done.
