THERE’S NOTHING BETTER THAN AN EAVES BREAKFAST!
Breakfast has always been a favorite mealtime for the Eaves family—and one that the men of the family often enjoyed preparing! There were always stories about some of the breakfasts Arley or Easy prepared—sometimes with fried chicken (cooked in the old cast iron Dutch oven), biscuits and gravy. Country ham, biscuits and red-eye gravy were other favorites—and always a big platter of soft scrambled eggs.
This photo from the early 1990s was an Eaves breakfast like no other. We were all in Nashville to celebrate Easy and Mildred’s 50th wedding anniversary at John and Kay’s home. The evening before we gathered for a delicious dinner catered by Heather (with assistance from her friend Eric), live music by Kay’s niece and brother-in-law, dancing by Mildred and Easy, old photos and family stories, lots of laughter and love. John invited us to come by Sunday morning for breakfast—which he and Easy prepared. Lingering at the table are Arley’s four living children—Monte (in the suit at the head of the table), Tootsie (in red suit), Easy next to her, and on the other side of the table, me. Jerry (at my right) and Patrick are two of the grandsons. Blue (next to Monte) is Easy’s grandson.
Grits (especially cheese grits) have become a favorite breakfast menu item over the years but we never ate grits when I was growing up. When we killed hogs, there would be lots of pork breakfast options all winter—country ham, pork chops, and sage sausage. We also had bacon often and a special treat was pork streak of lean fried crisp and served with biscuits and gravy.
When we had fresh tomatoes, there would be a platter of those on the breakfast table. Sliced cantaloupe was a summer favorite at breakfast.
The homemade jellies and preserves were an important part of Eaves breakfasts, too. Blackberry, strawberry and apple jellies or preserves were the usual. The most amazing one of all was the homemade peach preserves. Tootsie’s favorite to make was pear honey.
We were also fans of “breakfast for supper” and one item we had often was a “Betty Sandwich.” One of Arley’s business friends from Memphis was Sam and when he visited us once he described a favorite sandwich his wife Betty created. Bacon, scrambled eggs, a slice of Cheddar cheese, slices of tomato, slice of onion, iceberg lettuce—all heaped on two pieces of toast coated with mayonnaise. Delicious!
When the family gathers, I still love preparing a big breakfast with some of the Eaves favorites.
Seeing a story 