A Toast to Toast

Some memories are burned into my mind

What’s your favorite way to eat toast?

It’s hard to beat just out-of-the-toaster perfect toast with melted butter and homemade preserves.

E. V. Lucas is right! Can’t you just hear the initial crunch enveloped in thunder?

My father, classic Dad jokester would say,

“My wife treats me like a god. She serves me burnt offerings every morning.”

I can see this as if it happened this morning. We didn’t have a toaster, so my mother would butter bread, put it on a cookie sheet in the oven and set the temperature to broil, then she’d run off to her room-just for a minute-to finish some part of her getting ready for work ritual. Next thing I’d know, she’d come running back through the house toward the kitchen, open the oven door and remove the charred bread. On the occasion of a special day when we’d have cinnamon toast, the smell was extra acrid. We loved cinnamon toast and although it was set aside for special mornings, sometimes it was because we were out of jam, jelly or preserves.

One of the many valuable lesson I learned from my sweet Mama was how to ‘scrape off the burnt.’ It really is an art. Holding a knife at just the right angle, you brush the knife across the toast over the trash can. You may think I’m joking, but I’m serious. It worked, and yes, I’ve been known to scrape toast these days too, and every time I do, I think of my mother running through the house like she was on fire.

Thank you for reading.

#july #julyquotes #qotd #evlucas #toast #burntofferings