It's Day 2 of being completely ice-stormed in, and I've got a lot to be thankful for. We have friends and family experiencing power outages from ice and downed trees all over the metroplex, running off of generators and staying in hotels, crashing on couches and braving the horrible road conditions to travel to the store for supplies.
On Thursday, before the storm hit, I took the time to go by the store and pick up a few things. We live in an apartment, so a generator wasn't going to be much help, but aside from batteries, milk and bread, what necessities were going to get us through the next four days?
I stopped at the store and stocked up on my version of the essentials: breakfast stuffs.
I couldn't help it; I was powerless. I spent too much time on The Kitchn's website and had an unnaturally strong craving for Eggs Benedict after going on a poached egg pinning spree. And I have been cooking up a storm.
By combining two of The Kitchn's Eggs Benedict/Eggs Florentine recipes, I created the holy grail of at-home Eggs Benedict. It's been two days and I've had it twice, in addition to a killer grilled cheese that you'll get the details on tomorrow.
What kind of person would I be if I didn't share these luxuries with you? A horrible one, and I don't want that on my conscience.
I was lured into the promise of breakfast foods with this idea for
Eggs Florentine in Hash Brown Nests from The Kitchn. I liked everything about it, except that I couldn't find any pancetta or prosciutto at the store (go figure) and I love bacon so, so much
and I wasn't enthralled by the idea of wasting two of my precious eggs on a batch of traditional hollandaise. Plus, I wanted to subtract the calorie content of the sauce so I didn't feel so guilty about eating eight of these.
Just kidding. I've had three. One on Friday morning, and two for dinner Friday night.
In my search of the perfect hollandaise sauce (since I've never made it before), I came across this
lighter Eggs Benedict idea, also from The Kitchn.
And helloooo breakfast. Of course, I had to play a quick game of,
I don't have this exact ingredient, so let's see what kind of matches it from the items in my fridge, but no harm, no foul.
Here's my combined take:
I used frozen hash browns from Trader Joe's that I had thawed slightly and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese before cramming them into lightly greased muffin tins. I may have photographed one of these babies, but make no mistake... I had two.
I poached an egg per the instructions I found (again) on The Kitchn, cooked up some bacon (you can microwave four pieces on high for 3 minutes and 30 seconds like I did, if you're especially impatient), put some spinach on top of the hash brown nest, and made the following tangy hollandaise as the perfect creamy topping. I didn't really measure any of this, to be honest. It truly depends on your personal tastes if you need to add more or less of any particular ingredient.
- A generous squirt of French's Spicy Brown Mustard
- Juice from 1/4 of a Meyer lemon
- Three large spoonfuls of mayo (light or regular, your call)
- Happy sprinkling of red pepper flakes
Mix together well with a fork and adjust to your liking.
Happy Breakfasting!
