About a year ago I was staying for the weekend with friends in Kingston during a Queen’s reunion. During the visit, Ted and Pat Wilson, from Hamilton, showed up. Like everybody else I know, Ted is retired, but had been a classmate of mine when we were at Queen’s back when the earth was still cooling.

While there, he organized a most unusual breakfast, which turned out to be a lot of fun. It is especially great when your family is all together or you have a bunch of grandchildren around. And everyone gets their special omelette!

This has become a staple in our family. I know, it’s not quite like changing the Canadian constitution, but what the hell, here it is.

Put out on the counter some small bowls with a variety of ingredients such as: grated cheeses, diced ham, onion, green pepper, salsa, or anything else that seems appropriate to go in an omelette.

You will need some quart-size Ziploc freezer bags. Have folks write their name on the bag with one of those permanent markers.

Have everyone crack two eggs, large or extra-large, into the Ziploc bag (not more than two)

Each guest adds prepared ingredients of their choice to their bag and shakes it up.

Place the bags into a pot of rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. You can usually cook 6 to 8 omelettes in a large pot. For more, set up another pot of boiling water.

Open the bags and the omelettes will roll out easily. Be prepared for everyone to be amazed.

This is nice to serve with fresh fruit or coffee cake; everyone gets involved in the process and it’s a great conversation piece.

I don’t know if you happened to watch this year’s Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. It was held at New York’s Madison Square Garden in early February and was on TV for two evenings. The Westminster Dog Show would be the equivalent to golf’s Masters for the wet-nose crowd.

I love it, and especially this year when a real dog won it, not one of those perfectly coiffed poodles with the funny haircut. The crowd went nuts. I mean, it gives hope to everyone who’s ever felt ordinary compared with those “fancy, pretty” types.

Yes, for the first time in its 132 years, the Best-In-Show was a beagle. What more of a real dog can you have than a beagle? This was like the Giants beating the Patriots. Nobody expected it. I guess it means that just a plain old dog can be Best-In-Show.

As you likely know, I have a beagle named Sophie Clueless and she has been acting very proud for the past weeks, but beagles have never lacked in self-esteem. I think she thought that was her picture in the paper.

Beagles are already very popular, partly because of Snoopy and Underdog, and the fact that they are doggone (sorry about that) adorable, but if you plan on getting one, you’d better have a fence. They were bred to hunt and they still like to do that and can get into trouble when unsupervised. And, by the way they will do almost anything for food.

One final item:

As in all romance, love is blind. It seems that Petra, a female swan at a park in Germany, has fallen in love with a white, swan-shaped, plastic pedal-boat. People rent the pedal-boat and Petra circles her plastic companion, staring endlessly at it and making crooning noises and showing all the signs of a swan in love.

As winter approached, all the other swans flew to warmer climes, but not Petra. She would not leave the object of her affection. Also, during the winter the pedal-boats are taken off the lake and stored.

What to do?

It was decided that the bird and the boat could spend the winter on the pond in the elephant enclosure. This could go on for a long time, since swans mate for life.

Now for a little music from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

Categories: Appointment with Polhman, Columns
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