Faisons la cuisine, encore!

Did you know that, by French law, a baguette may not contain any preservatives? It’s true. This is slightly problematic (at least for me) because I cannot in good conscience allow myself to consume more than 1/4 of a baguette in a single sitting, and the smallest you can buy is a une demi-baguette (and only 45 cents, too!) Leave it sitting around overnight and it’s as hard as deciphering the corrections on your French paper*.

Luckily, being of no ordinary amount of culinary pluck and ingenuity, I devised a brilliant way to handle leftovers. I give you: the strata.

Spinach and Cheese Strata
serves 2, or 1 twice

1/4 stale baguette
about a pound of spinach, washed and drained
1 onion, chopped
1 egg
1/2ish cup of milk
1/4ish cup melting cheese (I used Emmental because hey, it was on sale)
butter
salt
nutmeg, if you’re feeling fancy

1. Heat up a skillet on medium and add a tablespoon of butter. Add the onions and cook til they’re soft and smell ridiculously delicious. Then add spinach and cook til it looks wilty and pathetic. Take off heat.
2. Rip the baguette into chunks. Use your hands or teeth. Or use a knife. Whatever works.
3. Whisk together milk, egg, salt, and nutmeg if you can afford it. Butter a small baking dish (when I say small, I mean like…smaller than a loaf pan. Mine is adorably tiny and I am inordinately fond of it).
4. Arrange the layers as follows: bread, spinach, cheese. Repeat. You should now be out of all your ingredients (not counting the eggmilk). If not, you messed up, but you can just throw it on.
5. Pour on the egg and milk mixture and let it seep. If you have time, let it sit in your minifridge for an hourish to let it absorb. Most recipes want you to do this overnight, but who has that kind of foresight?
6. When you’re about 30 minutes away from being hungry, preheat your shared-kitchen-toaster-oven to 190 C (normal ovens can do it at 350 F). Remove from fridge, insert into toaster oven. Bake for about half an hour (metric time**) until it’s puffy and cheese is melted. Let it sit, or don’t, and eat. Save half for lunch.

*I speak from embittered personal experience.
**Ha ha, this is a joke. Metric time is much too difficult for your imperial-lovers to convert.