Hot Breakfast

Two weekends ago I broke out in hives. After much consideration, I think I've narrowed it down to this little "dino dig" we tested at work, where you chisel little plastic bones out of a gypsum sand block and then get your paleontologist groove on, making a minitiare dinosaur. Needless to say, I'll be avoiding all gypsum sand contact in the future.

It took two doctor trips, over three weeks of prescription meds (including 70+ pills of steroids) and lots of icing down to finally return to normal. But - I just haven't felt like myself through the whole ordeal. I'm not a big medicine-taker, so I think I've just been suffering the side effects of being dazed and groggy. All this, mourning Grammy, work, etc. just equalled some bad nights of sleep.

Until last night. Yesterday we had three birthday parties, back to back, on top of the usual clientelle of the store, and I also taught a Chinese New Year class. By the time I got home, I was tired. I'm a complete night-owl, but I was in bed at 11 p.m. That's early for me. I read some, fell asleep, and woke up this morning feeling really refreshed and ready to conquer the day!

And what better way to start with a hot breakfast?! It dawned on me that I haven't had a hot breakfast in months. I put on a pot of coffee, and while it brewed whipped myself up a plate of skillet potatoes with onion and red pepper, and a spinach and cheese omelette. Delicious, and hit the spot!

I used Johnny's mom's eggs, which she supplies us with every Sunday. Behind their house is a barn, where she has chickens and goats, for fresh eggs and milk. She also makes fresh cheese and has the hugest garden in the summer! Everything from beets to berries! There's such a variety in the shapes, sizes, and colors of the eggs. She writes on the carton the date she collects them - these were just collected last week!

Look how big the one is I used for my omelette!


When I uploaded my pictures, I found this one! The other night, Johnny made himself a bowl of rice krispies with a sliced banana on top. He marched proudly upstairs to show me this "masterpiece" of balancing banana slices. We joked he should take a picture and I'd put it on my food blog!

We're hosting the Superbowl here next weekend for a few friends, so I want to try and save shopping until the second half of the week, closer to Sunday. So, the meal plan this week is trying to use up things I have on hand. That includes chicken and acorn squash that need to be cooked, the crab cakes that never appeared last week, the second half of the vichyssoise I made in November and froze, and a Robin Miller recipe for lettuce wraps that was featured in this month's Guideposts magazine recipes.