The Cross and the Cleaver: It’s Tradition!
Let me tell you a brief story. I once proposed a sandwich that, apparently, sounds revolting … peanut butter and pickle sandwich (with just a drop, or two, of hot sauce of your choosing). The initial response from the audience were the sounds of “ewwww,” “bleh,” “gag,” and so on. Because everyone knows that peanut butter sandwich is to be eaten with jelly, maybe banana, or both. NOT with a pickle!!! Shortly after my invitation came Christmas, and I found a gift bag at my door. A bag with a jar of pickles and a jar of peanut butter. Along with a note, telling me, that Benjamin gave my challenge/invitation a try and now he loves it 😊.
I am sure we are all familiar with an expression: “that’s the way we have always done it!” The other day, I was reflecting on the role tradition plays a role in our life, and in our food habits. Especially if you put them together. Watching a movie in a cinema without a bag of buttered popcorn on your lap just isn’t worth it. Christmas or Thanksgiving without a turkey or ham might as well be yet another dull day. Birthday without a cake, BBQ without a beer, PB&J sandwich without PB or J … you get my drift. Then ever so often an invitation, or a challenge, or an opportunity comes our way. We end up facing a choice to try, or not to try, new things; to expand, or not, our horizons. Frankly …. to grow, to learn, to conquer fear of the new, to taste and see what others eat 😉. While we learn of each other’s traditions, we sometimes assimilate them, make them part of our life; or we just experiment with it, once or twice. Today I would like to invite you to try, AND TASTE, a dish that is my family’s tradition. It has been part of my growing up as far as I remember, and I missed it ever since I left my parents house to become a monk. It is not just a recipe for scrambled eggs. It is THE recipe for THE scrambled eggs that my father (picture included) would make every Sunday we were at home. He continues to do so …
Jajecznica Kazimierza (Casimir’s Scrambled Eggs)
This is for 4 people with healthy appetite 😉
Heat a large non-stick frying pan or skillet to mid-high
add 1/3 cup of chopped bacon … simmer and stir for 5 min or until starts sizzling.
add butter and oil (2 tbsp. each) … stir for 1 min.
add ¼ cup of chopped onion … stir for 3-4 minutes or until translucent and fragrant
add a cup of cubed sausage (co-op’s Kaszubska, Grimm’s farmers, … just make sure it is textured) … stir for 5 min. or until a bit of colour develops.
add a cup of sliced mushrooms … stir for 3-5 min. or until they start turning golden
add 8 beaten eggs (I use Omega-3 enriched ones, with golden, almost orange, coloured yolks) … stir till desired consistency (some like it runny, some don’t)
season with salt and pepper
take off heat … stir in 2 mid-size chopped tomatoes and a generous handful of chopped chives (dried ones are OK)
Serve with rye bread and strong, black tea with lemon.