Mornin’ all. Today has set up for the typical SoFL “Everybody gets their streets washed for a few minutes some time” song. Our turn is right now, an hour-ish after sunrise so I’m indoors. Coffee is going down nicely after an uneventful prep. Her Ladyship is awake and lounging in bed, having requested her first round of water and apple juice without me needing to solicit. Yaay!
I just glanced outside and a cluster of a dozen or so bright kid’s balloons is floating skyward. Perhaps someone has launched a signal to Darci to come home. I’ll take it that way at least.
Desserts, eh? Hmm. Her Ladyship, still being petite & svelte despite her age, is a carboholic and the sweeter & gooier the better. Her idea of ideal breakfast is something like a Nutella-stuffed French Toast drowning in real maple syrup with powdered sugar on top washed down by a caramel macchiato with extra sugar. By contrast, my raggedy pancreas is whimpering in fear just looking at that pile of Death. Her idea of desserts goes up (!) from there. She manages her figure with very firm portion control, exercise, and being almost as restless and active as our own FCM. Almost; nobody can keep up with FCM … nobody.
My dessert choices now run from cheeses to berries to dark chocolate. and an occasional spoonful of ice cream or bite of cake / pie / whatever that somebody else is having.
A fave at home is ~1/2 cup of mixed black-, rasp-, and blue-berries with about 1/4 cup of heavy cream poured over, and about a half-square of Lindt’s 76% dark chocolate shaved on top. Takes all of 2 minutes to prepare and is both elegant and yummy.
Last nights’ dessert was a couple ounces of Trader Joe’s Blue Stilton served on Colombian wheat crackers. The “Colombian” part matters since a lot of US-made whole wheat products add honey or sugar or HFCS (or sometimes all three :eek: ) to hide the flavor of whole wheat that Americans don’t like and substitute the flavor of sugar, which they lurve. “Whole grain” is totally different from low-carb or low-sweet. The Colombians have no such faults, preferring the grains themselves, and their products are commonplace in our stores since their people are commonplace in our neighborhoods. Yaay!
From last night of last week’s thread:
Quickly Poached No-Fuss Egg(s):
- Start with an individual ramekin or Pyrex bowl big enough to comfortably hold the cracked egg(s). I have some hemispherical dessert bowls ideal for this, but almost anything that size will do.
- Put ~1/2" of water in the bowl. A little less is better than a little more.
- Microwave the bowl+water on full power for 30 seconds to get the water good and hot. In the dead of polar winter you might need 45 seconds. No need to boil the water, just get it close.
- Carefully crack your egg(s) into the bowl of very hot water. A broken yolk means a disgusting but still nutritionally adequate result.
- Pierce each yolk with a toothpick, knifepoint, etc. CAUTION: Skipping this step results in needing to wash out your microwave.
- Microwave on 50% power for 50 seconds for 1 large egg, up to maybe 110 seconds for 2 jumbos. You’ll have to experiment with times versus your own microwave, size & number of eggs, etc. No need to cover the bowl with anything. CAUTION: Skipping the “50% power” part results in needing to wash out your microwave.
- Use a slotted spoon to carefully get under the cooked egg(s), then tip the bowl into the sink to drain as much of the liquid as you easily can. The bowl will be very warm to the touch, but not too hot to comfortably handle. No awkward mitts are needed. You’ll lose a bit of runny white in the water if the eggs are less-done. So be it. Rinse the slotted spoon and set it aside to dry.
- Eat the egg(s) with whatever toppings you enjoy. The bowl & spoon are the only utensils needing to be washed afterwards.
My standard breakfast is one such egg, some dairy like cottage cheese or non-sweet yogurt, some fruit like berries or a tangerine / mandarin, and a small slice of low-carb bread with a thick smear of PB. Sometimes I skip the bread in favor of more fruit, but still eat the PB.
During the ~2 minutes total that the microwave is running I can get out the bread & drop a slice into the toaster to warm, get out the PB, fruit, and dairy, and pull out the slotted & regular spoon. Plus a paper napkin to serve as a plate & placemat for it all. Before the spoon gets eggy, eat your serving of dairy out of the container, then spoon out a lump of PB onto the toast & spread it a bit with the back of the spoon. Then eat the egg, fruit, and toast together in whatever order.
When you’re done, close up the napkin full of bread crumbs, dripped whatever, and perhaps fruit peel. Into the trash it goes after a quick face-wipe. Rinse the egg bowl & spoon & into the dishwasher they go. Done.
With practice, you can put the whole thing on the table in 4 minutes flat. The key is to do all the non-egg prep work while the microwave is running. If the eggs sit 20 or 30 seconds in the cooking water before draining while you’re busy with other prep, they’ll continue to firm up a bit, but not too badly. This meal definitely takes longer to eat than it does to make. Clean-up is all but instant too.
Now that Her Ladyship has joined my life the process is less efficient and creates more mess which results in more cleaning. At least while she’s watching. 
You may not have this constraint.
Cloth placemats and cloth napkins are needed. To be laundered after the single use. The toast needs a plate and a knife to first serve the PB onto the plate, then to spread the plated PB onto the toast. Ideally two separate knives of different shapes would be used. Eating dairy from the container is right out; a separate bowl is needed. Even though she doesn’t eat my kind of dairy so we’re not sharing germs / cooties. She has relented that it’s OK to use the same spoon to serve the dairy into a bowl then use it later to eat the egg. Barely.
The result is my way dirties a spoon and a bowl. Her way dirties 2 bowls, 2 spoons, 1 plate, 1 (or 2) knife(s), a placemat, and a napkin. Good thing she’s Hawt. And likes washing & putting away dishes and doing laundry. Me? I’m all about speed through effort avoidance, not delay through effort creation. 