Retro/Eggs in a Nest

Thursday and a jam packed day. This morning found me peeling 16 apples (half Granny Smith and half MacIntosh) for two apple pies I'll take to the Welfare Sewing at the Women's Club today. I'm in charge of dessert for lunch today. Then the day making those bra inserts for women who've recently undergone mastectomy surgery. Tonight a party in the burbs for an important vendor. I'll do all this while holding to my new eating plan which, by the way, is going great. Giving up wheat and dairy is turning out to be surprisingly OK!  Makes for some weird breakfasts though! This morning I ate leftovers from dinner last night - "Eggs in a Nest". which can be found on the writer Barbara Kingsolver's webpage - from her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  Eggs in a nest shouldn't taste as good as it does - who would have thunk a combination of kale, onion, garlic, carrots and sun-dried tomatoes cooked down and then topped with six eggs (you make impressions in the kale with the back of a spoon and crack each egg into the depression) could taste like candy? I have to remind myself when I'm eating it that it's really OK - the delicious police aren't going to swoop in and snatch it from me, wagging their finger at me.

Yesterday, nice time with neighbor Una. Feeling like such a throwback! So much of what I do these days is retro, right? Time spent sewing at the Women's Club is such a yesterday thing to do - it's a time warp. First of all just being in the vintage building with all the old furnishings makes me feel turn of the century. We sew on old black Singer sewing machines from the '30's or '40's that miraculously still work (they are so basic they don't even reverse stitch). We eat a ladies lunch which is civilized and dainty - I swear if someone makes aspic I'll know I've been time transported. Without it being a rule, cell phones don't ring - it's as if, when you walk through the door, they're disabled.

There's more! The songs I sing are mostly from the '30's and '40's (The American Songbook). I find myself singing to my soldier boy more often than not. The exception is the Burt Bacharach stuff that I've been working on, but even that is now music that is 40+ years old! (how did that happen?). And now I'm coffee klatching with my neighbor every week - feeling like Laura Petrie to her Millie! (or vice versa - Una you can be Laura if you want).

Time-crunched this morning so I'm cutting this short.  I'll leave you with the recipe for "Eggs in a Nest".  And your challenge today could be rethinking breakfast. What I'm finding is that typical American breakfast fare is probably the meal where we abuse ourselves the most. Either we don't eat it at all or we're stuffing ourselves with carbs and sugar and when we do include protein it is the bad-for-you cured kind.  Other cultures get it right or do it better. Chinese people eat an unsweet rice dish. Italians tend to eat lightly with an emphasis on meat and cheese. Even the British eat beans! Body Ecology would have us start the day with soup but I'm not there quite yet!

• EGGS IN A NEST
• 
  
• Prepared brown rice
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped (used two onions)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 c. carrots, chopped (I sliced mine thinly - didn't chop them - prefer little rounds)
• 1/2 c. dried tomatoes (I used the ones packed in oil)
• 1 really large bunch of chard, chopped (I used two bunches of kale - removed the center rib and chopped it up
• 8 eggs 

DIRECTIONS

Cook rice in 4 c. water while other ingredients are being prepared. Saute onions and garlic in oil until lightly golden. Add carrots and tomatoes, adding water if necessary. Add chard, and cover for a few minutes. Uncover, then make depressions in the leaves for the eggs. Break eggs into depressions, keeping yolks whole, cover and allow eggs to poach for 3-5 min. Serve over rice. If you have leftover, make sure to remove the cover or the yolks will continue to cook even if the heat is off.

Peace!
Sarah