Happy Father’s Day & Eggs Benedict {from one year ago}

One year ago, on Father’s Day, I published my first post on Lemony Thyme.  A website only I knew existed, I was writing to myself.  It was scary intimidating at first.  I had no real plan other than to bottle my creative passion in one neat and tidy place.  A somewhat private place where family and friends might visit.  That’s what I thought and hoped for a year ago.

Today as I write this, I see Lemony Thyme as anything but ‘bottled’ or contained.  I’m a bit random in my recipe selections, I hope in a good way.  And am quite inspired by the thousands of visitors to our page, so ‘private’ is out the window.  What I do hope remains in the coming year is an intimate feel without too much personal.  You’re never going to know if my washing machine breaks, unless of course it floods my kitchen.  But I will continue to share ‘me’ with you.  After all, this is my neat and tidy place with lots of room for family and friends to visit.  I hope you’ll continue to do so.

Flashback June 17, 2012

We gave Dad a choice this Father’s Day ~ go out for brunch or brunch at home.  Brunch at home won hands down and so it was declared….We shall have Eggs Benedict!  Works for me.  This was also a chance to cook with my kid, who I adore and am inspired by on so many levels.  Her 2012 #1 resolution was “to learn how to cook and enjoy doing it.”  To date her What’s for Dinner, Jr. album on fb has 99 food related pictures reflecting her vegetarian & healthy choices mingled with amazing muffins & cookies.  I hope she’ll guest post for me some day soon!

Eggs Benedict gives you so many options:  choice of bread or other platform ingredient, a favorite protein or veggie middle, a gorgeous egg cooked your way, all topped off with a splendid sauce.  We stayed fairly true to the original version using an English Muffin, in our case crisp bacon (option #1) or homemade crab cake (option #2), topped with a poached egg, and finished with Hollandaise sauce.

For the Hollandaise sauce…

4 egg yolks

1 Tbl. fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick ya’ll)

2 Tbl. hot water

Pinch cayenne & pinch salt

While I have made Hollandaise many times before (some that turned out great and others that turned out to be scrambled eggs) this would be the first time for my daughter.  And so I recommended to her and I do to you as well, gather all ingredients and have them ready.  Once you get started it happens quickly.

Bring water to boil in small saucepan then reduce to lowest setting (not simmering).  Whisk egg yolks and lemon juice in small stainless steel bowl until thickened and light yellow in color.  Then place bowl over saucepan and continue to whisk egg yolks briskly while pouring in a slow stream of the melted butter.  Add the 2 Tbl. hot water and whisk until nice and thick.  Remove from heat stir in cayenne & salt.  Serve immediately (keeping warm can be tricky – but if you need to, do so slowly over hot water bath).