One Toaster. One Burner. Just One Breakfast.

If you've read a few posts, it's pretty obvious that I live with roommates. Roommates who aren't the best at cleaning. And I don't mean to imply that it's the only trait necessary to join the "great human being" club. But it helps when all you want is a proper breakfast before leaving for work. It's a little disheartening to wake up to a leaning tower of dishes, counters crowded with pizza boxes, groceries yet to be put away, and stray beer bottles. Cooking in something like this is like trying to juice a cold lime. I yield very little.

But I came home the other day and found something quite strange. A clean kitchen. Counters wiped clean. Trash taken out. Clean dishes waiting in the dishwasher to be put away. Not a crumb to be seen. Glory, glroy, haleuljah came to mind.

I should've known better. Entropy took its course and slowly the universe began stacking up in the sink again. This morning I decided that it would be best to take advantage of the relative space and cleanliness and actually had breakfast in-house. No drive-thru coffee. No donuts. No sorry-ass excuses for bagels. I wanted hot protein. With warm buttered toast, of course.

I worked with the one free burner. Filled a small pot with water and dropped in an egg from a carton I splurged on last week—local free-range eggs with crayola-orange yolks. I set the timer for 8 minutes and got ready for work. The alarm sounded when I finished my make-up. The bread went into the toaster while I drained the eggs and placed them into a demitasse cup (I'm still in search of cool egg cups). As soon as the newly-borne toast popped up from the slots, I buttered them, and cut them sloppily into strips. The last thing left to do is to scalp the tops of the eggs and sprinkle the brilliant runny orange yolks with coarse sea salt.

"I need to do this more often," I thought after my first bite. I dunked toast strips until there no more to be dunked. And then I ate the soft-sweet whites with a spoon. Still with the memory of my first breakfast homes in weeks, I came home later that night. The kitchen mess had grown. So much for a perfect morning routine.

Comments

[Erin]

Well, hell, I think that's the sexiest looking egg that I've ever seen..

[kalyn]

I do agree with Erin, the egg looks great.

[Kady]

Great pics. I know what you're going through. When I moved in with my husband last year it was heaven not having roommates anymore. Somehow every roommate I ever had (7 overall) was a disaster in the kitchen. At least you still managed to have a great breakfast!

[dwight]

You know...if you and I were roommates, you would wake up to a clean kitchen every morning, and return to a clean kitchen every evening...I'm just saying, there are options :)

[Sara]

A couple things amaze me about this entry:
a) you have time to eat breakfast (and a beautiful looking one at that)
b) you have time and wherewithall to beautifully photograph said breakfast
c) you don't go to postal on your slob roommates
d) the color of them yolks!

You're my hero. ;-)

[mae]

Vanessa, you've just given me such a great idea to wake up to tomorrow! Thank you. I haven't had egg & soldiers for years (wow - it has been that long!).

The photo looks so tasty i don't know if i can wait til breakfast...

[Bea at La Tartine Gourmande]

This is an amazing looking egg! Gosh I would love one like this for breakfast tomorrow. So dark yellow, just like the ones my grandmother had in the farm!!!

[cookiecrumb]

See, Vanessa. Everybody's impressed. Me too.
BTW, I think it's beyond cool to use your demitasse instead of "real" egg cups. (But who wouldn't want to acquire a little more cute kitchen clutter?)

[Kat]

What a beautiful egg yolk!

[Kate]

Gorgeous. I don't have cool egg cups...but I did buy some egg coddlers on ebay. Know how to coddle egges? It's really fun. Just scramble an egg plus whatever you want (salt, cheese, ham, scallions, whatever) and pour it in the coddler, then screw the top on and boil it. it comes out like a scrabled-hard-boiled egg. Mmm.

[keiko]

Vanessa, this is the best soft-boiled egg picture I've ever seen :) Great job!

[genevieve]

this is a really fun food blog! i think you managed your toast and eggs quite elegantly given the circumstances. i'm liking the music suggestions too (only know - and love - buena vista so far)

[shaz]

that yolky egg looks scrumptious!

[vanessa]

erin & kalyn—thanks. Utah chickens lay good eggs :)

Kady—it just happens to be my luck with the roomies. Even my favorite ones were slobs in the kitchen. But immaculately clean bathrooms, thank god.

dwight—i'm saying man, it's you, me, and derrick. the most stylin' and well fed house anywhere in the world!

sara—thanks. isn't weird how we don't feel quite out of undergrad what with the living situation and general angst and all?

mae—i hope you had a great breakfast! I enjoyed mine, however short-lived it was.

bea—thanks for stopping by again! I really am a fan of farm fresh eggs. I will buy them and savor them when I can.

cookiecrumb—i've been looking high and low for cool egg cups! I really wouldn't mind having them, either. But for now, the demis work :)

Kat—thanks for hte compliment! honestly, the simplest things are the best.

Kate—what a good idea! I'll have to give that a shot, I just bought some more eggs with the hopes of staking some space in the kitchen.

Keiko—Thanks for stopping by and thanks very much for the compliment! I LOVE your photos and your blog.

genevieve—thanks for visiting and for hte kind words. i love cooking to music and buena vista is a favorite.

shaz—good to hear from you! hope you are doing well :)

[Rorie]

Go away for a few days and I miss all of your most wonderful posts - sheesh. I do not care for eggs, but your photo is (as always) gorgeous.