A North Carolina friend sent country ham. Or as my cousins used to say, "coun'ry" ham. We served it up with grits, red eye gravy and fresh squeezed orange juice. Delicious!! The only thing missing was biscuits but Dean had his usual pecan sticky bun and, as you can tell, I had my usual English muffin. So yummy!
So here's a Southern breakfast story for you. We were in North Carolina a few years ago and this friend and his wife took us for breakfast at a restaurant for a real Southern breakfast. I mentioned I was going to have the ham with poached egg. His wife said that North Carolinians may not know what a poached egg is. I tried to order it anyway and our server didn't blink an eye and my egg came perfectly poached and all was well.
A little over a week later we took cousins to a diner for breakfast. Again I ordered country ham with a poached egg. The server looked at me like I was nuts. "Poached?" she said with a wrinkle in her brow. Quickly I remembered my friend's previous comment and said, "over easy, please". The eggs came perfectly done over easy and all was well.
My childhood summers were spent in North Carolina where my uncle would also have a Smithfield county ham that he parceled out over the summer both for breakfasts and dinners. I miss having it readily available and am grateful for a friend who knows me well enough to send a care package occasionally. So good regardless of how my eggs are done.
