Breakfast

Next to dessert, breakfast is my favorite meal. A good, hearty breakfast always helps me feel charged and ready for the day. While I can eat cold cereal with the best of them, handle a simple toast-and-juice breakfast, and enjoy a “European” breakfast (muesli/granola, plain yogurt, juice, fruit, and cold cuts), it’s the hearty breakfasts that are my favorites.

Now, while I enjoy cooking in general, I relish the chance to cook a breakfast, especially for other people. There are few things better than seeing folks with a satisfied tummy in the morning. I’ve been lucky to have some really great recipes handed down through my family: everything from Yorkshire Pudding (yes, we eat it for breakfast—apologies to my UK friends) to buckwheat pancakes. And I usually experiment a bit with the recipes until I discover a “secret ingredient” that enhances the breakfast and makes people say, “There’s something in there…I’m just having a hard time figuring it out…”

Why do I like breakfast so much? Maybe it’s because I was raised eating good, hearty breakfasts. Maybe it’s because “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” was drilled into my brain during 7th grade health class. Or maybe it’s my “Swedanglish” heritage—those countries that have outstanding breakfasts. Anyone who has partaken of a full English breakfast knows what I mean…regardless, I just love breakfast. It’s sexy.

My favorite breakfast to cook? Well, that would have to be my grandmother’s recipe for Danish thin pancakes—with a personal twist: I make a just-sweet-enough cream cheese filling and top them with a tangy apricot-rum-flavored sauce…Mmm…

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