Before you read any further, I feel that it is only fair to warn you that I haven’t really thought of anything good to write about, and there may be suckage as a result, because in eight minutes I’m going to press submit no matter what happens to be on the screen.
I like a little time pressure–keeps the mind focused.
A few days ago, someone (and it would take too many precious seconds to go through the logs and figure out who) posted a question about eating breakfast or skipping the meal entirely. I never skip, because then my stomach would growl all morning, sounding like a lawn mower run over a length of chain, but it planted the seed of an idea.
Each meal of my day has a very different character, molded by different constraints. Breakfast has to be easy to make and quick to clean up, because it is severely time-constrained. Lunch is usually a surprise, because I never look at the cafeteria menu ahead of time, and sometimes it’s moderately awful–but it’s beyond my control, so I don’t really see this as my problem. Dinner is more free-form–more time to cook, more time to clean up afterward, so it could be anything from microwaved leftovers to a four-course extravaganza. And then there’s eating out–adding yet another dimension of variety, but which, for the sake of simplicity, I will treat as a digression.
But back to breakfast. I have a feeling that most people aren’t eating what they want for breakfast, because they’re also time-constrained. Sleep trumps cooking, at that hour. Cooking in the dark just feels funny, and I can’t cook properly unless the kids are awake and providing background noise. Perhaps you have similar limits?
So, here’s the question–if you had sufficient time, and all the necessary equipment and ingredients, what would you cook yourself for breakfast? No fair going out, unless that’s really all you do. And no fair getting someone else to do the dirty work. I want to know what you would do. Is a bowl of cereal all you really desire, or have you always longed for something more complex?
And that’s eight minutes. Have a great morning.
