Eggs

Around Easter I was given a simple, yet beautiful gift from my sitemate. She has almost completed her 2^nd year of Peace Corps and will be leaving me in July. It really hit me when she gave me this Easter present. It also occurred to me that while I’m living abroad I frequently ignore holidays from home. I celebrate them on the surface. I will wish people happy holidays, but there’s no heart in it. I can’t promise that I’ll change quickly, but the first step is to acknowledge the problem, or so I’ve heard.

Marty's creation

Because her simple craft had such a great effect on my heart, I decided to do the craft with my class. That next morning I went out and bought 30 eggs. It seemed like a really good idea at the time, and my students loved the break from routine, but now I have 30 eggs that I need to use.

I had 2 of these glass jars full. You should start calling me “Gaston.”

Me.

Lucky for me, I’ve developed a new relationship with French toast.

French toast is a beautiful thing. You start with bread. So simple, yet a luxury in rural China. Eggs. I have a few of those. I like to put a little cinnamon in the egg mixture. In China, they like to use cinnamon with spicy things. Let me tell you, it’s delicious both ways; it’s cinnamon. Finally, if I’ve recently visited the big city, I might even use butter instead of oil to cook the French toast.

You might be thinking, “Ok, Keri Ann. So, French toast is your comfort food.” But it’s more than that. It’s my very own soul food. French toast gives me more than just a nostalgic feeling when I eat it. The relief it gives is better than simply scratching an itch. When I crave it, it’s a craving of my soul. Similar to when I wake up in the morning and my entire body physically craves coffee, but this is an inner calling. My soul cannot function without my French toast.

Unfortunately for my stash of eggs, and fortunately for my health, my soul doesn’t crave French toast every day. Everything in moderation, right? For non-French toast days, I’ll eat the wonderful Chinese dishes with eggs in them. Feel free to be jealous.

A Chinese crepe-like thing. Eggs required.

This dish is one of my favorites and I attempt to cook it frequently.

My jaozi turn out almost as beautiful.
 I like to put scrambles eggs and a type of green, grass-like vegetable on the inside.
Picture from closetcooking.com

But today was a French toast day.