Butter and Rest

This week’s Sabbath breakfast feature (now just recklessly trying out titles, because even though I think there is somebody reading all my nonsense, y’all are eerily quiet in the comment section and offered no suggestions) is distinctly seasonal. As in, make this tomorrow. For real.

I thought about being the sort of blog that actually wrote out recipes in full. But then the blinding hypocrisy of it all leapt to the forefront of my mind — how could I, having regularly and openly laughed all measurements to scorn, go on to tell you to own and even use a 1/4 teaspoon, even if I am only repeating what someone else said? No, I think for the sake of consistency, the best I can give you is this:

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/blueberry-and-corn-crisp

(I will be thrilled to the depths of my girlish heart if that actually turns into some sort of link thing that you can click and it actually takes you to a recipe and not a series of cat videos or some such rot.)

Yes, technically this is a dessert. But let’s dissect this “dessert”, shall we? Fruit, veg, dairy… it is practically porridge. Dickens would have written this into one of his more depressing breakfast scenes if he had been in possession of a freezer full of blueberries during one of his writing spurts, and if he had, the orphans definitely would have wanted some more. And really, Sunday deserves better than boring weekday breakfasts, doesn’t it? I will slowly work your resistant subconscious up to eating cake for breakfast (and what a glorious day that will be!), but this is a pretty good gateway.

You can use fresh or frozen blueberries, and I suspect this would actually be good with blackberries too if that’s what you’ve got. It is simple to the extreme and the addition of fresh corn in the crumbly topping is a sweet and respectful nod to a blissful summer that is packing its things to leave. Also — vegetables for breakfast. You can do a full on mom strut for that one.

Speaking of self-righteous ingredients, while this is quite tasty by itself, a scoop of ice cream makes it even better, but if I have not yet eased you into morning cake, we are probably not to the ice-cream-for-breakfast portion of the program, so here are a few good alternatives:

• Lightly sweetened cream (go ahead. Squirt some from a can).
• Creme fraiche — yes, this is the pretentious, self-righteous topping, but hear me out. It is milder than sour cream, but it adds a certain richness in texture and flavor and has the added benefit of giving you illusions of Frenchness. Also, while you can totally buy the stuff pretty easily these days, you could also set out a little cup of cream with a glop of buttermilk stirred into it, leave it out on your countertop overnight, and have basically the same thing.
• Greek yogurt — a bit of zip and zing with some protein in between.

This whole shebang can be assembled the day before and stored in the fridge, and then popped in the oven to bake while you sip your morning coffee, gazing with thankful heart at the sunrise (or while you run around frantically trying to find the panty hose that doesn’t have a run up the shin, whichever you prefer). It smells heavenly while baking. Cook up a few maple sausage patties, or if you really looking to give your family a solid and celebratory start, slice up some steak to serve alongside, and keep the black coffee coming.