Growing up, we lived across the street from Dr. Miller. I remember, as a young girl, looking out of our front windows and watching Dr. Miller mow his lawn. Back and forth he would go, making nice straight rows in the lawn. He always wore an old golf cap. You know the kind - round and flat with a little brim.
One morning, while watching Dr. Miller, my mother called us for breakfast. She served us a favorite: a piece of bread that had a hole cut out of it, then grilled with an egg in the center hole, and the round hole piece placed on top. For a little kid, it reminded me of Dr. Miller. The bread representing the lawn, the egg being him, and then the round piece on top being his hat. Dr. Miller!
But what I loved about this moment is that it didn't stop there. Where as a parent you smile at your child's silliness and go on with your day, my mom instead honored what I was saying by accepting it and calling indeed calling this breakfast a "Dr. Miller". And continued to call it that. To this day, that is what it is still called in our family. I think that is so sweet and so special.
I've never known this breakfast dish by any other name. Though when we were in Maine this summer, we had breakfast at a restaurant where they had something called a "Toad in the Hole" which I believe is the same thing.
We have just one word left from our son's misprouncation of words, or made up words, as he was growing up. It is "crumper" which means the laundry hamper. Not sure how it ever came to be... it just is.
I smile as I make Dr. Millers today...
...for the good food, the hidden meaning of the name, the memories and how special a parent can make a child feel.
Marcy
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