The most important meal of the day
Is sometimes still eaten at night.
They say, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” And by “they” I mean Dr. John Harvey Kellogg — yes, that Kellogg — used it as a marketing slogan to promote his new breakfast cereal. Then Big Bacon jumped on board, followed by Big Egg and Big Waffle, probably. Anyone who had a food that was breakfast adjacent saw an opportunity to convince America that first thing in the morning was the best time to eat….their products.
And it worked. We are a society who loves breakfast. Breakfast foods are comforting, filling, and delicious. You can make them healthy. Or make them unhealthy with healthy-adjacent things and pretend their healthy. You can literally eat cake for breakfast (coffee cake, muffins, pancakes) and parents are like, “eat up, little children, this is the most important meal of the day.”
Big Vegetable obviously didn’t jump in on this bandwagon. They partnered with Big Egg to make veggie-packed omelets a go-to thing for health nuts, but there aren’t too many vegetables universally synonymous with breakfast, unless you count the potato. But lets be honest, the potato kinda sold it’s vegetable soul out to num-num taste a while ago — french fries, hashbrowns, mashed potatoes, potato salad, potato skins. None of those dishes are winning any health food awards any time soon.
Breakfast has become such a big time favorite, “breakfast all day” isn’t an uncommon sign to see in diners and cafes. Breakfast for dinner is a legit thing. Even McDonalds was like, “if we make Egg McMuffins, they will come,” and they dropped the 10 AM cut off and now serve breakfast all day long.
So it’s no surprise that breakfast sandwiches are a popular thing.
As we near the end of the list that has guided our Sunday meals for nearly a year, West Virginia served up a breakfast sandwich for our palettes consideration. It’s the second “official” breakfast sandwich on the list (who are we to say when any sandwich can or should be eaten, after all?). Although, I would argue that Oregon’s Fried Chicken Bisuit Sandwich was fork and knife dependent, making it more of a breakfast stack than a sandwich, but po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe.
West Virginia’s sandwich adhered to the KISS style of sandwiching — Keep it simple, Sandwich! (it’s an admonation sandwiches tell themselves when they feel like too many toppings are being added to them). It’s a biscuit (homemade if ya’ fancy), topped with sausage, egg and cheese. Kinda like a McDonalds sandwich without McDonalds being involved at all because don’t give McDonalds that kind of power.
Nate took the helm on this one because I̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶d̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ I had mercifully gotten my second Covid vaccination and was high on the effects of my pending pandemic immunity. Thank goodness for supportive husbands, amirite?
Anyhoo, didn’t actually die, so lets carry on.
Nate made biscuits from scratch (go Nate!), fried up some sausage patties and eggs (hurray Nate!), and topped them all with a beautifully cooked runny egg (nailed it, Nate!), all while preventing our toddler from touching the hot stove, a task that’s been made much more difficult since said toddler realized he can drag his stool around and be right at danger height in the kitchen. And if there’s one thing toddlers love more than trucks and taking their pants off at playgrounds, it’s danger.
I showed up to dinner right in time for the sandwich to be plopped in front of me for me to enjoy (probably looking like a million bucks. Hard to say. I felt so beautiful I didn’t want to look in a mirror lest the mirror Snow White me and tell me that I’m the fairest of them all. It’s like, keep yourself guessing, you know?).
The sandwich was very good. It was exactly like you would expect that sandwich to taste. The biscuit was nice and fresh, the sausage was savory. The melty cheese was melty and cheesy and the runny egg gave the sandwich the amount of wet yolkiness it needed. An egg-sellent sandwich any time of day, for sure.
As far as sandwiches go, I hold breakfast sandwiches in a different mental category than regular sandwiches. Yes, they’re sandwiches, and yes they can (and should!) be enjoyed at any time of day, but my mood for a breakfast sandwich has to be juuuust right. I’m a little like Goldilocks that way.
That and my propensity for breaking into bear cottages and eating all their food, but that’s a story for a different newsletter.
Mad that this is a day late? Sames. Lay it on me.
Have a hankering to read about the last two sandwiches on the list? Better jump in on this newsletter now while the gettin’ is still good!
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