Eggs benedict

So, Mr. R roundly enjoys eggs benedict. Since we had a long weekend, I decided to try my hand at this dish, even though Hollandaise does little for me and I have egg issues anyway. I made the Hollandaise first (well, and by "made" I mean, failed at making).

First, I melted a stick of butter on the stove. Easy enough.

Meanwhile, I mixed what I thought was 1 1/2 egg yolks, some salt and pepper, in the blender. Gave it a little whirl. Then poured in the hot butter in a thin stream while blending. Then added a squirt of lemon.


The whole measuring eggs things came back to bite me - the sauce was too thin, too lemony, and just plain gross. Mr. R tried some on his eggs and didn't have a great report. Oh well.


Meanwhile, these are my first-ever poached eggs. Not too shabby?


I could only handle one egg at a time, maybe two, so the eggs that were cooked earlier went back into the water to heat up a tiny bit.


And the Canadian bacon and English muffins toasted in the oven (wow, a very international breakfast, no?)


Buttered muffin topped with bacon


and there's the eggs on top (with potatoes on the side). This was really quite tasty. Not my favorite breakfast ever (apart from the potatoes, those are always a favorite) but not too bad for a first effort.

Lazy dinner

Bacon, eggs, toast. Very easy, very quick. I'm no longer allowed to cook eggs in my house because, I "am not the master." Here is the master at work making his scrambled eggs. He shuns pre-scrambling the eggs - all eggs are put into the pan whole then scrambled. He says he likes some flecks of white in his eggs. He even shuns shredding the cheese, hence, the small hunks of cheddar. I can't fault him though, they come out fluffy, flavorful, and not dry/watery. I guess he's onto something....

Mmm...childhood breakfast fave

Soft-boiled eggs on toast. Place eggs in pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to boil. Allow to boil no more than 3 1/2 minutes. NO MORE THAN THAT! While eggs boil, toast bread. Butter. Put on plate. After 3 1/2 minutes, run cold water over eggs to stop cooking. Crack egg with spoon. Spoon soft egg from shell. Smoosh onto bread. Add salt and pepper. Eat. Enjoy.

I would like to point out that these eggs were even slightly OVER done for my taste. Looking back, I would go 3 minutes even. But R was wary of the soft-boiled goodness. Little did he know. Little...did he know.

Hillbilly quiche

So, I decided to start watching Paula Deen again, after taking a very long break from her show. She wasn't really bugging me, but I just got tired of seeing her and Michael having romantic breakfasts in their bathrobes. It kind of gave me the willies. But anyways, I started DVRing new episodes and on Saturday, I watched an episode all about breakfast. I skipped over the grits/sausage/egg parfaits, as grits horrify me, and the omelettes were fascinating in their strangeness. The hash brown breakfast quiche, however, did catch me eye, and I embarked on making it Sunday morning with ingredients at hand. I'd purchased a few bags of frozen hashbrowns during an acute craving a few weeks prior, so randomly, I had those in my freezer.

First, you mix 3 c of thawed hash browns with half a stick of melted butter, salt, and pepper. Press into a pie dish.







Bake at 450 degrees for about a half hour until crisp and golden. I ended up turning the broiler on to get it nice and brown. Allow the crust to cool slightly before filling.






Meanwhile, prepare the filling. 3 eggs, 1 c of half and half, crumbled breakfast meat of choice (bacon), veggies of choice (today, one small sauteed onion), and about 1 c of shredded cheddar cheese. I also added salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne. Pour filling into crust, reduce oven temp to 350 degrees, and bake until the egg is set, about 30 minutes.




Inhale. Beware, dogs apparently like this too. Daisy found her way onto the counter and ate some. :(

Egg in a Hole

I know - at first you think, is that something pervy? But then you find out it is a children's breakfast-type food. Then you feel badly for having thought anything pervy, and need to shower.

Egg in a Hole (or EH) is DELICIOUS. I saw it prepared recently on Everyday Food by one of their catatonic chefs (I find her strangely soothing, though).

Basically, preheat a griddle on medium-low to medium heat. Butter a piece of bread on both sides. Cut a hole in the middle of the bread, large enough to hold an egg, but not so large that the crusts are structurally unsound. Don't throw away that hole, however, it is DELICIOUS later on. Place your bread and the hole on the griddle. Carefully crack an egg into the hole. Allow the EH to grill peacefully until the egg is reasonably set on the bottom. Carefully fip the EH (don't forget the hole! keep it turning too!) and cook until the bread is grilled and the egg is cooked to your liking. Salt and pepper the EH and hole to taste. Enjoy.

R and I enjoyed this twice over the weekend. We are SO wild.