Cheesy French Toast Friendship

If you landed on this blog post from a thumbnail photo you saw of a bunch of cheese on french toast and now you're planning on thinking "that looks disgusting" the whole time you're reading this, you're probably not alone. But hey--can't knock it until you try it! This Memorial Day weekend marks the 1-year anniversary of when my supercool roommate Merry and I moved in together. So naturally, we decided to make cheesy french toast.

Last year, we had just finished moving everything up the 3 flights of stairs to our apartment, and somehow Merry started talking about this ridiculous recipe she grew up on in Wisconsin. Merry's mom would often put cheese on their french toast. Yes, CHEESE. I know what you're thinking because I thought it too. Why would anybody ruin french toast by putting CHEESE on it?? And why on earth would anybody ruin cheese by putting it on FRENCH TOAST?? But sometimes, when you combine 2 good things, you wind up with something even greater. Enter cheesy french toast.

So we headed over to the store with our friend Meghan to get things to make french toast…and cheese…and came home on a rainy Memorial Day weekend to eat it, sitting in our new living room with no furniture. But we had friendship, and cheese. It's a great memory for us, so now you can all recreate it because I'm giving you the recipe!

Cheesy French Toast

Makes about 6 slices

- 4 eggs

- 1 1/2 cups milk

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1 tablespoon vanilla

- 6 slices bread

- 6 slices sharp cheddar

1. Whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, and vanilla to create batter to cover bread. Dip bread in egg mixture, coating both sides evenly.

2. Cook bread over lightly greased skillet on medium heat until golden brown.

3. Melt slice of sharp cheddar over top.

4. Don't forget the bacon. (It's not technically part of the recipe, but everything is better with bacon.)

Also don't forget the syrup. Mer's mom said she learned how to make french toast this way when she was 7. So, we're not totally sure on the original source for the recipe, but I like to think some brilliant soul in Wisconsin had too much cheese on his hands and came up with this.

I think if they ever reinstate Fear Factor into NBC's nightly lineup, answering affirmatively to "will you eat french toast with cheese on it??" may win somebody a lot of money someday. (We know it sounds weird and looks gross but it's really quite good.) ((Eating bugs on Fear Factor is probably way less enjoyable.)) 

P.S. Thanks to Austin Elliott for doing all the photography in this post and letting me edit 'em and to Merry Tucker for making french toast and letting me eat it and put her recipe on the internet.