We had a traditional New England breakfast this morning

[xiphias]

Apple pie with cheddar cheese. Delicious.

Say, did you hear the one about the definition of a Yankee?
To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

Hasn't actually been TRUE since Vermont stopped being a primarily agricultural state -- there's still a deal of dairying there, but people aren't waking up at four in the morning to get the cookstove going, milk the cows, and all the other things that I don't know what people did on a farm in the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. If you DID, and breakfast was at seven after three hours of hard labor, dinner wouldn't be for another five or six hours, and then you had another five or six hours before supper and knocking off for the day, then you needed a complete breakfast, including ham, eggs, bacon, cornbread, and apple pie.

Still, every time I eat apple pie with cheddar cheese for breakfast -- especially if it's a pie I made myself -- I feel very New England-y. (Even if I'm a Bostonian, not a Vermonter.)

Comments

[paper-crystals.livejournal.com]

I am definitely I Yankee. Pie is my favorite breakfast food.

[navrins]

What if a Yankee is a baseball player?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Then they aren't. Because all Yankees are Red Sox fans. That's why there's such a rivalry.

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The New York American League franchise took a perfectly good adjective and ruined it through a century of misuse.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

I strenuously disagree with the "a Yankee is a Vermonter" part, but I do not disagree that apple pie with cheese for breakfast is nummy. And New England-y.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Apple pie with cheddar-- please. or pumpkin with whipped cream. I am from Massachusetts.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

In all honestly, I'm willing to have hot apple pie with cheddar, with whipped cream, or with ice cream.

Or, in a pinch, without. But "with" is better. For me, good vanilla ice cream and good sharp, white cheddar are tied for first, whipped cream is second place, and plain is third, but I wouldn't turn down any of the above.

[bemused-leftist.livejournal.com]

Oh, I always thought that meant the Yankee ate ONLY pie for breakfast. Good point about the work schedule, though.

[jazzfish]

Face the way the sun goes down, anybody on your right-hand side's a Yankee. (So saith my Texarkanan mother.)

To the left, I endorse the plan of pie for breakfas. Hey, it's got fruit, that makes it healthy. I'm sceptical of the cheddar cheese thing but not having tried it myself I shouldn't knock it.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Apple pie need not be terribly sweet. I added about a quarter cup of brown sugar with the spices, but it's not necessary. If you have a neutral-to-mildly-sweet crust -- the kind that works for both dessert pies and main course pies like quiche or chicken -- and little to no sugar, it's quite a bit healthier than many other options you could have.

Apples and cheddar are one of those classic pairings, like pears and Stilton. And that's basically what you're going with, here. The pie isn't sticky-sweet or anything -- it's about as sweet as apples are.

[cos]

I don't usually hear this with the same last two steps you've got.

After "New England", usually I see/hear/tell some variation of,

- Northern New England (VT/NH/ME)

- *rural* Northern New England

- Someone in rural NNE who lives in a house far back from the road, with few amenities or modern conveniences but a million dollars saved up, and says very few words but means a lot by them.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Those sound reasonable, too.