The Relatives Came For Brunch!

The morning after my nephew’s wedding was my favorite part of the VA trip. We all gathered in my sister Esther’s warm, welcoming kitchen for a late brunch! Everyone was there except the two sibs who couldn’t make it to the wedding. It was the time I had looked forward to the most, the time when we were cooking, eating, talking and breathing together. And it was just as great as I thought it would be!

Here is my brother Sam, the best egg fryer in the family, the one who believes that the only eggs worth frying are the ones coming from happy chickens! This is also the brother who almost bit my head off when he saw me gently submerging the crackers into the milk because he said I was stirring them but I wasn’t. I just don’t like it when the top crackers sit there cold and dry which goes to show that when making crackers you should actually add the milk to the crackers rather than the crackers to the milk…

Here is my sister Esther smiling fondly at those beautiful golden eggs, coming from happy chickens and fried to perfection by Sam.

These eggs were ready for the general public who don’t have strong feelings about eggs but the good thing about Sam is that he understands feelings about eggs and if you tell him what you are looking for in a fried egg he will make it for you exactly the way you want it! And he will put it piping hot on your plate at exactly the spot you want it!

Here is the hefty pot of hot milk almost ready for the crackers and the pot of butter standing at attention:

Here is Esther pushing the crackers into the milk because she doesn’t know better. And there are those crackers sitting there in all their buttery glory!

Amy appreciates a bowl of good crackers with ham gravy…

…and Aliyah begs for more of that yummy warm stuff that slides down the throat so easy and makes the tummy warm and the heart happy!!

Next we will talk about pan-haus (scrapple)!! Pan-haus is my love language. It is something to be dreamed about, talked about and eaten with great appreciation for its fine qualities. My sister Amy is the best pan-haus fryer in the family. She knows just how to slice it, exactly what tempature to have the pan, how much grease to put on the pan and how long to leave it on the pan so that it comes out crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside! It is pure delight to eat it with a soft egg placed right smack in the middle so that when you cut down through the middle the yolk runs down over the pan-haus…

There was also a large pot of levervausht and a pot of sausage gravy and a pot of ham gravy to drown the crackers in!

There was cold orange juice, icy homemade grape juice served in a tin bucket, and in the fridge there were gallons of cold, creamy milk. There was coffee with real cream or mint tea made from fresh cut tea leaves raised outside in the kitchen garden. There was fruit slush, and baked goods for those with a sweet tooth…