Poached Eggs with Smoked Salmon

My husband insists that he doesn't like Rachael Ray. Yet every time I make one of her recipes he seems to like it. This is a real winner in our house, last night he said "I love when you make this one." It's also popular with my brother (the ultimate carnivore and bottom-less pit) and my Dad (who has more food sensitivities than anyone I've ever met).

Rachael Ray's poached eggs with smoked salmon, potatoes and spinach (slightly adapted)

1 pound of baby red potatoes quartered

4 cups of baby spinach

lemon juice

1 tbs dijon mustard

3 tbs mayonnaise

2 tbs fresh dill

1 tbs white vinegar

4 eggs

3 or 4 pieces of smoked salmon, sliced

Boil a pot of salted water. Once the water is boiling add the potatoes and cook for 12-15 minutes. Drain them and spread them out on a baking sheet to cool (they cool down quickly this way). When they're cooled off mix them in a bowl with the spinach and the sliced salmon.

Combine the mustard, mayo, dill and lemon juice to make a dressing. Toss the potatoes, etc in the dressing. Save a little to put on top of the eggs.

Fill a small pot with water and boil. Add the teaspoon of vinegar. Once the water is boiling turn it down to a very low simmer. You want to see some air coming to the top but not a whole lot. Crack an egg into the water and swirl the water with a spoon, making sure the egg doesn't stick to the bottom. Repeat with the other three eggs. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes, then remove the eggs with a spoon and place the on paper towels to dry.

Put a little bit of the potato mixture on a plot, top with two eggs and a little bit of the left over dressing.

Notes: Rachael Ray usually adds chopped kalamata olives and capers to the potatoes. We never seem to have capers and Dan hates olives so I leave those out. I also usually substitute arugula for the spinach when I can find it.

Peach Cobbler

We went to the Farmer's Market last week and loaded up on a lot of good produce, some homemade olive rosemary bread (delicious!), manchego, and summer sausage (none for me of course). We bought some delicious looking peaches but it was scorching hot and they got jostled so much that by the time we got home they started to look a little bruised and mangled. To make good use of them I decided to make peach cobbler and just cut the bruises out. I think our peach to dough ratio was a little lacking on the peach side as a result, but this recipe, courtesy of aeposey on allrecipes.com, was delicious!

For the peaches:

8 peaches, sliced (we did not peel them as suggested and it was fine)

1/4 white sugar

1.4 brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tsp lemon juice (we omitted, I had run out)

2 tsps cornstarch

For the dough:

1 cup flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbs unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces

1/4 boiling water

pre heat oven to 425 degrees

Combine "for the peaches" ingredients in a bowl. Make sure to really mix them so the peaches are covered in gooey goodness. Put them in a 2 quart baking dish and bake for 10 minutes.

Mix the flour, sugars, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Crumble in the butter with your fingers, or a mixer if you have one. Mix in the boiling water.

When the peaches come out of the oven drop teaspoons of the dough on top (the dough will expand and spread as it bakes). When all the dough is used up and the peaches are covered, bake for 30 minutes. You can also sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon over the top before putting it back in the oven, but I skipped this (I'm lazy!)

We had a Farmer's Market dinner of friend green tomatoes, olive bread, manchego, and peach cobbler for dessert. YUM! To see the original recipe: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/southern-peach-cobbler-2/Detail.aspx