Breakfast!

Since dinner has been so hard for me to prepare lately, I've turned to breakfast foods to help me out of my rut. Once in a great while I would serve breakfast for dinner, but now French toast and pancakes, bacon and eggs, muffins and pastries, have all made their way onto my dinner (and sometimes lunch) table a lot more often than they used to.

For New Year's Day, we enjoyed a breakfast brunch: cinnamon rolls with hot chocolate and coffee when we woke up, and a spread of scrambled eggs, French toast, home fries, toast, bacon, and tea later in the day. And I'm getting another craving to do it all over again.

Growing up, my mother would cook scrambled eggs and home fries in bacon fat because my father and I don't like butter! (There, the secret is finally out. I could never understand why Julia Child was so enamored with butter.) But bacon fat....well, let me tell you, there are few things more delicious than cooking with the artery-clogging goodness of pure fat. Just check out Sydney's recipe for perfect breakfast potatoes over on Crepes of Wrath to see what I'm talking about. Mind you, I haven't cooked bacon the old-fashioned way in a very long time. To reduce the amount of calories and fat my family and I consume when we do splurge and eat real bacon, I'll microwave it to save our souls and to keep from cleaning a grease-smeared stove top, but once in a while... Is there anything more heavenly than the smell of fresh brewed coffee and bacon in the morning?

I was never a big fan of eggs either. I won't eat a fried egg, so it's only scrambled eggs for me. But the idea that you can mix together scrambled eggs, sautéed vegetables, and savory meats—yum! I can scramble just about anything together and be happy. Check out this recipe for an egg scramble, known as a Garbage Plate, here.

When I'm not indulging in something sinful for breakfast, I eat almost the same thing every day. I think you'd find if you cracked me open, I'm probably 75% peanut butter. But that's a story for another day.

Breakfast sandwiches, granola and yogurt drizzled with maple syrup; banana muffins with dollops of raspberry jam, toasted pumpkin bread with fennel sausage, have now become treats just about any time of day. Breakfast is the perfect meal.

For more breakfast inspiration, head on over to Simply Breakfast where Jen Causey shares what she's been eating every morning. Check out Sydney's recipe for Bacon and Egg Cups which accompany her perfect breakfast potatoes. Then head on over to the Smitten Kitchen for a full menu featuring Baked Eggs, Chive Biscuits, and Bloody Mary's.