note, below)
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, or ½ teaspoon dried
thyme leaves
1 cup fresh spinach, washed, de-stemmed, and
patted dry
Kosher or sea salt and pepper, to taste
Serves two.
Break eggs into a bowl. Stir with a fork or whisk gently to break up, but not to blend totally. Set aside.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and gently rotate the pan to coat the bottom. Add chopped chives, garlic, thyme, and spinach. Stir until spinach wilts and the garlic cooks through and softens, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Transfer mixture to warmed serving plate.
Add remaining olive oil to the same skillet. Gently rotate the pan to coat the bottom. Pour beaten eggs in oiled skillet. Allow bottom to set. Bring in the edges to the center, letting the remainder of the uncooked eggs pour across the pan to cook. Add cooked herbs and greens. Stir slowly until eggs are cooked and the greens and herbs are roughly incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Top with salt and freshly grated pepper, to taste. Slide onto warmed serving plate. Serve warm.
The easiest way to deal with fresh garlic is to place a clove on a cutting board, place the broad end of the blade of a chef’s knife over it so the blade is parallel to the cutting board surface, and smash your fist against the smooth metal of the knife-carefully! Don’t let your flesh get too close to the knife’s cutting edge-kitchen accidents are bad. The pounding will smash the garlic and burst the clove free of its papery wrapping, which you can pull off and discard. You can then chop the clove easily.
CINNAMON FRENCH TOAST
4 eggs
1 cup half-and-half
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon, plus extra for serving
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 small loaf French bread, raisin bread, or whole
wheat bread, sliced
½ cup (1 stick) butter
Maple syrup
Confectioner’s sugar
Fruit to garnish (optional)
Ice cream or whipped cream (optional)
Serves four.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
Break eggs into a flat-bottomed square casserole dish. Whisk until uniform and yellow. Stir in half-and-half, brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Whisk till blended. You will need to whisk lightly before each dip; the cinnamon tends to float.
Dip slices of bread into the egg mixture, one at a time, on both sides.
Heat griddle over medium-high heat. Place pats of butter on griddle, one for each space on which you plan to cook a slice of toast. Place dipped bread slice on top of each pat of butter. Cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Top with another small pat of butter. Flip slices onto butter to cook other side of toast until browned. Remove to warmed serving plate. Place completed toast slices in oven to keep warm while you continue cooking.
Plate slices onto a small pool of maple syrup. Sprinkle with cinnamon and confectioner’s sugar. Add a side of fresh fruit to garnish. Serve with more maple syrup on the side.
For true decadence, serve with ice cream or whipped cream.
SCOTCH EGGS
This is a hearty recipe that is the old Scotch equivalent of a modern breakfast sandwich-portable, easy to eat on the run, and filling enough to see a working person through a busy morning. This is not diet food, but it is amazingly tasty.
6 eggs
1 pound breakfast sausage, thawed
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
Serves three.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Hard-boil the eggs: Place the raw eggs in a saucepan with enough room-temperature water to cover about 1 inch over the top of the eggs. Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat and let sit for 15 to 20 minutes. When the pan, water, and eggs have cooled enough to safely handle, pour off water. Rattle the eggs in the pan to bash the eggshells against the side. This will break them and leave the eggs easy to peel. Peel off eggshells and discard.
Divide breakfast sausage into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten it. Put the sausage patty on your hand, place a hard-boiled egg on the sausage and gently roll the sausage around the egg with both hands until it is covered in an even layer of sausage. Roll the sausage-covered eggs, one at a time, in seasoned bread crumbs. Place the crumb-covered eggs on a cookie sheet or in an uncovered casserole dish and bake until sausage is cooked through, about 25 minutes.
To serve, cut each egg in half lengthwise. Lay the two halves on a plate, side by side, cut side up, to show layers of crumbs, sausage, egg whites, and egg yolks.
Serve warm.
A FAT-FREE, CHEESE-FREE, YOLK-FREE, HIGH-FIBER OMELET
Given that almost every recipe in here is likely to send a cardiologist into palpitations, here’s the exception.
½ cup broccoli florets, cleaned and chopped
1 cup fresh spinach leaves, cleaned and de-stemmed
½ cup fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 plum tomato, chopped
1 green onion, rinsed and thinly sliced
¼ cup fat-free ham, cubed
1½ cups egg substitute
Salt and pepper, to taste
Serves two.
Coat a nonstick skillet with nonstick cooking spray and place over medium heat. Add the vegetables and the ham to the skillet. Sauté until the veggies are cooked through, the spinach has wilted, and the broccoli is tender, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat to a warmed plate and set aside.
Rinse and dry the skillet. Spray again with nonstick cooking spray. Add egg substitute to pan. Roll the pan around, spreading the egg substitute evenly across the skillet surface. Reduce heat. Cook over medium heat until bottom is well set, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip egg in pan to cook other side. Place vegetable-ham mixture on half of the egg’s surface. Fold cooked egg round gently over veggies. Slide out of skillet onto warmed plate.
Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve warm.
DEVILED EGGS
6 hard-boiled eggs
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
½ small onion, very finely minced
1 tablespoon white wine
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
Paprika, for garnish
Chopped chives, for garnish
Serves four.
Cut hard-boiled eggs in half lengthwise. Scoop out yolks into a medium bowl. Set whites aside on serving tray. Refrigerate. Whisk the egg yolks with Dijon mustard, onion, white wine, and mayonnaise. When well blended, pipe or spoon the egg yolk mixture back into centers of cooked whites. Sprinkle with paprika. Top with chopped chives. Serve chilled.
A IOLI (GARLIC MAYONNAISE)
3 egg yolks
4 cloves garlic, mashed, peeled, and very finely
minced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¾ cup olive oil (not extra virgin)
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper (You can use black pepper
if you don’t have this, but you’ll see the flecks of
it in the finished product. It gives it a rustic look,
which isn’t all bad.)
Juice of 1 lemon