Today is the birthday (1894) of Edward Estlin Cummings, who was more commonly known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings, and e e cummings, a U.S. poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical novels, four plays, and several essays. He is often regarded as one of the most important poets of the 20th century. Cummings is associated with modernist free-form poetry. Much of his work has idiosyncratic syntax, involves odd meanings of words, and tends to use lower-case spellings throughout. His unique style has never been successfully replicated by any other poet.
His poem, “as freedom is a breakfastfood” contains the line:
“as hatracks into peachtrees grow”
which gives me some inspiration. First, let us consider the concept of “breakfast food.” This notion is a purely Euro-American one – largely born in the late 19th century. In most parts of the world, people eat the same things for breakfast that they eat for other meals (as do I). The idea of specially produced commercial breakfast cereals was the brainchild of the likes of the brothers, Will and John Harvey Kellogg, Charles William Post, et al. Their products have some traction outside of a narrow Euro-American zone, but not much. Therefore, for breakfast food I give you peach crisp with cereal topping:
Ingredients
4 cups sliced, peeled peaches
2 Tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup flour
3 Tablespoons cold butter – cubed
1 cup breakfast cereal of your choice – lightly crushed
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375° F/190° C.
Toss the peaches with 2 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon in large bowl. Spoon into an 8-inch square baking dish.
Mix ½ cup sugar and the flour in large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the cereal. Sprinkle evenly over peaches.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until peaches are tender.
Serve warm.
Book of Days Tales 
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