I have been away from my blog for three weeks.  This sadness in the season of eating.  It was for good cause, I was traveling and lucky enough to visit Paris and Vancouver.  (Bonus travel pics posted below)

This morning was a rare treat, the big breakfast.  My specialty big breakfast: Eggs Jefferson Davis, my spin on Eggs Benedict.  I erroneously believed that Eggs Benedict were named for Benedict Arnold, that famous revolutionary war traitor.  I therefore named my egg dish after Jefferson Davis, considered a hero by the south and a traitor by the North. As a side note, a minuscule amount of research revealed that Delemonico’s restaurant is credited with inventing Eggs Benedict for  one of their regular patrons, Mrs. Legrand Benedict.

This breakfast sounds complex, but it’s EASY!  Tyler came out and said (as if surprised beyond belief; “Wow, this smells good!”)  This of course makes me wonder what he usually thinks.

Start with your biscuit dough. Use your food processor.  You’ll have picture perfect dough in seconds. I use my standby Betty Crocker recipe:

2 Cups Flour
3 Tablespoons Baking Powder
3 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter or shortening (shortening recomended)
3/4 cup cold milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Use the plastic blade fitting on your food processor.  Combine the dry ingredients and pulse.  Scrape around the edges and pulse again.

Cut shortening or butter into pieces and put into the bowl.  Pulse until you have pea sized bits.  You may need to scrape the sides once or twice.

Add milk and pulse until the dough comes together.

I don’t actually roll the dough, I pat it out on a floured surface to 1/2 inch thickness and cut using the mouth of a pint glass or you can be bland and use a biscuit cutter.

Bake 12 minutes until done.

While the biscuits are baking; move on to the Sausage Gravy and start warming a deep 12 inch skillet full of water for the eggs:

1 lb sausage (bulk sausage is easier to work with but links are fine just remove the casing)
3 Tablespoons flour
3 Cups cold milk
salt and black pepper to taste

Crumble the sausage and brown it in the pan over medium heat.  Cook through but not until dry, remove sausage from the pan.  You need about 3 Tablespoons of fat in the pan so adjust as necessary and then sprinkle the flour in.  Cook for about three minutes.  Whisk in milk and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat.  Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Poached Eggs

12 inch skillet with 2 inches water
4 eggs in ramekins at room temperature

First and foremost please take note; there is not a drop of vinegar in the water.  My pet peeve about ordering Eggs Benedict in a restaurant is that they put a lot of vinegar in the water and then they don’t drain the eggs before putting them on your muffin so it’s like a soggy vinegar puck.  Poaching eggs is easy just remember one thing, you are in charge, not the egg.  Do not fear the egg.  It’s your kitchen, you are the boss and that egg is going to behave because you said so!

Bring the water to just below boiling.  If you need to be sure, water boils at 212 degrees so heat it to 180.  You don’t want bubbles, bubbles move your eggs around and break up the whites.

Put the eggs next to the pan and start stirring the water in a counterclockwise motion.  Once the water is moving, gently tip the ramekins into the water.  If you have to stir again to keep the swirl going do so just be gentle. The swirling will cause the eggs to roll around and the base of the white will wrap around the yolk.  Once you master this technique; which will require a couple of “family” practice runs;  you’ll be able to poach eggs like a master.  Your friends will be impressed, you’ll get a promotion at work, people will open doors for you and your children will behave better.

Cook them for roughly three minutes.  Remove them from the pan using a slotted spoon.  With a butter knife gently trim the egg whites so you have a nice shape.  Use the butter knife to lift the egg off the spoon and drain all the water.

To assemble, cut one biscuit in half, place a poached egg on top of each half, add sausage gravy and sprinkle with paprika.

Enjoy!

As promised, Vacation Pictures:

Christmas Eeyore who joined me at Paris Disneyland

The Castle in Paris Disneyland covered in lights for Christmas

Me in Vancouver in front of the Inuit Sculpture that is the Symbol of the 2010 Olympics

Produce Display at my customer's warehouse. Fresh Direct

Asian Pears

Mangosteens

Sugar Cane

I have some serious blog posting to catch up on.  April and May have been silly busy months for me.  Business travel kept me away from home for 3 1/2 of the last 4 weeks.  Then I came home with a nasty cold, but I also came home with photos and some thoughts on French Food (look forward to hearing about “meat butter”  Also known in more educated and proper circles as Pate … but more on that later)

As a quick hello I wanted to write a quick post on pancakes.  In my world I always seem to struggle with the simple “no fail” dishes and sail through complex preparatoins (no molecular gastronomy in my world).  When I met my husband I made the now famous “I’m gonna get me a man meat crusted pork chops” on our first real date — he’s never left my side since.  But shortly there after he made a humble request — meatloaf!!!!!!!  cue the horror music.  Tried as I might I could not produce a meatloaf they were either bricks, grease balls, raw or just plain awful.  I’ve since mastered the meatloaf.

Pancakes were another reason for me to panic.  I abhor mixes, they all taste like a mix.  So I kept trying recipies in search of the perfect fluffy buttermilk pancakes.  I never found it.  But I did find the perfect Sour Cream Pancake recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.  I’ve made this recipe several times, trying to put the mashed banana directly into the pancakes always results in burnt banana stuck to the bottom of my griddle (not my favorite pre-coffee event)  So I gave up.  I also upped the sugar to 1/4 cup and dropped the salt to 1 tsp.  It’s a panCAKE — it should be sweet.

I also employed some advice from Alton Brown which is some of the best kitchen advice I’ve ever received — walk away!  After you whisk the dry ingredients together and stir in the wet, walk away.  Now is the time to start heating the pan.  If you don’t give the baking soda some time to do it’s job you’re going to get flat disks instead of light airy pancakes that will amaze friends and neighbors.  The batter is ready for cooking when you see bubbles rising in the bowl.

I’m off to catch up on my other blogging I owe you, but I wanted to say hi.