No special reason

Sunday was Father's Day in New Zealand, and I could pretend that the Sunday brunch I made for myself (photo above) was because of that, but it wasn’t. Leo has no idea what that’s all about, oddly enough. The truth is, I was planning to make this for more than a week, and Sunday just happened to be the day. Sometimes “no special reason” times are the best for making something special.

My brunch was poached eggs and bacon on an English muffin, something I’ve made before. This time, though, I made a sauce out of mayo, a bit of American mustard (for colour), a tiny bit of turmeric (ditto), thinned with a bit of olive oil and white balsamic vinegar, and with dill and salt & pepper. I ended up adding just a tiny bit of sugar to cut to the acidity of the vinegar.

I came up with the sauce because I knew it’d be faster and far easier than making hollandaise (which I was too lazy to make). It was nice.

I’m pretty good at poached eggs now, actually, and these were no exception. Nowadays, I sometimes make poached eggs on toast for dinner instead of any that are fried in any way, and normally I don’t put any sauce or mayo or whatever on them. I also don’t have bacon.

Speaking of bacon, this time I used a different variety from the same brand we’d bought for years, but one I’ve never had: It was “NZ free-farmed”, which was the only bacon in the supermarket that didn’t use imported pork, something that surprised me. I’d never even looked at the label until last May, and it turns our that the same brand I was annoyed about back then (because of the “NZ Made” in big letters on the front despite the pork coming from Europe) was the only one available that was made with NZ pork. That’s the reason I bought it, despite saying I wouldn’t buy the brand again—maybe I should’ve said “variety”? At any rate, I try to support New Zealand farmers when possible, but this special bacon was, of course, quite expensive. I only cook bacon a couple times a year, usually, so I have plenty of time to find cheaper versions made from NZ pork, but at least this one is an option. And, it had eight slices in the 200g pack, which is probably better when I’m cooking for just me.

The meal turned out so well that I thought about licking the plate, so I did… (…not—I’m not a savage!). Seriously, very nice and much faster and less complicated than actual eggs benny. In the photo up top, it’s sprinkled with a bit of dried parsley just for pretty. I didn’t use S&P because I used that in the sauce, and because bacon is always salty.

That evening I decided to make devilled sausages for dinner (photo below). It was, I think, the second of Nigel’s favourite regular meals that he taught me to make, and I made it many times—but I can’t remember the last time I did. That’s probably because these days I mainly make meat-free meals or else something with chicken.

In any case, I used what my mother-in-law calls “magic potatoes” (frozen mashed potatoes), something Nigel and I introduced her to. They’re much easier than making from scratch, of course, especially because we seldom had actual potatoes on hand: We had fresh potatoes on hand so rarely that they would inevitably start to rot before we got through them all. That’s why we started buying the frozen product.

That night, I used up the last of my “magic potatoes”, so when I had the leftovers the following night, Monday, I used all my fresh potatoes to make mashed potatoes from scratch. I made too much, planning on using the leftovers from that for, well something (I wasn’t quite sure).

In the end, I decided to make a sort of potato pancake in panko breadcrumbs and put a couple poached eggs on top, similar to a dish I’d had (and enjoyed) at a cafe here in Hamilton. I added a little but of curry powder for flavour (not enough), and fried them.

When I turned them, I realised I probably should’ve read an actual recipe first: The first one kinda fell apart. Nevertheless, they were tasty with the poached eggs (have I ever mentioned I’m getting pretty good at making poached eggs?), though the potatoes needed more curry powder.

I have a couple sausages left to cook, plus the last of the leftover mashed potatoes, so that’ll be tonight’s dinner (with some frozen veggies). It’ll be the last in the linked meals that began on Sunday night.

In the end, my “no special reason” Sunday brunch was both pretty good, and it led to other meals, the leftovers leading on to the next meal, and then the next. Sometimes those end up being the best times, whether it was intended as something special or not. This was definitely one of those times.