last week in paris a friend and collegue was spending her days at the cordon bleu. over dinner she described what they had made that day: pain perdue, essentially french toast. oh, they splashed it with booze (cognac? grand marnier?) and they gently sauteed it in farmhouse butter, with the free range eggs billowing up souffle like and the inner brioche moist and tender.......okay........sounds like a lot of work, and sounds exquisite.......i'm sure its just as refined and gorgeous as can be........... but what i really like is french toast that is stuffed with thinly sliced spanish chorizo or crumbled browned mexican chorizo, and sliced ripe tomatoes and chopped raw garlic, maybe a pinch of crushed oregano, a hit or two of chilli in the eggs or in the filling, and a bit of pickled veggies say, jalapenos in the filling too, jamon if i have no chorizo or in addition to chorizo if i'm feeling greedy, and......lots of cheese filling so that it oozes from the egg coating and the whole thing gets crispy and delish. this is good for breakfast, lunch or dinner or that middle of the night hour when you need something vivacious to get you through. good dreams guaranteed. marlena
