The Foodie Girls Pick up the Gauntlet Rosie

Threw Down and Make Eggs Benedict

Recently,

Rosie Hawthorne of Kitchens are Monkey Business

fame, challenged her blog readers to make eggs Benedict.

Well, we couldn't ignore that challenge.

But, you know us.

We also couldn't just make the recipe verbatim, either.

In the same March issue of Southern Living,

I found an intriguing recipe for

BLT Benedict with Avocado-Tomato Relish.

So I decided to mesh the two recipes into one.

Intrigued?

Here are our players:

bacon

spinach

a locally made loaf of Pane Bello bread

mayonnaise

eggs

grape tomatoes

lemon

butter

salt

black pepper

First I started out whisking two egg yolks

and the juice of half a lemon

over in a bowl over a pan of hot water.

Unfortunately, the water must have been too hot

as the eggs began to curdle.

Fortunately for me,

the Foodie Daughter remembered hearing

Anne Burrell saying that one should add an ice cube

if one's hollandaise sauce begins to curdle.

Whew, that was a close one.

Thanks, Foodie Daughter.

I owe you.

And no, I've never made this sauce before.

See? Looking good.



Now we are adding a pat of butter one at a time.



Per Rosie Hawthorne's instructions,

we added 3/4 stick of butter total.



While all this drama was unfolding,

the bacon was merrily cooking away in the

toaster oven and we snuck the bread in there as well

to toast a bit.




Then it was time to poach the eggs.



Once again, I followed Rosie Hawthorne's advice

and added a bit of vinegar to the water and

swirled the water before adding the egg to the water.



As we like our eggs slightly more cooked,

we set the timer for 3 minutes, 50 seconds.





The final plating:

The toasted bread was spread with mayonnaise on one side.

Then spinach was laid on top.

Two slices of bacon were folded over that

before the poached egg was gently placed on top.

The hollandaise sauce was ladled over all and the

halved grape tomatoes were scattered over

before salt and pepper were added.






Rosie, you were right.



This is divine.