Hollandaise

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. ~ Robert Burns

Sometimes life throws you a change-up.  You have to learn to let go and roll with it.  The plan tonight was to come home, change and head to the store to pick up a few things I needed for dinner. That plan, however, fell apart when I walked through the door and it was 100 degrees in the kitchen. The A/C is out and in Florida, in the summer, that's not cool. No pun intended. So, by the time I'd located the name and number for the A/C company, checked the warranty, arranged a service call for tomorrow and emailed them at work telling them the situation - all while the temperature continued to climb - I didn't feel much like cooking, at least not ambitious type cooking.

So, I dug around in the fridge and found eggs, mushrooms, leftover crumbled sausage from the quesadillas earlier in the week, feta and fresh parsley. All the makings of a killer omelet. I added some homemade hollandaise, cracked open a bottle of white, put my feet up and decided that a little bit of heat wouldn't kill me. Of course, I may not feel that way in a few hours but right now, life is good.

I've included the recipe for the hollandaise, because I really like this one.  Do a search and almost all of the recipes you'll come across require a double boiler and, if you're like me, that's just too much work and who needs the extra pots to clean, right?  This one is great because it's quick, easy and requires one saucepan. A couple of things to note, though. Hollandaise is temperamental. If you don't use it right away it will begin to separate and get globby, so timing is pretty important. You can keep it warm for up to 30 minutes using the double boiler method (metal bowl over a pot of hot water) but then you're back to that extra pot thing. Best to try to time it so you're ready when it is.  If you find that it's too thick, whisk in 1 or 2 tbs of hot water before serving.

Hollandaise
1/2 c butter (one stick)
3 large egg yolks
1 tbs plus 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
dash cayenne pepper or hot pepper sauce
2 tbs hot water
finely chopped fresh parsley, optional

Heat butter in a heavy saucepan until hot and foamy, but not browned. In a small bowl, whisk or beat egg yolks with lemon juice, salt, and cayenne pepper or hot sauce. You can use a hand whisk but an electric hand mixer works much better. Gradually beat in butter, then water. If you need to, set the bowl on a damp dish towel to steady it. Return mixture to saucepan and beat over very low heat until mixture is slightly thickened. Serve immediately.  If desired, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley before serving.

Makes about 2/3 cup of hollandaise sauce.