NOLA Day

I don't know why I decided to make Sunday a complete NOLA day, but I did.  I suppose it started with the recipe for King Cake that I saw in Southern Living this past month.  I didn't have time to make it before Mardi Gras so I thought this weekend would be great.  Then my daughter thought she'd like Eggs Benedict for lunch or breakfast sometime soon.  And well fried chicken came to mind when I was planning my meals for the week.  So that's how it started and it was a delicious day of food. 

We started off with the King Cake for breakfast, and of course don't forget the coffee and fruit.  Yes we are still eating grapefruit from Tree Ripe Citrus Co.  My glaze got a bit runny, but it still tasted good. Unfortunately, there were no dark purple sprinkles to be had.  My thoughts on the cake are this: the cake itself was excellent and very easy to make. However, next time I'll make a brown sugar and cinnamon filling sprinkled on top of soft butter.  I wasn't really a fan of the cream cheese filling.  The recipe also made 2 cakes, and I just cut it in half.

Next up the Eggs Benedict and a chardonnay after church.  The recipe is super easy.  I just split English muffins and top with Canadian bacon.  I like to warm them up together in the oven at 300 degrees, while I'm poaching the eggs.  For the eggs themselves I like an egg poached for about 3:30.  If they need to sit in the oven on top of the ham for a second batch of eggs I usually poach for about 3 minutes.  And then the hollandaise sauce, this is my mother's and I always have good luck with it.

2 egg yolks

1 stick of butter -divided in 1/2

1 T lemon juice

Over a double boiler heat 1/2 stick butter the egg yolks and lemon juice until it comes together as a sauce whisking continuously.  Off heat whisk small chunks of the remaining butter into the sauce.  If you need to put the sauce pan back on top of the double boiler.  This should be enough for 3 servings. I usually double this for 5 people.

Finally we ended the day with my fried chicken; this is always a weekend project. On the menu we also had baked sweet potatoes, kale salad and corn relish that I canned last summer.  I don't think any of us had room for dessert.

What way did you escape the weather?

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth