Saturday Fried Egg Sandwich

Last saturday i wasn't really in the mood to make anything special, but i was going out to an early concert and i really needed to eat something as the night would involve beers. I made a quick greek salad, which worked for lunch on monday when i was all saucy, and thought i would make a sandwich. I've mentioned my love of Little Fish, and thought that i would dig through my fridge and make something out of what i could find.

The ingredients

Assembly

(fried eggs, mozzarella, tomatoes, mayo and dijon)

The meal

Purple Yams on the Last Saturday in February

GO CANADA

(sorry couldn't' help it)

One of the nicest things about eating brunch at a great restaurant isn't just that you don't have to make it or clean up afterwards, but i always really enjoy the nice fruit they often put on the plate. I'm not talking about a flavourless piece of melon and a dry orange, but something exotic and flavourful. I actually got my inspiration for this meal from the blood oranges that i bought recently.

The other "strange" thing i bought recently were purple yams. I didn't have a plan for them when i bought them, but i'd never seen them before so i couldn't resist. I'm not really a huge starch fan, but i do like sweet potatoes, and knew i could do something fun with these. I decided to do them like homefries, but i also flavoured them with some maple syrup - which i always think of as a traditional combination with yams. I also used the regular seasoning - garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary, red chili flakes.

While i was making the homefries i made a salad, just tomatoes, cucumber and some extra old white cheddar diced into small cubes. That is another thing i like about going out for brunch, there is often a salad - makes it feel sort of healthy! For the egg dish, i did a lighter version of eggs Florentine. Using my silicone poacher i poached an egg while i got the rest of the meal ready. I sauteed the shallots, and added the spinach cooking until it was wilted.

I topped some dark toasted rye with the spinach, added the egg then sprinkled with goat cheese for a little tang - and i had a pretty sweet breakfast for the last saturday in february.

February - the shortest, cruelest month.

Above:

Inspiration
Purple yams
Breakie

Saturday Morning's Baked Eggs

d
First i'm going to start off on a mini-rant.

To whomever steals my saturday paper: Coffee with the saturday paper is the highlight of my week.
I have it delivered so i can just
reach out my door in my jammies. You suck.

Sincerely,
me

Okay - on a brighter note, my awesome sister just gave me her old digital SLR, so i'll be able to take a lot better pictures for the blog. Pictures totally inspire me to cook, so i'm hoping that they will inspire everyone else. On top of that my food will look so much better!!!!

So today, sans paper i decided to use these silicone muffin cups that i got a while ago to do baked eggs. My egg poachers had inspired me as they are supposed to be good for baking, but since they are sort of round on the bottom i foresaw a mess. I had one of those weeks, and i really didn't have much food in the fridge. I used some right-on-the-edge of gross mushrooms, grape tomatoes, green onions and feta. I decided to put a little oil in the bottom of the cups in case they stuck. In hindsight this might not have been necessary as they just popped out.

My new camera's gadgets distracted me from the lack of paper, and i just played with it while the eggs baked. Add a piece of marble rye and i had a tasty saturday breckie. (which of course would have been better with the paper)

Looking at the pictures i took for this blog i realized that my new camera is going to force me to step up my food styling game, along with polishing my cutlery better!!! The macro setting really brings out EVERYTHING!

Above:

Saturday breakfast
Silicone muffin cups
Ready for the oven
Fresh baked eggs

Saturday Morning - the Sub Zero Edition

Toronto is suffering quite a cold spell, what a better way to start off your sunny yet freezing weekend with a nice brunch, the paper and a little yoga. I had this bag of fingerling potatoes that i don't really remember buying, and was looking for another dish to use them in. I didn't grow up in a real meat and potatoes family so other than french fries i don't really crave them. But i remembered when i was a teenager that i had a boyfriend who's mother made the most amazing potato hash. I figured that would be a good base for saturday brunch.

Rummaging through my fridge i found the usual suspects; eggs, rye bread, grape tomatoes, avocados... The rest just came together pretty simply. I made a fresh salsa with the tomatoes and avocados along with some green onions i found in the crisper. I'd over done the poaching thing recently with all my new gadgets, so i thought a fried egg seemed somehow in order. I left it a little runny as i don't really like yolk when its cooked through.

The potatoes were as good as i remembered them, i just used A LOT of black pepper some red chili flakes, and rosemary. (i always use rosemary with potatoes for some reason, no matter what the recipe). I had to add some more olive oil mid-way as the potatoes were really sticking to the bottom of the pan. Next time i might do them in my non-stick, but i didn't want to have to clean it out to do the egg in between, instead the pan is soaking in the sink!

Above:

Purple potato hash ingredients
Cooking hash
Salsa in the sun
Last Bite...
Brunch