Momentous Weekend with Poached Eggs!

This has been quite a weekend.

To tell you about this weekend, I need to start with this week. I was in the Washington D.C. suburbs this weekend for work. The work was pretty routine for us, those cemeteries need mapping.  We did get to go into the city on the Metro one evening, which was nice because I got to see my dear friend Matt.

This car is covered with seed beads (on the inside too). It is on display in the Museum of the American Indian.

Hello D.C. (sorry this photo is so bad)!

After leaving the job, I started to notice my scratchy throat. By Thursday, I was fully sick. Fever. Sore throat. I blame the Metro. Dirty trains. My no-kid exposure, no public transit, hermit-like existence means my immune system is the straw house to this years cold viruses. By Friday, I felt a little better. On Saturday my fever was back. Where is the justice in this! Sunny warm weekend sickness is the worst kind of sickness.

I have spent most of my weekend on the couch. I have read three books and watched several hours of "How I Met Your Mother" on Netflix. Enough about my pathetic existence.

In a few hours of clarity, I went to the farmers market and made myself breakfast. This is momentous because I poached an egg! Amazing! Right?!

I have never been able to poach an egg before. I watched this video and then I did it. I just did it. It was so good. I should mention I have failed repeatedly to do this in the past.

This is not so much a recipe as a suggestion. It is also something that I am not the first person to come up with. Asparagus and eggs! Shocking combination.
 

Spring in food.

Spring has come to North Carolina. I got asparagus, green garlic, cucumber, strawberries, and pea greens. That's right, strawberries. 

Delicious food.

Poached Eggs with Asparagus on Toast

This is not a recipe, adjust portions according to desired serving amounts

Asparagus 

Eggs

Bread

Salt

Butter

Olive Oil

Parmesan Cheese

1. Clean and trim the asparagus. Lightly toss with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Broil asparagus for about 6 minutes, turning at about 3 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, toast bread, then butter the toast. If you are using unsalted butter, I suggest you add some salt as you are buttering the bread. 

3. Poach eggs. I am not going to give directions for this because other people have done a better job than I ever could. This is the tutorial that finally worked for me. 

4. Place the asparagus on the toast, then top with the eggs. Grate some parmesan on top of the eggs. This is a great breakfast or lunch (or dinner).

Delicious.

Max love the spring sun. He enjoys basking.

Guanciale Parmesan Biscuits

Sorry that break was really long, I have been busy with stuff.

Another use for guanciale, right... that is what I promised.

Guanciale can often be substituted for bacon, it is just a little richer and maybe should be applied with a lighter hand. Because we are in love with breakfast, we invented these one sunny Saturday morning to use some tasty jowl and be a vehicle for some farmer's market eggs.

Guanciale Parmesan Biscuits

1/8 to 1/4 cup diced guanciale

1/3 to 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 to 6 tablespoons, cold unsalted, butter cut into large pieces

3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.

2. Cook the guanciale in an oven safe frying pan, until it is crisp (we use a cast iron pan). Remove the guanciale from the pan and reserve the fat. I know, this is gross, but delicious.

3. Whisk the dry ingredients with the parmesean and the guanciale.

4. Cut in the butter with two knives or a pastry blender until the crumbs are the size of bread crumbs. I never really know what this looks like, but just sort of make it up. It starts to look more like coarse bread crumbs when my arm gets tired. Strange, huh?

5. Add all of the buttermilk and stir it in with a rubber spatula until all of the ingredients are moist. We use this buttermilk from a local dairy, it is really thick and creamy. The best I have ever used.

Then use your hand to gather the dough into a ball and knead it gently along the side of the bowl until the dough is in one ball. Do not over knead it, or it will be tough and gross.

6. Roll out the dough until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Use a biscuit cutter or knife to cut out the biscuits. Ball up the edges and roll them out again, etc. Do not overwork!

6. Place the biscuits on the non-stick skillet (the one with the guanciale fat). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Eat immediately, preferably with an egg on top.

Breakfast Philosophy

Every weekend Derek and I make breakfast, usually this involves eggs, toast, and bacon. When we are feeling really special we make breakfast burritos with tater tots and green chiles.

I believe that there is such a thing as the ideal breakfast, this may sound really glib. But every Saturday we try to achieve perfection. It all starts with bacon, homemade, salty pork belly.

The bacon has to cook on low heat for about 5 to 8 minutes. You can't rush good bacon. While the bacon is cooking we brew the coffee. I could talk a long time about coffee, but I here I will just say it should be strong, freshly roasted, and tasty. While the coffee is brewing and the bacon is going we slice the bread and toast it. We are super nerds and pretty much only eat homemade bread. Bread must be covered with real butter.

After the bacon is done we start the eggs. Derek and I prefer our eggs fried in some of the remaining bacon fat, with the white cooked and the yolks still runny. Then the runny yolks make a kind of sauce. Each slice of toast has an egg on top of it, with the bacon on the side. This should be served with hot sauce to top.

After this we sit down, drink our coffee. We read the paper and decide how we are going to spend the day. It is sort of meditative, relaxing. I enjoy our routine. I enjoy our food nerdy homemade breakfast. Sometime soon, I am going to talk about bread. How's that for a teaser?