Breakfast of Champions

It’s Sunday today and I have planned a big bike ride today, in the bush. It’s time to do some exploring of this beautiful farmland and rolling hills. But before I do I think it’s important to eat a big breakfast.
Coffee. I have been blessed with friends that have mailed me coffee. Real coffee. The only coffee you can get here in Ghana is Nescafe, which being a coffee snob, I never would have thought that I would drink the stuff, but when you are living here in Ghana your taste buds change.... For example, who would have ever thought that bone and gristle is a great way to get protein, or, even tastes yummy? Well, when I eat my fufu that is what I get when I order meat. I look back with fondness of the days when I ordered meat with names like, top round, sirloin or fillet mignon. Now my choices are goat, chicken and grass cutter ( a large rat). Anyways, I digress.
I cook up my oats with a little powdered milk ( does milk come in any other form, I forgot). Again, thanks to some family and friends, I add some dried cranberries (OMG!!!) and nuts. Wonderful!!! I even add a little local honey. A PC friend of mine is working with bee farmers and she gave me some honey. They are trying to market it on a large scale and she asked if I would taste it. Well, I did. This honey would put hair on a the chest of a new born baby! I mean it is rugged! I asked her if she had a name for the honey and she said no. Being the clever and wise old man that I am I told her my idea; Stand Up and Spank Me Honey!!! She just rolled her eyes. I don’t know I thought it had a nice ring to it. I’m not the only one who likes the honey. The ants LOVE it! As I pour the honey and the ants (how do you get ants out of honey??) in my oats, I think “Oh good! Protein. The ants probably taste better than the rat bone and gristle”.
To top off my breakfast I got out the bread and my ground nut paste. Ground nut paste is like peanut butter. When I go to market, I buy it from the ladies that sell it in enormous mixing bowls. Of course, it’s not covered. Thankfully flies don’t like ground nut paste. Well most don’t. After picking out only two unfortunate souls, I decide that when I get home I’ll heat it up. I do, add some sugar and salt. Yum!!! Skippy eat your heart out! I reach up and grab the paste from my cupboard. When I open the container there is a beautiful, thick, fuzzy layer of mold on my peanut butter. I mean, this was as nice as the putting green on the Pebble Beach Golf Course. Hmmm.... have you ever heard of moldy peanut butter? Me either. I text some friends and they hadn’t either and suggest that I throw it away. However, this peanut butter cost 10% of a days pay, and you know how um er... what’s the word? Frugal, yes that is it, you all know how frugal I am. So I scrape off the carpet of green and reach for the bread. Now the mold on bread is a much different kind of mold. Not nearly as pretty. And there is a earthy pungent odor that comes with moldy bread. I try to cut away most of it put the paste on the bread and sit down to a well balanced breakfast. Grains, fruit, protein and lots of greens! A breakfast for Champs... or is that Chumps...
Cheers~