Hollandaise sauce & Gluten Free Eggs Benedict

Have you ever gone to shopping and found several thing you just had to buy and afterwards one of them got forgotten about? I had gotten several books in my buying splurge, and when I got home I put all but one on the shelf and went off to read. This was years ago mind you, I did pick up the book, but not with the enthusiasm that I had when I bought it.

This book had a companion book of sorts, about cooking ingredients, one which I love to look through for cooking ideas. I also looked through this one, I even book marked recipes that I wanted to try, but I never got around to cooking any of them, until now.

I wanted Hollandaise sauce to make Eggs Benedict and I knew this book had a simple recipe for it.  I wasn't originally planning on using this cooking session for a post so the pictures are a little messy, they were an afterthought in the middle of cooking, I decided that I had to share this with you guys.

I got the ingredients together and pretty much just whisked for a while, the recipe was super simple.

Whisk, whisk, melt, melt....

Golden tangy goodness.

I roasted the broccoli and cauliflower in the oven while I got everything else ready. My toast was toasted and buttered. My ham slices (I didn't have Canadian bacon, so I had to make do) were browned in my frying pan next to my eggs. The most challenging part was doing all this while still whisking the hollandaise! Thankfully I prep everything before I actually start cooking, so everything I needed was in arms reach. I pre-crack my eggs in little dishes and salt and pepper them so I can just pour them into the pan when ready.

I made this for dinner and scarfed up everything, the hollandaise was so good. Because it was just me eating I had a lot of left over hollandaise sauce and had to keep it warm so it wouldn't separate. The book suggests variations for the sauce, one of which is to make it a Mousseline sauce by adding cream to it once it cooled slightly. I decided to try it, hoping that it would keep it from separating once it cooled. It mellowed out the flavor nicely and made it even creamier. And guess what? It allowed me to reheat the sauce the next day, without it separating, and I made a wonderful breakfast for Mr. Beam and myself. I will definitely be using this recipe again.

A different way

I love keeping hard boiled eggs in the fridge. I grab one when I'm in a hurry, just peel, eat, and go.  It helps that I get a few dozen farm fresh eggs from my parents every two weeks, I'm a little spoiled.

Now with them being fresh from the farm they do not like to peel very easily, there is a protective film between the egg and the shell. I've read that putting baking soda in the water as you boil them makes peeling easier.

Then the other day on pinterest I saw a pin on baking the eggs instead of boiling them. So the next time I need to boil my eggs I baked them instead.

So I arranged the eggs on the oven rack and baked them for 20 minutes, easy.

I then put them in an ice bath to cool them quickly and stopped the cooking process. (my ice is almost completely melted in the photo)

 I peeled one for a snack right after they were cooled, it was so easy to peel and it was cooked perfectly. I was really excited.

I normally keep my 'boiled' eggs in the door of my fridge with the shells still on so I can grab then at leisure,  however I found that with this baking method leaving the shell on is a mistake and the egg is supper hard to peel afterwards (was left to eat only the yolk several times because of how mutilated the white got while trying to peel it).

So if your needing the eggs for a party and will use them right away go ahead and bake them, but if you plan on storing them like I do, boil them or bake them and peel right away (you would then need to seal them in a container for later use) I like that I found another method for getting the perfect 'boiled' egg but I think i'll stick to  boiling in for now...

An Easy Breakfast

Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day, but lately I'm so sluggish in the morning I don't feel awake enough to make anything and settle for a handful of almonds until I'm extremely hungry  which can happen from 40 minutes to two  hours later. It's bad I know but some days I cannot help it. When I began researching for planning my meals I stumbled on a recipe for making your own breakfast sandwiches and freezing them. http://www.theyummylife.com/Egg_McMuffin

 I got pre-made Gluten free bread for mine and I used blueberry English muffins for Mr. Beams (they smell like heaven). I used cheddar cheese and Canadian bacon and I got extra eggs from my parents (I love farm fresh eggs!)

I did not read the up-date on their website about cooking the eggs, so the first time I made them my eggs were small and a little deformed, but they worked. I made these again recently and used my creme brule containers as well as a few of their other tips and the eggs turned out better.

While my eggs cook in the oven I slice the cheese and toast my bread (if your only going to reheat them in the oven you don't need to toast if before hand, but I suggest it for when reheating in the microwave for the bread to have a better flavor and texture)

When the eggs are done I start assembling them...

(this picture was from my very first batch when the eggs were really small and thick, after using the other pans and breaking the yolk before cooking the eggs fit much better)

When they were all assembled I wrapped them individually in wax paper and stacked them in a cheap foil baking dish and covered them with foil so they would stay nice and tidy in my freezer.
After breaking it down each sandwich cost me roughly $1.27. If I needed to make more than a dozen I could probably buy in bulk and reduce the price even more, but with just me and Mr. Beam 6 sandwiches each is perfect :)

Dutch babies a.k.a German pancake

 One of my favorite things to have for breakfast before going gluten free was dutch babies (some people know them as German pancakes) there egg-y and puffy and if done right the corners with have a salty crispness to them. Drench them in syrup, lemon and powered sugar or with butter and fresh fruit they are delicious.  I cannot tell you how excited I was to find a gluten free recipe for them a few months ago, but I can tell you I have made the a LOT sense them. (and of course I cannot find the website where I found the recipe, so until I do, you don't have a link)

Five simple ingredients:

 2 TBs butter

6 Eggs room temperature (leaving them out overnight works well)

1 1/4 cup milk

1 cup GF flour blend (Use whatever four blend you like as long as it contains flours only. I usually  mix Rice, tapioca, and millet.

1/4 tsp Salt

Directions:  Preheat over to 375degrees and place butter in your casserole dish and put it in the warming oven to let it melt and coat the pan.   Combine the eggs, milk, salt and flour and mix until there are no lumps. When over is at 375 pour your batter into the buttered pan and  bake for about 20 minutes.

It gets beautifully bubbly and golden.

cut into squares and top with your favorite topping and enjoy!

With lemon and powdered sugar :)

With homemade berry syrup and powdered sugar :)


I loved making the homemade berry syrup with the dutch babies were cooking.

I took a few handfuls of frozen berries (saved from the summers farmers market) and added a bit of sugar and a pinch of kosher salt and let it bubble and cook down until the dutch babies were done. Yummy!