Sheepherder’s Breakfast

Kevin came to Seattle for the weekend — not for a family event but to visit me and James. The sibling visit, the casual kind, the kind that used to be impossible when Kevin was using and is now ordinary because Kevin is sober (thirty months) and has a girlfriend (Lisa) and a business (Bridge City) and a life that accommodates spontaneous weekend trips to Seattle to eat his sister's cooking and meet his sister's boyfriend.

Saturday night: the four of us — me, James, Kevin, Lisa — ate at my apartment. I made samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) on the stovetop, and we ate it Korean BBQ style: meat grilled, wrapped in lettuce with ssamjang and garlic and kimchi, eaten in one mouthful with the specific Korean BBQ joy that comes from building your own wrap and eating it before it falls apart. James made his scallion pancakes as a side. Kevin brought Bridge City cold brew. Lisa brought a salad (Lisa always brings salads; she's the vegetables person, the balance to Kevin's coffee-and-carbs universe).

After dinner, Kevin and James sat on my balcony drinking cold brew and talking about — I don't know what. Guy things. Engineering and coffee and the particular absurdity of Seattle real estate. I sat inside with Lisa and we talked about the things that matter: Kevin's sobriety (thirty months, still going, still meetings, still Lisa), the birth mother search (still waiting, still nothing, still okay), the relationship (five months with James, still good, still growing). Lisa said, "Kevin talks about you all the time. He says you saved his life." I said, "Cooking Korean food saved my life. Kevin saved his own." She said, "He thinks it was you." I don't know if it was me. I know that I made galbi and Kevin ate it and something opened in him that was closed, and the opening was not my doing — the opening was Kevin's sobriety and Kevin's courage and Kevin's refusal to stay broken — but maybe the galbi helped. Maybe the food was the key in the lock. Maybe the Korean cooking that saved me also, in its ripple effect, helped save Kevin. The ripple effect. It keeps rippling.

Sunday: Kevin and Lisa drove to Bellevue with us for a family brunch. Karen made pancakes (American, the flat kind, with maple syrup). I made hobakjeon (Korean zucchini pancakes). Two kinds of pancakes. Karen and Kevin and Lisa and James and David and me, around the Bellevue table, eating pancakes in two traditions, and the table was full — full of people, full of food, full of the accumulated evidence of four years of building a Korean-American identity that now includes a boyfriend and a brother's girlfriend and Korean zucchini pancakes next to American flapjacks. The world has changed, David said months ago when Karen started making kimchi. The world keeps changing. The table keeps widening. The pancakes keep multiplying.

I brought the hobakjeon that Sunday in Bellevue, and Karen made her American pancakes, and the table held both without anyone having to explain why — that’s what a widening table does. But the dish I keep thinking about for the next time we all gather around that same table is this one: a sheepherder’s breakfast, the kind of skillet meal that asks nothing more of you than to sit down together and eat while it’s hot. Six people, two traditions, one table — this is the recipe I’d make for the next Sunday morning when Kevin and Lisa drive up and James is already on the balcony and there is nothing to do but cook something that feeds everyone at once.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 package (30 oz) frozen shredded hash browns, thawed
8 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
2 tbsp chopped fresh chives, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Cook the bacon. In a large cast iron skillet or heavy oven-safe pan over medium heat, cook the bacon pieces until crisp, about 8–10 minutes. Transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving about 2 tablespoons of drippings in the pan.
Soften the onion. Add the diced onion to the drippings and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and translucent, about 4 minutes.
Add the hash browns. Spread the thawed hash browns evenly over the onion in the skillet. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Cook undisturbed over medium-high heat for 5–7 minutes until the bottom is golden and crispy, then flip in sections and cook another 4–5 minutes.
Whisk the eggs. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk until fully combined. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Combine and finish. Scatter the cooked bacon over the hash browns. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the top. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, without stirring, until the eggs begin to set around the edges, about 4 minutes.
Add cheese and finish cooking. Sprinkle the shredded cheddar over the top. Cover the pan with a lid or foil and cook an additional 3–4 minutes until the eggs are fully set and the cheese is melted.
Serve. Scoop directly from the skillet onto plates. Garnish with chopped chives if desired. Serve immediately while hot.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sheepherder’s Breakfast — The Brunch Table That Kept Getting Bigger