Breakfast for champions

Marge and I grew up in Nebraska, so technically we were Northerners. We now live in Missouri, so we are now Southerners but with a palate that is both northern and southern. Throw in having COVID a couple, three times, and our taste buds are all mixed up. First off, we never had lunch and still don't. We start out with breakfast then dinner at noon and then supper in the evening. Dad believed in a midmorning coffee break and a midafternoon coffee break. And he also believed in a snack at both midmorning and midafternoon breaks. Not a lot to go with the coffee but at least something.

Breakfast wasn't one you pour from a box. Mom and Dad fixed breakfast pretty much every morning. Probably out of 365 days a year we had eggs 365 days a year. Sometimes they were fried in bacon grease, and then some were poached. Sometimes Mom would boil them until they were half done and then break open for soft-boiled eggs. Not my favorite egg! I can't remember scrambled eggs. Sometimes she would tear bread apart and put in greased muffin tins then crack an egg in each hole and bake them. I liked these. Probably my favorite eggs were the Banty eggs. They were super small, so you could eat half a dozen pretty easy. Mom and Dad had brown eggs as well. I liked them better than the white ones but doubt they tasted any different.

We had bacon or sausage or ham or pork chops every meal for breakfast. Every meal always had meat. Sometimes Mom would cook oatmeal or cream of wheat. Had toast a bunch. Had pancakes as well. Mom and Dad had a gas stove with a griddle in the middle, and they'd make pancakes there. Mick's they fried in a skillet because he liked his fried in grease. Sometimes the pancakes were round and sometimes they were pancake men with arms and legs and heads. Most of the time Mom made the syrup, and it was hot. It was good. Mom also made biscuits, but they don't stand out in my memory. Had steak one time that stands out for breakfast. Was working for a ranch in Nebraska, and the cook had fried up some steak. It made an impression.

I can't remember ever having biscuits and gravy in Nebraska or Oklahoma. The first time for them seems to be here in Missouri. Biscuits and gravy seem to go with all three meals, but they really work for breakfast. One place takes a sausage patty and puts it in the biscuit and then smothers with gravy. Tasty! Marge makes a meal for all of us at every birthday. Well the happy birthday person gets to choose, and every year biscuits and gravy wins out.

Breakfast today now that we are retired is slower. Marge can't handle eggs for breakfast, so her normal breakfast is toast. Buttered toast. Mine is normally some meat and eggs and toast or biscuits or such. Meat is a definite, and eggs are real probable. With the price of eggs, my breakfast is getting pricey. I still like eggs fried in bacon grease or scrambled with onions and peppers or poached. I'm not picky about whether I have biscuits or toast or pancakes or waffles. I do like eggs. If Marge poaches my eggs she poaches an extra for Grace. Grace appreciates an egg for breakfast. If I have cereal it's bite size shredded wheat. Man Grace and I both like them.

What I notice now is many if not most have a manufactured breakfast or fast-food breakfast and not a made from scratch. Stick it in the toaster or nuke it, breakfast in a jiffy. Coffee is now made for the one-cup wonders rather than the old percolators. Cream comes as a powder and not the real deal. Many rely on coffee shop or fast-food coffee. Back growing up the only thing one ate was a real egg, real meat and maybe even homemade bread with real butter. Not one chemical that you can't pronounce in the whole lot.