and one piece of egg (actually two, but at least they’ve been arranged as they were in the pan)

• the ingredients were relatively few (few at least for our breakfast room table): 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens and 4 slices of bacon from pastured pigs, all from Pennsylvania’s Millport Dairy Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, the eggs, while they were being fried, seasoned with a newly-introduced local Long Island sea salt (P.E. & D.D. Seafood), freshly ground black pepper, sprinkled with chopped lovage from Keith’s Farm, and tiny buds from an onion flower stem from Norwich Meadows Farm; a few very ripe tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm in the Saturday Chelsea’s Down to Earth Farmers Market only one block west of us, punctured first, then heated inside a small antique blue Pyrex skillet in a little olive oil and a small amount of thinly sliced rocambole garlic scapes from Keith’s Farm until the tomatoes were a little more than warm, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper, mixed with some chopped dill from Stokes Farm and arranged on the plates with a few leaves of a small head of red and green lettuce from Campo Rosso Farm already dressed with salt, pepper, a few drops of Whole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil, and even fewer drops of organic lemon from Whole Foods; and lightly toasted slices of Pain D’Avignon ‘seven grains bread’ from Foragers Market

• the music, consciously chosen to relate to a Target Margin Theater performance we were attending later that afternoon, was the album, ‘Sacred Bridges: Psalms of David’ (Jewish, Christian and Muslim Psalms from the 16th & 17th Cent.),  performed by the remarkable group, Ensemble Sarband, directed by Vladimir Ivanoff  

 

[the image at the bottom is from Sarband]

I think our breakfast plates actually are looking a little more minimal lately.  While this may be a desirable trend, the downside is that I might begin to lose interest in cooking eggs for breakfast if I leave little room for my imagination.

The picture below probably includes everything seen on the plate in the first one, except for the bacon, eggs and toast themselves. I snapped it for my own use, to record what was included, and so be able to write this post more easily; only much later did I decide to include it in this post.

• the ingredients included 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens and 4 slices of bacon from pastured pigs, all from Pennsylvania’s Millport Dairy Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, the eggs, while they were being fried, seasoned with a newly-introduced local Long Island sea salt (P.E. & D.D. Seafood/Phil Karlin’s own), freshly ground black pepper, and a dry seasoning called L’ekama from Ron & Leetal Arazi’s New York Shuk, sprinkled with dill from Stokes Farm; 8 very ripe tomatoes, ‘The Best Cherry Tomatoes’ from Stokes Farm, heated gently in a small enamel-lined cast iron porringer then rolled in a French sea salt, pepper, and thin slices of scapes from Cherry Lane Farms, sprinkled with some cut spruce tips from Violet Hill Farm; a garnish of micro purple radish from Windfall Farms; and toasts of ‘Whole wheat Redeemer Bread’ (simply ‘Redeemer wheat’, water, salt) from Lost Bread Co.
• the music was assembled after my own heart, to use an expression common while I was growing up but which I didn’t quite understand until after it had virtually disappeared, the album, ‘Venecie mundi splendor: Marvels of Medieval Venice’ (“Newly recorded in the bright acoustic of the Cenacolo of San Giorgio Maggiore Monastery in Venice, La Reverdie brings together, for the first time, musical compositions written c. 1330-1430 in honor of the Venetian Doges, or Venice itself.” – excerpted notes from the album)

I was going to make it minimal, but I couldn’t quite see the concept through to the end.

• Sunday’s breakfast included the usual fresh eggs from pastured chickens and bacon from pastured pigs, all from Pennsylvania’s Millport Dairy Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, the fried eggs seasoned with local Long Island sea salt (P.E. & D.D. Seafood/Phil Karlin’s own), a freshly ground mix of black pepper and other seeds or spices that had been accidentally combined when I was preparing a dry marinade for a pork belly a while back, then decided to hold onto the remainder (black pepper, fennel seeds cumin seeds, coriander seeds, star anise, white peppercorns, and whole clove) for future use, sprinkled with lovage from Keith’s Farm, 5 Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Chelsea Whole Foods that had been heated gently in a small enamel-lined cast iron porringer, then sprinkled with a pinch dried fenugreek from Bombay Emerald Chutney Company (purchased at the Saturday Chelsea Farmers Market last fall), a small bunch of watercress from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, dressed with a good olive oil, Columela Rioja 30 Year Reserva sherry vinegar, local salt, freshly ground pepper, and thin slices, not toasted, of a really hearty bread, ‘Seedy Grains’ from Lost Bread Company (wheat, spelt, rye, barley, organ bread buckwheat, oats, seeds [flax, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin], water, and salt)
• the music was the Living Media India Limited album, ‘Afternoon Ragas – Volume 1’ (we sat down to breakfast just after noon.

It looks like a holiday celebration. Of course I’m thinking of something that used to be called ‘Decoration Day‘, something beyond the morbid, more modern American celebration of soldiers fallen in the name of our national military fetish.

I would prefer to think of this late spring weekend as an occasion when people gather, put flowers on graves, enjoy the company of relatives and of others, both familiar and not. It’s an anachronism anyway, so I’ll add a picnic-like ‘dinner on the grounds’, one which would probably be enjoyed at about the same afternoon hour Barry and I enjoyed this breakfast today. If asked, we would probably both respond with mixed feelings about being far from our own family cemeteries.

• the ingredients of the meal, which as usual served as lunch and breakfast, were almost entirely local: some very fresh eggs from pastured chickens and bacon from pastured pigs, both from Millport Dairy Farm, the fried eggs seasoned with sea salt, a freshly ground mix of black pepper and other seeds or spices that had been accidentally combined when I was preparing a dry marinade for a pork belly, then decided to hold onto for future use (black pepper, fennel seeds cumin seeds, coriander seeds, star anise, white peppercorns, and whole clove), sprinkled with a thinly sliced bulb from a bunch of ramps form Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, and finished with thinly sliced strips of the 2 ramp leaves that had been attached to the bulb, some chopped fronds of small spring fennel bulbs from Central Valley Farm that had been a part of an earlier meal, a few small cherry tomatoes from Eckerton Hill Farm that had been heated gently in a small enamel-lined cast iron porringer, then sprinkled with a dry seasoning called L’ekama from Ron & Leetal Arazi’s New York Shuk, a small mound of micro purple radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge, and thin slices, not toasted, of 2 different rich, hearty breads, ‘Seedy Grains’ from Lost Bread Company (wheat, spelt, rye, barley, organ bread buckwheat, oats, seeds {flax, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin], water, salt) and Runner & Stone’s whole wheat seeded crescent (with toasted sesame, flax, poppy, and caraway seeds)
• the music was a morning concert album by the sitarist Nikhil Banerjee, ‘Morning Ragas Bombay 1965’

I wasn’t going to bother doing this post except that the music was so special. Also, the picture works.

• the stuff on the plate last Sunday [afternoon]: some very fresh eggs from pastured chickens and bacon from pastured pigs, both from Millport Dairy Farm, seasoned with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and crushed dried red espelette peppers from Alewife Farm, sprinkled with chopped green garlic from Phillips Farms; several sliced Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Chelsea Whole Foods Market warmed in a little house Whole Foods Portuguese olive oil, seasoned with salt and black pepper, and tossed with fresh oregano, also from Phillips Farms, placed on a bed of baby arugula from Alewife Farm; a garnish of micro red mustard from Two Guys from Woodbridge; some un-toasted slices of Pain d’Avignon seven grain bread (whole wheat and honey, plus sesame, sunflower and flax seeds, and oats) from Foragers Market, and some lightly toasted slices of a 2-day-old baguette from Bread Alone

• the music was an album of monophonic songs attributed to the 13th-century Castilian king, Alfonso X El Sabio (the Wise), ‘Cantigas de Santa Maria (Canticles of Holy Mary), performed by Jordi Saval and Hespèrion XX