crispy egg tomato spinach toast

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season. We had a great break, other than the week long fever/flu/cold that the kids had starting on Christmas Eve. They were troopers, though, and hardly complained. The ginormous Barbie Dream House that Santa brought the baby certainly went a long way in perking her up. When I was little I always wanted a Barbie Dream House but ended up living vicariously through my best friend Julie’s. Needless to say, I spent the better part of my Christmas morning organizing C’s Dream House kitchen and loving every second. Of course I was immediately told that I was doing it wrong, but the comment did little to deflate my sails.

I love the new year. The chance to start fresh and cut yourself some slack for all of the holiday eating and indulgence you did. Today is a new day. Now, I’ve learned enough about myself in past years to not to get into lengthy goals and changes that I’m going to make in 2015. It’s not that I don’t have faith in myself to achieve them, but I know enough about myself now at the ripe old age of 32 to know that quiet goals work best for me. Loud proclamations from my keyboard usually fall  into the depths of forgetfulness within weeks. In reality, I have a lot of things I’m hoping to improve upon or achieve this year – both personally and professionally – but I get nervous talking about them anywhere outside of the space of my own head. At least for now.

But how mind numbingly boring would it be to vaguely speak about secret goals where no one ever knows? *random Friends reference if you are a die hard like me* The answer is: super boring.  So, I do have a few things that I wanted to share. First, 2015 will be all about keeping it real. Honest food, real life stories and riddled with silliness. I’m already pumped about that.

Secondly, I’m starting a new weekly post called Toast Tuesday. Or Tuesday Toast. I haven’t really decided. The truth of the matter is that I serve food up on toast or bread for breakfast and lunch about 75% of the time. Whether it’s eggs (and it very often is), avocado, jelly, cheese, fruit, sautéed greens, butternut squash or summer squash – it ends up on toast. My blog is named Jelly Toast for goodness sakes, and I have been an utter failure in sharing toast recipes.

It’s embarrassing.

I think my reluctance to post about toast stems from my feeling that toast is not enough of a ‘recipe’ to be worthy of a blog post. As if blog posts were some sort of sacred writing rather than a silly story written by me while sitting at my crumb covered kitchen table drinking my 2nd cup of coffee and surrounded by bickering children. I told you I’m keeping it real this year. Well, I think we could all grow from a little less rigidity in the recipe department and just be able to develop our instincts as home cooks with some well placed inspiration. Play around and have fun. Try to recreate things you see online or in a restaurant. That is what I love about being in the kitchen. Recreating some good memories and creating some new ones.

Anyway, my first installment of Tuesday Toast (or Toast Tuesday) is my #1 favorite. The version that I make weekly: Crispy Egg Tomato Spinach Toast. Now, the egg has changed from time to time. Sometimes it’s a poached egg, sometimes it’s a fried egg that I flip to finish quickly. It always has a runny yolk.

A few months ago my friend Jamie told me to check out Deb from Smitten Kitchen’s post about Crispy Eggs. Deb was introduced to this technique of quickly frying eggs in very hot oil or fat by a chef named Frank Prisinzano on Instagram. I took a look at her post and Frank’s instagram feed and instantly started practicing the crispy egg. It’s not difficult, but you do need to trust the technique. Let the oil get so hot that it’s starting to smoke. Crack the egg into a bowl and pop it into the oil quickly and let it fry, getting crispy and brown at the edges. The whites will bubble up and get puffy and beautiful. Honestly, check out Deb’s post and Frank’s videos for the perfect demo on how to create this egg.

The anatomy of this toast is as follows: toasted dark rye bread, a small handful of baby spinach, a few slices of roma tomato, shavings of cheese (I used Cabot’s seriously sharp, but you can use feta, goat or parmesan. Anything you like) then top with your cooked egg of choice. Season the whole thing with salt and pepper and you’re done. So easy and so satisfying. I eat this for lunch and breakfast whenever I need something quick, which lets be honest, is pretty much everyday.

Happy Tuesday!