how to separate eggs.

i'm more of a let-the-yolk-run-between-your-fingers kind of girl, but my mama sent me this video and it's pretty awesome.

drew barrymore is also a big fan of the egg sandwich.

it was one of the first things she learned to cook. in addition to her cooking story, she explains how to make her version over at refinery 29. sounds pretty delicious to me.

(yes, that's a narwhal tip jar. oh, austin, how i love you.)

let's go back

to october 7th.

migas (or at least a version of them) made with leftover tortilla chip crumbs, with some sort of cheddar sliced over the top. sliced tomatoes (from the roommate's boyfriend's CSA). steamed broccoli (gimme a break. i like it steamed--just not too steamed). a session black (cheap and delicious and in adorable bottles). tortilla chips (i love those $2 bags).

not bad for a monday night.

i wish i had been keeping count

of all the times i've had eggs with casey. the first time i can find his presence in this blog is here and it's totally egg-centric. but there must have been hundreds of times.

and so, this weekend, at casey's house: breakfast tacos with FLOUR tortillas (yes!), eggs (obviously), spinach, onions, and garlic. topped with cheddar and purple radishes. with roasted sweet potatoes. and coffee (because of course).

the first one.

may 19: the first meal (obviously it was breakfast) that i cooked and ate at my house in DC. (well, casey fried that egg.) it's been 3 weeks already.

toast with wilted spinach, melted cheddar, fried egg. strawberries.

looking forward, looking back.

closing out the final days in my chapel hill apartment was a smattering of awesomely awkward meals lunches. i had a dozen eggs, loads of potatoes, and for a while, beans and bread. but eventually i had to resort to eating out, as i packed it all up and then refused to go to the grocery store (except for yogurt, which i ate with my spork).

may 7: steamed broccoli, navy beans with sea salt and crushed red pepper, sourdough with cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise.

 may 12: the butt of the sourdough with a fried egg and goat gouda. smashed potatoes.

may 13: sourdough with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and cheddar. green beans with the end of the pecorino and purple spring onion and garlic.

may 15: eggs scrambled with habanero pepper, onion, and corn (frozen). potatoes with salt and garlic. tortilla chips made from sliced corn tortillas toasted in the toaster oven. store-bought salsa.

i probably made about 2 more meals after this one, one of them being boxed mac-and-cheese (the once per year treat). because moving.

ready for those may flowers.

you guys. my breakfast was crazy good. i didn't know where it was all going when i started it but it turned out wonderfully. i purchased a few too many things in the farmers' market yesterday (it had been a while since i visited and i just got so excited and everything was beautiful and reasonably priced. or maybe i've forgotten what reasonable looks like--but i spent about $15 and got a big bunch of spring onions, a bunch of broccoli rabe, a bunch of purple radishes, a CRAZY huge bunch of bok choi, a pint of strawberries, and 2 cucumbers.)

in a big pan, i cooked broccoli rabe, the greens of the onions, green beans, and garlic in a bit of olive oil and liquid aminos. when it had cooked down a bit (they are greens, so they shrink), i scooped it all into a bowl and tossed with chunks of pecorino. in the same pan, i fried an egg and toasted some of the rosemary focaccia i made yesterday (see below). 

it was just wonderment. 

a note: the focaccia is alice waters's recipe from the art of simple food. i am not transcribing it here but it was super easy and the recipe is also converted to pizza dough in the book. i topped mine with chopped rosemary (i keep some growing on the porch) but you could put anything on it really. or nothing.

if it's going to look like winter

then i am going to eat like it's winter.

tuesday night = smashed potatoes + white beans with garlic and salt and pepper + sauteed collard greens and onion with a fried egg on top

oh, guinea.

casey and i bought guinea eggs in the durham farmers' market. truthfully, we didn't even know what a guinea looked like (we assumed it was like a pheasant) but we wanted to try them. 

 they are small. they are all wobbly in this egg carton, but the shells are super hard. the farmer promised us that they would be richer than chicken eggs, more like the duck eggs. but, truthfully, i don't know if my palate is good enough to understand.

 they were delicious. with really large, really orange yolks.

we ate them on top of a rice, bean, broccoli, spinach, onion, garlic, spicy mixture that i threw together for a fast dinner before casey hit the road last night.

i don't know how this was done.

because casey made it. here's what i do know:

• we got to eat two slices of this crazy seedy bread i baked from his cookbook. with butter.
• the fried egg was super perfect and delicious.
• the rest is a mess of what i had in the fridge, mostly chard (my fave) and potatoes (his fave). maybe there's garlic in there? maybe onion? who can remember?

i am hoping he comes back and cooks some more. because that would be awesome. 

on another note, i am reading cathy erway's the art of eating in. she had a blog about never eating out in new york and it became a book. it's super easy and fast and not really mind-blowing but keeps me reading all the same (which is more than i can say for last month's book club choice). it's kind of gimmicky but the stories are interesting and there are recipes. i requested it from the library in a weird detour from researching for my dissertation and now i bet i finish it by the end of the week. 

everyone* is asleep right now.

last sunday. half of a grapefruit. swiss chard with sauteed with olive oil and mushrooms. whole wheat with cheddar and a fried egg. interested pup.

*everyone = casey, chloe, huck.

egg is all you need.

boyfriend has taught me that hard-boiled eggs with salt and pepper are snack food. he's smart, that guy.

yolked.

leftover egg yolks from macaroon baking meant a sandwich was in order (i really am turning into liz lemon here). of course, one yolk broke in the pan and the other stayed intact.

on bread with some kind of stinky cheese and tomatoes? both yolks could have broken and it would not have mattered a single bit.

oh, sandwich.

seriously. coffee, fried egg sandwich on sourdough, greasy beans (garbanzos with olive oil, sea salt, and crushed red pepper), slices of grapefruit.

this was an incredible breakfast. yes, it was.

because we eat a lot of them around here.

eggs are totally fine. you can have ONE PER DAY. no increased risk of heart disease.

i try to limit myself to three per week. mostly for the cholesterol, but they might be my main source of cholesterol anyhow. and so that's silly.

**for the record, the cabot greek yogurt is not awesome.

because.

sometimes a soft-boiled egg is amazing, too. (as seen here with quinoa, carrots, bell peppers, and garbanzos).

egg in an egg.

casey sent me this video today:


wouldn't you just die?

all the things i love.

green beans. hard-boiled egg. tomato. carrot. and lentils. sea salt and pepper, a bit of olive oil. so incredibly good.

a sandwich-free lunch? almost unheard of over here.

yes, those.

i am eating the beet greens. it suddenly seems so silly to throw them out (well, into the compost). and they wilt quicker than other greens and that's totally annoying. 

but i am eating them. mostly sauteed with olive oil and salt thus far. and, truthfully, they are delicious. a little like a love affair occurred between swiss chard and a beet. 

additionally, i am back on the fried egg sandwiches. i don't think i left them, but they haven't made so many appearances here in a while. this sandwich is seeded ciabatta (too seedy, actually, if that's a thing)  with melted mozzarella, the sauteed beet greens, and a fried egg (cooked in the oil/greasiness leftover from the greens, which is why there are leaves already stuck to the egg). 

trust me on this one. 

of the year.

the first tacos. i can't believe it took A WHOLE WEEK into 2013 to make tacos. seriously, what is happening?

i've decided to be better about eating the greens on the things, instead of tossing them into the compost. so, i sauteed some beet greens and mushrooms in a bit of olive oil and sea salt. i scrambled the egg separately in the pan and then cooked it all together. as always, i heated the tortillas on the stove (like, actually on the stove, no pan). i threw some hoop cheese on first, then piled in the egg-greens-mushroom mixture, and topped with sriracha. those greens were not bad. not bad at all.

but truthfully, everything is good with olive oil and some salt.