My favorite breakfast

If you know me well, or have ever lived with me for any amount of time, you may have heard of the famed "Eggie." It's a pretty complicated recipe (not), that my dear mom came up with when I was just a tiny tot in the seventies. Here's the story.

My parents are typically on the early adapter curve when it comes to electronic gadgets; this is because my dad originally wanted to be an engineer before my grandfather dropped law school in his path. He's brilliant in the category of how things work, and thankfully, he passed this interest and talent onto his four kids. Long story short, we switched to VCR before Beta had gone out of style, we had the Apple II computer in 1981, and we had a microwave in 1978.

Seeing as my mom had to feed four kids and get three of them off to school when I was just two, she needed to think fast in the morning. Her habit was to coat a microwavable bowl with canola spray, crack in a single egg, mix it and pop it in the microwave oven for two minutes. Slathered in butter and salt to finish it off, this produced a portable breakfast for me (the toddler) while mom trucked the entire carpool off to their respective schools. Mission accomplished. To this day, my brother's friend John teases me about bits of egg hanging from my mouth on those car trips. Who can blame me for salivating while eating? Them eggs was GOOD.

One day, when my mom was particularly harried and perhaps a bit behind schedule for my belly's liking, I blurted out, "Eggie!!" to demand my breakfast. This, friends, was my first real uttered word. Mom was so excited about little one's progress that I think I had to wait an additional 5 minutes for my favorite treat. I'm proud that my first word was culinary in nature, and I'd like to think of it as a sign of future interests and ideals.

Here's how you can make your own eggie:
1 whole egg
Canola spray
Butter (now Earth Balance soy spread)
Salt to taste

Coat a microwavable bowl with canola spray. Crack in a single egg and mix it with a fork. Pop in the microwave oven for one minute. If your obsessive, like I am, stop cooking 2 seconds shy of a minute for a fluffier egg. I don't know why I do this and don't just cook it for 58 seconds. It's more about the stopping than it is about the time. Add butter (or alternative) and salt to taste and enjoy. The Eggie also works well as an element of a breakfast sandwich, or with a little cheese sprinkled on top (add cheese 30 seconds into cook time).