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Beans on Toast à la Mode

~  Menu  ~

Cheesy Beans on Toast
Red Wine
Ice Cream with Chocolate Fudge Sauce

I have had a very simple lunch today; cheesy beans on toast followed by ice cream and chocolate sauce.  The meal fit all the requirement necessary to qualify as a genuinely sudden lunch and was made of leftovers.

At first I thought I was just going to have cheese on toast but found half a can of white beans in the fridge plus an almost empty jar of my favourite pasta sauce.  Aha!  I heated the two together to make my own “baked beans”.  On toasted sourdough topped it with delicious Davidstow Cornish Crackler  and bunged under the grill till melty and lovely. It was very much like cheesy beans on toast only quite a superior version.


sourdough topped with white beans and cheddar

“à la Mode” 


The reason I have called this post “Beans on Toast à la Mode” is because I wanted to address a peculiar linguistic quirk of American chaps; their unusual use of the term “a la mode”.  I have always understood this to be French for “in the manner/style/fashion”, a way of doing things fashionably or perhaps in a way particular to a certain restaurant.  

Discombobulatingly enough in American “à la Mode” is generally taken to means served with ice cream!  I would have thought that if you wanted to say “with ice cream” in French then something like “avec la crème glacée” (don’t quote me on this) would have done the trick but there you have it.  

It is the original French meaning I intend in this post – I served my beans on toast in the style of our house in Cornwall.

Once in the Caribbean, for pure divilment, I put Home Smoked Seafood Platter "a la mode” on the menu (with cream cheese, parsley ad vodka ice cream) and watched their funny reactions, bless them. 

Talking of blessing them ...

Happy Fourth of July you guys!!

Very Quick Hot Chocolate Sauce


Speaking of ice cream my lunch pudding was also sudden.  There has been a small amount of leftover condensed milk in the fridge for far longer than there should have been.  As a test for my forthcoming book on leftovers (please see below) I melted it together with an equal quantity of dark chocolate and ate the resulting sauce over ice cream – just so that I could fully assess its qualities.  

Its qualities were – sweet, rich, lush, deeply chocolatey and it went fudgy and goos-ome as it cooled on the ice cream which I consider to be a good point.
  

creative-ways-to-use-up-leftovers-suzy-bowler

News from the Future ...



My book was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available and is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  

In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers. Do we get pack each?

1 comment:

Jenny Eatwell said...

There have been times, in the past, when I've seriously considered - for speed, you understand - putting both main course and dessert on the same plate. Now, I discover, I could have made the excuse of it being "a la mode" (only in an American accent). Hey ho - just as well those days are gone. :)