Contrasting Saturdays, a Surprise Visitor, and Bacon for Breakfast

Contrasting Saturdays,
a Surprise Visitor,
and Bacon for Breakfast

Not so many years ago, Saturdays at my house were mass chaos.  Two boys in the house can make a lot of noise. Combine that with friends over and televisions on and slamming doors and music coming from a bedroom or two and you have the formula for a not so relaxing Saturday.  As a single mother with a very demanding job, I wondered if I would ever have even a minute to myself again.  If there is anything you learn as you get older, it’s that everything will change with time.

These days, most Saturdays at my house are very quiet.  As often as not, it is only Roger and me home at our separate computers taking advantage of a little extra work time.  The biggest excitement of these Saturdays is loading Lacey (Nic’s beautiful black lab) in the truck for a ride to the store after we drop the garbage at the end of our driveway. 

Recently, the quiet of just such a Saturday was broken by the sound of tires on the driveway and a closing car door.  We had a visitor.  A long-time friend was traveling through from an archaeological expedition, and what a surprise we enjoyed to discover he arrived with a surprise gift in hand.   We carried the package, wrapped in thick white butcher paper, to my kitchen counter.  As it was unwrapped, the smell was unmistakable.  It was fresh-sliced thick-cut bacon from a local general store.  Yum.

Because Sunday always follows Saturday, the next day was destined for homemade pancakes with bacon and eggs for breakfast.  We enjoyed a delicious breakfast before church that brought back memories of livelier pancake breakfasts with young boys and more recent memories of a friend who took the time to drop by on quiet Saturday.   Perfection. 

Best Ever Homemade Pancakes

¾ cup milk

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 cup self-rising flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons melted butter

Combine milk and vinegar and set aside about 5 minutes (the vinegar will sour the milk).  Combine flour and sugar in a large bowl.  Whisk egg and butter into sour milk; add to dry ingredients.  Whisk until batter is smooth.  Coat a large skillet with nonstick spray and heat over medium heat.  Add ¼ cupfuls of batter to hot skillet.  Cook until you see bubbles in the pancake.  Flip and continue to cook until browned on the other side.  Serve hot with your favorite syrup. 

Spinach Omelet

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon milk

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

½ cup baby spinach

1/3 cup shredded cheddar plus more for topping, if desired

Whisk eggs, milk and salt just until blended.  Heat an 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat about 1 minute.  Add butter and tilt pan to coat evenly. Pour egg mixture into pan and swirl to spread out to edges.  As omelet begins to set on bottom, lift edge and tilt pan to let uncooked mixture flow underneath. Continue lifting edges of omelet and tilting pan, working your way around all sides, until no more uncooked egg mixture will flow underneath and the top is just a little moist, about 2 minutes total.  Spread spinach evenly over ½ omelet then top with 1/3 cup cheese. Tip pan to slide omelet, cheese side first, onto warm plate; flip bare half over cheese as omelet leaves pan.  

What is Bunco?

"What IS Bunco?" I get asked that question quite frequently – mostly from men. The whole thing, I think, seems very mysterious to men. Why do all those women get together every month? What do they do while they are there? Why is there so much laughing involved?

At first glance, Bunco is a game. The rules for Bunco varies between the many, many groups around the country. Basically it is a dice game played in groups of four people. The four people at the table roll three dice for a particular number. Points are scored based on how many of that number are rolled. If you roll three of a number, you score a BUNCO. When someone at the head table gets to 21 points or the first time a BUNCO is rolled, the round ends and everyone at the table scores a "win" or a "loss" based on their score when play stops. After three rounds, the losing team moves to another table and play is resumed. There are other rules and other variations, but this gives the gist of the game.

Now that you know a little about the game, I will tell you the REAL answer to, "What is Bunco?". Bunco is an excuse — an excuse to get together with my girl friends once a month... an excuse to talk and laugh and cut-up... an excuse to get out of the house or, when my turn to host comes around, an excuse to have friends over. It seems that my friends and I are forever promising to"get together soon" or "do lunch" or "cookout sometime," but life gets in the way. We are all busy with our families and our work and the convenient time to get together just never happens.

So, on Bunco night, we all gather... to play a game, yes... to win prizes, yes... but also to catch-up on each other’s lives, to tell stories about what our children have been up to now, to brag or complain – whichever is most applicable – about our spouses or boyfriends.

For me, hosting Bunco is also an excuse to try-out new recipes on a new batch of people. Thursday night was Bunco at my house so I tested Fun Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-ups, Upside-Down Pan Pizza, Strawberry Pudding Dessert, and Almond Joy Pie. I served them with peas from last year's garden and okra and tomatoes cooked together. The test recipes were a success, and judging from my hubbies comments about the noise level (he was hiding out in the bedroom) a good time was had by all.

--Sheila

(Sheila Simmons is Publisher at Great American Cookbooks • Their newest publications Game for All Seasons Cookbook and Tennessee Hometown Cookbook will be available soon. If you are a Bunco fan, visit their Bunco website www.weplaybunco.com; there is a very convenient scorecard available for download that includes numbers across the bottom to keep-up with your score.)