I came across a recipe by Michael Chiarello for white bean waffles a while ago and was very intrigued. So much so that I completely changed the recipe to be black bean waffles. Recently I had some time, a can of black beans and a waffle maker. Here’s what happened…

Black Bean Waffles
For the beans:
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 dash tabasco
1 handful fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the waffles:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 eggs
1 cups milk
3 tbsp olive oil

Preheat your waffle device of choice. In a small pot combine the beans, chili powder, cumin, tabasco, and chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and teaspoon salt.

Add the beans, their cooking liquid and the cilantro to a food processor and pulse to puree. Add the eggs, milk, and olive oil to the bean mixture and puree until smooth. Whisk the wet mixture into the dry slowly to avoid any lumps. Let the batter rest briefly and griddle the waffles according manufacturer’s instructions.

Now, what can you do with these little snacks? Well, the first night we had a couple of wedges on the side with some grilled turkey breast tenders. Very good.

The next day (a Saturday), two waffle wedges each were re-toasted, stacked with spinach leaves, avocado, poached eggs, cheddar cheese and salsa and served as a kind of faux, mexican eggs benedict. I completely recommend this option.

To poach an egg quite easily –

1. Fill a large skillet with a few inches of water. Add about a teaspoon of vinegar and some salt. Put on a lid and bring to a boil.

2. Crack your eggs into ramekins.

3. When the water is boiling, gently pour each egg from the ramekin into the water.

4. Turn off the heat, replace the lid and poach for 2.5 - 4 minutes, depending if you like runny yolks or not. I did about 2.5 - 3 minutes for medium runny yolks.

5. Scoop eggs out with a slotted spoon, briefly draining on a towel-covered saucer if you want. This can get tricky, though, as you still have to lift the poached eggs from the towel to the plate.

Stack everything together and you have a wonderful morning treat. Top with chopped cilantro and green onions if you have any.

Keep the rest of the waffles in the fridge and heat up in a toaster for a quick snack.

This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge — #14, for those keeping track — is all about salads. This event is also being guest hosted by running with tweezers.

The cookbook that I chose is Donna Hay Modern Classics Book I, which is probably one of the most beautiful cookbooks I own. It’s paperback but the pictures, oh the pictures. I want to eat the pages. Well, okay, not really, but wow, she makes everything look so good

I was especially lured by the photo of the niçoise salad on page 53. “Okay”, I said to myself. “That’s what I’m making.” And so I did.

Niçoise Salad
This serves 4 — easily halved to serve 2
12 baby new potatoes, halved
10 oz green beans, trimmed and halved
14 oz ahi tuna steaks
olive oil for brushing
5 oz baby spinach leaves
2 tomatoes, sliced into wedges
2/3 cup black olives, halved (I used niçoise olives!)
salt & pepper
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered

Dressing
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
salt & pepper

Place the potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes or until almost soft. Add the beans and cook for 2 more minutes, until the beans and potatoes are tender.

Drain and cool under running cold water.

Next, brush the tuna with a little olive oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper. Grill (outdoors or on a grill pan inside) for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until the tuna is seared nicely but still rare inside. Set aside for five minutes and then slice.

To make the dressing, place the oil, vinegar, mustard, parsley, in a bowl with a little salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.

Place the spinach, tomatoes, olives, potatoes, beans, eggs slices and dressing in a big bowl. Toss to combine. Then, place the tuna slices on top, along with the egg quarters. Serve immediately.

I also toasted up some baguette slices with a little olive oil and garlic and had those on the side with some leftover hummus. It was especially good to place some of the tuna slices on a hummus-topped bread.

Thanks again to Weekend Cookbook Challenge, Running with Tweezers and Donna Hay!

***

Do you love Firefly? Then you must go buy this. jwa’s hopefully buying a copy and bringing it home from work tomorrow night. Oh and speaking of all things Joss, I have it on pretty good authority that the Buffy Singalong is coming to Portland the 4th weekend of June (Friday and Saturday nights). Dates will be officially announced March 15th.

***

One more unfood-related item. We just saw Act a Lady at Portland Center Stage. If you can get to it before it closes, your really should. It was so funny! An accordion! Men dressing as ladies! Fancy-Paris talk! Ghosts!

This was also the first time we were at their new space in The Pearl. I really like it.

This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge, (which I almost forgot about — oops!), is all about party food. So, to accomplish this, I turned to a book all about parties, entertaining and proper hostessing — I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, by Amy Sedaris. It’s very funny, kitschy, deadpan in tone and is sprinkled with hilarious photos of Amy and (quite honestly) some very unappetizing food photos. Ah, so what? I love this book. There’s also some handy and practical advice for entertaining:

A good trick is to fill your medicine cabinet with marbles. Nothing announces a nosy guest better than an avalanche of marbles hitting a porcelain sink.

or

Have toilet paper.

Genius!

While looking through the book I was tempted to make a cheese ball (one of her “famous cheese balls”), but figured another stick of butter is one of the last things jwa and I need right now. Instead, a recipe in the book submitted by Paul Dinello caught my eye. Paul’s Zucchini Fritters. The suggestion for serving these is at a “grieving party” but I say they just make a tasty breakfast, dinner snack or happy party snack! No one has to die!

The original recipe also included no measurements. Apparently Paul finds cooking without specific measurements, “exciting.” Huh. Okay. So, I’ve listed the measurements below that I used when making these. Help yourself. For the more adventurous, disregard those and just wing it like Paul. Oh and I added the mint and red pepper flakes and halved the amount of onion in my version. I just couldn’t help myself from making a couple of tiny changes, that is my way.

For a party, I’d make little fritters to serve as finger food. To make a meal of fritters, form larger patties, as I did, and serve three to a plate. The below amounts will serve about 3-4 as a meal. On the side, I whipped up some plain yogurt with garlic, tomato and cucumber. Excellent.

Paul’s Zucchini Fritters
2 medium zucchinis
2 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
1/2 a white onion, diced
8 oz feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs
6-8 tbsp flour
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 tsp fresh mint, chopped
Dash of red pepper flakes

Grate the zucchini. It’s important to get as much water out of the shredded vegetable as possible. It helps to salt it and then place a heavy lid on top it and press down. You can also wrap the grated zucchini in a tea towel and squeeze until you can’t squeeze anymore. Paul says, “When you think you’ve got all the water out keep pressing, because I can tell you, you haven’t.” He’s right about that.

In another bowl mix six tablespoons of the flour, eggs, onion, garlic, parsley, mint and feta. Combine with the zucchini and some salt and pepper. Add more flour if it seems too liquidy. Oh and don’t forget the red pepper flakes.

Coat the bottom of a hot frying pan in olive oil. For best results, make sure your pan is good and hot before adding fritters. Scoop a fist full of mixture from the bowl and shape into a small patty and place in skillet.

Let cook about 4 minutes on each side for larger fritters, 2 minutes per side for smaller ones.

I made medium-sized fritters and I got about 10 from this recipe, but if you made them slightly smaller (and depending on the size of your zucchinis), you could probably get 12. I’ve also doubled the original recipe (which said you could get 20-40 fritters from one zucchini) but I’m not really sure how that’s possible. They would have to be pretty damn tiny fritters.

I took two leftover ones today to work for breakfast and ate them cold. Wow. Still so very good. I think I’m going to definitely make these again. Thanks (as always) to Sara for hosting!

A Salute to Honey, Part II
My first attempt at creme brulee came from a trip to Bath and Body Works in Pioneer Place. Right. See, they carry products from the Savannah Bee Company and I found some orange foot scrub that I liked. I went to their Web site to learn more about the company and found a recipe section.

From there, I discovered a lavender and honey creme brulee recipe that I changed to Rosemary and Honey. This was mainly due to having a HUGE rosemary plant in the front yard that I like to find uses for and because, well, I like rosemary. Especially sneaky uses for it like drinks and desserts.

The flavor was mild and a little sweet. You could taste the rosemary just a little and it blended very well with the honey. I used vanilla sugar in my creme brulee (for the top too) but plain sugar will work fine.

Honey and Rosemary Creme Brulee
(This will make 4 creme brulees. For 2, just halve the ingredients — that’s what I did).
7 egg yolks
2 oz. sugar
2 oz. honey
2 cups half and half (or, for a richer, devil may care version, 1 1/2 cups heavy cream and 1/2 cup milk — I did the half and half and thought it was good. Heavy cream would probably even be that much more so.)
3-4 sprigs rosemary
3-t tbsp vanilla sugar (or plain sugar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put cream and milk into a saucepan with the rosemary sprigs. Bring to a boil and turn off. Let stems steep for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks, sugar and honey until smooth. Pull sprigs out of the cream and milk mixture and whisk into eggs. Strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Pour into four one cup ramekins or brulee dishes. Use a spoon to skim off any foam from the top of the dishes. Set into a baking pan, add enough hot water to reach halfway up the sides. Place in oven and bake 25 - 30 minutes or until they are set. Test by jiggling the dish. You can also test it with a thermometer. A custard is set at 165 degrees — thank you, Alton Brown!

Cool in the water bath. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

The Brulee-ing

Before serving, sprinkle tops with a thin layer of granulated sugar and caramelize with a small torch or under a high temperature broiler. If you use a broiler (like I did) you may want to take out a little protection for your creme brulee container. I used ceramic ramekins and I was 90% sure that they were broiler-proof. Just in case, I cut out little aluminum foil protectors for the tops.

My broiling took maybe 60-90 seconds. I took them out of the oven and let them sit for about five minutes before eating. The real test? The crack. I saw Alton Brown do this on the Creme Brulee (or was it custard?) Good Eats. Crack your spoon down on the top. You should hear the sugar crack. I was so excited — ours cracked!

So, I guess the lesson is, if you don’t have a little torch, you can still make creme brulee. Just use the broiler and it should work fine! Also, shopping can help you find interesting recipes.

Vanilla Sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
1 split vanilla bean, scraped clean

This is a great use for used vanilla beans. After using a bean for something else, take the scraped pod halves and through in a zip lock bag with a couple of cups of sugar. Keep sealed air tight in a dark place (like your cabinet). Use in place of plain sugar whenever it strikes your fancy.

Yeah, I know, I typically have a title picture of the finished meal but I couldn’t resist this one — my little lamb meatballs. They were so photogenic and pretty. The recipe is from Mediterranean The Beautiful Cookbook. You know, one of those huge, over-sized books with all the pictures that make you want to take a vacation to all the locales photographed within the pages. I came across it at the Borders in Beaverton on clearance for…I think it was under $10. I couldn’t pass that up.

While paging through the book, this recipe was one of the first that really caught my eye. This soup combines the meatballs, yogurt, egg yolk, mint, onion, garlic and noodles — some of my favorite things. In addition, I added some spinach to the meatballs and some bell pepper and tomato to the soup. I also used more noodle-product than the original recipe called for because, well, I like the noodle-product (gemelli, to be exact).

The soup goes great with some grilled flat bread or toasted baguette slices and a nice side of mixed olives.

Tutmac Corbasi: Yogurt Soup with Lamb Meatballs & Noodles
Meatballs:
1/2 lb ground lamb
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup defrosted spinach, drained of excess water and chopped (after you drain it, you’ll have less — probably more like a 1/4 cup — trying to remember this morning exactly how much spinach I used and I believe this was more like it)
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp paprika (I used smoked paprika)
2 tbsp olive oil

Soup:
3 cups plain yogurt (I used 1 cup regular yogurt and 2 cups low fat yogurt)
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp AP flour
2 cups lamb or chicken stock or water
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dried egg noodles or ziti, casarecci, or gemelli pasta
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 small tomato, diced
2 tbsp dried mint, crumbled

Start by making the meatballs. In a bowl, combine the meat, salt, pepper, paprika and drained spinach. Mix well. Form into tiny meatballs, about 1/2 inch in diameter.

In a frying pan over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the meatballs and fry, turning, until lightly browned on all sides, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside on a paper towel lined plate when done cooking. These will smell really good. Do your best to only try two to three meatballs while they are sitting to the side. They will call to you but be strong — remember, you need them for the soup.

In a bowl, whisk together the yogurt, egg yolks and flour until well blended. Place in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring slowly to a simmer. Add the stock or water and the garlic and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and reduce the heat. Simmer 10-12 minutes, until noodles are tender. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

While the soup is simmering, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to a small pan. Add the onion, bell pepper and dried mint. Cook until the vegetables are tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add the diced tomato to the pan, as well as the meatballs. Toss to combine.

Add the vegetables and meatballs to the sauce. Stir and let everything combine and come to temperature. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Serve right away with the bread of your choice.

Whatever happened to IMBB? The last one I saw was the soy one (which kind of fizzled out during the recap). Does IMBB go on Summer vacation or is it broken? Anyone know?

When it’s hot out, a cool dinner is the way to go. I discovered this combination a couple of years ago and it has become a meal we have a few times throughout the summer. Plus, jwa really likes egg salad and it’s occasionally nice to make him happy.

The basil in the egg salad gives it a fresh, interesting taste and works really well with the olives in the bread. This is especially good when tomatoes are in season and plentiful from the garden.

You will need:
4 eggs
a handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/4 - 1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp grated sweet onion
salt & pepper
lettuce of your choice
1 tomato, sliced
a loaf of kalamata olive bread

Hard boiling eggs
I’ve never really had a problem with green yolks or runny egg parts. Generally I bring a lidded pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Then add the eggs. Turn off the heat and put the lid back on. Wait 18 -20 minutes and that’s it. It always works perfect for me.

Run eggs under cold water until they are cool enough to handle. Peel and chop and add to a bowl. Mix in the mayo, onion, basil and mustard. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Slice four pieces off the bread and start piling it on. I start with the lettuce and then add the tomato, topping that with the egg salad. Since egg salad can be messy, I try not to overload the sandwich with extras. Although, if you like onions a lot, a few rings of red onion can be good here.

Pop the other piece of bread on top and you’re in business. I typically leave egg salad sandwiches whole, instead of slicing into halves, because of the mess that entails. I like to try and keep the egg salad within the confines of the bread for as long as possible. Serve with some potato chips (Kettle Chips Green Onion and Yogurt are awesome) and kick back with your beverage of choice.

This recipe is very decadent and pretty easy. You need to know you want it the night before but that’s not really asking too much. This is for Weekend Cookbook Challenge #4: Easter Brunch and although we had this before Easter (and the post isn’t due until April 17), it’s now out there and available for people trying to get ideas for their own Easter (or any) brunch.

It’s from Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook and this is only the second time I’ve made anything from this one. I have lots of the pages folded down, though. All of the recipes sound pretty good and are on the indulgent side, which is obviously, the theme of the book. What I have made — the pasta with gorgonzola, as asparagus and chicken and this french toast have been wonderful.

French toast attack!
You might think to yourself, “Oh, my, that looks so rich. I just couldn’t…” Well, yes, of course it’s rich and uh, hello — of course you could. You start the night before by soaking your stale, thick cut, french or sourdough bread in the half and half and egg mixture. The next morning, honey, syrup and brown sugar is whisked together, pecans added and soaked bread laid down. The baking dish is popped in the oven and a bit later you are in heaven. We had ours with crisp, applewood smoked bacon and papaya mimosas — because we are crazy. But, hey, we added diced apple on top, so there.

Thanks as always to Weekend Cookbook Challenge for hosting these events and for coming up with such fun themes! Now, on to the brunch…

French Toast Baked in Honey-Pecan Sauce
4 thick slices of stale French, Italian or sourdough bread (Mine had been left out on the counter in a paper bread bag for about 5 days — it was S-T-A-L-E and hard to cut. I might suggest that you slice the bread when it’s fresh, then let it stale-ify for a few days)

Egg Mixture
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup half and half
1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sauce
1/4 cup butter (1/2 a stick)
1/4 cup brown sugar, melted
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup pecans
Garnish: 1 Granny Smith apple, diced

The night before, combine eggs, half and half, 1/2 tbsp brown sugar and vanilla in a small bowl.

Pour half of the mixture into a baking dish. Place the bread slices in the dish and top with the rest of the half and half/egg mixture. Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, overnight.

In the morning
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove the soaked bread slices from the baking dish and set aside. The bread slices will have soaked up a lot of the egg mixture. Wash dish out and dry it so you can re-use it for baking. Add melted butter, brown sugar, honey, syrup. Whisk to combine. Add soaked bread slices. Move around in the sauce and then flip over.

Cover with pecans and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until golden. Divide toast onto plates and drizzle with whatever sauce is left in the baking dish. Serve topped with some diced apple.

A close-up of the gooey goodness

This goes excellently with a pitcher of mimosas and extra crispy bacon! (But then, what doesn’t?)

We love brunch. And I enjoy making brunch every so often. Mostly egg dishes, breakfast potatoes, English muffins and mimosas. Oh, don’t forget the mimosas! But, I like to make frittatas sometimes just because they’re fun — I get to stick my ovenproof pan in the oven. If you don’t have an ovenproof pan you don’t really need one. It can easily be made on the stove top. That’s the way I used to make them all through grad school and until pretty recently, actually.

For this frittata, I used cremini and shitake mushrooms, red bell pepper, goat cheese and fresh thyme. Our finished frittata wedges were accompanied with pepper bacon (!), scones and freshly pressed Stumptown coffee.

Mushroom, Thyme & Goat Cheese Frittata:
3-4 small potatoes (red new potatoes work well, so did little purple potatoes)
8 cremini mushrooms, sliced
8 shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced or julienned
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
4 eggs
3 oz goat cheese
1 tsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 400.

Whisk eggs in a bowl with the Dijon mustard and a little salt and pepper.

Slice the potatoes thinly, about 1/4 of an inch in thickness. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and some salt and pepper. Heat an ovenproof skillet (if you don’t have one, just use a normal skillet) and add potatoes. Let cook and brown for about 10 minutes. You should have enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Flip and stir occasionally.

While the potatoes cook, heat another pan and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Sauté the mushrooms, garlic, onion, dried thyme and bell pepper.

When the vegetables are soft and beginning to color nicely, add them on top of the potato layer in the other pan. Next add the beaten eggs and mustard. Add little clumps of goat cheese on top of the egg mixture. Let cook on the stovetop, over medium heat for about 4-5 minutes, until the egg starts to set a bit along the edges.

Then, pop in the oven for about 7-10 minutes or until the eggs are all set and the top is a bit puffed and starting to get golden. If you don’t have an ovenproof pan, turn the heat to stovetop heat to medium-low and cover the pan and cook until the eggs are set and the cheese is soft and warm, 10-15 minutes. You can also slide the half-cooked frittata out onto a plate, hold the pan upside down on top of the plate, and flip it back into the pan, potato side up to cook the top. I never did it this way, mainly because I am lazy, but I hear it works very well.

Garnish with fresh thyme leaves, cut into wedges and serve.

A frittata also makes a great dinner. Another fun frittata fact — you can pretty much, just like with an omelet, put whatever combination of meat, veggies and cheese that you like in one!

One of two remaining Andy Warhol champagne glasses in my collection — warning — don’t buy stuff you really like while in college, you will break or misplace most of it…

We love brunch here at Je Mange la Ville. In fact, I’m thinking this weekend we will have a tasty brunch. This usually includes scrambled eggs with either smoked salmon or veggies (mushrooms, peppers, onions), breakfast potatoes, sourdough English muffins, coffee press coffee and mimosas. Mmm.

Smoked Salmon Scrambled Eggs:
4 large eggs
2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1 small pkg of smoked salmon, diced (about 1/4 of a cup)
1 tsp stone ground mustard
1/4 tsp dried tarragon (or 1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon)
small handful parmesan cheese
non-stick spray (or a little butter)
salt & pepper

Beat eggs, chives, mustard, tarragon and a sprinkle of salt and pepper in a bowl. Heat a skillet on medium heat and give it a quick spray of non-stick spray (or butter it up for true decadence). Add beaten eggs and begin to scramble. When they are almost done, add the salmon and cheese. Mix in and serve hot.

Breakfast Potatoes
I’m sure I’ve talked about these before but here they are again!)
2 cups of any combination of cubed potatoes (Russets, Sweet Potatoes, Red Potatoes, etc.), diced
2 tbsp olive oil
salt & pepper
Fresh, chopped rosemary
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp paprika or other seasonings

Toss the diced potatoes in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika. Add to a preheated skillet and cook until crusty and tender (20-30 minutes). Add the garlic and rosemary when almost done so they don’t burn. Serve hot alongside the eggs and toasted, split English muffin. Perhaps even some fruit.

Mimosas
1 bottle champagne
juice of 3-4 oranges

Add everything to a pitcher and mix. Drink.

But don’t forget the coffee…

It sounded interesting
Saturday, I had a hair appointment and while I was there, I started leafing through this magazine. In it, there was an article on easy brunches and a recipe for Eggs Benedict. Although, this was a cheater’s Eggs Benedict, as you made everything in a silicone Muffin tray. I was just so intrigued by the concept that I knew I had to try it! Besides, yay! for cheating…

In addition, the recipe called for a faux hollandaise sauce, made with low-fat mayonnaise, lemon juice and Dijon mustard. Now, I love hollandaise as much as the next person and I could probably suck it down with a straw but the time for holiday excess is over. It’s January now. No carrying on like it’s still December. So, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try the not-hollandaise sauce too.

What follows, is what I did for two servings. Obviously, making three servings in a 6-cup muffin tray would be ideal but two worked just fine for jwa and I.

Experimental Eggs Benedict w/ a Silicone Tray:
4 eggs
4 slices black forest ham
2 English muffins
2 asparagus stalks, chopped into 1-inch pieces and steamed for 2-3 minutes
Non-stick cooking spray
Salt & pepper
Special equipment: silicone muffin tray

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray the silicone muffin pan with cooking spray. Crack an egg into each muffin cup and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Since I was only using four of the cups, I filled the middle two ones with pie beads. I think I read once that having something in unused muffin cups helps the heat distribute more evenly through the cups that do have batter or what-have-you, in them. That may be wrong though — I don’t know. I need my own personal Alton Brown for situations such as these. I had pie beads — I used them.

Next, place a couple of asparagus pieces and then a slice of ham over each cracked egg.

Butter two, split English muffins, placing the buttered sides down over the ham, asparagus and egg. Bake for about 13-15 minutes. The less baking time will produce runnier yolks, the whole 15 minutes will produce solid yolks. I left mine in for 15 minutes and my yolks were indeed cooked all the way. Next time, I will pull them out a couple of minutes earlier, as I appreciate a little runniness in my tasty Eggs Benedict-type dishes.

To get the eggs out of the tray, I put an upside down baking sheet on top of the muffin tray and then flipped, so that the muffin tray was upside down. If you do use pie beads or dried beans, just scoop those out (not with your fingers!) before you flip.

Then I gently pushed the eggs and muffins out and topped with my sneaky, fake hollandaise sauce.

Citrus Not-Hollandaise Sauce:
1/3 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp orange juice (yes, I used a blood orange as I had some in the house –hence the pink colored sauce in the pictures)
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp lemon juice

Whisk mayonnaise, mustard, orange juice, grated orange peel, and fresh lemon juice in small bowl to blend.

Stir sauce in a heat-safe glass bowl over a pot of simmering water until just heated through, about 2 minutes. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Top each Eggs Benedict with about a tablespoon or so of sauce and there you go. You’re all set.

The Verdict:
Okay, so real hollandaise sauce is better — there’s no question about tthat. But this wasn’t bad and I felt less guilty eating it than I would a whole plate sopping with the real thing. (mmmmm!)

As for the muffin tray trick, again, pretty good. I feel the need to play with the timing a bit to get the right yolk runniness for my palate but I’d definitely give it another try. All in all, a pretty tasty experimental breakfast was had at Je Mange la Ville that day.