DADDY'S SUNDAY MORNING FEAST...remembering my father on Father's Day

                                                   
                                                        

Mt parents and me!

 If my mother was a talented, gifted and joyous woman with many, many abilities and talents, then my dad was her most perfect partner.  Together they were a formidable pair...  My mother basked in his pride in her and he, in turn, shone in her pride in him.  My dad had many wonderful attributes.  He was very smart, very handsome and had a wonderful sense of humor and fun.  He could draw beautifully, dance, was a great golfer, a terrific teller of tales and a generous and loving father, husband, son, brother and friend. It was his capacity to make one feel like the most important person in the world that drew people to him like flies to honey.  Daddy loved a good meal, and  therefore was married to the perfect partner.  I can just remember him sitting at the head of the table, savoring one of my mother's spectacular meals with such pleasure and gusto. I loved watching his gorgeous, tapered fingers as they held the fork that he lifted to his mouth over and over again.  I remember those hands buttering a slice of bread for me or my sister, or cutting the food on our plates.  I remember those hands holding mine, drawing in his sketch pad, working on one of his projects or swinging a golf club...those beautiful,beautiful hands.

Daddy worked long hours during the week, but on Sundays he belonged to us.   I remember that sometimes he and a few of his friends would leave very, very early on a Sunday morning and go to a smokehouse on the Lower East Side.  He would return home with smoked salmon, whitefish, sturgeon and other delicacies.

                                                          

 A huge brown paper bag filled with hot, just baked bagels usually accompanied the fish.  And then Daddy would get busy!  He diced onions, beat eggs and tore some of the smoked salmon (lox) into pieces.  Soon the smell of onions carmelizing in sweet butter would spread through the apartment and when sound of  the beaten eggs hissing as they  hit the hot pan brought us to the table... the feast was on!! My mother set the table with the accompanying foods to Daddy's Sunday Morning Feast.  Cheeses, sliced onions and tomatoes...fresh fruits and assorted danish pastries...

 ... steaming cups of coffee for our parents and creamy milk (that had been poured from a glass bottle delivered daily to our door by The Milkman) mixed with Bosco for my sister and me.  We would talk and laugh and occasionally, if they could catch us, my sister and I would help with the clean up.  Visiting Daddy's parents or his sister or brother and our cousins, going to Coney Island or a drive to some new and exciting place was often the way we spent the day following our special brunch.

  As I grew up I realized more and more how blessed I was.  My parents were an exceptional couple.  My father was  an extraordinary man.  Supportive, strong, funny and loving.  He gave me strenth and vision and encouraged my dreams.  He left this world over twenty-five years ago but in my heart he will live forever...and  I still see his handsome face in the faces of my sons and recognize his sweet influence on my three children and the adults they have become. 

Every so often I will make Daddy's Sunday Morning Feast and recall those special Sunday mornings with that most beloved man.

DADDY'S SUNDAY BRUNCH

1/4 lb. Nova Scotia lox cut into pieces
12 eggs
1 med. onion diced
salt
pepper
1/4 cup of cream or Half and Half
12 chive stems diced

1- Melt 2 tbsp. butter.  Saute diced onion in butter (you may need to add additional butter)
2-When the onions begin to caremelize add the lox and let it turn light pink
3-Season eggs with salt and pepper to taste, add cream  and add egg mixture to onions and nova scotia salmon
3-Scramble until eggs are done to your taste (ie:some like "wet" some like fluffy and some like dry)
Place in casserole dish
Garnish with snippets of chive

                                                              
Serve with bagels, cheeses (cream cheese, swiss, brie and munster are the ones I usually choose because they are milder and go nicely with the smokey fishes), assorted smoked fishes...  sliced raw onions and tomatoes...A platter of seasonal fruits and some danish pastry finish it off.

 

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!