While it’s status as the most important meal of the day may be debatable, the morning meal solidly owns the trophy for "most awesomest" meal of the day. I’m talking about breakfast, people! Wake up and smell the toast—it’s burning!
Breakfast is the undisputed champion of meals for a number of reasons:
- Breakfast is unprejudiced. Breakfast accepts savory and sweet at the same time, in the same dish even. Breakfast doesn’t care if you prefer ham, turkey, steak, fish, or tofu. Breakfast loves you just the way you are.
- Breakfast is the reason coffee was invented, and coffee rocks.
- Breakfast is always there for you. Like a dear friend who jumps to your aid whenever you need him, breakfast is ready to entertain your taste buds in the morning or at dinnertime, and anytime in-between. (If a restaurant doesn’t serve breakfast all day, you can’t blame breakfast. Blame lunch. Lunch has had it out for breakfast ever since it was discovered that brunch is really just breakfast with mimosas.)
- Breakfast knows you’re busy, but wishes you’d slow down for a chat. Snag a muffin, down a doughnut—just don’t skip it entirely. Whether it’s a drive-thru sandwich, a poppy seed muffin from the bakery, or a three-course sit-down brunch smorgasbord (shhh! don’t tell lunch)—breakfast is just happy to see you.
For me, Monday through Friday breakfasts consist of peanut butter toast or oatmeal with brown sugar. And coffee, of course. But, on Saturdays I give breakfast its due. It all starts on Friday….
Our family has a Friday night tradition, in which my brother-in-law grills the meat of his choosing—pork chops, chicken, filets— and the rest of us dream up sides to pair. Pork chops with wilted spinach and linguine tossed in olive oil and cracked pepper; filets with butter-drizzled asparagus and baked-mashed potatoes; ribs with Southern-style macaroni-and-cheese and spicy collard greens. It’s a culinary party, and the band keeps playing into the next morning. Leftovers for breakfast! We have steak-and-eggs sandwiches, pork medallions with apple muffins, omelettes with spinach and goat cheese—you get the idea.
This past Friday night we had steak fajitas, a spicy bean and corn salad and chips with fresh guacamole. But, when we woke on Saturday we found we’d eaten all the meat! No steak and eggs! All we had left was a bite of the bean salad…and one avocado.
Breakfast, like the true friend it is, persevered.
Give me your meager leftovers, said breakfast,
and I will give you sustenance.
Scrambled Eggs with Avocado
- A pat of butter
- A scant teaspoon olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 quarter of an avocado, peeled and cubed
- Sea salt flakes
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 slice of toast (preferably whole wheat or a nice grainy type)
- Beat the eggs lightly with a fork just until homogenously yellow.
- Heat the butter and oil in a non-stick skillet. When the butter has melted and the bubbles subside, pour in the egg.
- As the bottom of the egg sets, push gently with a wooden spatula towards the middle, letting the uncooked egg run underneath. Keep doing this slowly and methodically until you have very softly set curds of egg. You may want to remove the pan from the heat to avoid overcooking the eggs.
- When the eggs are partially set but still wet in places, add the avocado and fold gently.
- Take the pan off the heat (
if you haven’t already) and pile the eggs onto the toast. Sprinkle generously with sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper.
Many thanks to
http://80breakfasts.blogspot.com/ for this saved-the-day recipe and gorgeously yummy photo.
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