Toast to Toast

I grew up in a country where there was a bakery within walking distance of practically every household and sliced bread was called 'Tasty'.  (Can someone please tell me why.  Is that a brand from the 1950's?)   Anyway, we made sandwiches with these slices of bread; and if we toasted the bread, we called it toast.   Imagine my surprise when I went to the grocery's bread section here in Australia and discovered that there is WHITE SANDWICH bread and WHITE TOAST bread.  In other words, in the Land Down Under, all toast is bread but not all bread is toast.   

(Toast bread slices are slightly thicker than ordinary sandwich bread slices.   If you think about it, it is perfectly logical because you would typically put butter and jam on ONE slice of toast but you will need TWO slices of bread to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.)

Back home, one of the more common wedding gift items would be a toaster oven commonly known as a "toaster".  Almost every household would have one to toast their bread  (and heat other snacks or even cook hotdogs or sausages).  These toasters would come in a range of sizes from small ones that could fit two slices of bread side by side, all the way to big ones that could bake a whole cake.    Fast forward to Australia where most households have 'real' toasters, the kinds where the bread slices go in vertically rather than horizontally.  Toaster ovens are not too common. 

But old habits die hard.  In our household, bread is bread and you can make sandwich or toast with either kind of bread.  And though someone handed down a toaster for us to use, there was that nagging feeling of a missing appliance called the toaster oven.   

One day, I was surprised to come home to a "new" toaster oven!  

Hurrah!   MacGyver had found a second hand one being sold on Gumtree. Just like that, we now had an appliance to heat our muffins or pizza slices, to make grilled cheese and cinnamon toast, etc.  What a joy!

The kids are pretty creative and self-sufficient when it comes to finding and making their own snacks.  Prior to the arrival of this toaster oven, they would microwave some cheese on top of crackers.  Now, they are able to make cinnamon toast and the like.

Last Saturday, I decided to make try a new cinnamon rolls recipe.  There was some cinnamon sugar left so MyGirl decided to make some cinnamon toast.  I heard the toaster oven timer go off and watched MyGirl retrieve her cinnamon toast.  I took one look at the bread on her plate and asked, "Are you sure those are done?"   (When you have toasted as many slices of bread with butter and sugar as I have, you can tell if the toaster has done its job or not.  Done properly, the butter melts into the sugar and there is a nice crusty top.)   

She took a bite and concluded that something WAS wrong. Her toast was cold. Eventually she figured out that the outlet was switched off.  In her defense, she said he had set it for five minutes and had heard the timer ring.  She promptly flipped the switch on and proceeded to redo her cinnamon toast.  

The next day, we picked GI up from work.  He had brought home several slices of pizza from work and wanted to heat them.  Although the microwave would heat the pizza slices faster, the toaster would give the crispy texture. He placed his pizza in the toaster then set the timer for five minutes. He quickly headed for the outlet and flipped the switch on and announced, "I almost forgot."

RD was on the couch and witnessed the unfolding events.  When he saw GI flip the outlet switch on, he exclaimed, "Oh that's why my cinnamon toast didn't quite taste right!"

I couldn't resist teasing him, I just found it so funny that he would realise several hours after he had eaten, that he didn't actually have had cinnamon toast; what he had was cinnamon "toast".

"How many pieces did you have?"  (Two.)  "Didn't you notice that your bread was cold? (sheepish smile)   

He said he had wondered whether five minutes was not enough time to toast the bread properly and that in hindsight, no wonder the tray was cold.