Pretty standard, although not easily identifiable, are the Aleppo pepper, the Baden seasoning salt (the gift of a friend who had been given the recipe, whose ingredients included sea salt, 5 different seasoning peppers, plus dehydrated vanilla, lemon and lime, by a chef in Baden-Baden), plus the basil on the tomato and the thyme on the eggs. And the toast was Buck Honey Rye (rye, malted buckwheat groats, honey, water, salt) from Lost Bread Co.

It was the first morning of December, so of course we enjoyed local tomatoes with our breakfast.

The 2 that I used in this meal, saving the rest for a dinner the next day, came from a small stash that I thought at the time would be the last of a long season, but at the Greenmarket 3 days later I picked up 2 medium heirloom tomatoes and a basket of heirloom cherry tomatoes from a Pennsylvania farmer located further to the south (roughly 60 miles further) than the New York farm where these had been grown.

• our breakfast, a little simpler than usual, included 4 slices of thick bacon from pastured pigs and 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens, all from the Amish family-run Millport Dairy Farm stand in the Union Square Greenmarket, the eggs seasoned with a local Long Island sea salt (from P.E. & D.D. Seafood), freshly ground black pepper, and sprinkled with torn leaves off of a live basil plant from Stokes Farm, garnished on the side with a little purple micro radish from Windfall Farms; there was a small assembly of slices of small green tomatoes that had been warmed in a little olive oil inside a small copper skillet along with a few chopped seasoning peppers (aji dulce (red) and Granada, both from Eckerton Hill Farm, served on a few leaves from a small head of radicchio variegato di Castelfranco from Campo Rosso Farm; a rich local butter (Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ from Chelsea Whole Foods, and slices, untoasted, of Homadama bread (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime) from Lost Bread Co.
• the music was Francesco Bartolomeo Conti’s 1715 ‘Missa Sancti Pauli’, György Vashegyi conducting the Orfeo Orchestra and the Purcell Choir

It was good.

Although it was a little simpler than many of these mid afternoon ‘fast breakers’, so I had at least metaphorically brought fewer things to the table. There were still a lot of containers however but fortunately I actually enjoy washing up afterward, and have never had a dishwasher, or even wanted one.

This is what the drainer looked like after this relatively simple lunch.

• on the table earlier: 4 slices of thick bacon from pastured pigs and 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens, all from the Amish family-run Millport Dairy Farm stand in the Union Square Greenmarket, the eggs seasoned with a local Long Island sea salt (from P.E. & D.D. Seafood) and freshly ground black pepper, drizzled with a tiny amount of Brazil wax pepper-infused olive oil (the peppers from Eckerton Hill Farm, the infusion done at home), and sprinkled with red vein micro sorrel from Two Guys from Woodbridge, with a dollop of the cook’s own homemade Zhug at the side; there was a small salad of red dandelions leaves from Willow Wisp Farm seasoned with salt and pepper, and a good Cretan (Chania) olive oil, Renieris Estate ‘Divina’ (a Koroneiki varietal), from Chelsea Whole Foods Market, topped with a few differently toned cherry tomatoes from Norwich Meadows Farm that had been halved and heated in a little While Foods house Portuguese olive oil inside an antique enameled cast iron porringer and tossed with chopped thyme leaves from Quarton Farm; a rich local butter (Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’ from Chelsea Whole Foods, and 2 breads, both from Lost Bread Co., neither toasted, a Homadama (wheat, corn, water, maple syrup, salt, slaked lime) and a Buck Honey Rye (rye, malted buckwheat groats, honey, water, salt)
• the music was the 1871-1872 oratorio, ‘Luther in Worms’, by the choral director, critic, and composer Ludwig Meinardus, performed by Hermann Max directing Concerto Köln and the Rheinische Kantorei (neither Martin Luther nor the composer’s conservative Protestantism appeal to either of us, but the subject of the piece and the conservative romantic composition itself occupy niches in history that interest both of us; Barry came across this recording and used it to fill the niche we generally reserve for religious music first thing on Sundays, a tradition in spite of, or possibly because of, the depth of our shared disbelief

The eggs themselves were minimal, but it got a little busy with the tomato-salad-salumi-mix.

Also, it was both breakfast and lunch, so I figured adding a second cured meat wasn’t totally out of order (actually the few slices of a small saucisson were there because there was so little of it, and because I couldn’t imagine how else I would use it), but once again there was no cantaloupe, no strawberries, no pineapple, watermelon, avocado, or maraschino cherries.

• what there was, were 4 slices of thick pastured pigs bacon, and 6 fresh eggs from pastured chickens, both from the Amish family-run Millport Dairy Farm stand in the Union Square Greenmarket, the eggs seasoned with a local Long Island sea salt (from P.E. & D.D. Seafood), freshly ground black pepper, finished sprinkled with bronze fennel flowers and buds from Rise & Root Farm, scissored from their stems; there was one ripe green heirloom tomato from Norwich Meadows Farm, halved, seasoned with salt, pepper, a pinch of smoked salt from Spices and Tease in the Chelsea Market, and sprinkled with torn spearmint leaves, the gift of a friend, sautéed in a little olive oil, turning once, arranged on the plates on top of a nest of beautiful washed and dried leaves of a small head of Roxy purple leaf lettuce from Lucky Dog Organic Farm that had already been dressed with a little salt, pepper, and a few drops of very good olive oil, Renieris Estate ‘Divina’ (Koroneiki varietal), Hania, Crete, from Whole Foods Market, sprinkled with chopped lovage from Quarton Farm; there was a very small amount of finely sliced tropea (sweet Italian red) onion from Alewife Farm and part of a finely sliced fresh habanada pepper from Campo Rosso Farm, heated together inside an antique enameled cast iron porringer in a little olive oil, placed on and around the tomato and the greens, and a little more than a dozen thin slices of a saucisson (‘French style salami’, on the label) crafted by Jacüterie with pasture raised pork raised by Walnut Hill Farm arranged around the tomato; Vermont Creamery butter was available to accompany slices of a bread baked that morning (not toasted), Pain d’Avignon 7 grain bread (rustic, whole wheat, honey, sesame- sunflower-flax seed, oats) from Foragers Market
• the music was a number of symphonies by a Bohemian composer working in Vienna during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Leopold Koželuch, performed by the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Pardubice, Marec Štilec conducting

While thinking about breakfast this morning I remembered I had some beefsteak tomatoes that I really shouldn’t be hanging onto any longer (I’d had them on the north windowsill for 2 weeks, but still looked and tasted fine when I tested one). The problem was that I didn’t want to turn on the oven when the temperature inside the kitchen was finally so reasonable, although it was a devise called for by my usual go-to eggs and tomato routine. I resolved that issue by preparing all but the toast inside a single large cast iron pan on top of the range.

• four slices of thick bacon from Millport Dairy Farm’s pastured pigs, fried over low heat inside a large enameled cast iron skillet, turning occasionally, removed while they were still juicy, before they had become crisp, set aside on paper toweling to drain, then cutting each into 3 sections after they had cooled, the heat under the pan increased to medium-high, and 2 very ripe beefsteak tomatoes from from Jersey Farm Produce in our very local 23rd Street Chelsea Down to Earth Farmers Market, each cut into 6 slices, added and cooked until they had begun to brown on the edges, removed and placed in a shallow bowl, seasoned with local sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, sprinkled with chopped fresh epazote from TransGenerational Farm in the Union Square Greenmarket, the cooking ended by cracking 6 fresh eggs, from free-range chickens, also from Millport Dairy Farm, into the same skillet, frying them until their whites had barely set, seasoning them with salt, pepper, and a pinch of a pinch or so of some of the (now powdered) remains of some light-colored home-dried habanada pepper that had been purchased fresh from Norwich Meadows Farm in 2017, and the now-fried eggs added to an assemblage, on 2 plates, going from bottom to top: of 6 small just-toasted thick slices of Lost Bread Company’s ‘Seedy Grains’ bread (wheat, spelt, rye, and barley organic bread flours; buckwheat; oats; flax sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds; water, and salt), the bacon pieces, the tomato slices, and the eggs, which were now dusted with some scissored fresh dill blossoms from Willow Wisp Farm
• the music was the allbum, ‘Messiaen: Meditations sur le Mystere de la Sainte Trinite”, with organist Tom Winpenny