Pistache Perdu

I do not have the most domestic of skills, but I love food, so occasionally I'll turn on the stove and make something. This morning we had a fresh loaf of pain de campagne and some eggs, so I thought I'd make some French toast. When reaching for the cinnamon, my eye fell a bag of pistachios. What would it taste like to dredge the bread through pistachios and cinnamon before cooking, I wondered.

So, I cracked the eggs into a bowl with a little soy milk, cut a thick slice of bread and put it in the bowl to soak. I chopped the nuts and mixed them with cinnamon then added butter to the frying pan and warmed it up on the stove before forking in the soaked bread. (I quickly figured out that sprinkling the chopped nuts over the bread after it was in the skillet worked better than dredging--more even distribution.) When it was done, I divided the French toast in two and drizzled (poured, really) maple and lingonberry syrups over the halves.

I love the tanginess of the egg and the sourdough combined with the sweetness of the cinnamon and syrup and the nutty crunch that I got with the pistachios. Also, lingonberry syrup takes me back to my childhood. It reminds me of the boysenberry syrup that was traditionally served with pancakes and French toast when I was a kid. Do restaurants still provide those little sticky pitchers? One boysenberry, one "maple"?