How I Learned to Cook
“When I was 4 years old, I was definitely ‘Daddy???s Girl,’ my father’s Little Princess. One evening, my 19-year-old father came home from working at his menial, low-paying job looking exhausted and depressed. He’d already finished a large dinner and was watching television, hunkered down with a 6-pack of beer. I wanted to cheer him up and decided to fix him a sweet after-dinner snack.
“In my 4-year-old naïveté, and sorely lacking any culinary skill, I decided to make my father buttered cinnamon toast with gobs of melted sugar. I’d watched my mother make it hundreds of times, so I felt I could handle that task on my own. I could easily reach the lower part of the oven broiler.
“My father smacked his lips with delight when I presented him with my phenomenally sloppy, sugary culinary masterpiece, and he ate both slices with great gusto and appreciation. Of course, he thought it was just a little bit of dessert to end his big dinner. But I figured, ‘Why not continue to please my beloved daddy with more of this sweet stuff?’
“So without saying a word, I slipped back into the kitchen and cooked NEARLY AN ENTIRE LOAF of bread — approximately 18 pieces of buttered, sugary cinnamon toast — and heaped it all onto a large platter.
“When I proudly delivered the overflowing platter to my father, he looked stunned. He may have been a frustrated, overworked teenage dad, but he wasn’t about to disappoint his little daughter. He simply decided to himself, ‘Well, tonight I guess I’m no longer a kid — tonight I become a man.’
“My father proceeded to eat every single slice of cinnamon toast on the entire platter — never said a word, never complained a bit about having to stuff himself to the gills. I’ll never forget that night.
“My parents split up when I was 11, and I rarely saw my father in later years, yet my happiest childhood memory is the night I learned to cook at the age of 4… and especially the glowing look on my father’s face. He was really just a kid himself, forced to grapple with the adult responsibilities of being a father and husband when he was far too young.
“To this day, at the age of 54, my all-time favorite snack is warm buttered cinnamon toast. Now I make a local, organic, Slow Food movement version of my favorite childhood snack.”
Colleen’s Cinnamon Toast
Makes 1 serving
1 slice whole grain yeast-free raisin bread
1 teaspoon agave syrup
1 tablespoon biodynamic, pastured-raised cow’s milk butter (softened)
(Ghee is preferable: melt regular organic butter, then skim off the whey residue on the top to clarify it into ghee)
2 or 3 shakes of ground cinnamon
Spread the butter over the bread. Evenly spread the agave syrup over the butter. Sprinkle the cinnamon on top.
Put the slice of bread into a toaster oven at low heat — watch it closely to prevent burning — and bake for 1-2 minutes. Using a toaster oven instead of the broiler in a full-size conventional oven saves energy. Eat with gusto and enjoy!
