Strikingly Tasty: Creamed Eggs on Toast
Since we’re on strike, we're all going to need to pinch pennies and eat in. So I’m sharing some Depression-era meals that we can even afford to make on the pre-inflation salaries from the contract we ratified in 2019, which don’t go as far as they used to.
This classic American breakfast staple — creamed eggs on toast — costs very little to make but tastes like 1.25 billion bucks, which is the size of the stock buyback LexisNexis announced the same day it illegally laid off almost 30 of our colleagues.
If we end up having to accept management’s proposal to dramatically increase our healthcare costs, you can use fewer eggs to save for luxuries like rent or co-pays.
Ingredients
1 dozen hard-boiled eggs ($1.40 in 2019; $3 in 2024)
4 tbsp. butter ($4 per lb. in 2019; $4.90 per lb. today)
½ cup flour (43 cents per lb. in 2019; 58 cents per lb. today)
3 cups milk ($2.90 per gallon in 2019; $4 per gallon today)
A grating of nutmeg
Salt and pepper
6 slices of bread ($1.26 per loaf in 2019; $2 per loaf today)
Directions
1. Crack the hard-boiled eggs and peel away the shell, much like management has peeled away our morale. Slice the eggs into thin circles.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan or skillet over medium-low heat. Add flour, stirring until a smooth paste forms, but do not let it brown. If the paste does burn, throw it away and start over, or hire union-busting law firm Jackson Lewis PC to gaslight everyone at the table into believing it is not burnt and they should be thankful to eat anything at all.
3. Add milk and whisk vigorously over medium heat until it becomes a bechamel sauce that is so thick and white it would take years to convince it that Juneteenth is a federal holiday worth observing. Add salt and pepper to taste, and a bit of fresh-grated nutmeg.
4. Add sliced eggs to bechamel sauce and stir.
5. Scoop a hearty helping of the sauce-and-egg mixture over toast. Top with salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste.
6. Garnish with parsley; it doesn’t make the meal any more satisfying or filling, but, much like management’s proposal to address inflation with small, one-time bonuses, it kind of looks nice if you’re not paying attention.
Excellent with hot sauce.
Strikingly Tasty is a recipe column from Outlaw360: Strike Authority.
—Editing by Katie McNally, Dave Trumbore, Orlando Lorenzo, and Adam LoBelia. Food styling and photography by Ben Jay.
