The night brinner was born.

It was cold. It was dreary. Mark was out of town, and it was just me and the kids ~ the kind of night when even what’s for dinner? feels like a more loaded question than it should be.

I opened the fridge. Eggs. I opened the pantry. Pancake mix.

That was enough.

I don’t remember exactly what the kids said when I told them we were having pancakes and eggs for dinner ~ but they decided immediately this was the best plan I’d ever had, and it landed like a small celebration.

It was the easiest meal I’d cooked all week, and the most fun anyone had had at the dinner table in a while.

That was about ten years ago. Brinner has been a “dad’s out of town” staple in our house ever since.

It works because it’s a small celebration of just-the-kids-and-me — the menu of solo-parent nights.

I’ll write more about specific brinners as I cook them – the night I added bacon, the one with cinnamon-sugar toast, the time I tried savory crepes and the kids politely informed me that was not brinner – but it all started here. A cold dreary night. A husband out of town. Eggs and pancake mix. That’s the origin story.

Welcome to Brinner & Beyond.