ffwd: creamy mushrooms & eggs
For some reason, I kept thinking this week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie was called creamy eggs and mushrooms, and I had visions of scrambled eggs with mushrooms. I found the idea appealing, but not necessarily interesting. When I looked more closely to write out the grocery list, I was delighted to find I was wrong. The recipe is actually for creamy mushrooms and eggs, which are poached, not scrambled.
What a perfect dish for brunch! The mushrooms are sautéed with shallots, and then cream is added and simmered to thicken before finishing with fresh herbs. The sauce is spooned over toast and topped with a poached egg.
This recipe was a team effort. I made the sauce while Howard poached the eggs. Dorie recommends challah or brioche, but any kind of toast would do. I went with the egg bread theme and bought egg sandwich rolls at the grocery store because they didn’t have any loaves of the recommended bread. Slices from a loaf would have presented better because the top of the roll didn’t sit flat on the plate, though it still tasted great.
The two of us shared the full recipe, and I know we’ll be making this again, for ourselves or guests.
The sauce could definitely be repurposed for dinner. I recently concocted a similar sauce with a generous dose of garlic and some Madeira and served it over leek and fennel ravioli. It was also delicious. The flavors of mushrooms and cream are a winning combination!
We don’t post the recipes, but you can find it in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table.
To see what other Doristas thought of this recipe, check out their posts here.
To Bee or Not to Bee?
For those of you that followed my bee (mis)adventures last summer, I’m happy to report that I’m trying again. Two weeks ago, I picked up a new package of bees and introduced them to their new home.
A package of bees is a small wooden box, with mesh sides, filled with about three pounds of bees. That’s about 10,000 bees and their queen. The queen is in her own private cage, sealed up with candy, waiting for the bees to eat up the candy and open up her way out of the cage.
A Package of Bees
I find installing bees into their hive is a leap of faith. Even though I did it last year, it’s a little frightening to open the package, remove the queen’s cage and situate it, and then with a few brisk shakes, dump the rest of the bees into the hive. Actually, the bees are much more interested in the queen and having a home to occupy than with me. A few swirled around me as they got oriented, but most of the bees settled into the hive. It was a sting-free experience!
Hive with empty package on top
During the week, the bees were busily coming and going. They took some of the food (sugar syrup) I provided, but with new trees and flowers in bloom daily, I think they are finding plenty of forage in the neighborhood.
After a week, it was time to check that the queen had been released from her cage and started her job of laying eggs. Unfortunately, I had done something wrong and, not only was she NOT released, she was dead in her cage.
Have no fear, it’s not the end of the story. I was able to get a new queen and get her settled in to wait for her release. In a few days, I’ll have a chance to check on her, but I’m hopeful all is well. Stay tuned for the next chapter.
Queen #2 The red dot will make her easier to find during hive inspections.
It makes me feel happy to be able to sit at the kitchen table and watch the bees coming and going in the backyard. Or fly around me as I get the garden ready for summer. My beehive makes my garden complete. It reminds of this poem:
The year’s at the spring
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hillside’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn:
God’s in His heaven—
All’s right with the world!
From Pippa’s Song by Robert Browning
A Plateful of Happiness 