“Did you know this was going to take so much time?”

“Not really, but last week I left out all kinds of details because I was moving too fast.  I’m trying to be more thorough this week.”

“Why are you doing this again?”

“Because it makes our lives easier.  I think.”

Weekly menu 11413

Weekly Shopping List 1.14.13

NOTES:

• The menu chart contains links to some of my favorite recipes, but there are many others if you’d rather search the Web for alternatives.
• I always season steamed green beans with butter and salt because it makes them even more delicious.  Choice is yours.
• I squeeze lemon juice on steamed broccoli and then add, yes, you guessed it, butter and salt.
• I toss apple slices in a bit of orange juice when I’m packing them for lunches, just so they don’t brown and look yucky.
• If I’m short on time, instead of making little grit/polenta cakes, I cook the grits, add butter, salt and grated cheese, spoon into little metal gelatin molds (inherited from my mother – butter them first), let cool then turn out onto plates.  This is one of my children’s very favorite dinner side items.

***

Today is a rainy, wet, nasty day.  To celebrate staying at home, we made green chile eggs Benedict for brunch.  Eggs Benedict is one of my husband’s specialties.  He’s worked on his egg poaching technique (still a mystery to me), and they turn out perfectly every time.  I can’t share that secret, since I don’t know it, but here’s the recipe we made up today for Green chile hollandaise sauce.  We get the chiles straight from the source, since Bernard is a Land of Enchantment native living in exile here in the South.  If you don’t have them available locally, you can order online or try roasting the Anaheim chiles from your local store.

Ingredients

3 roasted green chile peppers, peeled, stems removed

3 egg yolks

1 Tablespoon lemon juice (generous Tbsp. if you like it lemony, which we do)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

salt to taste

Combine chile and lemon juice in blender and puree until smooth.  If you are using a large blender, you’ll have to scrape it down after every other pulse until it gets liquid enough to drip back down on the blades.  Add egg yolks and pulse until well mixed (5-6 pulses); scrape down sides.  Melt butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave (or melt on stove top and then pour into a glass measuring cup).  Let butter cool just slightly then add it in a thin stream to the egg yolks and chile while the blender is running.  Salt to taste.  I transferred it to a double boiler to keep it warm while the eggs were poaching and assembly underway.  Our final presentation was a toasted English muffin, spoonful of sauce, slice of Canadian bacon (pan fried), poached egg, generous spoonful (or two) of sauce, and a sprinkling of red chile powder for color.

After we savored every bite, my husband asked why I didn’t take a picture before we dug in.  Not really a helpful question at that point.  It’s probably better in your imagination anyway.