It’s been a few weeks of bitterness being served up course after course on the news, social media, and regular real life. But it’s breakfast time on my little part of Planet Earth.
On the menu this morning—nothing too crazy—just a peak in the fridge and putting together something easy and familiar. A little coffee. Make use of baked goods soaked in an egg wash. A few bites of fresh fruit.
I’m an atheist, so I don’t bless food, but I am grateful. While I don’t pray anymore, I still have many hopes and wishes for a world that’s a little happier and whole than it is now.
Time to clear the pallet of that bitterness and taste some of the bounty. I like Earth breakfast.
So how about an English muffin given the French toast treatment? But since there’s just one, gotta supplement with some bread from Oregon. That English Muffin was made in Colorado. Huh. I assume the grains in both come from the great plains….
Mix up those Oregon eggs, pour in a little Washington Milk. A few drops of vanilla and a dash of each: cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and clove. No country of origin named on any of those, but I sure didn’t pull them from the garden….
While that soaks in, heat up that pan, using that hydro-dam electricity. A little pat of Irish butter bubbles away in a splash of Mexican avocado oil.
In a melting pot on the back of the stove, get that Canadian maple syrup warming up. A little splash of Scottish highland single-malt gives that good peaty flavor. Somewhere in my DNA a bagpipe blows in celebration.
It’s smelling good in the kitchen! Gonna need something to wash this down. Put the kettle on to get that Guatemalan coffee that my friend from the Philippines gave me. This morning the coffee’s getting made in the French press. That morning bliss gets poured into a mug from a Seattle company made in China with scenes from Portland, Oregon on it.
Cooking, like shoes, is best as a pair. My partner in crime is at work on the healthy portion of this simple feast. She’s bringing together a greens salad from our CSA. Kiribati lettuce—I’d never heard of it either—and Swiss Chard, with a pinch of Celtic sea salt from France, some of that Mexican avacado oil, Italian red wine vinegar that is somehow a product of Spain, and a little apple cider vinegar from the U.S.—talk about vaguebooking—which according to the label is kosher, has a quote from 3 John 2, and another quote from Hippocrates.
As everything starts to come together, it goes on a plate made in China that was bought at a Swedish store alongside a fork with a similar lineage.
On top of the main dish goes a banana from Peru, and a few bing cherries who are also from the bounty of the CSA.
None of this has happened in silence. It’s Sunday morning, and on my part of Planet Earth, that means the local community supported radio station is playing “Sunday Morning Preaching the Blues,” carrying notes of the long slow song of Africa, passing through American slavery, and a hard, cruel path through slavery, oppression and hatred, and yet it’s music….the best music for breakfast on Planet Earth.
With this thoughtful food from around the world, I raise a fork to our interdependence, our non-isolation, and a hope that we’ll one day welcome our fellow humans as openly as we do the fruits of their labors.