breakfast at marne's

My grandparents lived 5 houses down through the alley Surprisingly, we weren't over there all the time. Marne and Grandpa were busy and not always home when we were little. 

My three bothers had paper routes and Sundays were a big day. Marne would make them breakfast after their routes. Sometimes we got to join them.

Marne was not the best cook. But one meal I loved eating over there was breakfast. The menu rarely varied, scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits. I loved her scrambled eggs, they were thick and fluffy and peppery. I was told later that they were runny but I don't remember or maybe I liked them that way. The bacon was never a favorite of mine, it always seemed too tough. I am not a fan of bacon even cooked well. The star of the breakfast were the biscuits. Marne started with 2 cans of Hungry Jack biscuits. This was the day without flavors like honey butter and the easy open can. She had to whack the can on the counter to get them to open. She placed them packed tightly in 2 pie plates. Then she added some butter to the insides and the tops of the biscuits and set them in the oven to bake. They took a while to bake because they were so tightly packed and she added so much butter to them. 

When they were done (and sometimes they had to be put back in the oven for a few minutes) we each got one. We added more butter and honey to them and ate them with our fingers. So yummy. So fattening. There were usually enough for 2 biscuits for each person, the boys usually got 3 because of all of their hard work. Rarely were there leftovers. 

My grandparents lived in a flat. They rarely ate in the dining room, the kitchen table was usually against the window and as small as it could be made. For the 2 of them, eating in the kitchen was fine. Add the 7 of us and it was packed. Grandpa had the back porch enclosed and we ate out there whenever it wasn't too cold. He added an electric fireplace to add heat but only the person sitting in front of it could feel it.

After Grandpa died, my brother Greg lived with Marne for a while. She found out he like blueberry muffins and that was added to the breakfast menu. Yes, Marne still made biscuits. In fact, Marne made biscuits even when we ate dinner over there. Greg, got his own small blueberry muffin pie. 

My mom developed her own special biscuits. She took 2 cans of Hungry Jack biscuits, dipped each biscuit in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar. She baked them in a 13x9 pan. Oh my goodness! They were so good. She only made them at the cottage and only a few times a year. Hungry Jack came out with a cinnamon biscuit, a poor imitation. 

I used to make biscuits for the boys on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We still used Hungry Jack but switched to Honey Butter. They are good enough to eat plain. First Ryan stopped eating biscuits. Then Andy stopped. 

Now the only time I get biscuits is when I got out for breakfast, maybe once a year.