Sunday, February 13, 2011

oh what a beautiful morning

Had the most radiantly lovely breakfast the other day: it was before work, but I managed to book it to the gym first thing, have a pleasantly sweaty workout, have my favorite blissful walk across the gym parking lot (high on endorphins, warmed from the exercise so all I need is a hoodie… in February!), and still have the time to sit down and hard boil an egg for breakfast.

DSC02782

Perfect hardboiled egg! Cover the eggs (I always do a few) with cold water in a small pot, bring to a boil, immediately turn off heat (if you have an electric stove there will remain residual heat which is all you need- if you have gas turn it to low) and let simmer for one minute.

Then cover the pot, remove it from the heat, and let it sit for 13 minutes. PERFECTION!

DSC02785

Rounded out with Quaker Oatmeal Squares (true, bizarre story: we discovered on our door two samples of this cereal and of Quaker’s new instant oatmeal. From time to time, people apparently wander my neighborhood distributing Quaker samples. This is so, so so amazing!), and a grapefruit.

I cannot stop eating grapefruit. February is National Grapefruit Month, and I have a cold.

DSC02784

The abundance of flowers?

Here’s the thing: when you break your pelvis (as my mother recently did… in Antarctica) a lot of people send you flowers. A lot.

DSC02786

(Another bouquet has arrived since this photograph was taken).

It makes for a really pretty kitchen table, and makes you want to top it with other pretty things.

Like Sunday brunch (the prettiest meal!) in the form of savory oats, something you haven’t had in way too long!

  DSC02728  

Oats cooked up with milk and frozen spinach, topped with a laughing cow and a fried egg. Plus tea and an Asian pear. And sunshine and flowers and the Sunday paper.

  DSC02733

This was the most successful fried egg I’ve made in SO LONG. Steve is really good at them, which I think is because he has no qualms whatsoever about using very very large quantities of butter. However, I managed to pull this off just using VERY thorough cooking spray.

Ohhhhhhh and it is so good. I love farmer’s market eggs. And the rich egg yolk-salty cheese-slightly bitter spinach combination was just… cool :D

 DSC02735 

Another meal among the foliage: yummy weekend lunch!

I love getting time to devote to lunch. I hate hate hate weekday lunches at this point. I typically have 15 stress-filled minutes to eat and derive no satisfaction whatsoever from the experience.

Experiences like this are necessary:

DSC02788

I ate a really really super fantastic oh-so-colorful and nutrient-rich salad: a base of spinach with carrots, canned sardines in mustard (my mother says one of the things she kept from being married to my dad- other than, uh, the kids- was buying canned sardines. They are awesome. And low in mercury, sustainable, and ludicrously high in omega 3!), carrots, leftover pumpkin hummus, and pickled beets.

Phenom.

 DSC02790

Along with a yogurt and yet another grapefruit.

DSC02791

So beautiful!

6 comments:

J3nn (Jenn's Menu and Lifestyle Blog) said...

I make hard-boiled eggs the same way! They come out perfectly. :)

Tamara Marnell said...

I love hard boiled eggs (well, I love deviled eggs, which is one step away) but I'm terrible at peeling them. So I have to wait until I have reasonably old eggs to boil so the shells come off easily, and my eggs never get old enough because I come up with things to bake.

Steven Alexander Heathcliff Basil Bert said...

Oats and spinach??? Holy heaven!!! That looks sooooo good. You just helped me discover this evening's dinner (perhaps with some sriracha).

Jess said...

Those savory oats look REALLY good!!

Maya said...

I have been loving grapefruits myself! I am happy to hear it's national grapefruit month. However, I didn't really need another reason to eat grapefruit.

I am determined to hang out with you in the near future, Lele!

^^two comments above mine. adorable.

MelindaRD said...

Looks like lots of good eats. I could go for a grapefruit right now.