Morning Breakfast with Will

          My brother, Will, spent the night at home the other night just to visit with the family.  The next day was an early summer rainy day, and my parents had already left for work.  I woke up and went downstairs to my (21 year old) brother watching cartoons.  After a couple reruns of Spongebob and Dexter's Labratory, I decided to make a huge, Southern, comfort food breakfast for the two of us.  The menu I made consisted of cheesy scrambled eggs, link sausage, hash browns, and homemade waffles.  It was nice to know that I had the whole day to do whatever I wanted because IT'S SUMMER, so why not make a huge breakfast and spend time with my brother?

          I started with the sausage, because I knew the meat would take a while to cook through.  My mom taught me how to make link sausage the best.  First, I turned the heat up high and put a splash of olive oil in the pan.  I charred the outside of the sausage so that it was crispy and brown, but the inside, I knew, would still be underdone.  Then I did what my mom taught me.  I put a little water in the pan, so that about a third of the sausage was submerged.  This would cook the sausage all the way through.  Then I turned the heat way down and let it sit.  

          Next, I began to make the batter for my waffles.  I googled waffle batter recipe, and clicked on the very first link.  Allrecipes.com gave me a straight-forward recipe that I had all the ingredients for.  I didn't want to cook the waffles until the eggs and hash browns were cooked because I wanted everything to be done and hot at exactly the same time.  So, I put the batter in the fridge for later. 

          My hash browns were next because they would take time for the onions to caramelize and the potatoes to soften.  I only wanted to make enough for Will and me, so I chopped up half an onion and a tiny potato to relatively the same size cut.  I put the onions on the skillet first and allowed them to soften up a little before putting the potatoes on.  Once both were in the pan, I threw in about two tablespoons of butter and stirred everything around.  The aroma that filled the kitchen was incomparable.  The familiar smell of onions and butter in a skillet filled my whole house.  I put the hash browns on one of the back burners to keep cooking, moved my sausage around in their pan so that they would cook evenly, and got out another pan for my eggs.  

          I felt like a real cook with three pans and three burners going at once.  Now, the trick to the scrambled eggs that I make is a product called "Palmetto Cheese."  Throughout my earlier childhood, my family would stay at the same inn at the same beach every single summer.  The inn serves three (ginormous) meals a day, and the food is spectacular.  One of the cooks at the inn came up with a recipe for homemade pimento cheese that tastes delicious.  Bigger and bigger companies began to buy the recipe, and now it's sold in grocery stores across the country.  For my scrambled eggs, I used the "jalapeno" version of the Palmetto Cheese to add a little spiciness to our breakfast.  I broke two eggs, and added two heaping spoonfuls of Palmetto Cheese in a bowl.  I whisked it until the cheese broke up and the eggs were scrambled.  Then I put it on a greased hot pan.  I had to constantly break up and stir the eggs because they cooked really fast.  I like my eggs to be almost a little gooey, because I think if they're cooked and browned too much, they taste dry and have an unenjoyable texture.  

          While the eggs were cooking, I turned on my waffle iron so it would heat up.  I greased it heavily with Pam and put a little more than a cup of batter on and closed the top.  I heard the crackle and hiss of the hot plates against the batter.  I set the iron to a low setting, because I like my waffle to be crispy on the outside but caky on the inside.  Then I gave my sausage a spin (most of the water had burned off by now), my hash browns a toss, and my eggs a chop and a stir.  My first waffle was done, so I took it off and put on the second.  

          Then, I began to plate.  I took this meal as a perfect time to practice my food styling skills. Good presentation always makes food better; it's almost as important as the food itself.  I put the eggs down first, right in the center of the plate.  Then I plated the hash browns like an avalanche falling off one side of the eggs.  I gave each plate two links of sausage, and finished off with three drops of hot sauce on the side.  We're young'ns, so no food goes without a little bit of hot sauce.  I put the waffles on their own plate and served them alongside some maple syrup that our Dad made with his friend in Vermont.  

          Everything tasted amazing, and it was just the right amount for a full, yummy breakfast.  It was so simple to make, but this meal still added to my list of memorable cooking experiences.  My brother approved :)

The Teenage Foodie