Sunday Morning Goodness

I love restful Sunday mornings before church. No TV, no loud music, just family hanging around in the kitchen or living room, maybe reading books or playing with Baby P and talking. I like to make something yummy for breakfast, not always elaborate, just something out of the ordinary.

This morning I had a yen for Eggs Benedict.  ("I'm up to my ears in yens." Rory, Gilmore Girls Season 1) The real kind with poached eggs-something I had heretofore never attempted and real hollandaise-something I am totally wild about.

 

Let me just tell you, this breakfast was to die for and it only took about 15 minutes. No joke, the sauce is the most time consuming part and it is not bad at all! I used Julia Child's recipes for the hollandaise and the eggs. I always thought these two things were tricky, and I guess if you compare them to rice or frozen pizza, they could be considered tricky. Even so, I have not had a flop batch of sauce when following Julia's detailed instructions, and it is sooo, sooo tasty! Creamy, buttery and tangy all in one.

Hollandaise Tips: If you melt the first, large amount of butter in the microwave, you can do the sauce in one pan. (This is a small thing but it means a lot to me, I'd rather throw a small bowl in the dish washer than handwash two saucepans.) Definitely get the white pepper, it has a totally different taste than black that really compliments the creamy, butteriness. I use bottled lemon juice and I usually half Julia's recipe since there are just the three of us. I use two eggs instead of three and half the butter, it still turns out.

I do suggest halfing the recipe or you will be standing alone over the sink, eating hollandaise with a spoon because it is just too good to throw out. 

This is all merely hypothetical, you understand.

Now for the poached eggs. I was very nervous about this, especially after seeing Julie and Julia where she screams and cries over poached eggs.

While it was reminiscent of chasing a jelly fish around a pan with a spoon, it just was not that bad. I brought the water to a "gentle boil", did the vinegar, used a spoon to make sure the yolk wasn't showing, boiled for 4 minutes and they were great!

They look like weird little alien eggs sitting here in the hot, salted water (as per Julia's instructions), but they tasted great and the yolk was soft but not too runny-I like a little texture difference between my sauce and my egg yolk).

I will live to poach again!

I did the sauce first and kept it warm. While the eggs were poaching, I toasted English muffins, sauteed a little frozen spinach in a tablespoon of butter then just had to throw it all together. (muffin, a little sauce, spinach, egg, sauce, a twist of fresh ground pepper)

It does my heart good to see my baby "Hoarking Down" forkfuls of Eggs Benedict. (Yes, that's a little Ratatouille reference.)

He loved it! A great Sunday morning