3. COOK THE MEAL

Enough stalling, let's get to the real prize. Remember: breakfast is not dinner, so you don't need four courses or anything like that. Aside from the aforementioned snacks, which are not critical, all you need is one decent plate of food. Hell, showing up with a banana in your hand will probably be more than your date expects. But let's not be rude. We're going to offer you two basic choices here - one is sweet (French toast) and the other is savory (scrambled eggs).

French Toast

This dish is a classic for anyone who likes to kick off the day with a slightly sweeter flavor. And the best thing about this one is that the finished product looks quite complex even though it is really basic to cook.

Ingredients

  • 1 baguette (fancy bread)
  • 6 eggs
  • 4 tablespoons of maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon of butter (and a few extra slices to put on top when you're done)
  • 1 handful of corn flakes
  • some powdered sugar, if that floats your boat

That's it! Some people fancy it up with other bits and pieces, but we'll keep it simple.

  1. Slice the baguette into thin little ovals of bread, to a thickness of about a quarter of an inch. It's important not to use slices of bread that are too thick, otherwise you won't cook the interior which will lead to a soggy egg center - foul.

  2. Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix them vigorously with a fork.

  3. Into the eggs, add four tablespoons of maple syrup and keep mixing; this will sweeten the overall flavor of the dish, but not too much. When you serve it, you can, of course, add more syrup to your liking.

  4. Take a small handful of corn flakes and crumble them up into small pieces and drop them into the egg-syrup mix. Weird, right? But trust us, the corn flakes give the finished product a great crispy texture that is a great solution to the problem of soggy toast.

    Now that the eggs are ready and you have your bread sliced, it's time to combine them.

  5. Simply drop the pieces of bread into the egg mix, and leave them to soak up the eggs for five minutes or so. You want the egg mixture to permeate the bread entirely.

  6. As the bread is soaking, melt a tablespoon of butter into a frying pan.

  7. When the butter has melted, drop pieces of soaked bread into the pan.

  8. Now all you need to do is heat the bread through to a dark golden brown on both sides. Be sure you leave the bread in the pan for a while, even if you darken it quickly because you want to make sure that the egg mixture on the inside of the bread is also cooked. Trust us, nothing is grosser than biting into a soggy egg mix. This is why we recommend slicing the bread a little thinner.

  9. Once the slices of bread are ready, remove them from the pan and place them on a paper towel to blot up any excess butter.

  10. While they're still warm, transfer them to a plate, and put a few dollops of butter on the slices.

You're ready to serve! We like to sprinkle a little powdered sugar and some syrup on the toast, but since people feel differently about those things, we suggest you ask your dining companion first.

Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs involve many of the same ingredients as French toast, but the tenor of the dish is much more savory. So ditch the sugar and syrup. Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • a few pinches of salt
  • a few pinches of pepper
  • ½ cup of milk
  • butter
  • a few drops of Tabasco sauce
  • bread
  • 5 sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
  • ½ cup of feta cheese (optional)

So here we go with our home-style cookin', just like Mama used to make:

  1. Begin by cracking the eggs into a bowl and beating them with a fork or a whisk.

  2. Next, add a few pinches of salt and pepper and a few drops of Tabasco, mixing all the while. Now, there are different schools of thought on the milk thing. Some people like to add a few splashes of milk (half a cup) to reduce the eggy taste of the dish, but we think that milk can sometimes make the dish a little watery. We highly recommend that you experiment with this dish; do not try this out for the very first time on your plaything.

    That brings us to the sun-dried tomatoes and feta cheese issue. We love these ingredients and they will definitely make your dish distinctive and memorable. But some people aren't so keen on their strong flavors. So if you're scrapin' up the scrambled eggs unannounced for your sweetheart, you may not want to take this risk. Perhaps you can cook conservatively the first time and save the fireworks for the next time around. If you do decide to get crazy, you should crumble half a cup of feta into the egg mix together with five diced sun-dried tomatoes.

  3. Once the eggs and companion ingredients have been thoroughly whisked, you should begin heating the pan.

  4. Drop a tablespoon of butter into a pan.

  5. When the butter is melted, pour the egg mixture into the pan. We strongly recommend that you keep the pan on a low flame because scrambled eggs are notorious for sticking to the pan.

  6. As the eggs heat through, you'll see some fascinating exothermic reactions at work: the eggs cook in layers that you should occasionally scrape from the bottom of the pan, to allow uncooked mixture access to the heat. But be gentle and you'll be very grateful if you use a non-stick pan. Again, this takes a bit of a deft touch, so you may want to practice in advance.

    The eggs will be done when they have solidified up into nuggets of cooked clumps. Some people like their eggs a little runnier and others are into a drier version - the conservative way to go is to keep it dry. So keep cooking until there's no liquid egg left and your nuggets are golden brown.

  7. Serve the eggs on top of buttered slices of bread and sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper. You're done!