Breakfast: Elevated. The Cure for a Sleepless Night.

Breakfast/Brunch / January 16, 2016

#Fabin40 – Miscellaneous Recipes – Serves 4

I wake up hungry. It’s a curse, actually because I don’t really sleep which means to use the term ‘waking’ is rather an overstatement when you consider the previous 8 hours were more rest-less than rest-full. Sleep is reserved for young girls who still have to worry about whether or not they look good, or are successful, or are brilliant and might turn out to be famous. Us old gals know that no one really cares, or has ever paid a lot of attention to our narcissism. Proud of our wrinkles and good stories of survival, we recharge on laughter, good books, and kick-ass meals.

But breakfast? Well, it is always there, (unlike REM sleep) ready to reward you for making it through the day before, and carrying within each calorie the promise of joy. The comforting bite of a little salt, the velvety elegance of an over-easy egg, or the sharp acidity of good lemon curd on a perfectly toasted bagel will surely take mornings way up the happy scale.

Today, is Saturday. The week END. (Finally!) So I decided I needed more than just the usual cereal and blueberries. I needed the ultimate breakfast. See it???? You can’t miss it. There’s bacon on that plate. Which, by itself solves most if not all the world’s problems even before scientists informed us we could be healthier by lighting up a stogie than munching down on pig belly. But why stop at just a dangerously wonderful meal when you can have amazing?

Utilizing some leftover Cucumber Yogurt sauce from a couple days ago, I set about painting a canvas of color and flavor, building up the plate with a small spring salad mix tossed in oil and red wine vinegar. Small slices of pickled beets, (I totally love these on everything…) brings some needed color and offers earthy sweetness against the tang of the yogurt sauce. And when you open up the egg? Well, there it is. A golden river of tongue-tingling yolk just waiting to burst forth.

It was quick, too. In about 20 minutes I had it all assembled. If you have to make the yogurt sauce from scratch, might wanna add a bit more than 40 minutes to the prep time, but not much. All in all, I just dignified the egg-in-a-nest to stardom and made insomnia bearable.

Multi-Grain Egg in a Nest With Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

#fabin40
Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 pieces multi-grain bread
4 eggs
4 strips bacon
1 C spring greens
1 t sunflower oil
1 t red wine vinegar
1/3 C Cucumber Yogurt Sauce*
Salt and Pepper to taste
Slices of pickled beets
4 sprigs of fresh dill
Butter to butter one side of the
bread, about 1 T

Direction:

Cook bacon strips in large saucepan. Remove and let drain on a paper towel. Now, reserve about 4 T of the bacon grease and discard the rest.
In a small bowl, toss the spring greens with the oil and vinegar, set aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. By using a small round cookie cutter or other small diameter tool, punch out a circle in the middle of each of the bread pieces. Butter one side of the discs and the punched out bread pieces. Place each disc and bread piece in the hot bacon grease butter side down. Cooks quickly so turn over as soon as brown, about 20 seconds. Break each egg carefully into the round opening of each piece of bread. Turn down heat. Tip pan and ladle a bit of the hot bacon grease onto the top of each egg to cook the tops. After cooking for about a minute or so, place the pan with bread eggs and all in the oven and let cook for about 2 minutes, until the egg is opaque. To plate, smear about 2 T of the cucumber sauce on the plate. Place a bit of spring greens on that. Place the cooked egg-in-a-nest on that then nestle the bacon on top, place the cut pieces of the beet on top, and garnish with dill.
Cucumber Yogurt Sauce: Combine 10 ounces of plain Greek yogurt with one small cucumber peeled, seeded and chopped finely. Add one large clove of garlic chopped finely, 2 large basil leaves julienned, about 1/8 t fresh chopped dill, salt and pepper, and 1 t lemon juice. Can set aside and keep for up to 4 days. Add a little coarse sea salt to taste.