Waking Up Down South

from the introduction:
"Hot biscuits, hot 'wheat bread'...hot cornpone, fried chicken, bacon, coffee, eggs, milk, buttermilk, etc...the world may be confidently challenged to furnish the equal to such a breakfast, as it is cooked in the South," rhapsodized Mark Twain. A well-prepared Southern breakfast truly is an effective bed-emptier, motivating both early-birds and sleepyheads to rise and dine. The smells of strong coffee brewing, frying ham spattering grease, and hominy grits bubbling cannot be ignored. Who wants to stay in bed if just-squeezed orange juice and tender golden pancakes grace the morning menu? When crusty, sage-seasoned country sausage patties and buttermilk biscuits with fig preserves beckon, who can resist? Even dainty appetites succumb to the lure of tender glistening scrambled eggs and almost-caramelized cooked apples! A Southern breakfast, is, in all its many variations, a pleasure.