French toast, Jane Austen, and popsicles

 Today was the series premiere of Aarti Party, this year's Next Food Network Star winner.  Aarti was my favorite this year, as she seemed to be the most likely to include some vegetarian dishes.  Her Indian influences plus the fact that she made some vegetarian entrees during the competition may have helped me come to this conclusion.  Her new show was great and very different from anything else on the network. I'm debating making the pistachio tea popsicles.  Really.

So I had the Food Network on for the morning while I was waiting for Aarti's show, and I caught a commercial with Elle Krieger stating that carbs help lower stress.  I had two thoughts:

1.  No wonder those on the Atkins diet are so cranky.

2.  Now that's research with which I would like to be involved.  Yum.

Rachael Ray made a savory French toast on her show today.  Now that's some good carbs!  And you could find organic ingredients for it, if that's your inclination.  Though I'll have to see how it tastes with soy milk.  She also made sausage to go with it, so you don't have to just dream about it.

I looked up the history of French toast, and turns out it's been around in some form or another since medieval times, originally to use up stale bread.  Waste not, want not.  In England, it was called poor knights of Windsor, since it meant that the gentry who couldn't always afford dessert could still serve it as was expected of them.  So it's likely that Jane Austen ate it at some point in her life.

The recipe for Rachael's savory French toast seemed to go like this:

3 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
nutmeg, salt, pepper
several handfuls of parmesano-reggiano cheese

Mix ingredients.

Gradually warm the skillet/griddle but don't let it get too hot.  Using even slices of bread, drench both sides in mixture, cook on both sides til golden brown.

Since this toast is savory, use honey instead of syrup.  Warm the honey and drizzle over the French toast.  Eat your carbs and enjoy.

She also had strawberries in some sort of balsamic dressing but I was flipping through my Forensic Psychology textbook and missed it.  Oops. 

So here's a favorite snack that could be used as a dessert:

Use one container of Stoneyfield Farms organic yogurt.  They have a new flavor, pomegranate berry, that works well.  Since Stoneyfield tries to use less plastic there are no plastic lids on the small containers, so you'll have to use another container to store the leftover yogurt if there is any.  For one person, use half the yogurt, and chop up about six strawberries to mix in. 

Due to the mixture of savory and sweet in this meal, it would pair well with Pride and Prejudice.  I recommend the BBC version starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, of course.  But if time is limited the Keira Knightley version will do in a pinch.