Friday night grateful moment

So perhaps my little moment of "I'm back" (see NYE post) was a little premature. You think? Sigh. My heart was in the right place, for sure. My brain and ability to follow through has been completely used up elsewhere the past few months. But, no matter. Somewhere mid-afternoon today I decided I'd post tonight, and here I am. No more or less grateful than any other Friday night, but just here. Rusty but writing.

It's spring here in Walla Walla, with all that that implies. Sun some moments, rain at others. And oh how we need the rain, so I'm not arguing with that, even though I get chilled and maybe a wee bit crabby about that. I will remain grateful for whatever moisture we can drum up before the real warmth starts and we go into official drought mode. We are greener than green right now, and that makes me very happy.

Seth approaches his last weeks of high school, and I'm so grateful for these days together. He's done pretty well at keeping "senioritis" at bay, and has been busy with many extracurricular activities, but he's here and he's happy with his college choice (Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma) and feeling ready to move on to this next phase. Yay for endings and beginnings and all the things that make these passages significant. (With Seth's graduation will come visiting family, and I'm really looking forward to that!)

This has been a rough few months (year?) locally and further afield, for family, friends and friends of friends, in all areas of health, grieving and loss. I can't really even tally the number of cancer diagnoses, deaths, divorces and other heartaches, and on some level, I feel a little numb. A bit in the arena of, don't let it all in, because it's really just a big ball of sadness. But for the living/currently undiagnosed, it's one foot in front of the other. What else can you do? I'm grateful for my health, for sure, and don't take it for granted. I'm grateful for another day to hug my husband and child and assure them of my love.

One of my favorite things from these past few months is that we have acquired a few chickens. This is especially exciting given our collective love of eggs, of course. And now we have on hand at any moment the freshest of eggs. There have been many lovely golden omelets and deviled eggs, and Seth's breakfast egg sandwich is extra delicious--so I've been told. My Saturday morning poached egg ritual has also risen a notch or two. It took me a bit to taper off my usual egg grocery purchases, so we were fairly swimming in egg options there for a bit. Now, we've got it more or less down to a steady diet.

My mom has been traveling with her sisters this week, and I've enjoyed thinking about their time together, grateful they have each other. Sisters are awesome, whether by blood or by marriage or by choice. I am grateful to have lovely sisters in the last two of those categories.

For Mother's Day the boys treated me to a day in TriCities with a couple of glorious nursery visits as well as lunch out together. It was exactly what I wanted and needed. Now, to get the plants in their appropriate spots. I have dug up my dahlia bed (it took a big hit this winter, though I'm not sure exactly why, given it wasn't a very severe winter) and am transplanting them elsewhere. The snowball bushes and lilacs both bloomed gloriously, and the irises and peonies are currently going to town!

And now for a couple of random pics I found on my phone. I am very grateful for my phone. I love having a camera with me every minute of the day. I know, how weird. But I like to document things, however mundane. Go figure.

I am ready for this weekend and all the rest and recuperation that implies, physically, mentally and spiritually. I hope that whatever your weekend holds, it's all that you wish for.

Peace.

A-Z blogging challenge: E is for Eggs

Eggs were everywhere just two weeks ago, weren't they? Around Easter, they seem to grow on trees!

tree

Well, in my world, eggs are more than holiday fodder, they are a staple. While I've never set out to eat them every day, I enjoy them in various ways throughout the week, and as I was eating egg salad tonight (see "comfort food" below), my previous "E" thoughts were completely eclipsed by the egg. 

When I think of comfort food? Egg salad. (I have a couple of variations: curried, asparagus...)

When I think of breakfast? Eggs, in many forms. I eat them every weekend, for sure. You should see how many photos of eggy breakfasts I have on my phone!

When I think of picnics? Deviled eggs. (And potato salad with eggs, of course.)

How many other ways can eggs be whipped up? Let's see: poached, coddled, soft-boiled, scrambled, baked (you must check this recipe out), in omeletes, quiches, soup, eggnog, custards, frittatas, tamagoyaki, and a couple of lesser-known variations: the egg quesadilla (a favorite of mine!) and gribiche.

And that doesn't even begin to touch the number of dishes that rely on eggs for their scientific properties, which add to the binding, the leavening, and if you separate the eggs, the volume of a recipe, as well.

I had a friend, once upon a time, who developed a distaste for eggs. I can't think of another way to put it: she suddenly couldn't stand them in dishes--claimed she could taste them in baked goods--and the thought of a whole cooked (boiled) egg really repulsed her. The odd thing is, she is also the person who taught me to make egg gravy. I don't have the timing down--this is more than 20 years ago now--so I don't know which came first, the egg gravy or the distaste? Luckily, her lack of love for the egg did not stay with me as anything other than a memory.

Eggs have taken a bad health rap in the past, but it mostly appears those days are over and the high protein content outweighs the previously condemned high-fat and high-cholesterol nature, and so we're able to happily consume, guilt-free (ish).

I can't pick a favorite way to eat eggs, can you? Let me know!

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!

Breakfast options for the whole family!

eekend breakfasts are special occasions around here. Well, especially Saturday breakfasts... Sundays (other than in winter...) we tend to have more get-up-and-go to our mornings, whether it's to hit the yard or errands or just general chores.

Omelets have been quite popular around here lately, and the lovely omelet pan I received for my most recent birthday has been put to good use, with great results. Omelet variations are easy to accommodate--husband has "the works" (which means all vegetables + light on cheddar cheese), I am *most* vegetables and a wider assortment of cheeses (my latest favorite is a white cheddar made from goat's milk), and Seth is a straight up peppers + cheddar. See, easy (once you get the hang of different bowls with different ingredients).

This morning we employed a further customization of breakfast items... And for all you mothers out there who will proclaim me a bad influence for making every person an item of their choosing, just remember: there are THREE of us. Not four, or five, or more. And I like doing this, so deal. It's how we roll.

Seth wandered through the kitchen as the hash browns were hitting the pan and mused about a pannekoek possibility. Pannekoek is a dish we had while visiting Grandma Kandt in Canada years ago (at a specific pannekoek restaurant), and was an immediate hit: a thick potato pancake with cheese (and meat if you're so inclined; the gevulde pannekoek, if you're into looking it up online, though the description of "Dutch meat-filled pancakes didn't really do it for me). Seth's long been a potato pancake fan, so the idea of cheese being an added ingredient? We'll let's just say he comes by the cheese love honestly!

In another pan, husband's omelet came together nicely...

And in yet another pan, I decided to stray from my original plan to mimic an Israeli egg dish I pinned just yesterday, shakshuka--eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce. I took one look at all the glorious asparagus and couldn't help but deviate in that direction. And, I was feeling less saucy, so it really strayed more toward a vegetable hash with eggs.

We enjoyed a lovely morning family interlude, enhanced by warmed sticky buns and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Pannekoek a la Seth
2 cups hash browns, uncooked
2 eggs
1 cup diced sweet peppers (we had red, green, orange and yellow on hand; precooked in the microwave, 2 minutes)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup grated cheese
2 Tbsp. jarred queso (special request this morning by the teen boy, completely optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl.

Heat a medium frying pan (an omelet pan works nicely) over medium-high heat and spray with a little non-stick spray. Add the potato mixture all at once and spread out to cover the whole pan.

Let the mixture cook, until lifting the edge slightly, you can see that the bottom is crisping up nicely--about 5-6 minutes depending on the heat. Using a pancake flipper, loosen the whole pannekoek and slide onto a plate, then flip the whole thing back into the pan, uncooked side down. This is not nearly as acrobatic as it sounds. If you use a medium-size pan, you can put it on top of the plate and, using hot pads, flip the plate and pan over that way.

However you do it, return the pan to heat for another 5-6 minutes, and then slide out onto a clean plate and serve. We've sliced a larger pannekoek up between several eaters in the past... today it was all for Seth!

Sher's "shakshuka"
1/2 cup peppers, sliced thinly
1/4 cup finely chopped green onions
1 cup thinly sliced asparagus spears
2/3 cup halved grape tomatoes
2 eggs

Heat a saute pan over medium heat with a scant drizzle of olive oil. Add the peppers and onions and saute for a minute or two. Add the asparagus and continue to saute, followed a minute later with the tomatoes.

When the vegetables have wilted a bit, create a couple of holes in the vegetables where you can see the bottom of the pan and crack an egg into each hole. Turn the heat down to low and cover the pan until the eggs have cooked to your desired consistency. Put a cover on the pan to get the egg whites cooked properly before the vegetables have turned to mush.

This was very yummy and springtime fresh!

I hope your weekend breakfasts are as yummy as ours... What's your favorite breakfast special?

Modified chopped Cobb salad

ome days I just crave a big salad with lots of meat. And I don't mean "meat" in the animal sense, although I'm certainly not opposed to a little chicken, or a steak salad... But most of the time, I'm wanting more than just a few greens with dressing. What I'm looking for is to fill up on a big bowl of my favorite ingredients, and right now those ingredients scream SPRING! (I should say, SUMMER!, since the warmth finally arrived in all it's glory!)

Recently, my salad bowl ended up with the following:

Modified chopped Cobb salad
Serves 2 (or if you're me and you've been working in the yard all morning, just me)
1.5 cups asparagus, roasted and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado, peeled and diced
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped into eighths
4 baguette slices, toasted and cut into quarters (to act as croutons, and they worked quite nicely)
1 spring onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup blue cheese
Dressing of your choice: I like a light olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette, but blue cheese or ranch would also be yummy...

I tossed all these ingredients in a large bowl and let sit for a (precious) few minutes to let the dressing soak into the baguette.

Enjoy!

If, like me, upon typing "Cobb," you wonder where that name actually came from, and should it always be capitalized...  check this out. Good to know.

Potato asparagus salad gribiche

ecently on Pinterest I saw a pinned recipe for "potato salad gribiche," which I had never heard of. The note at the bottom of the pin said that gribiche = a sauce for potato salad made from a hard-boiled egg yolk. That sounded worth checking out to me (the girl with the egg cravings that almost match the cheese cravings), and I had no reason to doubt that definition of gribiche, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

A little research and minor digging around later, and I couldn't find a single recipe that made the potato salad dressing with a hard-boiled egg... every single one (in my initial research, I have since found a recipe that uses cooked eggs) I found called for making essentially a mayonnaise from raw egg. And apparently, I was not alone in that dilemma; many a finer cook than I has searched for said gribiche and come up empty... But somehow, that idea persisted in my brain. And so I had to try it...

The potato salad was a little twisty itself... just the way I like it. I thought the flavors would go well with an eggy dressing... and they did.

Potato-asparagus salad gribiche
serves 6 as a side
2 cups baby potatoes, halved, boiled and cooled
2 cups asparagus, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, roasted and cooled
1.5 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
6 eggs, hard boiled, yolks separated from whites and whites chopped up
1 large spring onion, diced fine

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.

Gribiche sauce, off the cuff
6 hard-boiled eggs
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon chopped dill pickle
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Mine was still a bit thick, so I added a bit of pickle juice to thin it, and add a wee bit of zip too, though a little more vinegar would have done that trick as well.

Pour the sauce over the salad ingredients and stir until fully incorporated. Let sit at least a half hour for flavor development.

I really enjoyed the flavors of this sauce, and felt that it really worked especially well with the asparagus and potato combination. I was a bit gratified to later discover Bobby Flay feels that way as well... hence his Grilled Asparagus Gribiche. And there are other versions out there with the sauce more coarsely chopped that my whizzed up version that I might have to try as well: The Wednesday Chef has a dish, as does Serious Eats (over steak, no less).

Anyone out there ever had gribiche? Hello, recent Paris people, did you run across this eggy wonder? Do tell!

Easter brunch: Apple cake, or shall we have rhubarb?

his apple cake has a long, long history in our family. I can't remember when it was first discovered in an old family favorite cookbook, An Apple A Day, but I've made it more times over the decades than I can count.

With family headed into town this weekend, it seemed only right (well, and Shelby made mention of it...) to bust out an apple cake move or two... so Sunday morning for Easter brunch we did just that! And of course, just to mix things up, I made a rhubarb one as well, with a little different make-up: fruit on the bottom. Clever, that. And yummy too.

The original, though I went a little light on the apples. There's nowhere near 2 cups here...
sorry, Shelby!

Rhubarb variation: delicious and definitely a make-again!

The batter is adapted from the original sufficiently to have its own name!

Brunch fruit cake
1.5 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup quick rolled oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup melted cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 cups apple, thinly sliced, or another fruit of your choice...

Combine the dry ingredients, mix well. Add butter, egg and milk, beat well. Pour into a greased 8-inch square baking pan; stand apple slices in batter.

Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup quick oats
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
Combine and sprinkle over top of the batter.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Rhubarb variation: Wash and chop 3 cups rhubarb (about a half dozen stalks). Toss with 1 Tbsp. lemon juice and and 2/3 cup sugar. Put in the bottom of an 8-inch pan and spread the batter over the top. If desired, spread the topping over the batter and bake as directed above.

After a brunch of baked eggs, tater tots, cake(s), fruit and juice, it was time for a little egg hunting. Happily, a new-ish brood of bunnies was out in the yard, and welcomed us before scampering off to their safe zone (the junipers).

Here is Lucy, sneaking up on a wee baby bunny.

Maizy with her loot, and a little gray bunny from Aunty Sher.

There was quite a bit of happy cousin time on the trampoline.
Right now the girls are dominating, with grins!

And then there was bouncing, lots of bouncing. 

It was a lovely family weekend, with lots of sunshine, a pleasant walk through the Whitman Mission (in sunshine, no less!) more than a couple of naps, some rolicking Tudors time (for the adult ladies, late into the night), and even a little sunshine for the egg hunting... Thanks for making the trek over, Goerlitz Jrs., we enjoyed our time with you immensely.

Cracking the poached egg, finally

poached egg has long been my favorite way to eat a breakfast egg. Fried is too greasy (most days); scrambled is good at home, but if you're eating out prepare to eat rubber. Same goes for omelettes... add in overcooked veggies and it can really be a mess.

But the thing about the home-poached egg is those whites. What to do about those stringy and roaming-about-the-pot whites? There's advice to add an acid (small amount of vinegar or lemon juice) to the water, but I've had little success with that really helping. And those poaching pods are a nice attempt, but really don't quite do the egg justice. (The whites can still get either rubbery or not completely set up, and I'm not fond of the perfectly round look when it slides out--almost seems unnatural. I know, picky picky.).

Just this morning, early early, I was reading and saw a post from Michael Ruhlman linked to by Jason Kottke. (Have to give credit for the find--if you don't know kottke.org, you really should. He scours the web so you don't have to, and presents a number of interesting tidbits every day ranging from technology to popular culture. Definitely one to add to the feeds.)

Anyway, back to Mr. Ruhlman. (Here's his post.) The upshot is that he's produced a slotted spoon that, if you crack an egg into it, will eliminate that part of the white that is watery, leaving "good" white behind with the yolk, which will make for better, easier poaching. My initial thought was, yeah, right. I have spoons like that (by Martha Stewart) in my drawer already, what would be special about his spoon, given that it is $27? So upon truly rising a couple of hours later, I decided poached eggs would have to be on the menu this morning.

So Ruhlman's idea is spot on, happily. Eliminating that watery part of the white makes for a much more beautiful and less far-flung (his word is flyaway, I like it) poached egg. And, in the process I did discover that Martha's spoon is too small to really hold the yolk and "good" white; the first egg I cracked into her spoon slid right off and into the small bowl I had positioned beneath the spoon (thankfully). I made do with a larger food-service slotted spoon from the catering days, and it did the trick nicely.

I had some leftover black bean and corn salad in the fridge and warmed the mixture up before putting the poached eggs on top. Seth had been adamant that he wasn't hungry-hungry and was going to have a bowl of cereal... until he saw my creation. So I surrendered the first bowl quite graciously and continued with my egg experimentation.The next bowl turned out just as lovely, and a new poached egg tradition has been solidified for me. I am thankful that I have my big slotted spoon, as I wasn't really in the mood to shell out for Ruhlman's special spoon, and I have a feeling that if you have a bigger-than-normal slotted spoon around, it would work for you too!

Happy breakfasting!

Curried egg salad: addictive stuff!

I am missing my friend Shauna today, you know the one that moved away to Southern California to be near family? Whatever, Shauna. We hope you're happy in the sweltering heat. And smog. And traffic. (Sniff. Wimper.)

Thinking about her reminded me of the lunch we had to say goodbye, and the curried egg salad we both went ga-ga for. It was one of those happy accidents where I intended to make one dish and ended up making another... I had my heart set on an asparagus egg salad, but there wasn't a stalk of asparagus to be found in town. I was surprised; usually you can make your peace with having warmed the earth another degree or two and procure some that's been flown in from Chile or Timbuktu, but there was simply none to be had.

So I had hard boiled eggs... what to do? I was already making hummus and had these fabulous crackers to go with them, so I thought I'd make some spreadable egg salad. Of course, not content to just let it be egg salad, I then extrapolated that if curried eggs are good (which they are, you curry doubters), then curried egg salad might be good too... and my-oh-my it was. Shauna loved it, I loved it, I think the rest of our lunching ladies enjoyed it as well.

Curried egg salad
8 eggs, boiled, cooled and peeled, chopped finely
1/3 cup green onions, chopped finely
2 Tbsp. mayo
1 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. mango chutney (try to miss the chunky bits and just get the jam part)
2 tsp. lime juice
2 tsp. curry powder

Combine the eggs and green onions in a medium bowl. Mix the next five ingredients in a separate bowl (or blender) until very well combined. Add the dressing to the eggs and mix well. Chill for at least an hour, as that will combine the flavors thoroughly.

You can spread this on crackers or bread, however you would normally eat egg salad. I don't always need bread to put the egg salad on, I'm just fine with a bowl of it and a fork, really. Don't judge me; that's just the way I roll.

Very bodacious frittata

ear friend Jen posted something on Facebook a few months back about a frittata that she makes, a recipe she got from a friend. When she called it a "bodacious frittata," I knew I'd have to give it a spin and begged the recipe from her. With my tendency toward adapting, I had to mix it up a bit, of course, and now the fritatta, while still resembling the one Jen told me about, is an animal all it's own. And it's a yummy, oh-so-easy animal, too!

First go-around, close to the original.

Take two, a step further away from the original.

Original Bodacious Frittata
Use a 3" deep pan
Fill bottom w/ tater tots
Cut turkey sausage into chunks; sprinkle all over
Layer w/ sliced mushrooms
Layer of mozzarella cheese
1 dozen eggs, whipped w/ milk, salt and pepper, pour on top
Cover with foil

Bake at 325 or 350 for about 1.5 hours, remove foil last 20 minutes or so to brown.

Bodacious Frittata, adapted
Tater tots, one bag, enough to cover the bottom of the pan, baked
Vegetables, 3 cups, chopped and steamed
Baked eggs mixture (a combination of cheese, cottage cheese and eggs, with a roux to thicken)

Using a 9 x 13 baking pan, layer the tater tots on the bottom. Cook the tater tots until crispy and done. Remove from the oven.

Meanwhile, take 3 cups of the vegetables of your choice--I have used asparagus, peppers and broccoli--and steam them. The microwave works very well for this, or you could pan saute them too. Regardless, get them cooked a bit. Al dente is nice, as they'll continue to cook in the frittata.

Layer the vegetables over the tater tots and pour the egg mixture over the top. Jiggle the pan a bit to get the egg-cheesiness to really settle in to the tater tots and put back in the oven at 350 for 45-50 minutes. Cover with foil at the end if it's getting a little too golden.

This is probably the fourth batch of frittata I've made in a month, and this morning I made it for about 100 people at work. It was the best iteration yet, I think; I've been nibbling on leftovers all day. You can see my half-eaten plate above, quick-snapped from my iPhone... I wasn't awake enough to remember to take a pretty picture of the whole pan, but at least this way you get to see the layers.

This is definitely a make-often brunch staple. Thanks for sending me down the tater-tot road, Jen. It's changed how I think of frittatas, forever!

Hollandaise delight

ow do you know it's Sunday morning at our house? The kitchen is a mess. Joyous, happy, massive mess. There's a potato pancake in one pan for the young man, omelette in another pan for husband, and me nibbling from both pans... but this morning I was in the mood for something eggy (*shock*) and rich (*doubleshock*) and realized I hadn't had a bit o' hollandaise in a long time.

My challenge (besides wrapping my brain around THAT. MUCH. BUTTER.) was finding a recipe that suited my lazy mood. Not in the frame of mind for standing over a double-boiler with a whisk, let's just say. I have seen various blender hollandaise recipes, so decided to investigate and experiment! And, I also wanted to make a small serving--no "well, I have a cup of sauce so I must eat a cup of sauce and promptly nap" nonsense today.

One quick caveat: If you're going to make a small quantity of sauce, you'll need a blender that has a blade right at the bottom of the blender jar. I first thought I'd use our VitaMixer, which has such a great and powerful motor that I could only imagine heavenly hollandaise from it. But, the blade is raised from the bottom at least a half-inch, so the egg yolks just sat happily while the blades whizzed crazily above them. So I transferred to a smaller old blender with a low-down blade and it worked very well.

 Hollandaise for one
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
dash salt
dash cayenne
1/4 cup melted butter

Put the yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne in the blender jar. Heat butter until melted and bubbly but not browning. I did this in the microwave. Be sure to cover your butter so that there isn't giant explosions in your microwave, fyi. Whiz the yolk mixture for 20-30 seconds until frothy; then slowly pour the butter in a steady stream through the top of the blender (take out center of lid but keep the outer edge on so that you don't have extreme splatter). Keep whizzing for another 30 seconds to a minute, until the sauce thickens.

Pour this delectable mixture over whatever strikes your fancy. Today my eggs sat on a bed of sauteed spinach with a few avocado slices on top, with the bright and happy sauce over the whole lot. It was heavenly.

Sunday morning huevos rancheros

ggs, glorious eggs! Eggs are one of my favorite options for breakfast. And every once in awhile, I like to have them a bit differently prepared than my usual soft poached... so on those rare mornings (I'm still addicted to the breakfast shake we have most mornings), I look for something a bit more inspired. I happened to be browsing tastespotting last night and saw a huevos rancheros recipe and must have dreamed of it all night, because I woke up this morning bent on having my eggs thusly prepared.

Huevos rancheros
Makes 2 servings

Cooking spray or olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 15.5 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 15.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, some juice drained off
½ cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp ground cumin
4 eggs
Salt and pepper to tasteTortillas, shredded cheddar cheese, salsa and sliced avocado for serving

Preheat a large fry pan over medium heat, spray with cooking spray or add olive oil, whatever your preference. Add the onions and peppers and sauté until tender, about 5-8 minutes.

Add the beans and tomatoes to the peppers and onions. Stir well and continue to sauté for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in ¼ of the cilantro, as well as the cumin.

Turn the heat down to low. Make 4 wells in the bean/tomato mixture. Spray a little bit of olive oil into each well. Crack an egg into each of the wells. Season each egg with salt and pepper and cover the skillet. Allow the eggs to cook until they reach your desired doneness.

Spoon the eggs out onto two plates, with extra tomato/bean mixture as well. Serve with warmed tortillas, salsa, extra cilantro, diced avocado and sour cream. Enjoy!

On a foggy morning, this breakfast provides just the bit of sunshine needed to think about all that's on the to-do list! Now, off to clean and tidy up around the house, usual Sunday stuff.

Wordless Wednesday #2: Delightful deviled eggs

(No, your eyes do not deceive you. The yolks really ARE that deep yellowy orange. Gotta love the farm-fresh eggs.) (FYI, words between parentheses don't really exist. So yes, this is still a Wordless Wednesday post.) (Told you I couldn't be completely wordless. Can't happen.)

Brunchiness

Anticipating a busy Sunday (yard! house! work!), we moved our Easter brunchiness one day earlier this year. I made the family favorite baked eggs, with hash browns and a fruit salad. There were the assorted breakfast "meats" as well, and french toast. I also wanted to bring in some rhubarb--it's such a lovely seasonal fruit, and a big favorite of the husband. So I went browsing for some sort of cake/bread recipe and ended up on a buckle coffeecake... I adapted it to suit my whims of the day, and it was quite yummy. Still is. Might need to dish some of that up with my morning coffee...


When I was in catering mode, this baked eggs dish was one that I could pull out very easily for a crowd--a hotel pan of this goodness would feed between 25-30 people. The pharma reps would send me in to a number of different local medical establishments, and when they'd see me pull up with the eggs, the nurses would come running. I never really had the heart to tell them what is in it... this is one of those special occasion dishes! Your jeans will thank me if you don't make this every weekend.

Baked eggs to die for
Feeds 8
Mix together:
10 eggs
1 16 oz. container cottage cheese
2 cups grated cheddar cheese, mild

Mix together:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Now mix them all together. Pour into a 9-inch glass pie pan, or equivalent baking dish. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, until puffed and golden, and try not to eat it all in one sitting. This will be difficult.
Rhubarb buckle coffeecake

Adapted from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour Co.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and non-stick spray a 9-inch baking dish

Streusel:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup oats
1 tsp cinnamon
3 T unsalted butter, softened

Mix together all ingredients except butter. Cut butter in and mix to make medium-size crumbs.
Set aside.

Buckle:
2.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
4 T. unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
5 cups rhubarb, tossed with 3/4 cup sugar (This is the main deviation, as the original recipe called for 2 cups of fruit. That seemed to paltry to me, and I wanted to proportion of fruit to batter to be MORE in the fruit department.)

Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions. Stir in half the dry ingredients, then the milk and vanilla, scraping down the sides. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients, then gently fold in the rhubarb. Spread the batter in the prepared pan and sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top.

Bake the buckle until a cake tested inserted in the center comes out clean, 45-50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool, in the pan, on a rack.

I was a bit worried when I had ALL the fruit folded in, that it would spill over the sides of the pan I used (an old quiche dish from Mom, about 12 inces across but only an inch deep), so I baked it over a cookie sheet to save my oven from yet another layer of baked who-knows-what. The good news is that it rose nicely but didn't spill over. You can't see the pretty pink rhubarb in this picture, but it was quite yummy and the whole grains didn't ruin the sweet-baked-goods aspect of it, either!

Springtime supper

Spring has sprung, and it is well and truly asparagus season here. I just love it. For at least two months I will be eating asparagus in every form imaginable... in pasta, as soup, tempura, just roasted, steamed, you name it. Yum.

Most nights I am lazy and do it really quick style in the microwave. I wash the asparagus, snap off the bottoms, put them in a ziploc bag and microwave at 30-second intervals. Easy peasy.

OK, so if you're not a runny, or soft, egg fan, this would not be the supper for you... But I have been getting these amazing farm-fresh eggs lately and the yolks are to die for! You can see in the picture above how orange the one yolk is--just gorgeous!
Sher's asparagus and poached egg salad
2 eggs
1 cup spinach leaves
12 spears asparagus, steamed and chopped into 1-inch bites
1/4 cup parmesan, shredded
Olive oil
Poach the eggs to your desired doneness. I use these fabulous egg poaching pods that my sister in law got me a couple of years ago--you float them in boiling water and they work just great!

Place the spinach in the bottom of a bowl, put warm steamed asparagus on top. Sprinkle with parmesan and drizzle with olive oil. Gently place poached eggs on top and have at it! Truly yummy and a great celebration of spring!