The most important meal

Today’s prompt is What’s your favorite meal to cook and/or eat?

I love cooking breakfast for my 12-year-old son Angelo. He is the only breakfast-eater I have ever known. I’m not talking about a banana and a piece of toast nonsense. I’m talking about enormous three-egg omelets loaded with turkey, cheese, mushrooms and spinach served with sides of fresh veggies, fruit and toast — chased with a glass of Rockford’s finest tap water. Delicious!

Though I don’t like eating breakfast, I love cooking it for Angelo. As such, I’ve found that cooking breakfast is the most important meal of my day. Watching my son wolf down his breakfast makes me feel successful. Do not ask me why. It just does.

My son Sam still loves strawberry shortcake for his birthday. Everyone else prefers store-bought cake so I love that I still get to “mom it up” for his birthday.

We don’t do much for Thanksgiving because we’re all usually exhausted so I make a pared down version of the traditional feast with the family favorites.

When the kids get home from school, I usually have a charcuterie waiting for them. This one is for the meat-eaters.

If there is a game, Fern has to stay late at school for band so I’ll bring her some hot turkey soup for her break. She meets me in the parking lot and fills me in on her day between bites.

And once a year or so, Jesse will say he has a taste for homemade pizza so I’ll throw some together for him with whatever ingredients we have in the house.

As everyone gets older and busier, the needs and traditions of the family change. Except for birthdays and a couple holidays, we no longer gather at the table. We haven’t for years. But I’ve found ways to have fresh food available for them to eat. If you look closely, you’ll notice that I have spinach tucked into every meal.

And once a week, usually on Tuesday, you can count on Anna’s Pizza delivering two enormous veggie pizzas to our house. Sam insists that one be “minus spinach.” I wonder why.

I’m not much of a cook but like most people I have a few decent recipes ready to go at a moment’s notice. Thanks for reading / looking at my pictures.

Time to wake Angelo and start his breakfast!

Connie