Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Green Eggs and Ham

Saturday mornings, especially when John isn't working, are my absolute favorite!  Every aspect to them is full of relaxation, comfort, and ease.  This past Saturday morning completely exemplified all of those things for me.  

John seized the opportunity to sleep in a bit after a ridiculously long work week for him, and so while he slumbered, I got to pitter patter around my kitchen- my favorite thing to do.  I'm not sure if I've talked to you about this before, but I have a play list on my iPod that is titled "cooking" and I only listen to it while I'm in my kitchen, fully engaged in my favorite activity.  This wonderful collection of songs range from artists like Dean Martin and Perry Como, to The Rascal Flatts, to Snow Patrol or even Bon Jovi.  The songs contained on this list are my utter favorites, and songs that no matter what, put a huge smile on my face.  I am not ashamed to dance in my kitchen while doing the dishes-my neighbors I'm sure are amused.



So I started my morning just that way, kettle on to make coffee, music lightly playing, and finishing up some leftover dishes...and dancing.  Then I turned my attention to breakfast.  I had a few herbs left over from other meals that I wanted to use up before they turned "unhappy", as I like to think of it, so I decided to do a little take on the great children's book- Green Eggs and Ham.


I love, LOVE, parsley in scrambled eggs- I actually get confused if I eat scrambled eggs without parsley in them.  Something about the clean, light flavor of the herb with the creamy egg-ness.  Its delicious.  So I chopped up a healthy portion of parsley, as well as the ends of some chives that I also had on hand.  I also took out four slices of regular old thin cup deli ham and sliced them into bite size pieces.  In a skillet pan, I added about a teaspoon only of vegetable oil, and then a liberal turn of the pepper grinder.  Then, when the oil was hot, I added the parsley and the chives together, a pinch of salt, and a quick shake of some garlic powder to the mix.  I stirred these a few times, and then when I felt as though the herbs had cooked down sufficiently, I added in the ham, careful to break up the pieces.  

In a separate bowl I cracked three eggs (like to think of it as 2 for John 1 for me- um- or something), and blended them with a fork.  I know a lot of people like to add milk or cream to their eggs- it just has never appealed to me.  I like the straight egg.  I find that they are stiffer that way, and I have to say-nothing makes me cringe more than a non fully cooked scrambled egg- so a runny texture concerns me.  As the case may be, by this point John was awake, and I poured the eggs right on into the pan with the ham and herbs.  I kept the heat under my pan at a medium state, and allowed the eggs to cook slowly, with frequent stirring.  I also made sure that we had some toast to go along with it. Towards the end of the cooking process, I grated a little fresh mozzarella over the top-because aren't eggs just 100% better with cheese?  Coffee poured and breakfast was served.

I have to say it again, I love herbs and eggs!  This little scramble had such great flavor with the fresh parsley and light onion flavor from the chives, the kick of garlic was even perfectly subtle.  Of course all these flavors were nicely rounded with the salty ham, and the creamy cheese.  I'm telling you- what is better than breakfast on a Saturday?  Nice and lazy, good hot coffee, toast with just a little butter spread...Using the childhood book as my guide made me feel even more relaxed, as I did when I was little and the biggest challenges were what game to play first.  

In fitting style- John and I got right into a challenging game of Wii after breakfast :-)     

1 comment:

MichellePC said...

I love adding ham and herbs to eggs! I eat less meat now, so I am almost always having eggs for breakfast, but somehow have failed to add any ham to my morning eggs for a long time. Thanks for the reminder!

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