Breakfast (the Mother of All Meals)

biscuits, gravy, bacon and eggs with green onions

A big breakfast is best eaten after building a fire in the wood stove to warm the house, milking thirty or so cows, feeding the pigs and chickens, and perhaps cutting a little fire wood. In our childhood Allen got up about 4:00 AM. He made coffee for himself and cocoa for Veta. She tagged after him to the barn to start the chores. Portia rounded up the cows on her horse, Sand Boy. Virginia carried the coffee to the milk barn and made sure that breakfast was ready when the chores were done. All this was done most days before Portia and Veta walked a half mile to ride the school bus to Byars Elementary School.

essential breakfast material

Making Breakfast

Classic country breakfast includes:

eggs either scrambled or fried;
bacon, sausage or fried ham;
gravy;
potatoes (hash browns or fried);
biscuits; with
butter, jelly, milk and coffee.

The real trick to breakfast is making everything be ready at the same time. It requires master timing and 15-20 minutes from beginning to end.. The steps are:

Start the bacon frying and watch it carefully. When done, drain on paper towels.
Put the potatoes in the microwave (we boiled them in the old days).
Mix the biscuits and put them into the oven.
Grate the potatoes and put them into another skillet to fry.
Make the gravy in the bacon skillet about the time everything else is done.
The last thing to do is to cook the eggs in the skillet in which the potatoes were cooked (wipe it out first).