Breakfast (Again)

A weekend breakfast is one of my favorites. I make eggs a different way, or with different companion tastes.

This was last week's incarnation; the scramble is made with dill weed and ground celery seed - I'll be repeating that when oldest son can have it with me. Crisp rye toast, (with caraway seeds, of course) finishes the main course.

The garnish is nasturtium flowers. They are an odd thing to eat. First the earthy-floral perfume strikes you. Then, as your teeth crush the blossom, they are as strikingly vegetable as a fresh spinach leaf. Finally the heat comes on, along the lines of a good radish. I can understand why colonial Americans enjoyed these. They gave a little zest to what could be a bland diet. And, for me, the look of them on the plate is very stimulating. They, and certain goldfish, are almost the magic shade of orange, the color equivalent of ambrosia, for me.

Yesterday's breakfast was without oldest son (he was sleeping in - keeping show-biz hours, after his second performance in The Music Man). So several ingredients were open to use that aren't when we're sharing. First I sauteed a shave of onion and two thinly sliced cremini mushrooms in a teaspoon of butter. Then I added the eggs with salt, pepper, and cilantro. Just as the eggs were finishing up I added five chopped Nicoise olives (the ingredient that would ruin it for him). On the plate I smothered it with freshly grated (that minute) pecorino romano cheese. This pleased my mouth, but I wasn't sure what meal I was eating.

The red banana was something new - our plain yellow bananas (the cavendish) are actually one of the least interesting types (they travel well - like red delicious apples, which must have been named by a marketing person) and these red bananas did have more banana flavor. Tough skins, though, hence the knife. The cottage cheese has been mixed with a little salt, fresh ground pepper and a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise (my biggest weakness in the kitchen - I love mayo).

This morning's breakfast, after a trip to the new organic market in our little village (a separate post coming about that walk, and our historic downtown), featured more fresh fruit than usual. Ruby red grapefruit, red grapes, red banana (notice I sliced it from the get-go this time - their peels really are different than the cavendish). The main squeeze this time is a potato, onion, and rosemary foccacia from the market - I ate it cold, and it was delicious. The potato and onion made it like an exotic variation on hash browns.

Youngest son got his choice of breakfast, too (dearest and I went alone this morning, for a walk before shopping, so we picked it for him, actually). He likes a scrambled egg, but, yes, that large item is a chocolate chip cookie. He calls them face cookies when they're this big, because he could hide behind it.

Dearest's choice of breakfast from the market was a croissant chocolat. I don't speak French, but, to me, it is almost as wonderful in the mouth as these breakfasts.

>>>> Appendix de Grenouille # 6 <<<<

I had planned on using this gorgeous heirloom tomato for today's breakfast, but it was taken by royal decree. Vive le Roi Grenouille! Maybe I can have it for lunch when the king is busy doing something else. I doubt he'll notice - very short span of attention and even shorter memory (nothing to do with that tequila from last night's post).