Guest star: Liz

Was invited to a tasting last month for my friend who is in pastry school. She made this smashing pistachio creme brulee with chocolate cookies. The doily was a little girlie for my tastes, though.

Check out Liz's adventures at http://bakedbyliz.blogspot.com/

Poached eggs

Poaching eggs is surprisingly difficult. The timing seems kind of weird, because you get a bunch of carry-over after you take them out. Here's what I did:

1. Simmer a few inches of water.
2. Add a pinch of salt and half pinch of sour salt (or vinegar, but I didn't have any white vinegar on hand).
3. One egg at a time, crack egg into a bowl and slide the egg into the simmering water.
4. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon. (Cook longer if you don't like runny eggs, but 5 minutes seemed to give me pretty hard cooked eggs and 4 minutes wasn't runny enough)

I put mine on top of hash browns and chopped proscuitto, with some hot sauce and S&P to top it all off. Next stop, hollandaise!

Salad night

Some avocado, peppadew peppers, tomatoes, field greens, and a hunk of rustic wheat.