BISCUITS AND GRAVY!

AND OTHER MARVELOUS BREAKFASTS!
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If a big group of men in our country were to
be surveyed, and asked: "What is your
favorite breakfast?"---there would likely be
many answers.

It is almost certain, however, that one of the
men's choices right at the top would be:
"Biscuits and gravy!" It is a real man-style
breakfast, particularly with some bacon or
sausage included!

Matter-of-fact, I myself have the reputation
of making pretty mean gravy, using one of
these envelopes of white country gravy mix,
and adding some special touches---which
will remain secret!

My mother made the best biscuits and gravy
in the world, using her own "from scratch"
biscuit recipe and scraping the brown up in
the bottom of the skillet and adding flour and
milk. Yes, I know, sounds simple; I've watched
both her and my wife do it, but my gravy made
like that tends to be thin.

So I will stick with my envelope of white gravy
mix and bask in my own fame.

Old timers of my grandad's and dad's generation
loved their breakfasts. It was my dad's favorite
meal of the day, as I have heard him say many
times.

They tended to have breakfasts with not  much
variation---bacon, ham, sausage, pork chops---
and scrambled or fried eggs, occasionally poached---
with toast or biscuits---and sometimes grits or gravy.

In "Mornings On Horseback," a book about Teddy
Roosevelt, his father---every day of his life, after
his morning horseback ride---had a soft-boiled egg
in a little silver holder, and a piece of toast.

When I was in college at HSU, my usual breakfast
was a brownie and coffee in line at the student
center, or often across the street from the campus
at a little cafe, I, being economical, had a bowl of
oatmeal, toast, and coffee for about thirty cents.

Maybe biscuits and gravy hadn't been invented
or was not on the menu, or I didn't know about
it then---or I would have eaten it every day!

Speaking of breakfast habits, the people of the
south have a great dish---GRITS. Grits rivals
B@G in its excellence. Down there the people
like to serve two over-easy fried eggs sitting
in the midst of a large plate of soupy grits---
floating in butter, and salt and pepper. The
pepper must show.

All along the way in the USA, from its earliest
times when the country was two-thirds rural,
as long as there was a fifty pound sack of flour
in the corner of the kitchen, breakfast was at
least guaranteed in the form of pancakes,
corn cakes, flapjacks, waffles, or biscuits.

With the ever-important contributions of the
lowly pig to the country---bacon, ham, sausage---
and the above bread recipes, the farmers and
settlers would buy large buckets of sorghum,
ribbon cane, or maple syrup to complete the
breakfasts (or even suppers) and feed their
large families of six or eight kids.

By the end of the nineteenth century, breakfast
habits were changing. Nutritionists and health
pundits were promoting "cereals" as an answer
to better health. This trend has never ebbed,
and some now say cereals are not healthy for
children, due to high sugar content.

A phenomenon occurred sometime around 1970.
Its origin is cloudy but the "breakfast burrito"
arose and became very very popular, not only
at outdoor events, but at restaurants everywhere,
most notably in the southwest.

The honor roll of modern breakfasts would include
burritos, bagels, croissants, donuts, sweet rolls,
Danishes, cinnamon rolls, brownies, sausage
and egg biscuits, English muffin sandwiches,
French toast sticks, and for a neat, nice, quick
breakfast: Atkins Scrambled Eggs and Sausage
packet. And let's not forget the breakfast buffets.

So wrapping it all up, what are my favorite
breakfasts? Well, just let me say that I love
scrambled eggs just about any time---even
on cold winter evenings. Oh, and I Iike extra-
cheesy scrambled eggs---the more cheese,
the better.

What else? Okay, hmmm...all the above,
although I rarely eat pork sausage now,
in deference to better heart health.

And  there's always...Biscuits and Gravy!

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BY MIL
5/06/14