Historical February 1987 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
(Editor’s Note: Sandy Rothschild is February’s chef. Sandy and his wife, Sue, live in the 6200 block of Washington, where they are currently constructing a new house.
In addition to being the president of the Parkview Agents, Sandy is the president and founder of Sandy Rothschild & Associates, Inc., a political consulting company located in the Central West End.
The Rothschild’s are graciously hosting the fund raiser for The Times on February 13.) by Sandy Rothschild “Me? You want me to write a Macho Menu column? Is this for the April 1 edition?” My initial reaction to writing this column; which is quoted verbatim above, may provide an early indication as to my culinary interest and skills.
To some, Graham Kerr is the Galloping Gourmet.
To me, it’s Ronald McDonald.
An incident from my life may provide further insight to my cooking acumen.
When I lived at 5911 Waterman; I convinced Jim and Sue Gamble to buy and renovate the house next door.
They arranged to move into their house prior to the completion of their kitchen and asked if they could use mine for several weeks. I gladly consented.
When their moving day came, Jim and Sue went out and spent half their family wealth on groceries and cooking supplies.
As they carried the first armloads of groceries up the steps to my house, Sue worried that there would not be sufficient space for their groceries and mine.
She was relieved to discover that my refrigerator contained one package of turkey hotdogs, one jar of popcorn, one jar of mustard and one of mayonnaise, and a full container of ice cubes. Refrigerator space was never a problem. Selecting a recipe to write about, therefore, was somewhat difficult. Cold pizza for breakfast is a big favorite of mine, but my wife said that would be inappropriate. Sue also informed me that toasted cheese had already been done. Accordingly, I’ve selected Egg Toast Bernard. Egg Toast Bernard is named for my late grandmother, Edna L. Bernard.
She taught me two of the most important lessons in cooking — measure carefully and always use the proper utensils. Egg Toast Bernard is made by cutting the center out of a piece of bread and placing the bread in a hot frying pan or griddle. Any bread can be used: white, rye, whole wheat, or whatever is sliced flat and doesn’t have mold on it.
After the bread is laid in the pan, a dollop of butter is placed in the hole of the bread and given a chance to melt.
After melting, the egg should be broken and deposited in the bread hole.
The egg is then seasoned to taste with salt, pepper and other seasonings of choice. Arsenic can be used on noxious visitors.
After seasoning, several dollops of butter can be placed on the up side of the bread in preparation for turning or the bread toast can be lifted, when properly cooked on one side, and new butter or margarine placed and melted in the pan prior to the flipping. It’s also advisable to butter both sides of the bread hole and fry those as well. Ponderosa would call those Texas toast holes.
Once the egg toast has been flipped, it is possible to garnish the cooked side with items such as cheese, bacon or slices of sausage, or black olives, etc. It’s advisable to place the bacon or sausage on first and then place the cheese over these so that the melted cheese will hold the meat in place.
A pan cover may be needed to help melt some cheeses.
The egg should be cooked to individual taste. Egg Toast Bernard can be served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and is eaten with a fork. Peanut butter and/or chocolate sauces are not recommended as toppings for this tasty delight. Why is this treat called Egg Toast Bernard?
The answer is that my grandmother developed the ideal utensil for cutting the hole in the bread.
Some novices would try to cut the hole with a knife or scissors and badly botch the job.
Some would take a table glass and press the mouth down against the bread, twisting the glass until the bread sections had separated.
An ordinary table glass, however, creates too large of a hole in the bread.
My grandmother’s innovation was the use of a shot glass to cut the hole. Ordinarily, she did not take kindly to the misuse of shot glasses, in part because her favorite time of the day was the 5 o’clock cocktail hour.
However, she did justify the use of a shot glass in the making of Egg Toast Bernard because it gave her an early opportunity to check to make sure that a shot glass was clean and readily available for when 5 o’clock cocktail hour rolled around. I spent many delightful hours with my grandmother at cocktail time.
She learned about what her grandchildren were up to and what the gossip was at school.
She taught me about life and local history, sports and politics.
Her mind was always quick and contemporary.
If you ever make Egg Toast Bernard, use a shot glass to make the hole in the bread. Its the instrument which works best.
However, be sure a shot glass is clean and available for 5 o’clock. That’s how my grandmother said it was supposed to be done.
Original photograph caption
Sandy Rothschild in the kitchen of his new house: “Except for the ice maker, our kitchen already has had installed all the cooking equipment I need.” The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February 1987, page 6. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February 1987.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1987_02.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
