Cooking with Liz

Something has happened to me over my spring break. Something terrible.

I remember a time, a time not too long ago, when spring break meant drinking...and more drinking, and yes a little more on top of that. I remember dancing. I remember heels.

And sure there's still wine (but that's not exactly a change of pace for me), but I have spent my spring break so far being so domestic I may have to change my name to Martha.

I'll have another post soon wherein I detail my "projects" (including closet organization, car cleaning, vegan cupcakes, and crafts!).

But tonight I just have to describe the heavenly dinner I just concocted. I, of course, have to thank Oprah, as one does for many good things that happen in the universe. In the latest issue of O Magazine, I came upon a page bearing this image.

And then I had a food blackout, and I woke up licking peanut butter off the floor. Because holy deliciousness Batman. This recipe manages to combine four of my favorite things in the world, four things that I would never have thought to put together-poached, runny eggs, soy sauce, asparagus, and BUTTER.

So today during an epic Whole Foods trip (where I bought Xantham gum and garbanzo flour among many other crazy things I've never even heard of for my cupcake project tomorrow), I picked up some humane eggs (isn't it nice when our food is humane instead of sadistic?), some crisp, green asparagus, and to go along with it (because I have a hard time having dinner without meat), a herb roasted rotisserie chicken and a fresh loaf of whole grain bread.

The poached egg and asparagus ended up being just as easy to cook as the recipe suggested. I brought water and a dash of white vinegar to a simmer, gently slid my humane eggs into it (that sounds dirty), and cooked them at a simmer for about three minutes, just long enough to cook the white but leave the yolk all gooey and runny and perfect. I boiled the asparagus for a quick 30 seconds. Then I heated up canola oil on a skillet, added the asparagus and soy sauce, cooked it just long enough to blister and coat, then took the skillet off the heat, added butter and water, and waited for the butter to melt. 

From there I placed my perfect, fragile egg on my asparagus, drizzled the soy/butter sauce on top, added a few tender pieces of roast chicken and then a big hunk of bread to scoop everything up.

Perfection. Simple as can be. Only a handful of ingredients.

And so, so good. Thank you Oprah. I bow down to your wisdom in all things.