What do they say – that breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Most days at Rock Bottom breakfast is a banana and a piece of sourdough toast, or some homemade yogurt with a little maple or honey on top and an apple – and coffee (though I have switched to black tea mostly, saving my coffee for a cold afternoon cup – my body likes it that way better). My favorite ‘weekday’ breakfast is toast with kimchi and an egg but cheese bagels (sometimes with an egg and wild greens) are a close second. We are terrible parents, our child generally starts with something absolutely inappropriate like ice cream or cake or pirate puffs but then quickly makes up for it with all the same bits we eat (to be fair, she eats the majority of her calories in small meals through the day ending around 4pm, and we don’t believe in ‘dessert’ for our child – I’m not interested in giving her sweet bits before bed, defeats the purpose of some alone time – ha!).

But sometimes we go all out on breakfasts – Josh and Duende make amazing scones (of course), and biscuits (sometimes with honey and jam and bacon, sometimes with gravy and eggs), and pancakes (D has her own special recipe that makes perfect yummy pancakes – and I’m not generally a big pancake fan and I like these!). For special holidays (like my birthday) I love French Toast (Josh made it one year with peanut butter inside – so delicious, I love peanut butter) and now we have the stovetop waffle maker – yay Waffles!

And then there are always leftover breakfasts – which are really my favorites. Leftover roasted potatoes/sweet potato gratin/roasted veggies of any kind or mushrooms or extra greens all become hash when chopped small and sprinkled liberally with salt and fresh ground pepper and served with eggs and avocado. Leftover mashed potatoes mixed with an egg and a little flour, maybe shredded cheddar and greens, become potato pancakes when sauteed in butter with a little oil. Last night’s spaghetti gets mixed with eggs and shredded cheese and whatever leftovers sound good (a little of the sauce and a meatball left, some leftover chicken, that lonely forgotten green pepper chopped up) mixed and baked into a pasta frittata. And my absolute preference is for leftover rice, I have all these oddball things on hand (that’s the kind of gal I am, and I highly recommend if you are in the Portland area – Sun Market on Congress – a lovely family business) but feel free to substitute your own favorite additions and alter the amounts based on what you have. It’s got a lot of bits but comes together quickly and deliciously.

Breakfast Fried Rice

Serves 4ish 

3 cups cooked cold Rice (you can make fresh but it really does work better cold)
1 heaping Tbsp lard/bacon fat/ghee/high point oil (maybe more for later additions)
1 cup chopped something green (a quick fix for me is frozen broccoli florets, but fresh will work, or spinach/chard/dandelion/kale/mizuna/tatsoi/baby bok, green pepper, etc)
1-2 Med-Large Carrots, scrubbed and sliced angled on a bias/julienned
big handful (maybe 1 1/2 cups) frozen Shrimp (or any leftover meat or tofu) (optional)
2 tsp Sesame Seed
2 tsp chopped Garlic (or just smash 2 cloves and chuck them in)
2 tsp diced fresh ginger
1-2 eggs (depending on how much protein you need/people you are feeding)
Splash of Soy Sauce (I’m a Bragg’s Amino Acids gal), more for seasoning later
Sprinkle of Chinese 5-Spice Powder
Dried Red Hot Chili to taste (optional)
drizzle of Sesame Oil
Kimchi as topping (optional)

Heat fat in a big frying pan (I tend not to use the cast iron as cooked rice is a job to soak out) over Med-High heat. Add cold rice and stir until coated. Add garlic, ginger, sesame seed stirring often until fragrant. Add carrots (moving to the bottom if you can). Cook each addition 1-2 minutes. Add broccoli or other greenery and shrimp/other meaty bits – if using frozen, I generally bury under hot rice and add a splash of soy sauce (can cover for a minute or two and steam in, if you like).

Then – here’s the fun bit: make a circle in the middle of the rice, clearing a space, add a little more fat and crack your eggs into the circle – scramble quickly in the space adding a splash of soy sauce and as the eggs set start mixing them into the rest of the rice mix until dispersed throughout. Take pan off the heat, sprinkle the top with 5-spice, cover and let sit a few minutes (This helps the flavors develop and the rice steam from the bottom of the pan). Stir in spice and drizzle with sesame oil.

How I do it: not everyone likes the hot and spicy, so I break up a dry red chili into the bottom of my bowl and ladle the fried rice on top, then stir it up a bit, adding a nice little cold yummy pile of kimchi on top. I find it very addictive and will likely have it for lunch the same day, too. Hopefully, you will dig it just as much.

 

Putting up was definitely a thing when I was little. Bushels of tomatoes became canned tomatoes and tomato sauce (we weren’t sophisticated enough to eat salsa or make pizza sauce – pizza, in fact, was really something we just had at school, in squares, with just cheese. We did not have pizza places and did not have a culture of pizza. I remember making pizza out of a box once because it was such an event!), baskets of green beans and yellow wax beans were ‘tipped’ and canned, beets and eggs were pickled together (right next to other gallon jars of pickled pig’s feet), we made some jam – mostly blackberry and if we were lucky to ‘pick your own’ strawberries once in a blue summer moon, then we could get strawberry jam. But other than that, our creativity was lacking.

Food was not ‘creative’ when I was young. Granted, I lived in a cake baker’s house so decorating was very creative (and hot buttered cake tops for breakfast – mmmm) but not food so much. My favorite meals were generally simple and fresh ones – just caught brook or rainbow trout with foraged sauteed mushrooms, homey venison stew, roast pheasant, catfish fry and corn on the cob – to be honest, most of our vegetables came in a store can. Once a month we would cross the state border to shop for real groceries (we had a small market in our town, and a moderate one in the big town 20 miles away, but in NY state we could go to the cake flour store and then go to the really big grocery store to get goods) – and it was the 70’s/early 80’s: processed food was resplendent. Bologna with cheese holes (hot dogs with ‘cheese’ in them), cheese puffs/balls, Velveeta and Kraft slices (man, our culture was obsessed with fake cheese foods, eh?), pop tarts, cream-filled cupcakes, Froot Loops/Fruity or Chocolatey Pebbles (oh, the crazy cereals – Cap’n Crunch, Lucky Charms, etc), cookies, chips, Kool-aid/Tang, Tab/Shasta ‘Pop’, Chef Boyardee Spaghettios, Chicken & Stars can soup, peanut butter with the jelly in it, Maple & Sugar Instant Oatmeal packets, it was ridiculous. Not to mention the candy and ice cream treats we could get at our own little market (Fat Frog Ice Cream treat anyone?). We lived in a country sort of paradise and ate all hunted/fished meats but when it came to almost everything else – it was junk.

I look around our kitchen this morning – the island is piled with fresh bread and bagels (and the starter crock), sourdough cracker bags, a pitcher of fresh baby leeks from the local Farmer’s Market (which was an encouraging experience), last night’s projekt of canned fresh rhubarb jam, pickled cukes/asparagus/fiddleheads, and the setting fresh ricotta (soon to be jarred up, and then I can pull out the new Kimchi batch to jar up, as well). The substrate bag of Lion’s Mane Mushroom. The bone broth on the backburner. It’s a homestead cornucopia.

And right then and there I realize – it’s picnic for dinner tonite. Fresh ricotta and sourdough baguette (with a little rhubarb jam), pickles, baby radishes with butter, pea shoot and violet salad with medium-boiled local eggs…we can sit up on the hill and survey the zooming and amazing flights of the dragonflies and swifts saving us from the mosquitoes.

It seems easy here to forget about the troubles in the world – we are not immune. We are not worry-free. We aren’t hiding. We all need to hold tight to the moments that make us sane, where we have a moment of safety or at least a moment to be able to reflect on what safety and sanity mean. We are working hard – to make this life meaningful, to make this world (what little bit we are a part of) functional and sustainable. We have little to offer you – our hospitality, our space, our food, our love, our lives, but it’s freely given. We (so far) have that ability – to work in service of the world, of each other, in the ways we are able. It’s all any of us can and should do…

Be safe. Be alert. Be responsive. Be caring. Be well.