When I was single I never ate breakfast unless I was on vacation with my folks.  I always just tanked up on coffee, went to college and then straight to work.  The idea of stopping to eat food right when I woke up seemed foreign to me.  And then I met my if-I-don’t-eat-every-five-minutes-I-might-expire beloved.  The first trip we took was an Alaskan cruise where I discovered the delights of a very European breakfast.  Unlike the unappealing slabs of poor dead pigs and boring toast the Americans seemed to favor, the slim and trim Europeans were crunching away on granola.  Only this granola was DELICIOUS!  It didn’t resemble a tasteless box of rocks!  They had dried cherries and pecans in them and I was absolutely hooked!  I could actually tell the Americans from the Europeans without even hearing them speak by what they had on their breakfast plates.  I notice they never skipped breakfast but what they ate was vastly different.  I have had some difficulty getting the “good” granola here in the states but things have drastically improved in the past ten years since we took that trip.  At home I make eggs a lot and I find a quiet joy in having my little family come down the stairs greeted by the comforting smells of coffee and breakfast each morning.  The Israeli born American novelist Ayelet Waldman said:

“A good mother remembers to serve fruit at breakfast, is always cheerful and never yells, manages not to project her own neuroses and inadequacies onto her children, is an active and beloved community volunteer.  She remembers to make play dates, her children’s clothes fit, she does art projects with them and enjoys all their games.”

Yes, well, I confess I am not always able to be Cherie the Chef so sometimes it just looks like the waffle pictured here.  Pop these bad boys in the toaster and voila!  But hey, they are organic, whole grain, and gluten free.  I may not always have time to make it gourmet, but I’m not waffling on breakfast.