Special Sunday

One of the great things about the hamlet where we live is that we have a volunteer fire department.  There's no huge office, no fancy firehouse.  These guys have the basics and with it, they do miracles.

On Sundays they get together with their families and friends and make a fantastic pancake breakfast.  It's a fundraiser for the town, but what's more than that, it's a chance for everybody in the town to come together, eat, laugh, and catchup with each other.

A few years ago our neighbors barn caught on fire in the middle of the night - they had an apartment in the barn and the refrigerator started the fire.  (Vacuum your coils, people).  Everyone came out to see if they could help and by the end of the night, the tenants had a new place to live, clothes, food, a few bucks to get by on - all of the basics covered along with a lot of support to help them get through a tough time.

We were all terrified that the fire would jump.  Our houses are all historic wooden homes and our hamlet is filled with trees, shrubs - a lot of flammable material.  Each spark jumping off of the roof of the barn made my pulse race a little faster.  The wind would kick up, the flames were flying off of the roof of the barn.  It looked like nothing could stop it.

But our volunteers stopped the fire.  They didn't have to get out of bed in the wee hours of the morning, they didn't have to risk themselves for us.  But they did - and they do.  These guys are special.  The support that they get form their families is special.

Not only do our volunteers save our homes, farms, and businesses from tragedies, they also bring our community together.

And that's pretty special too.

Party Train

What happens when you stick people together on mass transit for hours at a time day after day after day?  That's right - they come up with every reason to celebrate!

Usually we get pizza, but this was a special birthday celebration and we wanted to give the birthday girl something she had never had before - White Castle hamburgers.  One of the best thing about Manhattan is that if you know where to look, you can find practically anything.  We got the crave.

I haven't had White Castle hamburgers in forever, but I couldn't remember why.  I am a hamburger aficionado.  I like them a lot.  I figure that my vegetarian brother more than makes up for me being able to eat hamburgers - so there's no guilt at all and you have to love that.

The "crave case" turns out to be a really good way to keep the burgers warm, by the way.  We didn't open them until we were out of the city and the little sliders were still hot.  It has good heavy duty cardboard.  The birthday girl loved them.

Also, a single White Castle burger is like eating 1/4 of a real hamburger, so even my train buddies who are not fans of eating an entire meal on the way home to dinner were able to enjoy a hamburger snack.

The burgers flew out of the box and down the hatch.  They were as good as I remembered.

Then about 2a.m. I remembered one more thing - the reason why I don't have White Castle too often at all.  4 Tums later, everything was okay again.

But note to self: if you're going to eat White Castle, make sure you have antacid around because you're not used to eating fast food!

It was so very worth it!

The Big Day

Our fundraising campaign is over.  We raised more than enough to put lights on the town trees.  The celebration for the inaugural lighting was wonderful - and very very cold.  And all of that pales in comparison to this - my breakfast.

Egg and cheese on focaccia.  Farm fresh eggs, farm fresh cheese, homemade focaccia.  Melt in your mouth wonderfulness that started my very long day.  

Lovely.

There really isn't much to compare to a perfectly cooked breakfast.  This breakfast had to be the best breakfast that I have eaten in ... in forever.  I tried to make a deal with the baker to leave me little care packages outside of her shop during the week.  I would just drive by when I get home and pick them up.  It is a good plan.  She could out in a little door and my care package would stay warm until I came for it.  

I think she's thinking about it.  

I hope she's thinking about it.  

I wonder if I can make time tomorrow to go and get another one of those fabulous breakfast sandwiches?