5 Ways to Make Toast

It is typical for me every semester to go through phases of food I eat most frequently.

Two summers ago it was chicken, bean, and cheese quesadillas (thank you Carrie Fox). The fall before that all I ate was cereal. This past winter I lived off of Rold Gold Honey Wheat Braided Twist pretzels (they are still a constant in my cupboard) and this summer it was rice with tuna. My sophomore year I ate toast and an apple for breakfast every morning and this craving seems to be coming back around. The problem? When I was a sophomore, and almost every other year I've been in college, one of my roommates would bring a toaster. This semester?-not so much!

It has forced me to get creative with my toasting techniques. It's not uncommon for someone to overhear Madison and I exchange toasting tips. Earlier this week I discovered a new way to make toast in our apartment and my first thought was "Wait until Madison hears this!" I immediately laughed at myself partly because it's sad that I get excited about toast and partly because I had found yet another way to make toast. I'm genius! I started to look back on the semester and figure out how many different ways we have made yummy, cRuNchY, crumbly toast.
To make toast in apartment #9206 you may:

1. Put it in the oven. I tried to make toast in the oven once. We don't have any cookie sheets so I stuck my bread right on the oven rack. It worked except when trying to pull it out of the oven the bread slipped through the crack and landed right on the burner. NOT good!

2. Heat up a skillet on the stove. Don't walk away because this techinque works fast. (this is my least favorite way because the toast almost always burns which doesn't only taste bad but leaves you and the apartment smelling like burnt bread).

3. Plug in the George. A month ago I bought a little George Foreman grill at D.I. for $5. One day I got tired of my toast bruning so I stuck my toast in the bun warmer on top of the grill. Voila! (this technique works but it takes FOrEvER because you have to wait for the grill to heat up, you can only fit one slice in at a time, and you can only toast one side at time).

4. Go Panini style. It only took me one time using the bun warmer to figure out that if I put the bread in the Foreman it would toast both sides at the same time, I could fit two slices in at once, and it doesn't get burnt! (this is by far my favorite way to make my toast--but it still takes a minute or two to heat up the grill).

5. Prop it up. One morning while making oatmeal I pulled my bread out of the fridge, plugged in the George Foreman, and decided to warm up my bread before I toast it. I propped my toast up against my pot of boiling oatmeal and within seconds I had toast!! I flipped it over and did the same to the other side! (if you aren't careful you can burn your toast this way too but if you're going to stand there stirring oatmeal anway...why not?!)