There is something to be said about enjoying fresh citrus fruit on a cold winter’s morning. When I look outside, and see the bare trees and the leaves all over the ground, the tropical grapefruit sections on the kitchen table brings thoughts of warm summer days, and bring flowers. We slice our grapefruit in half cutting across the fruit perpendicular to the stem end. Then we use a sharp paring knife to cut the grapefruit sections along each side of the membrane the separates the sections. Next, we use the same paring knife to free the sections by cutting the grapefruit along the rind. To serve, place the grapefruit sections in a cereal bowl, sprinkle the tops of the fruit with a little sugar or non-sugar sweetener, and serve with a small spoon. Use the spoon to dig out the grapefruit sections. When all of the sections have been eaten, grab the grapefruit in one hand, and squeeze the remaining juice out, catching in on the spoon. Repeat until no more grapefruit juice can be squeezed out.

1. Cut Grapefruit along each side of membrane.

2. Then cut along each section along rind and sprinkle with sugar.

3. After eating the sections there will be lots of juice left over. Simply squeeze the grapefruit in half, and catch the juice on a spoon to enjoy.

Looking for a change of pace in your breakfast meal? The typical breakfast omelet is made by pouring scrambled eggs into a hot frying pan, cooking the egg until firm, and then adding filling ingredients such as ham, cheese, tomatoes, green pepper and even blanched fresh asparagus. We regularly make omelets this way and have a post in our blog about the exact steps needed to make a good omelet.  We’re always seeking change and variety in our meals, so todays post is about making an omelet in a different way.

By adding the ham or pepper into the eggs when the eggs are first added to the frying pan, you’ll end up with an omelet with the filler ingredients imbedded into the eggs.  If you like, you can think of this method of making an omelet as an inverted omelet. It’s basically taking the same ingredients that you’d add to the omelet after the eggs were firm and mixing them into the eggs.  The only exception is cheese which we sprinkle on top of the omelet just before removing the omelet from the pan.

To make this type of omelet, first chop up what ever you want to add to the omelet.  We like ham, green pepper, red pepper, tomatoes, asparagus, and carrots. Start with a 10″ non-stick skillet that has been lightly greased with olive or canola oil.  Heat the pan to medium heat. Scramble 3 eggs, and pour the eggs into the pan. Immediately add the ham or other items you like to the eggs, distributing them evenly.

 Lower heat to medium low, and cover the pan.  The eggs will cook through faster with the cover.  Take a peek into the pan after 2 minutes to see how the omelet is progressing.  You may need to lower or raise the amount of heat.  When the eggs are done, they’ll be rising from the bottom of the pan.

When the eggs are cooked through, then it’s time to add cheese.  We use shredded Cheddar Cheese often, either white or orange. Other cheeses we’ve used include Mozzerella and Blue Cheese.  Whatever cheese you choose, it should be grated and spread evenly over top of the omelet. For the 10″ skillet we use, 1/2 cup of shredded cheese is plenty.  Once the cheese is on top of the eggs, replace the cover and without the heat of the stove let the cheese melt, about 1 minute.

The picture to the right here is of the finished omelet before adding the cheese as  discussed above. If you look closely, you’ll see how the ham is in the cooked egg mixture which is different from the standard omelet.  This is a great way to serve the same omelet, and yet have it be different.

Here’s a list of foods we use to fill omelets:

• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Ham
• Sausage
• Cheese
• Green Bell Pepper
• Red Bell Pepper
• Cubanelle Pepper
• Asparagus
• Carrot Slices
• Onion
• Salsa
• Potatoes

It is said that variety is the spice of life and variety is something we actively seek in our breakfast meals. Yesterday, we made poached eggs with ham on whole wheat toast topped with white cheddar cheese. This was a nice change of pace for us and we can’t remember the last time we made poached eggs.

For those that are not familiar with poached eggs, they are simply eggs that are cracked open into a frying pan filled about 1″ deep with boiling water. The eggs are cooked in the boiling water until the desired doneness is reached. Some like the yolks runny, and other like their poached eggs with a firm yolk. The poached eggs end up with an egg white with a consistency like you find with hard boiled eggs.

One of the common recipes using poached eggs is Eggs Benedict, which is very simliar with our recipe we will describe here with the exception that Eggs Benedict is served with Hollandaise Sauce. Hollandaise Sauce is a very rich and fat filled sauce made with egg yolks and butter so it’s not something we cook with. The eggs themselves already are loaded with fat so it’s our opinion that there is no reason to add insult to injury and add tons of fat to an egg dish.

When cooking poached eggs, you can speed up the cooking time by covering the pan. But watch the pan closely because as the water boils and mixes with the egg whites it can easily boil over. If you’re standing nearby when that happens, you can prevent a mess by simply lifting the lid from the pan and the boil over will stop immediately. You don’t have to cook the eggs covered and can gently turn the eggs over once in the pan to allow the top to cook through. One last tip for cooking poached eggs is it’s helpful to have a slotted spoon to lift the cooked poached eggs from the water and allow the eggs to drain before serving. There will be some thin egg white surrounding the poached eggs when they’re removed from the pan and these should be discarded.

Poached Eggs with Ham on Whole Wheat Toast Recipe
For each serving you’ll need:
2 eggs
1 slice of luncheon ham
1 slice toasted whole wheat bread
shredded cheddar cheese

1. Begin to make poached eggs by filling a 10 inch skillet with 1 inch water, cover and bring to a boil.
2. Break up to 4 eggs into this pan of water. Cook eggs in the boiling water to your desired yolk doneness. Turn the eggs once; or cook covered and watch pan carefully for boil over.
3. Meanwhile toast whole wheat bread; heat ham in microwave or in another skillet.
4. Butter toast very lightly, place toast on plate, top with a slice of ham.
5. Remove poached eggs from boiling water with a slotted spoon, drain and place 2 eggs on top of each slice of bread.
6. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. If desired, microwave poached eggs for 20 seconds to melt cheese