I made this as the starter for Anne’s birthday dinner early this month. I could honestly eat this for breakfast, lunch or dinner on a daily basis. It’s That Good!

Grilled Asparagus Toast with Poached Eggs

• 4 large slices sourdough bread
• Olive oil
• 24 asparagus spears
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground Allepo pepper
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 4 large eggs
• Parmesan cheese
• Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a pan of water to a boil, then reduce water to a simmer. Brush one side of the bread slices with olive oil.

Heat a grill pan over high heat and toast the bread. Move each slice to its own serving plate and drizzle with olive oil.

Snap the woody end off the asparagus, then place it on a plate and coat the spears with olive oil.

Using the same grill pan, grill the asparagus for a few minutes on all sides, sprinkle with the paprika and Allepo pepper, then divide between the pieces of toast.

For the bridal shower, I not only made a quadruple recipe of the breakfast potatoes, but I also made 5 of these frittatas. The most challenging part of that was finding a place to slide the frittatas out after I cooked them. It had to be something that could then be transported to the home of the hostess, Whitney, and placed in her oven to reheat. The best I could come up with was to turn over baking sheets and place 2 frittatas on each sheet.

It may not have been the perfect solution but it worked. Once again, when you see the photos, don’t be alarmed by the quantity of food. If you make this, it will be a fifth as much.

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The weekend before last, my friend and former neighbor, Whitney, hosted a bridal shower. She asked me to help with the food and she ordered a Harmony Board too.

The menu was a green salad, frittatas, and breakfast potatoes. Since I’m Irish and I love potatoes, I’ll post that recipe first.

I quadrupled the recipe, so when you see the photos, do not fret. It looks like a lot because it is a lot!

I bought a mix of baby potatoes from Costco. The tri-color of the potatoes and tri-color of the bell peppers really make for a pretty dish, as pretty as you can get with potatoes, anyhow.

In the recipe, I say to roughly chop the potatoes, think bite-size. With the baby potatoes, that was as easy as cutting them into quarters.

Since I was just dropping the food off, I didn’t get a photo of the finished product (I did the last stage of roasting at Whitney’s house and left them in the oven as I left) so, I’ll just leave you with a photo of one the lovey buffet tables she had set up for the food.

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Tram used my kitchen to film another cooking segment, this time with the whole family. Steve & Tram’s new home will be finished in late December, so my kitchen is their surrogate TV kitchen until then.

The last time Tram filmed a cookie baking segment with Zak & Zoey, I had a hair appointment, so I wasn’t home for the filming.

This time, all four of them were here to make a Christmas casserole and it was so much fun to be a fly on the wall and watch it unfold. Look how adorably skeptical Zoey is of Zak’s cheese grating abilities.

Zak was going to town on that poor block of cheese the entire time … I was dying. Mom, Dad, and Zoey were all so focused on their own tasks that none of them noticed what Zak was up to. Late the next day I got a text from Tram saying that she just finished putting the piece together and couldn’t believe what Zak was doing to the cheese. I can’t wait to see how Tram edited it. It will air next Monday (Dec 12th) early morning (in the 6:00 hour) on (NBC) 12News.

My photos of the food aren’t all that great, since I was too focused on taking photos of the action, but trust me Steve’s family recipe is delicious.

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The peaches are all picked, given away or eaten. Makes me somewhat sad but also relieved. I can write about something else now! Plus, peach season continues at farmers’ markets, so I can always get my fix if needed.

How about a little something for breakfast or brunch?

Avocado Baked Eggs

• 2 large ripe firm avocados
• 4 medium to large eggs
• Juice of 1 lime
• Mama Mai’s S&P
• Linda’s Southwest Seasoning
• 1 medium ripe tomato, diced
• 1 small yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Plain non-fat yogurt
• Hot sauce
• Additional lime for garnish

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Ever since I started this blog, coming up on 7 years now, in August, 2009, there has been one aspect of posting that I’ve been terrible at keeping up on.

It is the task of putting all new recipes over there into the Complete Recipe Index that you see in the left column of the page. It’s not that it is a hard thing to do, it’s just something that I consistently forget to do.

You see, it can’t be done when the post is being written. It can only happen after the post goes live. Therein lies the problem. Once a post goes live, I’m already on to the next post, the next recipe, the next day. Out of sight – out of mind.

Then, once I’ve gotten far behind, it really does become hard to do and even harder to catch up.

Well, I’m here to tell you that I’m very proud of myself. I am all caught up! I updated the Menu Ideas page while I was at it. And it only took me … three days. Really, I’ve been working on it since Monday morning, off and on, but still, three damn days! I hope you’ll check it out.

The last recipe I entered into the Index was from early March 2014. There have been more than 300 posts since then. It makes me grateful that I took that 7 month’s hiatus for Marissa’s wedding, otherwise that number would have been much higher!

Besides getting it done, the upside is that while I was doing all that work, looking over every single post from the last 2+ years, I realized that I never posted about Marissa & Jeff’s Wedding Brunch. This Sunday will be their 6-month anniversary, so I guess this is as good a time as ever.

Here is the sad part. I don’t remember much about the brunch at all! I was in a complete fog and haze. I don’t know what I served or how it was set up.

I only remember that I had a pretty great Bloody Mary & Mimosa Bar on my cute French buffet on the back patio. There are no photos of it but I do recall that Jonathan Vento was the voluntary master bartender and was whipping out Bloody Marys like nobody’s business.

I remember that the bridal party all the kids’ friends were hanging out on the far east side of the patio and seemed to be having a grand old time.

I distinctly remember that my wonderful friends and family helped me A LOT! I had not slept a wink on the wedding night. I never even put my head on the pillow. I was up cooking and setting up the entire time from when we got home and unloaded from the wedding until my girlfriend, Mary, showed up to help and as others arrived early and pitched in.

I can’t remember even one dish that I served, not one! If any of my family, friends, or Marissa’s friends who were there remember, I’d love to know. Seriously, I would!

And I remember that after all the friends left, and only family remained, I had to excuse myself and go to bed and pass out. I didn’t wake up until hours later, long after everyone had cleaned it all up and left. What a haze it was and still is.

But the one thing that I will never forget is this gorgeous Cheese Cake that I assembled for my girl. She had seen something like it on Pinterest – long before her engagement – and she wanted one so bad.

We had thought about having it at the wedding, but the cost was prohibitive. Having a venue or restaurant do this would be crazy expensive. To do it yourself is still not cheap, but totally worth it.

Even though I could barely put together a cohesive sentence or keep my eyes open during the brunch, this beautiful presentation and the joy on the many faces, especially my beautiful girl’s face, when they lay their eyes on it – that made the sleepless night seem like nothing.  It was the perfect wedding brunch.

That, I remember.

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We all know that I don’t bake.

Yet I did, voluntarily, on Sunday.

Weird, I know!

It all had to do with the blueberries that were on sale at Fry’s.

I bought them, only because they were on sale, then I didn’t know what to do with them … so I baked. The result was pretty darn fantastic! (Oh, I bought the pork loin on sale too… that recipe will follow soon.)

I used Meyer lemons because I have them, but regular Lisbon lemons would be just as delicious.

If you need either, and you are in my neighborhood … contact me and you can pick as many as your heart desires.

I do not charge $46 (plus $10 for shipping) for 3 pounds as they do on Food52/Provisions!!! In fact, I don’t charge anything, they are free for the picking. Meyer or Lisbon! And yes, both are organic!

Before we get to the recipe, a few notes:

I love to use a longer and thinner loaf pan for bread. There are more slices and they are a nicer size. A 12″ long by 4 1/2″ wide by 2 1/2″ deep loaf pan is my favorite size to use.

When you use a glaze on baked goods, the glaze drips. Many recipes call for you to place the baked item on a rack – over waxed paper or such.

Don’t bother with the wax paper, just place it on a rack – on a clean counter. It is much easier to pick up the excess glaze drips with a pastry scraper and drizzle over the bread a second or even a third time this way.

When making the glaze, start with the juice from 1/2 a lemon and add more as needed. Powdered sugar soaks up liquid like a sponge, so start with a little and add more as needed, instead of adding too much liquid at the start and having to add more and more sugar to get the consistency you want.

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At the Craft Party last weekend, it may have been warm outside and most of the guests were wearing shorts and sundresses …. that doesn’t mean we can’t begin to dream about and enjoy the fun and flavors of fall and winter!

What the heck!??! We were making fall and winter crafts so we may as well eat food associated with the season! With that in mind, I made these tasty gingerbread muffins.

Gingerbread Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 8-ounces sour cream
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger

Grease 12 muffin cups; set aside.

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This was the most popular recipe from the Craft Party, not surprising since it’s basically a dessert disguised as breakfast food. Tomorrow, I’ll post the instructions for one of the most popular crafts that were offered … Cocktail Infusions. Those may not sound exactly crafty, but they are easy to assemble and make great hostess gifts!

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