Pain Perdu

Pain Perdu with an Amaretto Crème Anglaise Sauce. 

Pain Perdu is really just French toast, but as with most French food, it's pretty fancy eating.  The French themselves consider the dish a dessert, though I've chosen to host it as dinner tonight.  (Pain Perdu translates to "lost bread", which was a dish created to reclaim stale bread.)  

The dish is prepared by taking stale bread that has been sliced on a bias and dipping it in a wash of egg, heavy cream, vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon.  The bread is lightly fried, buttered, and dusted with confectioner sugar.  The dish is then topped with fresh berries and drizzled with amaretto crème Anglaise (English cream), consisting of egg yolks, sugar, heavy cream, vanilla bean, and amaretto (optional).  The dish is finished off with a sprinkle of confectioner sugar and served with a side of vanilla bean ice cream.  

Etiquette

Why should I become so frustrated with the apparent lack of etiquette in our society today.  After all, is it not the societal norms that determine what is couth and what is not?  Is it that society has become uncultured, or rather that the culture has changed?  I cling to the mannerisms of a past generation while living amongst a brash people, trying not to let the lack of pleasantries dishearten me, yet it does.  If I had children I would teach them manners beyond the simple sayings of please and thank you, which seems to be the extent of etiquette taught in the homes of today, thought even these small tokens are a feat to instill into the children of today.  Dinning etiquette is all but lost, dancing etiquette has passed into the void, and even the most basic etiquette of conversation is beyond us.  I fear that with the passing of the generations that such things will soon become extinct.

Forest of Healing

"Forest of Healing" 2011
Oil on Canvas 18x24"

Disease and ailments of the heart are ever upon us, striving to take the vitality that gives us life.  When all has been taken, and we are weak with nothing left, it is the passions of the heart that keeps us going.

There is a little girl with a chronic health condition who often frequents Primary Children's and art is the passion that keeps her going during her long visits to the hospital.  Recently I offered to give her oil painting lessons, and the above composition was painted with her.  For these reason I titled the pieces "Forest of Healing".  The piece will be given to my sister as a thank you for her contribution to Primary Children's play therapy programs.

Addendum:
The little girl that I referred to in the above passage passed away this Memorial Day due to complications of cystic fibrosis.  She passed at 12 years of age, the past 7 of which I have been privileged to share with her.