Time for Breakfast

Back when the kids were all living at home and going to school, we barely had time in the morning to grab a cup of coffee and toss them a bowl of cereal before running out the door. With me heading off to work and Cindy firing up "Mom's Taxi" to haul the kids and their many friends who liked to hitch a ride to both the elementary and middle schools.

Time for breakfast on the weekends was much more relaxed, Cindy actually had time to cook eggs and bacon, biscuits and gravy, toast and jelly, you know all of your breakfast favorites. On Sunday mornings I took to the kitchen cooking grits and eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles, pancakes, and for the younger kids I would pour a pancake into the shape of their first initial, or the famous "Mickey mouse pancake" that most of us have made at least once.

Mickey mouse is pretty easy to make, just pour out a circle then add two smaller circles at the top to form the ears, now the trick is to not lose an ear when you flip the pancake, if you do lose an ear just continue cooking with both ears removed and offer mini pancakes to go along with the Mickey pancakes that you will be successful at flipping after a couple of attempts.

While the kids were visiting us last week Tim decided that he would cook breakfast for us, out of self defense Cindy decided to help him because Tim is one of those kids who can walk into the kitchen and every cupboard door seems to spring open, along with the refrigerator and oven doors, he is a really good cook but I do remember him once making cookies and I literally found flour on the kitchen ceiling...

Tim started out by asking everyone how they wanted their eggs cooked, he committed all the orders to memory then went into the kitchen and made the executive decision to simply crack all of the eggs into a bowl and scramble them, I think his mom helped to make this decision.

They actually worked in precision, it was almost like their hands were moving in a blur while the eggs were scrambled, bacon was cooked, bread was toasted, pancakes were poured, the smells of breakfast filled the house, it was wonderful to sit back and enjoy this scene.

Cindy was in charge of the bacon, she cooked up regular bacon for everyone and Turkey bacon for me since the doctor has me not eating pork. Cindy cooks the turkey bacon extra crispy so it tastes more like regular bacon, otherwise it can be a little tough.

I sat and listened to Tim lecture me on the benefits and taste of "real" bacon, his lingering questions were:

Where does Turkey bacon really come from?

Have you ever seen a pig in the wild with feathers?

How can they call something bacon when there are no bacon ingredients involved?

Tim ended his rant about bacon stating that it was sacrilegious to call turkey bacon bacon when there was no bacon in it, I just sat there crunching on my Turkey bacon while he talked, I handed a piece to him and he took a bite while he was still talking.

Hey Mom, you did good on this bacon, he said to Cindy. I'm not sure if I ever told him that he was eating Turkey bacon or not.

Earlier while Cindy and Tim were still cooking, I did learn something important for all of us to remember. My lesson began when I asked what was on the menu. They told me, and I just had to ask. Don't you think that you could cook some grits to go along with the eggs, and some biscuits and gravy too? Then I made the mistake of  telling them the proper way to cook the grits.

Never tell the cooks how to do it while you are sitting and watching, you just may not like the answer.