I’m highlighting my contribution in the Sweet Romance anthology today, a short story titled, “French Toast with a Side of Love.”
The story follows waitress Janie Wendell as she agonizes over turning down regular customer Mark Christie for a date months ago. Her super-sized crush on him keeps the dream alive that he’ll someday ask again. Even though Janie has a strict no-dating-the-customers rule, she’d be willing to break it for him. But it seems his interest in visiting the diner is now strictly professional. Mark visits the Daisy Gap Cafe weekly to go over ad copy proofs with Janie’s boss. Or is that the only reason?
This title was inspired by a plate of French toast I had for breakfast on the morning I started writing this story. It was fun writing about Janie's habit of reciting breakfast food trivia to Mark during one of their awkward moments. Read on:
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“Did you know French toast didn’t originate in France?” she blurted, steering the talk away from breakups. She sat down across from him.
He turned those hypnotic eyes on her again and his forehead crinkled. “You don’t say.”
“It’s true. An early recipe was written in Latin in, like, the fifth century.”
“Fascinating.” A little smile quirked his lips.
“And French toast in France is actually called pain perdu. That means “lost bread.” She shrugged. “You know, since it was made from stale bread. Get it? Lost bread.”
“I do. How do you know so much about French toast?”
“I don’t know.” She waved her hand dismissively, now a little embarrassed about the weird tangent. “It’s one of those things that drives me a little crazy. Like Canadian bacon didn’t come from Canada and Denver omelets didn’t start out as a Colorado thing.”
“And I suppose Belgium waffles—”
“Actually, they came from Brussels. But nice try.” She patted his arm excitedly, holding on to it for a few seconds too long.
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Learning about the history of French toast is an example of one of those quirky research tangents I sometimes take when working on a new story. I even found another French toast recipe to try, one that you can make the night before. I tried it for the first time yesterday and it’s delicious .
I’m highlighting my contribution in the Sweet Romance anthology today, a short story titled, “French Toast with a Side of Love.”
The story follows waitress Janie Wendell as she agonizes over turning down regular customer Mark Christie for a date months ago. Her super-sized crush on him keeps the dream alive that he’ll someday ask again. Even though Janie has a strict no-dating-the-customers rule, she’d be willing to break it for him. But it seems his interest in visiting the diner is now strictly professional. Mark visits the Daisy Gap Cafe weekly to go over ad copy proofs with Janie’s boss. Or is that the only reason?
This title was inspired by a plate of French toast I had for breakfast on the morning I started writing this story. It was fun writing about Janie's habit of reciting breakfast food trivia to Mark during one of their awkward moments. Read on:
__
“Did you know French toast didn’t originate in France?” she blurted, steering the talk away from breakups. She sat down across from him.
He turned those hypnotic eyes on her again and his forehead crinkled. “You don’t say.”
“It’s true. An early recipe was written in Latin in, like, the fifth century.”
“Fascinating.” A little smile quirked his lips.
“And French toast in France is actually called pain perdu. That means “lost bread.” She shrugged. “You know, since it was made from stale bread. Get it? Lost bread.”
“I do. How do you know so much about French toast?”
“I don’t know.” She waved her hand dismissively, now a little embarrassed about the weird tangent. “It’s one of those things that drives me a little crazy. Like Canadian bacon didn’t come from Canada and Denver omelets didn’t start out as a Colorado thing.”
“And I suppose Belgium waffles—”
“Actually, they came from Brussels. But nice try.” She patted his arm excitedly, holding on to it for a few seconds too long.
__
Learning about the history of French toast is an example of one of those quirky research tangents I sometimes take when working on a new story. I even found another French toast recipe to try, one that you can make the night before. I tried it for the first time yesterday and it’s delicious .