Every now and again we get the urge to have the traditional breakfast foods for dinner. Breakfast is by far, one of my most favorite meals. The other two – lunch and dinner – are my other favorites. I also have a penchant for snacks. And dessert is my favorite non-meal meal. One might say that my real favorite meal is the one I’m eating at the moment. Some people eat to live – I live to eat.
I could easily picture myself at one of those renaissance banquets that went on for days and days… Gluttony and debauchery. How fun can you get?!?
Actually… I think we’ve thrown a couple of those… Some of those Tahoe parties were pretty wild – and they usually required huge breakfasts the following day for the bodies strewn about the house. Notice I said day and not morning. The parties ended in the wee hours of the morning. Breakfast was served late. We had a standard dish we made the night before we called “Tahoe Brunch” that seemed to take the edge off… especially if served with lots of bloody marys.
Some of those parties really were legendary – like the time 20 friends came up for a skiing weekend. Bodies everywhere. Or my 26th birthday party – we were celebrating three birthdays – with a live band and more drugs than a Mexican Cartel. Wall-to-wall-to-wall people inside and out. I really only have vague snapshot recollections of that one. And no idea how or when it ended – although I am sure I was up and at ’em to the very end. Sweet youth.
That glass is the last remaining bit of memorabilia from my almost 5 years living at Lake Tahoe. Like me, it has seen better days. And also like me, it is full of stories.
Which segues right into tonight’s feast…
Ever wonder why Bacon and Eggs is the quintessential American Breakfast? Wonder, no more! Prior to 1920, the typical American breakfast was much lighter – fruit, hot cereal, and coffee was pretty much the mainstay. A certain Mr. Edward Bernays changed all that.
Bernays was hired by the Beech-Nut Packaging Company – of Beech Nut gum fame – to sell more of their bacon. Back in the day they were producers of peanut butter, jam, pork and beans, ketchup, chili sauce, mustard, spaghetti, macaroni, marmalade, caramel, fruit drops, mints, chewing gum, and coffee. Now they’re a baby food company.
But I digress…
It seems that sometime in the 1920s, wanting to increase his client’s bacon sales, Bernays spoke with the internal doctor working for Beech-Nut and asked him if eating a heavier breakfast would be good for Americans. Being a company man, he said yes – and he then wrote to 5000 of his fellow doctors asking them to endorse the idea. The story was published in all of the media of the time – newspapers and magazines galore – and the American Public bought it. Sales of Beech-Nut bacon soared, and a tradition was built. Bacon and Eggs as a breakfast meal was brought to you by advertising – and a Doctor’s study that wasn’t a study – and foisted upon a gullible populace.
Can you imagine people today falling for such a stunt?
So here we are with our bacon and eggs. And sausage. And potatoes. And rye toast. And freshly-squeezed blood orange juice. The eggs were perfectly runny, the bacon crisp, and the toast perfect for dunking.
Not a bad way to end the culinary day…
Well… except for the homemade fudge we’ll have later. Small pieces. Wouldn’t want to be a glutton.