For most of my life, I have not been very interested in breakfast. Who can eat so early in the morning? But the experts tell us it is the most important meal of the day, the meal that starts the fires that get us moving and keeps us going all day.
The breakfast menu is pretty diverse, to say the least. The Brits eat kippers (Heiring) for breakfast (which certainly seems an odd choice to most Americans), and the Germans start the day with a small loaf of bread, brochen, along with butter and perhaps jam. Of late, breakfast tacos have become popular in the U.S., and then, there are the more traditional choices: pancakes, waffles, buttered toast, eggs served in a dozen ways, bacon, sausage links and patties, and the list goes on and on.
Then one day, for no reason I could think of, I awoke hungry, and I mean seriously hungry! As my daily routine has been for years, I headed to the Greenhouse in Biloxi, my favorite coffee shop on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I grabbed a menu and gave it a serious study. I have heard other people say that the homemade quiche was really good (the recipe is seasonal), as is the sweet potato biscuit with sausage gravy, but those did not appeal to me. The Greenhouse is famous for homemade biscuits and has lots to choose from. There is a daily special (savory and sweet) that is always good. The lox on a biscuit is phenomenal, and they have just about any combination of eggs, toast, sausage, toast, biscuits, and bacon that you can think of.
I settled on buttered multigrain toast, two scrambled eggs, homemade sausage, and homemade jam. I was really surprised at how good it really was, and then I remembered what I have been telling people for years: to get the best results, use the best ingredients and technique, and that is exactly what my friends at the Greenhouse do.
Let’s start with the eggs. Unfortunately, there are no farm-raised eggs in the quantity needed for the GH, but they make up for that by cooking them carefully so that they are light and fluffy. The sausage is homemade and is spiced just right and not overcooked either. The toast is liberally buttered and toasted just till it’s crisp. But the crowing glory of this breakfast is the house-made jam (a specialty of Kait Sukiennik, one of the co-owners) and on that day it was strawberry. I can say with a great deal of certainty that this jam was the best I have ever had. I could have eaten it with a spoon out of the jar!
My breakfast at the Greenhouse was good enough to turn me into a regular breakfast eater, and my choice never changes: Well-buttered multigrain toast, two scrambled eggs, delightful homemade sausage, and Kait’s amazing homemade strawberry jam.