Scenes in Key West as Hurricane Irma lashed the lower Keys on September 10 2017

Author’s note: Sketchy reporting indicates the Florida Keys and Florida peninsula, while pretty roughed up, dodged a bullet yesterday. Sixteen years ago, America wasn’t so lucky. The tragedies that took place in NYC, Washington DC, and a farmer’s field in Pennsylvania were horrendous. What joins those distant events to those still unfolding in Houston and Florida was how we came together as a nation, helping one another through the aftermath. America should never forget that as we carry on.
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While looking online for recipes for quick hurricane meals, I discovered that brinner is all the rage. Thankfully the internet updated my woefully poor knowledge of modern food slang

Brinner is short for “having breakfast foods at dinner time.” Brinner can be all breakfast foods or a meal with dinner foods and breakfast foods. I had no idea that chicken and waffles (long a staple for me after a long night out on the town) was brinner. Savannah being Savannah, shrimp and grits is considered a brinner item.

To me, brinner is any meal that contains at a minimum scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon/sausage, and some bread product.

While I have always loved breakfast for lunch more than at breakfast itself, I am not a morning person. I tend to sleep in and require 30 to 60 minutes and a minimum of two cups of strong coffee to wake up.

Most mornings, my breakfast is that black liquid elixir, cut with some sweetener and half and half. When I am trying to be healthy, I have a cup of greek yogurt. I am too old to care if this make me unhealthy. Carpe diem!

Eating brinner came into my life when I courted W. I was shocked the first time I came to the supper table and saw a brinner casserole. It smelled divine and tasted even better. OMG!

Whatever resistance I might have had melted away. I have discovered that bacon, eggs, shrimp-n-grits and toast with jelly is a well balanced meal. I had my protein in two forms, pork and shellfish. Grits are a form of corn so I had a vegetable serving. A fruit serving came with a dollop of jelly on my toast. As an added bonus, my toast was rye, so I got fiber and grains. This is the ultimate in healthy eating.

Here is just one recipe.

Brinner Sliders (courtesy of Teri Bell via Savannah Morning News)

Ingredients:

12 Hawaiian dinner rolls
8 large eggs, scrambled
6 slices pepper jack cheese
6 slices American cheese
½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Using a serrated knife, cut rolls in half lengthwise (without breaking apart) and place bottom half of rolls in an ungreased 9×13-inch baking dish; set tops aside.

Scoop scrambled eggs onto bottom rolls. Top with pepper jack, then place meat of your choice on top of pepper jack. Top with American cheese. Carefully top with top buns.

Combine melted butter and maple syrup in small bowl. Brush all of the mixture over tops of rolls.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and melted.

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