It's time for breakfast!

This was the breakfast I had every morning on vacation at the Hilton. Bacon, egg, salt, pepper, and ketchup on a toasted bagel. A shitpot full of breakfast sausages and potatoes. Coffee.

I hit the buffet every morning, The wife couldn't do that because she had to be gluten-free. But we did what we always do and made friends with the people working there. I called the waiter over and introduced myself. He said his name was Aurelio and I said, "Hey that's the name of one of the greatest third basemen of all time." He knew of Aurelio Rodriquez of the Tigers who he was named after, and we hit it off.

I said to him, "I see that you have gluten-free bread on the menu so maybe the Chef can make my wife gluten-free French Toast." He said, "Don't worry Jim I will take care of it." He came out with some beautiful gluten-free French toast with berries on the side. She had that every day.

KLEM FM

Killer guitar solo at the end.

Full lyrics after the jump!

I like Eggs!

Did you ever think about how many eggs you have eaten in your life?

We go through 2 dozen a week. Just today I used six. Two scrambled for me. Two for the french toast I made for the wife and the mother-in-law. Two for the Swedish meatballs I made for dinner. I am always using eggs to bread eggplant and chicken cutlets or for an egg wash for the apple pie I made yesterday.

Above is a photo of the simple scrambled eggs I had for breakfast with scallions. garlic and cheese on gluten free toast. I can't photograph it as nice as Chip and I don't have a great recipe like he would have to share with us.We miss you Chip come back soon. You are a good egg.

"The easy way to separate eggs yolks from egg whites"

Reddit comment...

"It's really not difficult to do by hand with the eggshell. It's really not. This is a complicated solution to a nonexistent problem."

Baltimore, oh Baltimore I can hear your sea winds blowing

Baltimore. That place sounds familiar. It seems an important port with a unique geography. What happened there? Fort McHenry. Star Spangled Banner. British. 1812 Burned down Washington a march away.

Mother Seaton, first American saint. Nations first Catholic seminary. Anything else? Babe Ruth. Edgar Allen Poe, see? That right there is why one would think the whole place is so spooky. Because of him. Baltimore is so spooky it even freaked out Edgar Allen Poe. That is my impression. There should be something about ships. Tall sailing ships. We put these models together as boys. Let me think. Shipping there is a big deal, you know. U.S.S. Constellation, a 3-masted war sloop. Cool boat. Baltimore undoubtedly has a lot of rats.

Wooden model. $648.30 by Old Modern Handicrafts. You should buy one. Kidding. I know you're not interested. Ours were plastic. This is a lot better. Dusting is a problem. Either glass case or housekeeper with a delicate touch. Baltimore, having the real thing is just so totally historically ace. Baltimore has more historical ships than this but they're not as good, and actually, the real thing is a bit cheesy. Also the U.S. Naval Academy at nearby Annapolis. Baltimore Oreos, home of the famous cookie. Kidding again. Also, Chef Duff and his entertaining Ace of Cakes.

Oriole VS Cardinal. Just for the heck of it.

Now, here are two very good looking birds.

Sorry Baltimore. Cardinal for the win. St. Louis wins for bird teams. The red beak and red feet kill it. It's a bird so confident in its color that it takes it all the way from the toes to the crest. The oriole is attractive, yes, but it compromises, like it's trying to pass for a robin. But even robins have yellow beaks with gray legs, and robins have stunning blue eggs. But wait, what do oriole eggs look like?

Oh, orioles make hanging basket nests. Wow. Jackson Pollock eggs.

What do cardinal's nest and eggs look like? Stunning eggs. Much simpler nests.

Baltimore oriole's nest and eggs win. Tough choice though. Oriole is a better housekeeper and family bird while cardinal is a more confident stylist.

Their geography is such the force of waterways suggested mills. I'm interested in their early grain mills. The early settlers preferred rye bread. I imagined their milled wheat to be be all whole wheat minus the husks. I imagined the stones flattening de-husked wheat seeds to powder but that is not what they did. The ground grain is graded for different purposes by sifting through various screens, their term "bolting" originally "boulting." Romans bolted their wheat to seven grades of flour. So, not all their bread was 100% whole wheat as imagined, but all of their leaven was natural piggybacking or airborne, what we call sourdough.

Don't ask me about present day happening in Baltimore and their dilapidated unhappy Democrat plantation with all their high profile non-Baltimore plantation rebellions because I don't know anything about that. It doesn't come through. I do know historically plantation owners were terrified of revolts. There they were, the plantation owners, out there in the country isolated away from the unhealthy city in summer, with more people in bondage than available enforcement and there is always news coming in of happenings in Jamaica. Now, they are doing a lot of talking but not to me. All of the talking, and there is a lot of talking, is amongst themselves and for themselves. They're working out their own problems and they've made clear all  that has nothing to do with me, in fact I and my profiled type are excluded. But that needn't wreck a whole city, there's a lot else going on there besides plantation rebellion.

Seems every time you turn around there's another hard luck story you're going to hear. And there's really nothing anyone can say. Oh, I never did plan to go anyway... to Black Diamond Bay.

scrambled eggs

What Gordon does not mention is he is making scrambled eggs as a failed sauce. 

When the eggs are sufficiently warmed to melt cold butter then they are basically cooked. By lifting off the heat while stirring or whisking throughout you control the degree the eggs form curds. 

The instant you notice curd forming then remove the pan from the heat and keep stirring. Gordon places the pot on wood surface to retain the heat of the pot, but if he would place the pot on the cool flat metal surface of the stove  then it would actually cool the pot sufficiently to abate curds forming while continuing to whisk incipient curds back into the liquid egg. Then back on the heat to continue thickening without forming curds. 

You control how stiff the eggs become by controlling the evaporation.  Keep the eggs liquid as sauce, or stiffen the eggs as familiar overcooked scrambled eggs heated in a pan. You have to decide when to stop. If you keep going the eggs will rubberize as people usually have them and these soft sauce-like scrambled eggs are the mark of a cook who knows what they are doing while rubbery scrambled eggs cooked dry are the mark of a dummkopf cook. 

A tablespoon of sour cream or crème fraîche whisked in at the end stops the cooking action completely and prevents further curd formation plus it adds a touch of acid just like a failed Hollandaise sauce. Which should give you ideas about additions such as cayenne and lemon instead of sour cream or crème fraîche. 

Note, no salt until the eggs are finished and ready to serve. Salt makes the eggs go wonky until the eggs are finished then salt to your heart's contentment. Plus anything else that you like, say, green onion or chives, mushrooms whatever. 

I love that Gordon says serve on sturdy thick slice of sourdough bread and not English muffin, funny because English muffin or bagel would be our first instinct. Plus he nearly burns his bread in a toaster behind him, when he has the pan for his mushrooms and tomato right there already hot. He could have used that same pan at the same time with his vegetables and do all that at once, and blow off the toaster altogether. 

So now you are expert. 

Surprise the h-e-double wooden spoons out of your main squeeze honey pot with this smoked salmon on croissant idea, forget Christmas, this meal is great anytime:

Close your nasal passage and say, "qua-soo." You have to love how French have so many ideas for stale bread, and they're all great. Dry croissants make the best bread pudding ever, another egg, cream and bread dish. This book is tiny with fantastic photos, it is quite the work of art, and it manages to tell you all you can do with eggs.

The book receives high ratings on Amazon. But why did the few people mark it down? Let's look.

•  I would have liked more specific tips and ideas (e.g. the book should mention unlined copper bowls and simiar tricks; cooking time depending on different egg size and temperature; doing Hollandaise using bain-marie).
• What determines the taste of different eggs yolks? 
• How do you make the perfect scrambled eggs?
• What are the differnt kind of eggs? 
• How do eggs vary in taste across countries? 
• How much omega-3 has omega-3 eggs?
• I did not realize this was written by a master of french cooking. so it was a disapointment for me
• I have three chickens and needed the 101 rescipes for the home chicken owner
• It is very french and I am not fond of french cooking
• I'm a 20 year old male, and I like to cook. I bought this book because eggs are cheap and they taste good, but for many recipes in the book I don't know what some of the ingredients are.

Ha ha ha ha ha . Stop it, you're killing me.

Eggs are fundamental to cooking. The last comment caused me to cast back when I was a teen myself and decided back then that I needed learn about eggs for myself. On my own I understood then that I must know what eggs do and learn how to get eggs to do various things. If I would master eggs first then that right there would go a very long way in mastering a lot of other things too.

The copper bowl thing mentioned in the first comment is about meringue having to do with copper ions knocked off while whisking. The ions are picked up by the egg whites and strengthening them while imparting a faint copper sheen. Meringue whisked in a copper bowl is sturdier than if whisked in ordinary glass bowl. Also, plastic bowl will not do. No oil allowed and plastic is a petroleum product.

Taste of egg yolks is determined by the diet of the hens laying the egg. The more varied, including leftover human food, seeds, bugs and grub whatever they go around pecking lead to both tastier eggs and tastier chicken. It does make a big difference, not only in taste but also in color and how the yolks stand up taller when cracked into a pan. My egg farmer friends said they do not see a difference, but I sure do. Here is another thing you are not going to like, the eggs I bought at Whole Food, their central one, not the nearby one, are altogether better than the usual grocery store eggs from regular battery chickens. That would be the difference you might see in other countries.

Scotch Eggs

I first tasted Scotch eggs, I'm a bit ashamed to admit, at a Renaissance fair(e) when I was a teenager in the early 1990s. I recall that the eggs were better than the turkey leg(ges), but when your strongest memory of the time is of wearing robes and arguing with a community theater actor portraying Sir Francis Walsingham about why there is so much medievalism at a purported "Renaissance" fair(e), it's perhaps best to discount any recollection of culinary opinion.

Since that dim and distant time, I've eaten Scotch eggs in the UK and the US, freshly- (and not-so-freshly) made. Like many a simple dish, this one is frequently ruined by poor ingredients and careless preparation: rubbery eggs with greenish-grey haloes 'round chalky yolks — grainy, overcooked sausage meat — boxed breadcrumbs — a poverty of spices… all rolled together and dropped like a stone into the murky, rancid depths of a deep fat fryer. I suppose that the reason people are so forgiving of these gastronomic atrocities is because they're often quite intoxicated when they order and eat bad Scotch eggs— the "beer goggles" phenomenon seems to occur when drunkenly choosing food as often as it does when drunkenly choosing sex partners. What appears a succulent, flavorful and appetizing morsel in the dim light of the bar does not always seem so fresh in the harsh light of the morning.

Of course, Scotch eggs can be a delicious dish— whether they're served with drinks, or at a picnic, or for breakfast or lunch— what's important is to use the best ingredients you can find and to prepare the dish carefully. Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

• 10 extra-large eggs
• 1 pound loose sausage meat
• 2.5 cups fresh breadcrumbs (see procedure below)
• 6 anchovy fillets, minced
• 1 tbsp Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
• salt to taste (about 2 tsp)
• about 1/2 cup clarified butter and/or meat drippings, or peanut oil

Equipment:

• A saucepan with a tight-fitting lid
• A large bowl filled with cold water and ice cubes
• A large mixing bowl
• A sauté or frying pan with steep sides.

Beat two of the eggs in a bowl and set aside.

To perfectly cook the remaining 8 eggs: Take each egg and, using a pushpin, thumbtack or straight pin, pierce a small hole in the larger end of the egg; this prevents the eggs from cracking when they're cooked. Gently place the eggs into the saucepan and cover them (by about an inch) with cool water. Set the pan on the stove and bring the water to a boil, then immediately cover the pan and remove it from the heat. Let the eggs sit in the covered pan for exactly 10 minutes, then drain out the hot water. Swish or bounce the eggs around in the empty pan until they're all cracked, then drop them into the bowl of ice water. Allow the eggs to stand in the ice water until they're thoroughly chilled (about 10-15 minutes) then carefully peel the eggs under running tap water. Peeling eggs is hit-or-miss; very fresh eggs don't peel as well as do slightly older eggs... but if they're too old, they'll be misshapen due to the expanding of the air space in the shell. Don't despair if the whites of some of the eggs get a bit shredded, this recipe doesn't require perfectly-peeled cooked eggs with flawless surfaces.

You must use fresh breadcrumbs in this recipe. If you've never made them before, here's the procedure: cut a loaf of good, close-grained white bread (such as my pain de mie) into medium-thick slices and put them onto a tray or baking sheet into in a 250º F oven for about 20 minutes, until they're dry-ish but not browned. Break up the slices a bit, then whizz them in a food processor or blender until they're medium-finely ground, with no greatly outsized chunks of bread left.

Put the sausage meat into the large mixing bowl, then add 2 cups of the breadcrumbs, about three-quarters of the beaten eggs, the minced anchovy fillets, the Worcestershire sauce, the ground spices and the salt & pepper. Mix everything up very thoroughly with your impeccably-clean hands.

Take a peeled, cooked egg and dip it into the remaining bit of beaten egg, then form some of the meat mixture (about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of meat per egg) around it, so that the cooked egg is completely covered with a tight layer of meat of an even thickness. This takes a bit of practice but you'll get the hang of it. Repeat the process until all of your cooked eggs are encased in the meat mixture. Set each onto a plate as you finish preparing them.

Heat the clarified butter/drippings/oil in the sauté pan over medium high heat. Roll each meat-encased egg in the remaining 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs and then put it into the sauté pan. Don't crowd the pan— depending upon the size of your pan, you may need to do this in two batches. Gently fry the Scotch eggs on all sides, until each is a uniform brown color; this will take about 8-10 minutes per batch. Sprinkle the cooked eggs with a little kosher salt.

Serve the eggs warm or cold, on a plate or wrapped in a napkin, accompanied perhaps by good mustard, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, or even a good meat gravy. And, of course, a nice strong drink.

Masked farmers angrily scramble 200,000 eggs

And do you know pourquoi?

Because in France 100,000 eggs is not un oeuf.

And to protest EU directive regulating the health of chickens affecting cost of production while holding price of eggs low.

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