All posts filed under: eggs

Farmer’s Market Breakfast with Poached Eggs

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I have a confession to make.  Until today, I have never successfully poached an egg. It’s crazy, I know!  I mean, egg-poaching is a very basic cooking skill and I feel so ashamed that until now, it has completely flummoxed me.  About a year or so ago, I was bound and determined to learn the proper technique, only to end up with a pot of what looked like egg-drop soup.  I tried again and again; and again and again, I failed. I was told my eggs were too fresh. Then I was told that maybe they weren’t fresh enough! And then, this week I happened upon a little article in Real Simple Magazine about the many uses of a meat thermometer that just happened to mention that the ideal temperature for poaching eggs was 180 degrees fahrenheit!  Eureka! That was the variable I never considered in my earlier attempts.  I knew that the water should be barely simmering, but I never thought to check the temperature.  Well, that’s what I did, and SUCCESS!  Beautiful, silky, …

Baked Eggs Over Polenta with Prosciutto

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Being born and raised in the South, a staple weekend breakfast in our house often consisted of eggs, bacon and grits; or, eggs, grits and country ham with red-eye gravy; or perhaps, eggs, sausage and grits.  Perhaps we would switch things up a bit and have fried fish and grits.  You’re probably beginning to notice a pattern here!  I’ve been living in the Southwest for 25 years, and what makes me sad is that grits are always hard, if not impossible, to find.  I can usually find the packages of instant grits, but they just aren’t the same and besides, that’s not the way Momma made them!  So, I’ve adapted, and instead of the white, coarse-ground grits of my youth, I now simply use golden polenta, which is almost exactly the same.  Both grits and polenta are made of ground corn, with the difference being that grits are made from ground alkali-treated hominy.   I know I’ve told you how much I love eggs and in this dish, the eggs are gently baked on top …

Breakfast for Dinner: Frittata Española

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As a kid, I would get so excited when my mother made breakfast food for dinner! There was just something exciting and extra special about having bacon, eggs and grits at night.  I know now that my mother was making breakfast at night because she was simply tired and couldn’t muster the energy for anything else!  But, to this day, I still love to eat eggs at dinnertime. To continue with the inspiration from the tapas cooking class, I made this version of a “tortilla española”, which is a classic Spanish dish made of sliced potatoes, onions and eggs.  It is very similar to a frittata, the main difference being the technique in which the eggs are finished.  Both dishes consist of eggs and filling cooked in a frying pan on the stove, but a frittata is finished in the oven, whereas a tortilla española is flipped over so that the top of the eggs are finished in the frying pan.  Because I didn’t want to risk possible disaster trying to flip the tortilla over …

My New Favorite Way to Eat Eggs: Perfect, Creamy Scrambled Eggs

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I never skip breakfast–it’s the most important meal of the day, right?  During the week, we eat a very consistent breakfast of either oatmeal with cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, walnut and blueberries, or as it’s starting to get warmer, a cold cereal medley of grape nuts, whole oats, shredded wheat, blueberries and walnuts.  I don’t think we are deficient at all in whole grains and fiber! But, on the weekends, when I have more time, I like to have an egg breakfast.  It used to be that my favorite way to eat an egg was over medium or poached, but a few months ago the Man of the House learned a scrambled egg technique that elevated the lowly scrambled egg to the top of my list of favorites.  I’d been eating scrambled eggs the same way my entire life, but this technique resulted in an egg that is so creamy and decadent, I can’t go back to the way I used to make them. The secret is cooking them gently over medium low heat while you …

The Evolution of a Quiche: Crustless Quiche with Greens

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This morning, I decided to make a quiche for breakfast.  I love quiche. In fact, I love all kinds of egg custard type dishes, but quiche is near and dear to my heart and has been a favorite of mine since I was fairly young.  I was first introduced to the wonders of this eggy concoction when I was in middle school.  There was a product in the…ahem…1980’s that was called “pour-a-quiche” and my mother used to buy it.  Now, this product came in a milk carton and it was just as the name said, you simply poured the pre-made quiche mix into a ready-made pie crust and popped it into the oven!  Hey, we liked instant stuff back then!  Later on, when I went to college, one of favorite professors, who was also a  fabulous gourmet cook, made me one of her quiches.  It was the most amazing, decadent, wonderful dishes I had ever had.  It was lovingly baked in a homemade, buttery pie crust and filled with spinach, bacon, ham and cheeses. It …