Rockdale Citizen

Dip bread into the egg and milk mixture and brown it in a skillet to make light and fluffy French toast.

The memories behind this week's featured recipe are just as sweet as the syrup that covers this homemade French toast recipe.

As a child, it used to amaze me how my grandmother would whip loaf bread into golden delicious squares of french toast, lightly sprinkled with powered sugar and drizzled with hot syrup.

It took me several tries as an adult to get the mixture of eggs and milk, into which you dip the bread, just right, but I think I finally got it down pat.

I also think Grandma would be proud of me. A lot of her recipes I won't even attempt to copy, but this one is definitely more my speed. Besides that, Grandma never wrote down a recipe or even really went strictly by one. The few times she repeated a recipe back to me, her measurements were "a pinch of this" or a "dash of that" -- I don't do those kind of measurements well, not until I've got a recipe down pat.

Nonetheless, watching her make French toast was always magical, especially when she sprinkled the powered sugar all over the fresh French toast.

We would normally have sausage links or bacon too, and I can remember pouring my syrup on my plate, and everything, meat included, would taste like the sweet syrup. As an adult, however, I've become a little more picky and I don't like my French toast, or even my meat, to taste entirely like syrup.

As you are preparing breakfast this Christmas morning, cut the bread into triangles and stack them ever so slightly on top of one another to form the shape of a Christmas tree. Add the meat at the bottom for the trunk and, just like magic, you've served up a french toast Christmas tree.

Don't forget to sprinkle the powered sugar or add some fruit on French toast for some extra nutrients and color.

French toast wasn't always a Christmas morning breakfast tradition, but it is slowly becoming one at our household now.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!