Brunch Gone Bad...

Well, I made an awful Sunday brunch yesterday. We threw together and egg dish, oven-broiled bacon, mimosas, strawberries, and oatmeal muffins.

When I say "throw together", I usually mean that I looked in the pantry and went with what I had. But yesterday it was really a throwing together in short order. Results? Not so good. My blessing and curse is that Doug likes everything I make and says it's all "a revelation", but the truth is that this brunch looked and tasted like an amateur cook put it together.

So I wanted to tell you about it in an attempt to build this rapport with you...we all screw up in the kitchen some days. The oatmeal muffins were dry and like a blank canvas for our jam. Partly by intention, partly by mistake. The bacon apparently needs to be flipped at least once on the broiler pan to cook fully on both sides, something we found out 20 mins. after the flavorless egg dish had been out and on the table. The strawberries, though, were delicious.

And the mimosas were the saving grace. . .I ended up eating this instead of our lousy meal:

What's funny is that I even screwed this up. Last week, while in Temecula, I bought this faux-Lunchables from Winco, thinking I was getting real Lunchables. So the "Brunchables" turned "Funchables" (faux Lunchables) wasn't even good. Oh brother. All said and done, Doug and I were left with no choice but to drink four bottles of champagne. Luckily, neither of us got sick from the meal or the champagne!

Don't look now; my humanity is showing.

Bacon & Egg Salad

A great friend of mine set me up on a blind date with bacon and egg salad. Breakfast items in salad, I thought? But we went to the table together and found that, once given a chance to get to know each other, we did indeed have a very promising future together.

Salty, crunchy, rich, and satisfying, this salad is one I always have ingredients for. There are always eggs in my fridge and real bacon bits or a frozen pound of bacon in my freezer. We almost always have some potent cheese (feta or bleu are favs). Lettuce, I'll tell you, seem to have a long shelf life in my fridge, but it's brown and past its prime for many of those days.

Luckily, tonight, the lettuce was still green, and this salad came together so nicely, as it always does. Play with this one to make it work for your family....it's wonderful. Here's my version of this classic:

Bacon & Egg Salad

Salad:
2 small heads romaine or 1 big bag mixed green salad
3-4 chopped, hard boiled eggs
1 c. bacon, chopped
1 c. pungent cheese (feta or bleu)

Dressing: (I make all my dressings by feel--these are rough estimates. If they seem wildly off, it means I eyeballed this in the bowl...play with it and taste with lettuce leaves until it's right.)
4 T. red wine vinegar
2 T. olive oil
Pinch herbs de provence
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch garlic powder
Pinch parsley

Whisk together the dressing. Assemble salad ingredients in bowl. (If your eggs are freshly boiled and still warm, all the better!!) Mix all together and toss well.

My friend makes this with baby spinach and that oil-packed feta that is so sinfully good that I can't bring myself to buy it. That feta oil is her salad dressing, which is a nice two-for. Her original salad is crazy good, and its many variations are delicious as well. I'm eager to try this with pancetta and parm and egg, and I've had it with bleu and bacon. All variations are good variations.

This twist on breakfast for dinner is certainly a staple recipe in our house. Thanks, Jonesie!!