Scrambled eggs with sun-dried tomato & Parmesan

 

So how was your weekend?  Relaxing?  Sociable? Productive?

Or maybe like mine - slightly deranged.

• Friday night: make ratatouille bake for dinner. After dinner, wrestle washing machine away from wall to unplug it.  Absolutly horrified at the dirt and spiderwebs behind it.   Attempt to find tools described by absentee husband in drawer and cupboard - no luck.  Do I look like I know what a fixing spanner is??  Give up, perv at Brandonn Flowers watch The Killers perform live on Later with Jools Holland.  Spend 15 mins on phone to dear friend discussing said performance, then head for bed.
• Saturday:  up at the crack of dawn to continue Sisyphean task of preparing washing machine for departure.  Manage to identify Philips screwdriver and detach outflow pipe from its bracket and the drainage pipe, empty remaining water in the pipe into a bucket.  Very proud of self!  Delivery men arrive with new machine, attempt to shut off water in both inlet pipes, but only the one can shut off.  Delivery men shrug, deposit new machine in my lounge still in wrapping; leave old machine in the centre of my kitchen floor, still connected to the cold water supply and leave, thoughtfully bumping over aforementioend bucket of water.  Water under all major appliances, cupboards and stove unable to open due to relocated washing machine; no washing facilities despite two machines in house. Newly-visible patch of 9+ years of assorted grottiness under washing machine now clearly visible and making my stomach turn, so spend rest of afternoon on haunches, squeezed between stove and old machine, scrubbing floor. Wrestle machine (mostly) back in under a counter.  Ponder how a slipped disc might feel.  
• Saturday night: pack bag, bid farewell to both washing machines and meet Johanna for our catering gig.  Spend the evening helping to make a few hundred pieces of canape and staring enviously at host's working washing machine.  Afterwards, head for Johanna's place where we make ourselves a round of canapes, crack open the champagne and proceed to talk, play Kill Shag Marry, and laugh uproariously till 3 a.m.  while husband and children sleep upstairs.  The wild women of the suburbs. 
• Sunday: head home after a leisurely breakfast and attempt to tidy house in anticipation of a dinner party at home on Monday night.  Rudely interrupted by neighbour who wants to have my beloved ornamental cherry tree at the bottom of the garden cut down.  Manage somehow to hold my tongue while he explains to me that the fallen leaves from the tree are damaging the tarmac on the other side of my fence (WTF??) and that all the subsidence in the area is caused not by the clay soil, but by the evil trees which should mostly be cut down.  I'm flypaper for freaks.

So in future when people ask me "so do you ever cook, like, normal food?" I am going to refer them to this post and ask if they really think there was space in there somewhere for a granita, a foam or a souffle.  So "normal" food it was - enjoy it!  Just don't mess on the tablecloth because I can't wash it till I get a plumber to make a housecall...!

SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH SUN-DRIED TOMATOES & PARMESAN (serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 slices wholewheat bread, toasted
4 large free-range eggs
50 ml milk or single cream
6-8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
butter
salt and pepper
mayonnaise
Parmesan shavings to serve

Method

Chop the sun-dried tomatoes and soak in a little boiling water for 5 minutes.  Drain.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, tomatoes, and salt and pepper.  Over medium heat, melt a knob of butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan until it is bubbling.

Add the egg mix to the pan and stir continuously until the eggs start to set.  Make toast in the meantime.  When the eggs are almost set but still a little runny, remove the pan from the heat (the eggs will continue to cook, so you need to get them off the heat slightly runny).

Spread the toast with some good mayonnaise and top with the scrambled eggs.  Finish off with Parmesan shavings and parsley to garnish.

Follow me every day in November as I complete National Blog Posting Month - a post a day, every day, for 30 days! Here's what I've written so far.

Comments

[Manggy]

What the hell is wrong with the deliverymen? If I were one of them I would have offered to help clean up the mess made. Did they at least promise to come back and install it? And your neighbor... There are no words. So dumb.

After that (and with your hubby not around), you are entitled to your yummy breakfast and perving over Flowers!

[Kalyn]

Looks delicious! And NO WASHING MACHINE??? I don't know if I could cook anything without my washing machine. (I'm a bit of a clothes washing freak. However, it doesn't extend to other types of housework, unfortunately!)

[Andrew]

At least you HAVE your washing machine - mine has been lost in a warehouse for a week with little hope of resurfacing. It seems it is the last one in the world as they don't have ANY others to send as a replacement. The words 'incompetent', 'useless' and 'crap' spring to mind.

[Kit]

Good luck wiht your washing machine saga - they are a mystery to me too - our doesn't do its final rinse cycle, cos it doesn't seem to accept cold water though my hsband swera it is connected aas it should be. Rather than wrestle it back to the shop and be without it for weeks, I am just pretending that it works fine and to hell with the final rinse, except its one year warranty is about to expire and we can't find the original receipt....
Anyway I hope yours gets plumbed in soon. Glad you were able to abandon it and have a fun time with Johanna amid the canapes.

[nina]

Tell me, dear friend, what is normal about this meal...the homemade mayo or the parmesan shavings......my friends laught at me when I talk about normal food!!!! I hope your washing machine adventures will soon be over...I want to see some "foam".

[_ts of [eatingclub] vancouver]

I like anything that uses the word "Sisyphean." =)

[Meeta]

I have not had breakfast yet - and this is looking good!! This is anything but normal food!

[Charlotte]

Your neighbour is clearly a closet German ... they are allergic to falling leaves which are apparently a health and safety hazard.

I like the sound of staying up all night with champagne and hysterical laughter. Next time, can I play too?

[Freya]

A hilarious post made entirely edible by the posh scrambled eggs!!

[Helen]

Well, I can empathise on a number of points here. Firstly Brandon Flowers :) Secondly, the washing machine, this has happened to me - not once, but twice. Thirdly, the neighbour troubles, oh dear! The fallen leaves are damaging the tarmac? How odd. I don't see why anyone would want to cut down a cherry tree to be honest. The scrambled eggs may be 'normal food' but they are really teasing me right now. I discovered this morning that I not only have no milk int he house - I have no bread either! I am really challenged when it comes to starting the day. I can't even have tea! To me right now, those eggs look like the most delicious meal in the world.

[Joanna]

This post made me laugh - but, seriously, where on earth are you going to find a plumber? I hope your husband comes home soon. And I loved thinking of you and Johanna playing KSM until three in the morning while the rest of the family slept ...

Hope it all resolves soon
Hugs Joanna

[Jen]

I saw your comment on my scrambed egg post, and you are right---great minds do think alike! Too funny, but also fantastic because two recipes is better than one!!

[rachel]

KSM? What a rude game. I wonder why we haven't heard of it or played it here before. I shall have to remedy that, next beautician-get-together night.

[Lysy]

What an awful weekend - but what a very tasty sounding dish! I hope your little tree pulls through the neighbour crisis ok - it must be a pretty sturdy little thing if its leaves can melt tarmac!

[Peter]

I hear ya Jeanne. After entertaining and I'm all tired and hungry, basic comfort food is the right stuff to settle me in.

This would make a nice dinner too!

[Darius T. Williams]

So yea, anything with Parm is great - looks good.

-DTW
www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com

[Deeba]

Normal food, Yes, but even your normal looks special. What a plumbering nightnare. Loved your post...ha ha...you have a knack for writing. Hope life's looking up a bit now....& Nablopomo in the midst of all this? Hat's off to you Jeanne!

[courtney]

Crazy! When it rains it pours. But the cocktail party and turned out great and you had fun.You know I think eggs are my comfort food. Souinds like something I would whip up Sunday morning.

[johanna]

god i love that picture!!! and that post clearly shows that you should have so won the SA competition earlier this year... love every bit of it. if the blog awards were something to take seriously, i'd nominate this very entry!
thanks again for helping me with the catering... life DID taste sweet once it was over and I thoroughly enjoyed our late night (it was way past 3:30am on my watch!) together... wish there were more of those. and if your house wasn't such a mess at the moment, i'd even come for a sleepover there ;-)

[grace]

i love the killers and i love sun-dried tomatoes. if i had to pick one over the other...sorry, brandon. :)

[kittie]

Lol - what a funny post - though I'm guessing it is slightly less amusing to be in the middle of!

Shag, Marry, Kill is hilarious. Though I was introduced to it on a work night out - maybe not the best game to play with colleagues!

Your 'normal' egg dish still looks posh to me!

[Elra]

I am so sorry about your week-end... and about your neighbor, I always get so nervous that my neighbor will sue us (though, if this happen, we have a very good S.A lawyer, who is also our friend, lucky) or something like that. We have so many trees a long the fence surrounding our property. I always believe that trees are good for the earth, that's why we planted many of them. So far, our neighbor been so good, never complaint and never really bother us, and we don't bother them either! Hope this will stay like this forever!
Good luck with everything, Jeanne!
Cheers,
elra

[Navita Hakim]

Hey Hi,
Must say your blog is great. Love these scrambled eggs..but its the sun dried tomatoes that I drool over. ;-)
I am new on the blogosphere. Here spreading the warm cheer in the winter months. :-)