Comfort Foods

There are comfort foods that I have discovered are completely beyond my reach over here in the UK. I can come close on some where substitution is possible. For example, even though Colby and Longhorn cheeses are unavailable, it is possible to make nachos using cheddar (proper English cheddar from Cheddar itself) if you ad some Red Leicester to it. Some I can't have because the constituent ingredients are flat unavailable. (Just try and find a triscuit over here!)

Some can be made, but it just seems wrong to do so. Jambalaya is something I have made, but it just didn't seem right eating it so far from the bayous. And Soul Food is right out! Sure, it's easy to find oxtails and beef necks, but it is just so far from the cotton fields that severely overcooked vegetables just seem out of place.

But there are others that are just a breeze to make and work well. Once such comfort food I made myself for breakfast this weekend. It was cold and rainy when I got back from my ride on Saturday; I wasn't able to call my family in the states so I did the next best thing. I fixed myself a mess of Hunter's Eggs.

For those of you unaware of this particular thing, I do not blame you. My siblings and I have never been fully sure if this was a creation of our dad or if it really was an old recipe that someone really made-up. (Though in later years, a restaurant chain called "Denny's" - fitting for that is dad's name - started serving something similar that they call a "Skillet Breakfast." - Hmmm...)

For my British friends, imagine that the waiter has dropped the Full-English Breakfast on the way to the table. For everyone else, it is a concoction of mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, bacon and/or sausage which has been fried-up together in a pan and then stuck together with scrambled eggs. (Oh, a note for the Brits: we do leave the tinned beans off our version of the Full English.) Optionally, cheese can be added to the top when served.

I made mine with some scraps of Brie I had left over in the fridge and a lovely whole-grain bread that they bake at the local bakery. It was yummy and just the thing to get me through a cold, rainy morning!

I only mention it because sitting here and looking out my office window, the day is dawning a bit dark and drear. I have heard that it will be in the eighties today, but looking outside today, I just can't believe it!

I hope wherever you are, it is a lovely, comfortable morning for you.

Don Bergquist - 05 September 2006 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK