Just had to write a quick couple of honorable mentions of breakfast in the media this week.

First, the commercial that had me spewing wine at the television during the Super Bowl.  I'm not a big football fan.  In fact, I pick my football teams the way I sometimes pick wine ... which ever one has the prettiest packaging.  So I was rooting for the Saints only because I like the fleur de lis, black and gold were my college colors, and thought it would be a great boost for New Orleans.

The Super Bowl commercials are the real entertainment.  What were your favorites this year?  My top picks included the Snickers "You're not you when you're hungry" Betty White Ad.  I couldn't believe it when my favorite Golden Girl got tackled.  After that, the Google ad.  An American Finds Love In Paris.  Made me weepy and misty eyed.

But the ultimate spill-my-wine-and-drop-my-potato-chips ad was the Denny's Grand Slam Screaming Chickens.  There are going to be a lot of eggs needed for their free Grand Slam Breakfast this Tuesday.  If you haven't seen it, be prepared to laugh ...

I'm going to think of this now every time I have some eggs ... which is pretty often for this site!  But what really impressed me the most was right after I tweeted about this commercial, Denny's immediately tweeted me back ...

Now here's a company that really understands marking in this social media age.  After making a huge investment in Super Bowl air time ... they backed it up with watching for instant feedback on Twitter and started a dialogue with their Twitter fans.  Bravo.  Who needs focus groups when you've got Twitter?

My second breakfast media mention this week is a post on World Hum by Eric Weiner, "Don't Mess With My French Toast." Weiner describes my feelings about breakfast perfectly with his thought,

"at that early hour we’re still finding our bearings, still vulnerable. Breakfast is our way of reconnecting with our past before venturing into the world and forging our futures. For the traveler, breakfast grounds us in our home culture so we can work up the gumption to explore a new one."

Isn't that the truth?  For me, the comfort of breakfast in the morning is like a warm cozy blanket that makes getting out from under the covers in the morning tolerable.  The morning is definitely not a time when I'm rip roarin and ready to go dive into something adventurous.  Not until after my coffee anyway.

Did you have any breakfast stories from the weekend to share?  Let us know by commenting below!

--Rachelle

###

Kah KOW!

My friend Karen sent me this little slice in time where "Future Man" predicts that people will tweet about breakfast!

So, tell me, what did YOU have for breakfast this morning?  Comment below or Tweet me @Travelblggr.

Fresh, made-from-scratch Egg SNAFU.  Sounds hoity toity and French, doesn't it?  Actually, it's a military acronym for my-breakfast-was-all-messed-up.  Or, more accurately, Situation Normal:  All Fouled (eh ehm) Up.

SNAFU has a cousin named FUBAR.  He was in the kitchen that morning too.  I'll just let you google what he stands for.  Love our United States Military acronyms.  Love them.  Just not at my breakfast table.

This was THE most simple breakfast.  (No, I didn't intend THE there as an acronym).  But if you have a good one for THE ... let me know in the comments below.

See ... look ... simple ingredients.  I've done this before.  Piece of cake.

Except ... I was using someone else's kitchen.  And that changes the whooooole ballgame.  Especially when in an effort to multi-task and tackle the world in a day, I start cooking before sipping my first cup of coffee.  Tsk. Tsk.  No cooking without caffeine.  Big mistake.  BIG.  HUGE.

I knew that cooking was going to get interesting when the photographer slid a drink measure/beaker out of the cabinet when I asked him for a measuring cup.  A cup of milk ... a pint of liquor ...  pshaw!  What's the difference?  Let's just go with it.

So, I take a 1/2 pint of the Best Beaker Drink Mixer full of milk and get stared.

We scramble up a whole dozen eggs and get them cooking.

Meanwhile, I try to make "the sauce."

Which is simply just spinach and cream that's supposed to be pureeeed.  Or puraaeehhyd depending on how you pronounce it.

Thing is, not having a food processor we (I) chose to use the puree function on the blender.

Thing is, spinach doesn't weigh nothin, so it doesn't sink to the bottom where the blades are.  And you end up with wet spinach. Ha!

Angus McHaggis was not impressed.  Good thing he already had breakfast this morning and wasn't waiting for any scraps to fall on the floor.

DO OVER!

I threw out the first batch.  Washed out the blender.  Then cut the dang spinach.

Then I chopped the spinach ...

And then I made some resemblance of a sauce.  With the little floaty green bits  it still wasn't quite finely chopped enough for me.

This just wasn't my day in the kitchen.

I forgot my lucky apron, I measured milk with a beaker, and then ...

Jim was going crazy taking pictures of the sometimes difficult to find puffed pastry ...

Because, you know, I've cooked with puffed pastry many times before ...

And people have commented, "where do I get that?  What's it called?"  And so I thought it would be clever to include a photo of the packaging of Pepperidge Farm Puffed Pastry ...

And as I rolled it out of the packaging I cocked my head to the side and asked, "why is this round?"

O. M. G.

I have pie crust in my hand!  And I didn't even notice until I rolled it out on the pan!

Buwhahahahaaah!  I laughed hysterically.

Somehow, we didn't get a picture of that because I went into "emergency search and rescue" mode and hopped in my car to drive about 10 blocks to pick up the real deal.

Only, now the closest and first store I went to was all OUT of puffed pastry.

So I drove to a second store.  Still laughing at myself.  But also getting very hungry and having a lack-of-enough-caffeine headache.

I succeeded in finding puffed pastry.  But with it being frozen solid we aborted the mission.

Lesson learned?  DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT go grocery shopping at 7:00 am.  That time of the morning is reserved only for drinking coffee and making breakfast.  The bright lights and sensory overload of your normal florescent lighted lit-up-like-Las-Vegas super food store is too much to handle before consuming a pot of coffee.  You're likely to get distracted and forget something ... like ... puffed pastry!

Ugh!

At least Jim got to eat some awesome tasting scrambled eggs while I drove all over Tarnation looking for the missing and most important ingredient.

FUBAR I tell you.  An absolute FUBAR SNAFU.  And the irony is I had an audition this same week for Army Wives.  Good thing I'm getting the acroynm practice in.

###

I do love mornings.  Really I do.  The sun breaking over the horizon.  The crisp fresh air.  Birds tweeting their first little happy chirps.  The quiet stillness and excitement of having the whole day ahead.

I just wish it wasn't so painful to get out of bed!  All snuggled up warm under the covers.

Caffeine is what makes my mornings possible.  And afternoons for that matter.  But I'm no addict.  Ah em.

Coffee isn't just a beverage.  It's an experience.  The nutty smell of fresh grounds, the bubbling sound of it percolating in a coffee pot, and that first sip.  I'm even one of those weirdos that takes a picture of her coffee when she's traveling so I'll remember the moment.  (Pictured above ... cafe 3 blocks from the Vatican in Rome.  It was cold and raining.  I was wearing short sleaves and a skirt.  So that little cup was the warm highlight of my day.  As was the cute Italian guy that made my foam into a heart-shape. )

So here is an Ode to Coffee ...

My Top 10 Favorite Coffee Quotes

#10 "I make serious coffee - so strong it wakes up the neighbors."  ~Author Unknown

Got to love coffee that strong! Just like Europe.

#9 "Man does not live by coffee alone.  Have a danish."  ~Author Unknown

I must confess.  I'm a dunker. I like a little cookie with my coffee.

#8 "Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee."  ~Stephanie Piro

How else would I get everything done?

#7 "In Seattle you haven't had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it's running."  ~Jeff Bezos

Or type a 100 words a minute.  Go. Go. Go.

#6    "I could smell myself awake with that coffee."  ~Jaesse Tyler

I think the scent of coffee wakes me up more so than the actual brew.

#5    "I like my coffee like my men:  hot, strong, steamy."  ~Author Unknown

Amen.

#4    "My blood type is Folgers."  ~Author Unknown

Mine is Eight O'Clock.  I get excited by that little red bag!

#3    "I'd stop drinking coffee, but I'm no quitter. " ~Author Unknown

Quit? Who said anything about quitting coffee?

#2    "Coffee in styrofoam is against my religion."  ~Betsy Cañas Garmon

Oh the irony.  I actually had the most expensive coffee in the world ... Kopi Luwak ... a.k.a. "monkey butt coffee" in a Styrofoam cup.  In a library. I swear.  But it was with good friends who also love to travel ... which brings me to my #1 favorite quote ...

#1  "Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after."  ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Pair the two together ... and you won't get any sleep at all!

--Rachelle

###