To me, if I am going to splurge on a big breakfast, there is nothing better than Eggs Benedict! This version has a hollandaise sauce made with pink peppercorns! All the colors of spring on a plate!
Well, I disappeared again. This time, I landed in Indian Wells, CA to go to the PNP Paribas Open tennis tournament with the gals from my tennis team. I had never been to that part of California so it was fun to do something new! Besides going to watch amazing professional tennis in a terrific venue the gals were playing in the Senior Open as well! This totally makes me laugh. First off, they consider “seniors” to be fifty years or older (when did a senior become fifty) and second, I was too young to play! So, I tagged along to cook meals for the crew, play “house mom”, hit some tennis balls and just enjoy the time in the hot desert! On Monday, I ventured off on my own and checked out Palm Desert. Well. that was fancy… I had Uber drop me off, had a late breakfast, window shopped, got a facial, went to a bar, chatted with the locals, had a glass of wine and ended up at Shields Date garden because no trip is complete without visiting a date farm, right? Who knew that the best dates in the world are grown in Indio, CA? Heck, that was one thing that I had never thought about, ever… Anyway, I stocked up!
I got back late Tuesday night just in time for one GIANT Colorado blizzard! It was about time! Of course the weather people predicted 4-8 inches of snow and were wrong again… At my house we got 22 inches between like 6 AM and 4 PM! That’s a lot of snow that fell quick but it was the 30-40 MPH winds that caused the most havoc! The city shut down, the airport was closed, highways closed, zero visibility, cars stranded everywhere (even though they were told to stay off the roads) and the grocery stores were completely out of food! It was the perfect day to stay home and get stuff done, which I did! It was a super wet and heavy snow which is great for the added water, it also melts really quick! Now, it’s snowing again with light, fluffy snow because it’s cold outside! It’s all good. It’s springtime in the Rockies. This is supposed to happen! 🙂
As for my recipe this week, I decided on doing something for breakfast. In my family, we always have an Easter brunch instead of a late afternoon dinner. One of my favorite indulgences is Eggs Benedict so I thought I’d make it for our Easter brunch! I figured an Easter Eggs Benedict would be fun because of all the colors of Spring! I mixed up my version a bit and used bacon instead of Canadian bacon (just because bacon is better), added some tasty asparagus and incorporated pink peppercorns into the hollandaise sauce. Get it, all the colors of Easter eggs in a Benedict! Pretty clever and pretty darn good!
- 4 English muffins, separated and toasted
- 1 pound asparagus, steamed
- 1 pound bacon, cooked to your liking
- 8 eggs, poached or fried sunny side up
- [br][b]To make the Pink Peppercorn Hollandaise sauce[/b][br]
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 1 tsp pink peppercorns, crushed
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- pinch of salt
- a couple of shakes of Tabasco sauce
- In a small sauce pan melt the butter with the peppercorns. Pink peppercorns crush easily in your hand.
- In a blender, add the eggs, salt, lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. Blend on high for 30 seconds. Remove the plug in the top of the lid.
- Put the butter into a liquid measuring cup. Slowly, I mean slowly drizzle, the butter into the egg mixture on high speed until it’s all incorporated. The hollandaise will become thick. If it becomes too thick add a tablespoon of hot water. If you add the butter too quickly it won’t thicken and you will need to start over.
- To assemble the Eggs Benedict. Place a toasted (and buttered if you like) English muffin on a plate. Top with a few sprigs of steamed asparagus, a couple of slices of cooked bacon, your cooked eggs and Hollandaise sauce.
22 inches! I’d say that’s a lot of snow considering it was in the 70’s all week and that it was raining at 6 AM. This picture was taken at 2ish….
Snow day fun! A snowshoe walk around the hood…
I pulled this picture from Facebook. I have no idea who took it but it’s pretty darn funny!
Colorado sure does something right! They know how to clear the highways! Clean as a whistle! This picture was taken less than 24 hours after the blizzard!