Slice the baguette on a bias, each slice about a half-inch thick, and set them aside. In a shallow container, like a glass pie dish, crack the eggs, add the milk and other custard ingredients, and mix the ingredients together with a fork. Make sure all the ingredients are well integrated. Egg beaten, cinnamon dispersed and the kitchen smelling slightly of vanilla.

Once the custard is ready, place a pan on a burner set to just above medium. Let the pan heat a while. It’s important the pan be up to temperature but not too hot. You want to make sure the French toast heats all the way through, the custard cooks, and each piece browns nicely. Go ahead and set the oven for 200 degrees while you’re at it.

While you’re waiting for the pan to heat, put the strawberry slices in a bowl, sprinkle with four tablespoons of brown sugar and heat about 30 seconds in the microwave. Once heated, stir the strawberries with a spoon. The sugar crystals will tear some of the strawberry cells, and the juice will mix with the sugar to create what is, essentially, a simple syrup. Dip a pinky into the mix and taste. If it’s not sweet enough for you, begin adding additional brown sugar until you reach your own sweetness ideal. Continue heating and stirring until you have a nice mix of syrup, in-tact strawberry slices and other pieces that have been reduced and are more like the bits in jam. Once it’s all done, cover to retain the heat.

Put a tablespoon of butter in the pan on the stove. It should melt immediately.

Set your bread slices in the custard mix and count to thirty. Flip them and count again. You want to make sure the mixture has a chance to work its way through the bread’s cells and crannies and nooks, filling air pockets with new pockets of pure deliciousness. I like five slices per serving because they can be arranged in a nice star pattern, once you’re ready to plate.

Once the slices have soaked, set them in the buttered pan about 2 minutes on the first side, then one minute, 30 seconds on the other. You want to keep an eye on them, though, as your pan may be hotter or cooler at specific settings. Remember, you can always cook longer. You can’t undo burnt French toast.

I doubt you’ll have a pan or pie dish big enough to coat and cook all slices simultaneously. Go ahead and set the pieces on a cookie sheet and place them in a warm oven. Once you have all the pieces cooked, it’s time to serve.

To plate, arrange the slices in a star pattern and spoon on the macerated strawberries. Then sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar for a touch of contrast.

To make the dip, simply combine the artichoke hearts, mayonnaise, garlic, parmesan cheese, and basil in a 8” * 8” baking dish. Stir them all together then sprinkle the top with the bread crumbs. Cut the baguette on a bias and arrange the slices on a baking sheet. Put the sliced bread and the artichoke dip in a 425(degree F) oven for about 5 minutes. The bread will crisp up and the dip will get nice and bubbly. Right at the end, zap the dip under the broiler for about 30 seconds to brown the bread crumbs and give them some additional crunch.

Fill a 6 qt stock pot with four quarts of water. Add two level tablespoons of kosher salt and set the water over high heat

While the water is coming to a boil, set a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil. The pan is at temperature when it feels warm to a hand that’s several inches above it. Add the garlic and let it soften and turn translucent at the edges. Make sure to keep it moving so it doesn’t burn.

note: burned garlic is very bitter and gives a hard, sometimes unpleasant edge to sauces and soups.

When the garlic has softened some, add the diced tomatoes and the tomato sauce and stir it all together. Let the mix come to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low (low-medium), and allow the sauce to simmer. Give it a taste and add a little salt, if necessary.

Without any extra ingredients, the sauce will taste very bright and acidic, like a slightly under-ripe tomato. Add the oregano, stir it in, and taste. The sauce should taste more mellow now. Gone is the tannic edge and in its place is a rounder, deeper flavor. If the sauce still tastes tart, try adding a bit more oregano or a couple grinds of black pepper. As a last resort, you could add a trace of sugar, but then you might as well have saved yourself the trouble and just bought the jarred stuff at the store, savored its cloying sweetness.

When the sauce tastes good (tasting along the way is the secret to an excellent tomato sauce), slowly stir in 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese and then leave it alone. From here on out, the sauce will take care of itself.

Your water should be boiling now, so go ahead and carefully place your pasta in the pot, give it a stir, and let it go. Set the timer as directed on the box (I usually go for the lowest suggested time so I don’t inadvertently cook my pasta to mush), and give it a good stir about two minutes into the cooking time. That’s when the pasta will release most of its starch into the water and thus will be most likely to stick together into a giant spaghetti rope. Looks cool, but is pretty inedible.
After you’ve given the pasta the second stir, It’s time to toast the garlic bread. Set a small sauce pan on one of your remaining burners (sorry, Bittman) and bring it to medium-high. Add the olive oil and butter. When the butter has melted, add the minced garlic. Don’t let it sit in the pan. Stir, keep the pan moving and heat the garlic until it begins to go translucent, then use a slotted spoon to remove it from the pan. Get a brush (or you could just pour it over the bread) and brush the bread with the butter mixture.

Note: If you want an extra garlicy touch, reserve the minced garlic to spread on the bread once it’s out of the oven.

Stick the bread in the oven under the broiler for about a minute (check it at 45 seconds, just to be safe). When the bread begins to brown on the edges, take it out.
When the beeper beeps, drain the pasta.

Plate the pasta, cover with a couple spoonfuls of the sauce, and serve with the garlic bread, sliced. Put the remaining Parmesan cheese on the table so guests can adjust the sauce’s cheesiness to their liking.