Open Faced Dippin' Eggs Sandwich

Weekends with my dad were always fun, but some of my fondest memories are of him making breakfast for my brother and I.  I have told you before about how he is the master of egg frying and taught me what I know today.  His specialty is eggs over easy.  Or as we liked to call them, dippin' eggs.  Back in those days, eggs in our house were never without their counterpart, bagels and cream cheese.  We loved puncturing the soft, runny yolk with the toasted bagel and making a mess on our plates.  For a very long time, mopping up the yolk with a toasty piece of bread was the only way I would eat eggs.  Today, even though I have learned to love eggs in all forms, I still return to this way of eating eggs quite often.

Last Saturday was one such occasion.  Denny and I awoke from a (rather...ambitious) Friday night and all I wanted was a sloppy, hearty, flavorful egg dish.  I don't know how I scrounged this all together, because let me tell you, I was in rare form, but I will tell you that I had this recipe in the back of my mind so it couldn't come out all that bad.  When all was said and done, Denny and I scarfed.this.down.  It was delicious.  But it also may have been the type of morning where almost anything would have tasted delicious to us, who knows.  You guys will just have to make it and tell me if we are crazy or not.  It was tart, yet rich and creamy and had a whole lot of textures going on.  And messy, boy was it messy.  See Exhibit A below.  If you think you are going to daintily eat this like a normal breakfast sandwich, think again, because once you break the yolk it's game over.  You better save yourself the time and humility and just grab a fork and knife from the get-go.

Open Faced Dippin' Eggs Sandwich

(makes 2 sandwiches)

4 eggs

1 everything bagel

Enough cream cheese to spread on a bagel.  1 tsp or half a cup.  Your call.

2tsp dijon mustard

1 cup arugula

1 shallot, finely chopped

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1tbsp goat cheese, crumbled

1tsp butter

Non-Stick cooking spray

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 an avocado, sliced

In a small frying pan, melt the butter and sauté the shallot until translucent, 2-3 min.  When finished, add the shallot and lemon juice to the arugula and toss together.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Set aside.  Pop two bagel halves in the toaster until golden brown.  Top each half with cream cheese.  Spread 1 teaspoon of dijon mustard on each bagel.  Set aside.

Spray down your small frying pan with non stick spray and heat at medium low.  Crack 2 eggs in there.    Top with salt and pepper.  For sunny side up eggs, cover the pan and let cook until the white is no longer runny.  For over easy eggs, flip when most of the white, aside from the top layer, is no longer runny.  Repeat with 2 more eggs for the second sandwich.

Divide the arugula mix in half and pile on top of each bagel.  When the eggs are done, place them on the bed of arugula.  Top each with half of the avocado.

Sprinkle generously with goat cheese and go to town.

Frozen Breakfast Burritos

I think I told you way back here that there is indeed a solution to boring weekday breakfasts.  Frozen breakfast burritos are the answer, and they are addicting!  This is something that I have done for the past couple of years and they have saved the day on more than one occasion, including getting home from a late night out and wanting to eat everything in sight!

I like to make them on the smaller side so that you don't start your day off feeling too stuffed.  That is the responsible, healthy side of me talking because otherwise I would have a Chipotle sized breakfast burrito every.single.day.  Apparently it's not okay to do that, so I stick to the smaller ones :)  I make anywhere from 20-24 at a time.



2 packages of 10" whole wheat flour tortillas (smaller burrito tortillas).
2 packages of frozen o'brien potatoes or hash browns.
1/2 diced yellow or red onion (needed if the potatoes don't already have onion in it)
1 diced green or red bell pepper (needed if the potatoes don't already have pepper in it)
10-12 eggs
1 large jar of green chile (I like the 505 hot chile)
1 package of shredded cheddar cheese with taco seasoning (2 cups)
1 can of diced green chiles
Seasoned pepper & garlic salt to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
1tbsp butter
3 tbsp water
Foil

You don't need me to tell you that you could also add meat to these (mmm bacon). I'm sure you already figured that out!

In a large non-stick frying pan, heat oil over medium heat.  Add frozen potatoes and onion.  Season to taste with seasoned pepper and garlic salt.  Cook until potatoes are thoroughly cooked and almost approaching "dry", stirring frequently.  Set aside.  (The key to these burritos is to have as little liquid as possible.  For this reason, green chile is chosen instead of a tomatoey salsa that will release water when re-heated, making a soggy burrito).

While the potatoes are cooking, tear 20-24 sheets of foil into 12" sheets (one for each burrito).  Set aside.

In a separate pan, melt butter over medium-low heat.  Whisk eggs together, adding water, continue whisking until incorporated (this is optional, I like adding water because it makes the eggs more light and fluffy).  Add eggs, canned green chiles and salt & pepper to the pan.  Scramble until done.  Set aside.

Set up all of your ingredients in a burrito-making "station" and start assembling.  Before you start, it sometimes helps to wrap the tortillas in a paper towel and heat in the microwave for about 1 minute to keep them from tearing.

Place a tortilla on a sheet of foil, add a scoop of eggs, equal amounts of potatoes, a sprinkle of cheese, about 1 tbsp of green chile and wrap the tortilla, folding in both sides.  Wrap the burrito in foil and stick in the freezer.

When you are ready to eat, remove foil and pop in the microwave for about 2 minutes!

Simple Pleasures | Sunday Morning Breakfast

Happy Sunday!

I hope you all are enjoying your day...especially since it is Cinco de Mayo!  I have been CRAVING Mexican food and can't wait for what today brings.

One of these days I will post something non-breakfast related, I promise.  But, in case you can't tell, it IS my favorite meal of the day!  Aside from dessert, which, according to me, is absolutely a meal.  Eating cereal or yogurt or something very blah on a weekend just doesn't cut it for me.  Save that for the weekdays when you need something quick on your way to work.  (By the way, even that can be avoided...we usually make a bunch of breakfast burritos and freeze them.  Grab one on your way to work and microwave for 2 min in the office - boom.  More on that later.)

This particular breakfast (pictured) was kind of unexpectedly cool.  I bought a small bag of colored potatoes, just because I thought they would be fun.  I have bought them before, but they are so tiny that I left them whole and roasted them in the oven.  This time, I had a few potatoes left that were going to go bad soon, so I cut them up for hashbrowns....and they were beautiful inside!!  And, added bonus, apparently they provide nutrients that derive from their color, that other potatoes do not.  From now on, I am trying to pick at least one item at the grocery store that I wouldn't normally buy, because you never know if it will start to become a favorite!

Saute these potatoes with some garlic, onion, bell pepper and seasonings, and they provide a perfect bed for a fried egg or two.

Enjoy!

Something of an obsession...

First of all, I hope I am not annoying you all with the ever-changing look of this blog.  I am super picky when it comes to graphic design and always have a hard time settling on something final.  Plus, I am working within the limitations of Blogger and struggling :)  I kind of like this new layout though, hopefully you all do too!  Let me know.

Anyway, onward and upward!  Lately I have been reading all of the food blogs I can get my hands on (which is one reason I had the urge to remodel the blog).  There is a whole world of food blogging that I have recently been exposed to that I had NO idea existed.  I mean, there are competitions for Best Food Blog, and on top of that there several categories within this competition, such as Best Food Photography (love!), Best Original Recipes, Best Cocktail Blog, the list goes on and on.  Needless to say, when I discovered this new world I was stoked!  And motivated!

There is something about the beautiful pictures and creative recipes that has me hooked.  It is such a fun new hobby, and I have been using any excuse to cook all of the worthwhile recipes I come across.  Which is a LOT.  I have noticed, however, that I have started gravitating to one blog in particular:  Smitten Kitchen.  While I love a nice, sophisticated food blog, some of the recipes can be a bit too pretentious for my taste (pun intended), calling for all sorts of fancy (fancy=expensive) ingredients.  And sadly, I don't have half of the fancy utensils needed to mix, beat, knead, stone bake, etc.

I am pleased to discover that this gal at Smitten Kitchen feels the same way I do.  She realizes we can't all be Julia Child all the time - we need simplicity, we need shortcuts, but we also need great food.

So, this weekend I made a gluten free version of her Smashed Egg on Toast recipe (it was gluten free on accident because we had rice instead of toast).  Now I want to smash eggs on everything!  This recipe was a great weekend breakfast change-up.  We had all of the ingredients it called for, but would never have thought to put them together for breakfast.  This might become a go-to breakfast, it was that good, and that easy.

Hefty handful of spinach

1 small pat of butter

1tsp Dijon mustard

1tbsp Shallots, finely chopped (I substituted minced yellow onion)

3/4 cup Rice and/or toasted bread

1tbsp Heavy cream

Goat cheese (feta works too).  It would be wrong for me to tell you how much to use.

1 egg (I won't judge you if you make 2 or 3 or 4)

Salt & pepper to taste

Place rice or toast on plate, smear with dijon mustard.   In a pan, melt butter and saute shallots until translucent.  Add spinach and cook until wilted.  Add cream and stir until incorporated.  Pour this mixture over the rice/bread. 

Add water to a pot or saucepan, enough to cover the egg(s).  Boil, gently place egg in boiling water.  Watch the egg closely.  At about 6min (I go to 7min if I am cooking more than one egg) is when the egg should be soft-boiled.  To peel the egg, run under cold water and peel carefully.  Place egg on top of spinach, dust with salt, pepper and your favorite cheese and smash away!!

How to | Omelettes

My dad taught me a lot of things, and among them was how to cook eggs.  Every weekend we spent with him, he would cook us breakfast:  "dipping eggs" (which were eggs over easy with bagels and cream cheese that we could dip into the runny yolks).  I remember watching him make perfect eggs every weekend and wondering how he did it.  Part of my wonder and amazement came from the fact that he didn't bother with a spatula but rather flipped the eggs with one swift motion of the pan (I guess that's what years in the restaurant business will do for you!).  So, when he taught me how to make eggs, he taught me this way.  You can imagine the mess that followed.  He let me break as many eggs as I needed to get it right (however, none went to waste as he didn't mind eating all of the ones that I ruined!).

Avocado, Tomato & Goat Cheese Omelette

For a while after that, I was intimidated by eggs because out of all the eggs we cooked that day, I think I only flipped one successfully.  Therefore, I stuck to what I knew - scrambled eggs.  Every now and then I would try an egg over easy, this time with a spatula, and still be unsuccessful.  Omelettes were the same story.  I would make an absolute mess and/or end up with an undercooked runny "scramble" of random ingredients.

But, alas, after a lot of practice and a lot of poorly cooked eggs, I am finally comfortable cooking eggs, any style (I have even started poaching them).  I still stick to a spatula because I realize that, these days, in order to perfect that pan flip it will be ME cleaning up the mess and not my parents.  No thank you!

Once I got the method down, I realized that omelettes in particular are not that hard to make, if you have the right stuff.  Here is a quick how-to:

What you will need:

A small non-stick pan

Oil or non-stick spray (be generous, this won't work if the eggs are allowed to stick to the pan)

Eggs - 3 is usually a good number  (for a healthier omelette, I use 2 egg whites and one whole egg)

Cheese!

Misc meat and/or veggies that suit your fancy.  (For this, I used avocado, tomato and goat cheese)

Simple Steps:

Whisk the eggs.

Add enough oil to coat a small pan.

At medium high heat, add the eggs and don't touch them until the bottom layer has been allowed to cook a bit, then gently pull all of the sides away from the edge with a spatula, allowing the remainder of the runny eggs to coat the pan.  You may need to do this 2-3 times.

When the top is only a little runny, yet stable, you can flip.

Using a small pan, and not allowing the egg to stick, makes this do-able.  Get the spatula as far under the eggs as you can, and flip er' over.  If you want to try the pan flip, be my guest, but I hope you have a clean up crew :)

Quickly add cheese and any other fillers you want to one side of the omelette.  The egg is pretty much done at this point, so you won't be cooking your ingredients beyond letting the cheese melt a bit.  Any veggies, meat, etc. should already be cooked before adding to the omelette.

With your spatula, fold the egg in half over the ingredients.

You can give it a second to heat up before plating, but not too long or you will burn the eggs.

Viola!  You have yourself an omelette!  My favorite omelette has to be chili and cheese, what's yours?

Summer Food Series: Mom's Potato Salad

 

One of the great things about cooking is that it doesn't have to get old.  Each season brings new ingredients and foods that are unique to that time of year.  I thought it would be fun to bring some of these dishes to the blog as the year progresses!

There are some things that I just don't eat unless it is summer but I look forward to them all year long.  One of the things I crave come June is my mom's potato salad.  It reminds me of picnics at the park or the beach.  The ingredients are super simple and, I don't know about you, but that's what I like in a potato salad!

5 lbs of potatoes, peeled, cubed and boiled until cooked through

5 scallions, chopped

4 hard boiled eggs, chopped

1-1.5 cups of mayo to desired consistency

Salt and seasoned pepper to taste

The only problem with this recipe is that I make enough for an entire family and quickly remember that I am only one person.  Therefore I only make it once or twice each summer because I end up eating it for a while after I make it!!