Nutrition by Dad...

For the past several months, I have been working pretty hard to take off some extra weight. My dad has encouraged me to do so for a while. He has been very supportive in telling me how great I look and how happy he is that I have taken some weight off. But... aside from that, he's not helpful! He doesn't understand give two thoughts about nutrition and you can absolutely forget about talking "calories" with him so when I go to visit him, all bets are off when it comes to dieting. (Luckily I've learned to compensate!)

During one visit last spring, my husband (who is also trying to lose weight) and I were treated to one of Dad's culinary masterpieces. After clanging around in the kitchen for a while, Dad called us down for breakfast. We were greeted with a pile of eggs that had to have been nearly a dozen eggs, ham steaks, a pound of bacon, and two English muffins for each of us. He had buttered them. I could ladle the extra butter off as he's famous for using a wad of butter, not a pat, on each half of the muffin. (It's nothing for him to go through a stick or more of butter himself in a day.) When we asked who else was coming for breakfast, he said it was just the three of us and did we want him to make some sausage? NO!

This weekend Dad and I had some family Christmas business to prepare for so I traveled out to see him by myself. After sleeping in a bit, I came down this morning (a lazy Sunday morning) and he asked if I wanted some breakfast. Having been down this road before, I asked "What are you making?" With a twinkle in his eye he said, "It's a surprise" and without waiting for my answer, he went into the kitchen and began the breakfast process. I figured it was best if I just remained in the living room pretending not to be worried about the calorie count that was about to be dished up. I probably should have jogged around the farm a bit in the interim but I was in my pajamas still and it was 10 degrees out.

About 20 minutes later he called me in for breakfast. He was pretty proud that he had made one of his specialties that the boys (my always-starving, never-picky, will-eat-absolutely-anything teenage nephews) love - Eggo-sauswiches!

What is an Eggo-sauswich? Well... you take two Eggo waffles and toast them. In the mean time, you take a extra large (think hamburger size) pork sausage patty and cook it in a frying pan. When the toaster dings you put a wad of butter on each waffle.When both masterpieces are ready, you assemble them like a sandwich with the sausage between the waffles, drench them in syrup (I was shocked to find that he wasn't even using REAL syrup even though they collect sap for it right on the farm!) and microwave the Eggo-sauswich for 30 seconds to make sure that the wad of butter has thoroughly saturated the waffle and sausage and the syrup is piping hot. Serve with a smile.

I have to admit... if I wasn't concerned about silly things like calories, cholesterol, or the like, I'd eat 'em more often because these danged things are really tasty! (Don't tell Dad.)