My mother had such a joy for life, I'll never forget the fun things she did with us when were growing up. A lady named Mrs. Tullis gave her a bunch of old stuff: a basket woven from walnut, some wicker rocking chairs, and three Fiestaware plates, salad size.



There was a blue one, a red one, and a black one, and she made up a story to go with each one. The blue one was the Blue Plate Special like diners would have, the red one meant it was your special day, and the black one she would describe as 'the food is cold and mybloggers and burnt.' Since it was just me and my sister, nobody had to have the black plate.

They were just the right size for our breakfast scrambled eggs and she would send us out to snip a little handful of chives to go in them. There would be homemade bread toast and homemade apricot-pineapple jam to go on it.

There isn't much to making scrambled eggs, but this recipe from America's Test Kitchen is worth the trouble. Stir in some snips of fresh chives if you have them, and put some tomato slices on the side.

Special Scrambled Eggs

8 eggs
2 egg yolks
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tablespoons half and half
1 tbsp butter

Beat the eggs with a fork until uniform in color. Melt the butter in a 10 inch non-stick pan on medium high heat. Use a rubber spatula to stir the eggs for 2 minutes, until the spatula starts to leave a trail. Turn it down and stir 30 to 60 seconds, then serve.

Here is how she made French toast, which was probably not different from anyone else. It was good when she put cinnamon in the eggs.

French Toast

Sliced stale bread (not hard, just firm)
Eggs
Milk
Cinnamon

Beat the eggs and milk together with the cinnamon. Soak the bread in it and cook on a large skillet. Serve with heated pure maple syrup.

She always heated the Log Cabin maple syrup (back when the can was shaped like a cabin). Remember when restaurants would serve warmed syrup in little pitchers? Some still do, but many don't bother any more.

One time I bought some maple-cured bacon, and cooking it filled the whole house with the aroma of hot maple syrup. It was good, but too much of a good thing, I'd rather have the traditional hickory-smoked bacon and get the maple flavor from real syrup.

This breakfast remembering reminds me of one time my dad and Bill Wolverton were leaving to go fishing early in the morning. My mother was half awake, making pancakes for them and she heard Bill say: "Another few seconds and this one would have been done in the middle." That'd get your attention.