Cuppa Joe

I'm one of those who "don't do" breakfast, at least not until I have been awake for a while. I'm just not ready to eat first thing in the morning and nothing is particularly appetizing. As a child I struggled in my family of breakfast eaters. I never liked traditional breakfast foods. Eggs, sausage and bacon are right out. I don't like really sweet things. Donuts, even plain cake donuts, and sweet pastries make my stomach cringe. I don't know how people can eat those things. I can't even stand the overly sweet smell. I shied away from pancakes, waffles and frech toast, because they were always served with syrup. It took a while before I realized I didn't have to have the syrup. Yes, I guess I was a little slow on the draw.

This of course distressed my mother, so she tried to feed me leftovers for breakfast


or make things like cheese toast. I really hated cheese toast, which perplexed her, because I love cheese and bread, but the slice of white bread with a slice of American cheese broiled for minute until the "cheese" melted was, quite frankly, icky.

When we moved to Germany I was introduced to a different tradition of breakfast. At home we still had a lot of the same things, although we had the benefit of having a bakery around the corner from us, which had the best breads.

We traveled a lot and I came to like the breakfasts that we were served in the hotels, except the eggs.

My preferred mornings now involve coffee

followed by some yogurt, fruit and nuts, but not until I've been up for a few hours, thank you!

~Kelly