Breakfast

CT Wild Ramblings is getting ready for a post about explorations of the West Hartford Reservoir and Deer Cliff area. In the meantime, I've been thinking about "the most important meal of the day." What's the verdict on this? I've heard it said by a lot of folks, however it also seems to be the smallest meal of the day for a lot of people. And I know folks (myself included at times) who don't eat it. So what gives!?

In my line of work (which for now is stacking fruits and vegetables at a grocery store), I am accustomed to two types of shifts. One is the early shift, where I am out the door by quarter to six, but clock out by two in the afternoon. These are the days I take the dog Jay for a hike before dinner. The other shift is the late shift, where I am free all morning before working til close. These are the days I make a good breakfast.

With this exhaustive experience, I feel qualified to say that making a big breakfast is more rewarding to the mind and to the gut than making a big dinner. You wake up in the morning with a fuzzy mind. But once you've taken care of the early housekeeping, its nice to set to work and do something simple and familiar. Get the radio or a record on. Put on the water for coffee. Collect your ingredients. Prepare your tools. And set to work.

It's not just the food that does it for me. It's the clink and clank of the pots and pans. The morning sun that gleans through my back woods. The feeling that today is new. You never know what a day may hold, but a good breakfast is as good a start as any to a good day. I find it exciting. The food, by the way, is the star of the show. Let's go through the process for a simple breakfast: coffee, eggs, bacon, fruit.

I like my coffee freshly ground. I buy beans at the Hartford Baking Company on New Park Avenue in Elmwood. Dark roast, from a local roaster if possible. The first step in breakfast is boiling water in the kettle. Make a half cup of grounds, and stir it into the French press. Often the coffee is ready about ten minutes before the food is, which is perfect. One mug before breakfast, and one with.

Bacon is next. I don't think a "healthy" bacon exists, but I try to make my bacon experience as healthy as possible. Stop & Shop has North Country Smokehouse products, which sources it's meat from local farms in New Hampshire and Vermont, and is nitrate-free. It's also an excellent product. I fry two slices cut in half on low heat in the cast iron, which pulls out the most grease and renders it down to four beautifully crispy little morsels.

Save the grease! Once I pull the bacon to drip-dry on a paper towel, I like to crack my eggs right into the pan, which now has a thin layer of bacon grease. The grease is good for getting the eggs fried up just right, and also good for the cast-iron, adding flavor to the pan itself and maintaining its non-stick nature. My eggs are from a neighbor on Willard Avenue in Newington, just over the town line on the east side of the street. If you ever drive that way, look for the octagonal "EGGS $4.00" sign. Great service and great eggs. My go-to is a pinch of salt and smoked paprika on the yolks, eggs cooked over-medium.

The final step is the fruit. This depends on the season and what's available. At various times of the year, I'll do berries, peaches, apples, pears or citrus. Right now I have some hydro-ponically grown strawberries from Pell Farm in Somers. They are absolutely delicious, and only a buck more than the berries from California. By the way, it's perfectly acceptable to eat the leaves from your strawberries. Probably even a good source of fiber!

And there you go! THAT is a breakfast. Coffee, eggs, bacon, and strawberries! Good food to write about if you ask me. And local. Outside of the coffee beans (from Nicaragua, roasted in Canton), we have meat from New England, berries from Connecticut, and eggs from about 250 yards away from my house. If you are wondering why it's beneficial to eat local, I recommend reading Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. But alas, that is a post for another day. For now, I will get back to enjoying these berries.