A July Saturday morning, seven a.m.-humidity is creeping up on us like a lion stalking its prey. We can feel its hot breath on our shoulders; we press on trying to ignore it. Rushing air around the truck helps keep it at bay.
We are on a rare trip out for breakfast. Even though only half of our party is comfortable on the four-lane highway, the other half endures the concrete, watching white fluffy clouds drift lazily across blue expanses. They remind one of the substantial biscuits waiting ahead. Piled with stewed apples and with a cup of hot coffee, they will be relished as much as the early morning’s jaunt.
Even as fast as we’re going we can hear and see much of nature’s goings-on.
Cardinals call rather than sing. Busy with teenage children and wives who want their mate’s attention, redbirds are ever present out on the Ohio landscape, even in the heat of summer.
Cattails have already burst into brown lint as redwing blackbirds call from their depths. They are trying to shelter from the sun’s heat which has baked the once-moist ditches holding their reedy garden homes.
Arriving at our favorite breakfast restaurant, we notice yellow daylilies and tiny red annuals blooming along well-clipped shrubs. The landscaper’s efforts can’t hold a candle to the natural setting across the fence though.
Elderberry bushes push their dew-sparkled flower heads above raucous wild grasses. Red clovers bloom along with Queen Anne’s lace and soft blue chicory. House wrens call while young rabbits scurry to hide from our intruding eyes. Robins pay no heed to us as they busy themselves with their own breakfast.
Inside all is well as coffee is poured and menus scanned.  This restaurant is known for large portions. A plate of eggs, three meats, potatoes and grits, along with gravy, biscuits, and the wonderful cinnamon-glazed apples is tempting but too much food for one person.
Yogurt parfaits layered with blueberries and strawberries along with a muffin and more fresh fruit is appealing, but the muffin is known for having an artificial taste. Too bad they don’t do them from scratch like the biscuits.
Final choice is a plate of biscuits, a side of apples and one egg, over easy.
Travel at sunrise, cheerful greetings from nature along the way, easy breakfast: rare tranquility on a July Saturday. Let the humidity lion find us later.

Homemade Muffins
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 beaten egg
¾ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
Stir-ins (see note)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients. In another bowl, blend together
wet ingredients.
Dump wet into dry. Stir just until mixed.
NOTE: Stir in ¾ cup blueberries, coarsely chopped cranberries (with another teaspoon of sugar)
or 2/3 cup chopped dates with 1/3 cup nutmeats.
For pumpkin muffins add a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg along with ½ cup canned pumpkin.
Stir batter only a little. Lumpy is good.
Fill cups two-thirds full. Bake about 20 minutes or until tested done. Makes about one dozen.
Recipe source: Adapted from 1989 Better Homes&
Gardens New Cookbook

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