Two of my favorite people are getting married next year and we celebrated their engagement the weekend before Thanksgiving. The party was so chic and festive and full of love... and very heavy-handed pours. The next day, I was reminded that I'm almost 30 and not actually 22. I forced myself out of bed around 11 am, brewed some coffee, and surveyed the refrigerator.

Earlier that week, I made Naturally Ella's Harissa Lentils & Cauliflower and had tons of leftovers. I heated some up in a skillet with a lid. Once the sauce started to bubble, I poured four eggs into the pan and popped the top on.

We were so extraordinarily hungover and this meal was life-giving. There was protein in the eggs and lentils, solid nutritional value from the cruciferous veg and tomato-filled sauce, and the eye-opening spice of the homemade harissa got the blood flowing. With some nice crunchy toast on the side, this “add an egg to leftovers” breakfast was wholly restorative. I may have to enlist J's expertise the morning after the bachelorette party...

Six Minute Eggs

My friend Matt taught us this egg recipe over our Couples Chopped weekend and our breakfast making has been permanently changed for the better. Here are the seven steps of Six Minute Eggs.

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
2. Gently -- GENTLY!!! (Imagine Westley saying this to Buttercup) -- use a slotted spoon or other gentle implement to place raw eggs delicately on the bottom of the pot of boiling water.
3. Set your timer to six minutes.
4. Prepare a bowl of ice water.
5. When the six minute timer chimes, remove the eggs and submerge in the ice water.
6. Once they've cooled 30 - 60 seconds, gently -- GENTLY!!! -- crack the shells and peel off.
7. Serve and be ready to enjoy the most perfectly gelled whites and creamy warm yolks.

This time? I'd run out of French bread but had a sweet potato hanging out. I finely cubed it and diced a shallot and made a delicious honey-and-sriracha kissed hash. Two Six Minute Eggs over the top? Brunch! Not pictured: a bellini. Because sometimes you need booze on Saturday mornings without a special reason. Sometimes surviving the work week is enough.

Pad Thai Quinoa

Since starting my new job at the end of August, I have been religious about bringing lunches to work. It continues to astound me at how much money I'm saving just with an hour or so of prep work on Sunday afternoon. In NYC, a standard lunch could run you $10 - $12 for a chopped salad, or a hearty sandwich, or even a soup combo with either. Take out? Possibly even more. Do that five days a week, four weeks a month, and that's $200 minimum on lunches!

One of my favorite big batch, make ahead, bring to work meals are quinoa bowls. You add in whatever protein and vegetables you want and portion it out across multiple days. The first actual recipe-based one I tried - and LOVED - was Iowa Girl Eats' Thai peanut pad thai bowls.

You'll need:

1 cup quinoa, well rinsed in cool water
1 3/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 teaspoons peanut oil
6 oz chicken breast, thinly sliced
1 cup coleslaw mix
1/2 cup frozen shelled edamame
2 green onions (scallions), chopped
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 cup salted peanuts, chopped

To stretch my dollars even more, I used veggies I already had in my fridge or freezer. Instead of edamame, I used frozen corn and frozen peas and swapped the coleslaw mix with 1/2 a carrot and 1/2 a radicchio head, both shredded.

For the Pad Thai sauce, you'll need:
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon peanut butter
2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce (I used harissa since it was in the fridge!)

You start off cooking the quinoa. Bring the stock to a boil, add the quinoa, lower the heat and simmer with the lid on until the liquid is absorbed. I also seasoned the broth with some Chinese five spice to add another layer of flavor - unnecessary, but I'd totally recommend. Just like All The Real Chefs tell you to salt your pasta water, I've started seasoning my quinoa water. Game changer, just saying.

For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a bowl, whisk, and zap in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Whisk again and set aside. Whisk your egg with some sesame oil and keep aside, too.

Once all of your stir fry ingredients are prepped, heat oil in your pan (I used olive instead of peanut, sue me) and cook the chicken. Once no longer pink, remove from the pan and set aside. Into the same pan, add all of your vegetables and stir fry until tender. Once they've started to soften, push everything to the outside, dump in your whisked egg and scramble it.

Add the chicken back in, the quinoa, the peanut sauce, and the peanuts. Mix until everything is coated and do your best not to immediately start scooping spoonfuls into your watering mouth.

I mean.... dang these are good. All in, this takes about 30 minutes start to finish, including prep. In those 30 minutes, I made lunch for an entire week. Once the final mixture cooled a bit, I portioned it out in to Tupperwares and stacked them in the fridge.

This has your protein from the chicken and quinoa, some sweetness from the vegetables, some heat from the peanut sauce (and a squirt of sriracha - I'm That Girl who keeps a hidden bottle at her desk!), and some crunch from the peanuts. I can't get enough of it!

Chorizo Breakfast Bake

A few weeks ago, we invited some of J's coworkers over for brunch. It was so nice for all of us to kick back and relax together. In addition to the main attractions - bellinis and Bloodies - I also served food. The biggest hit was a crustless chorizo egg bake.

- 10 large eggs
- 1/2 cup fresh salsa (or jarred if that's your thing)
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 (or more!) cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 poblano pepper
- 1 bell pepper (I chose yellow, but pick your favorite color)
- 8 ounces chorizo
- shredded cheese of your choice (I tried Sargento's Nacho & Taco blend - not paid, not an endorsement, but it was pretty good!)
- salt and pepper

First, I browned all of the chorizo - if you opt for pre-cooked, you can certainly skip this step and simply cut it to your desired size. I removed it from the pan onto a paper towel-covered plate to drain a bit and scooped out most of the fats from the pan. I left a little bit behind and sautéed the onion in it. After a few minutes, I added the garlic and peppers in as well and cooked until the peppers just started to soften. I pulled the vegetables off the heat and let them cool.

Once cooled, I tossed the chorizo and vegetables into a lightly oiled casserole pan and covered with one or two handfuls of shredded cheese.

In a separate bowl, scramble all 10 of the eggs thoroughly. Having learned from my last multiple egg cooking attempt, I added three heavy pinches salt and a bunch black pepper (as much as you want, really). Add in the salsa and mix to combine. Pour the egg mixture over the chorizo and vegetables.

I topped it all off with another hearty helping of cheese. Because cheese is wonderful. I baked it for 30 minutes at 350 degrees until the top looked golden and the eggs looked cooked through.

YUM. I let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving, but it is as delicious room temperature - I confirmed this 4 hours later when there was only one helping left and I ate it directly out of the dish with a fork.

I also made zucchini and cream cheese muffins that were... Not Good. J swears they were delicious and not a single muffin remained, but I thought they were dense and chewy, almost gummy. Avoid. I also made a fruit salad of sliced strawberries and red grapes with a balsamic vinegar-vanilla extract-Campari-lemon zest reduction. It was Fancy and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who actually used the reduction. More for me!

All in, the egg bake was a hit. It was so simple to put together, and I'm sure you could even cook all the vegetables the night before to save time day-of. It was spicy from the chorizo and salsa, but it wasn't so hot that it completely burned out your taste buds. I think serving some fresh avocado on top would also be an outrageous and tasty addition.

There weren't any leftovers (after I scarfed down that last serving when the guests left) , but I had hoped for some to take a square to work for lunch! I'll definitely be making this again!

(Sort Of) Shakshouka

Happy Friday! Are you as excited as I am for a three-day weekend? I have a few fun items on my weekend agenda, but I'm excited to ring in the unofficial start of summer by sleeping late tomorrow and having a sleepy brunch at home. Daydreams of brunch over the last few days led me to today's post!

Shaskshouka is, at it's most basic, eggs poached in some sort of spiced tomato sauce. It's a fancy breakfast or brunch dish, a hearty Meatless Monday option, or in my case, the perfect way to repurpose leftovers. I'd made tomato sauce for dinner a few days before this breakfast and used what I had on hand. I had Jerusalem open for timing and egg cooking instructions but I simplified to basically spice up the leftover sauce and swap an onion in for the bell pepper.

I cooked a sliced onion until it turned golden around the edges.

Then, I added about a tablespoon of tomato paste and two tablespoons of harissa to my leftover tomato sauce, plus a few hefty shakes of ground cumin.

Once the sauce was heated through, I added the eggs.

I used a butter knife to gently swirl the whites around a bit and then covered the pan for a few minutes.

I served two eggs each with the sauce and onions in a bowl with fresh buttery toast on the side.

I loved the creamy eggs with the tang and heat of the tomato sauce and bite of the onions. In many ways, you can dress up your shakshouka any way you like by adjusting the heat and spices in the sauce. You could take it an Italian route and serve over polenta, or take it down an Indian path with curries and serve with naan. As with most egg-focused recipes, the possibilities go on and on.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Boozy Book Club Brunch

Last weekend, I hosted the brilliant and beautiful women in my book club for brunch. I wanted to go as girly as possible. Pink roses, floral napkins (that I made! The hems are atrocious!), fancy tropical juices in prosecco, the whole nine yards. My menu was girly as well:

Mini pesto frittatas: fluffy, cheesy, and tiny met my feminine criteria.
Cream currant scones: evocative of a tea party which, girly.
Lavender butter: butter + flowers = girliness.
Grape tomato & basil salad: girls love salad.

I started with the butter. It sounds fancy and it looked fancy and it tasted fancy and it required about 5 minutes of hands-on time. You pour heavy whipping cream into your stand mixer and you turn it on. You continue to check on it until you think it's ready - nope, it's whipped cream. Keep going. You keep mixing until the fats start to solidify and the buttermilk pools at the bottom.

Now, you get your hands all buttery. Squeeze all of the solids together into a lump and press any additional liquid out. Then, you start rinsing the butter. This basically entails pouring a small amount of very cold ice water over the butter and continuing to squeeze liquid out until all liquid from the butter runs clear. You'll end up with a lump.

I split the butter into two different ramekins - one got a pinch of big crunchy flakes of salt and the other got about 1/4 teaspoon of dried lavender flowers.

Then I moved on to the eggs. Martha inspired me with a pesto and tomato frittata, but I decided that mini frittatas were easier for a group and made a tomato salad on the side. I simply halved a box and a half of red grape tomatoes and a box of yellow grape tomatoes. I tossed them with a little olive oil drizzle, a little salt, and some ribbons of fresh basil.

For the frittatas, I scrambled a dozen eggs with some grated fresh mozzarella and half a cup of pesto. I also had to mix it with my little piglet whisk, a gift from our book club's Secret Santa back in December. Thanks, B - I continue to love this little pre-baconous dude.

I poured the mix into a greased cupcake pan (one with 12 cupcake holes). I baked these last after the scones came out of the oven. And the scones were super tasty. I am very particular about scones. I don't want too much grease and I certainly don't want any frosting on top or any additional Starbucks-esque bastardizations. They are perfect in their driest, crumbliest form, which is how the baking gods intended it to be. This scone recipe (also Martha) is absolutely perfect. They're a cinch to prepare and I followed her recipe (almost) to the letter. She has you cut the dough into six wedges, but I had seven attendees, so I went with eight wedges. If I were to do this recipe over, I'd still go with the eight wedges - I think six would have netted too much scone at once.

While the scones cooled a bit, I popped the mini frittatas into the same 400 degree oven and baked for a little over 10 minutes. Basically test the middle for doneness with a toothpick, cool them on a rack for a couple of minutes, and then pop out onto your serving dish.

I snapped one last picture once all the food (and a few of the tropical fruit bellinis) was on the table and then we got down to business.

I don't have any fancy pictures of the drinks area, but I did have these phenomenal (and 100% true) cocktail napkins.

The food was all delicious. The frittatas needed a little work - mostly, additional salt and pepper - but there was only one left at the end of our noshing. The scones, as mentioned, were exactly what I wanted scones to be and they were perfect with the lavender butter. All in all, our dainty yet delicious menu balanced out our insightful yet raucous afternoon, very little of which centered on the book!