Finding My 3-Minute Egg

Earlier this year, I had a breakfast at the charming french restaurant, Parc Brasserie, on Rittenhouse Square in Philly.  I ordered the Eggs en Cocotte, a 3-minute egg with brioche mouillettes. 

Since then I have been trying to replicate the meal.   Although this may sound like an easy task, I have been surprised to find that a true 3-minute egg is not what I remember having.  It turns out that my perfect "3-minute egg" is actually a 6- minute egg.  Here's what I found:  

The 3-minute egg yielded an egg that was so runny it made me too nervous to eat.  

The 5-minute egg had a firmer white, but some of the white and the yolk were still a bit too runny for me.

The 6-minute egg had a firmer white and the yolk was beginning to firm as well. Perfect!

top photo via Baking and Books; following three picture via Cooking for Engineers

A Brooklyn Treasure

Diani Yen and Lisel Arroyo have a catering company, The Jewels of New York, that provides customized meals of local, seasonal ingredients. They also have an exquistite blog that displays how their combined background of design and a respect and love of simple, fresh food has yielded a ever-interesting partnership. 

Almost too beautiful to eat. Inspired by Big Sur Bakery. Meet the sunny side up breakfast tart with bacon, eggs, asparagus, and arugula flowers. Recipe.

Perfect Punch

A wonderful colleague and friend of mine shared her delicious punch recipe with me (Thanks, K!). I made the punch for a very well-attended baby shower and it was quite a success. Next time I will take pictures.

Ingredients:
1/2 cups sugar
4 cups water
1/4 cup real lemon juice (or 3 tsp of lemon juice from a plastic lemon)
2 quarts pineapple juice
2 quarts cranberry juice
3 tbs almond extract
2-4 liters ginger ale
Fruit slices/berries to garnish

Directions:

Bring sugar & water to a boil until sugar is dissolved, making a simple syrup.

Remove from heat and add juices & almond extract. Freeze in a bundt cake pan with sliced fruit/berries.

When ready to serve, run hot water over the bundt pan until frozen mixture slides out.

Serve in a punch bowl, adding desired amount of ginger ale.

Turns into a delicious and beautiful slushy punch.

Recipe fills two deep bundt pans.

~photo from weddingbycolor.com~