First Prize!

What a week!!!  I knew it was going to be a busy one when I counted appointments and found nineteen on the calendar.  As is usual, a couple rescheduled and a couple got added.  But, I was working my tookus off just to be prepared.  Then, in walks an auditor.  In my business, audits are regular.  As well they should be.  We're working with people's money.  Surprise audits are to be expected on a regular basis also.  The good news is that this fellow was experienced and we had zero deficiencies.  But, I was in the office or working from home fourteen hours a day.  I was totally exhausted.  Then, yesterday, I got an email that, shall we say, rather changed my energy level.  It was from the folks at Eggland's Best.  About a month ago I entered my Puttanesca Salad into their contest.  The email was telling me it won first prize!!!  Holy Cow!!!  I've entered a couple of contests before but have never won anything.  How much fun is this?

So, rather than share the Vietnamese Beef recipe I'd planned on sharing, I thought I'd do that later and share a link to the Puttanesca Salad recipe today.  Before I do, just a bit of history on the recipe.  Wikipedia says, "Spaghetti alla puttanesca (literally "whore's style spaghetti" in Italian) is a spicy, tangy, somewhat salty Italian pasta dish invented in the mid-20th century. The ingredients are typical of Southern Italian cuisine."

My first memory of spaghetti alla puttanesca was on a visit to Las Vegas twenty plus years ago to see my friends Steve and Terri.  Terri's mom had found the recipe in the Silver Palate cookbook and was raving about it.  It had all the ingredients I love:  olives, anchovies, garlic and yes, tomatoes.  It became one of my go-to pasta dishes.  When I met Connie I fixed it for him and he loved the dish as much as I did.  Fast forward to today and my love for poached eggs.  Once I figured out how to make them I knew I'd found my perfect egg.  Not that I was going to do without our go-to Sunday breakfast of a hard-cooked egg, halved and topped with an anchovy and capers and drizzled with olive oil.

Or, for that matter, egg salad, deviled eggs, frittata,

quiche, scrambled eggs, like Heartland Scramble

or any of the other wonderful ways to fix eggs.  But, a poached egg gives me a cooked white AND a runny yolk. Nirvana.  And, I've found that adding a poached egg to a dish finishes it in a way nothing else can do. 

Here are some of my favorite dishes with poached eggs:

Crabcakes Benedict

Poached Eggs on Feta Cheese

English Muffins with Spinach and Eggs

Last, but not least, here's the link to Eggland's Best Puttanesca Salad.  It combines two of my favorite things in one dish - puttanesca sauce and a poached egg.  And, it tastes really, really good!

Eggs and Anchovies

Anchovies are basically a salt delivery system.  I've put them in lots of dishes and anchovy haters have gobbled them up.  I remember having a dinner party many years ago.  One of the guests was pretty darned picky.  He asked what we were having and I told him the menu.  Yuck, he said to Caesar Salad.  Don't put any of those little fish in there!  Hmmm, how to hide them?  The blender.  Worked like a charm.  As he was wolfing down his third serving of Caesar salad - with anchovies, thank you very much - I asked how he liked it.  Wonderful he says.  Really?  Even with a whole tin of anchovies in it?  Just proves that you need not tell folks everything - unless of course, you're dealing with allergies!  Fortunately for me, Connie likes anchovies as well as I do.  Our grocery list has an entry for flat anchovies and one for rolled anchovies.  Needless to say when I read a description of this egg and anchovy dish, I decided to make it the next Sunday.  It's one of our favorites.

Eggs and Anchovies

2 hard cooked eggs per person
four rolled anchovies with capers per person
extra virgin olive oil
capers

Shell the eggs and halve them lengthwise.  Top each with an anchovy.  Sprinkle with capers and drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil.