Sunday Breakfast

I found the technique for croustades in "Michael Field's Cooking School", another one of my $2.00 Mckay cookbooks. Fields made his croustades round, but I left mine square. I took two slices of Pepperidge Farm white bread , and cut off the crusts.I flattened each slice with a rolling pin ( the antique one in the photo, seen behind a set of molds I bought at an estate sale ) , then brushed melted butter on both sides. I put the slices into the molds and toasted them in a 350 degree oven. I erred on the side of lightly toasted. Perhaps next time I will brown them more. I nestled some bacon in one and a poached egg in the other, then I ate them. There was an attempt at Hollandaise sauce, but since my "mise" was not in "place" I flubbed it. I can see filling these toasts with shrimp or crab or even fried apples.

The Sun, our friend, is out today. He will do more for us than our landlords and the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Main numbered roads get scraped, but everyone on side streets will have to wait for the warmup and the melt. I watched one of my neighbors, an elderly man from Louisiana, try to back his way down the drive this morning. Finally he learned that going forward was probably best for getting to where he was going and he made some progress. The Southerners, God bless them, are naive about snow.

I am going to roast a chicken later today, and unlike the Hollandaise it should be a success. I am going to baste it with butter . I usually use olive oil, but there is nothing Mediterrranean about today or this weather. Today I look out my bedroom window at the snowy hill and I could be in Grenoble or Stowe or Quebec or Stockholm. Time to leaf through "Scandinavian Cooking" , another 25 cent McKay Books find. How about a "Swedish Sausage Casserole"? A "Finnish Turnip Pie"?