Poaching Eggs: An Ordeal?

We eat a lot of eggs. I make them all sorts of ways: boiled, fried, scrambled, omelet-ed. But one way I didn't know how to make them was poached. I know, how could I have this glaring lack of knowledge concerning egg-cookery?

So my education began. I googled it AND read the egg section of my cookbook. My first attempt yielded eggs with a white consistency closer to egg drop soup than to a poached egg. Fail. Second attemp was a little better, but my eggs still had tentacles.Unfortunate. After that I had better luck but my eggs still weren't turning out as attractive as I would have liked them.

Then: my fave cookware company came out with a new stone. Holy tomatoes! It's a microwave egg cooker. When I first heard of it I was like, "What? Why?" Then I learned I could poach eggs with it. I was interested.

So I got my new stone (for free because I'm awesome and I get free samples of new stuff as a consultant). Instructions: Crack an egg into each well of the stone then add 1/3 cup water, microwave, covered, for about 2 minutes. Easy enough.

So I followed the directions... and my eggs were BEAUTIFUL! Photographic evidence.

And as good as they were, I couldn't help wondering if they'd be better cooked in broth. So, of course, I tried that next. I was right, they were better.

Green Pizza and Breadsticks

Part 2 of St. Patrick's Day's green eats was a green pizza and green breadsticks. I know I could have gone more green, and were I cooking for myself and my husband only, I would have, but you can't prepare a ton of food that your guests won't eat, that's just silly. These are extremely easy recipes, and if you love pizza and breadsticks, I'd say you need to give them a try!

For the pizza I started with a Pillsbury seamless dough sheet (like crescent rolls in a tube but without perforations) on a rectangular baking stone (Pampered Chef's Large Bar Pan, though I've never made "bars" on it) and baked it for 10 before adding fresh pressed garlic and tomato sauce, an easy and tasty (and fast) way to make some home made pizza sauce. On the sauce we add 4 cheese Italian blend, pepperonis, green olives and green peppers chopped with the Food Chopper and sliced green onions. Had this pizza not been meant for guests I would have also added spinach and artichokes, both chopped. However, this pizza was meant for guests so I stopped at the green onions. Then I topped those toppings with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 10-15 and it is yum!

For the breadsticks I used a Jiffy pizza crust mix that I added pesto and green onion tops to, and once flattened on a round baking stone I topped it with 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Bake for 15 and top with another 1/2 ounce of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. They were a little crispy, and to avoid that I'd either double the Jiffy mix or reduce baking time. I enjoyed the crispiness, but not everyone loves a crunch.

As we all know, when you have an alcoholic celebration pizza is your go-to crowd food, and nothing else will do. I love cooking, but more than that, I love it when people enjoy the food I've cooked. For that purpose these two dishes were a major hit, as everyone was pleased.