An Ode to the Microwave

I'm a little low on inspired topics today, so I am devoting today's blog to the wonderful modern convenience that lives above my stove. I have a gas stove and I hate it.

Short side rant about my gas stove/oven. I know everyone loves gas stoves... they cook so great, blah blah blah. It's true that the stovetop burners fire up instantly, but the oven takes FOREVER to preheat, and I *hate* cleaning that filthy bastard stovetop. The burner grates are an absolute bitch to get clean, even scrubbing with steel wool and soaking... NOT worth the hours of blood sweat and tears. Ain't nobody got time fo DAT.

my archnemesis.

Okay enough negativity, let's talk about the microwave!  A frequently underappreciated piece of scientific achievement.

I don't want to say that time is not at a premium for people who don't have kids, but becoming a mom seems to make every second that much more precious. While I used to love spending time making elaborate and delicious meals, and on special occasions I still do, most often I just don't have the time and energy to spend.  For that reason, the microwave is easily my favorite appliance. It's not just for reheating leftovers!! There are so many things you can make fresh in the microwave so much faster than in an oven or on a stove!

Who knew that you can bake potatoes in the microwave? Just poke holes in it with a fork, give it 8 minutes and you have a whole russet potato (or sweet potato) all ready to go. You can cook fish in the microwave in just a couple minutes (covered, since it tends to explode.) The best part about cooking in the microwave, besides the time savings, is you have no pots or pans to clean!  Which is even more time saved. And priceless for me since I HATE washing dishes. If I can't load it into the dishwasher, forget it. (Ok.... I really do love my dishwasher.... it could face off with the microwave for favorite appliance.)

Some of my go-to microwave items:

• hot water, to which I sometimes add lemon, lemon and cayenne pepper, or lemon, honey, vinegar and cinnamon for a sore throat. no kettle needed!
• fish fillets (usually salmon in our house)
• whole potatoes
• steamed vegetables (peas, broccoli, butternut squash.) I do admit that most vegetables are best roasted with olive oil, but in a time crunch or to go in a recipe, microwave steaming is clutch. I steam frozen peas for my one-year-old, add a little olive oil and salt and she loves them.
• "scrambled" eggs. It's true that they aren't as good as real scrambled eggs, but if you really don't want to wash a pan, you would be surprised by how good they can be.  The key is frequent stirring, every 10 (or even fewer) seconds to prevent them from getting too rubbery.
• oatmeal. no hot breakfast is faster.

Also, if you're looking for a fun activity on a rainy day, marshmallows are fun to microwave.  You can watch them inflate to HUGE proportions!!! Pure entertainment.

I won't even get into all the things you can just heat up for a quick meal like beans and cheese and frozen dinners. I really feel the microwave makes my life so much better. The number one rule is don't microwave anything plastic.  No plastic wrap or plastic containers; always microwave in glass or on safe ceramic dishes. Some plastic says it is microwave safe, but I try to err on the side of NO plastic in the microwave. I prefer to risk as few nasty chemicals in my food as possible.

There is some controversy about whether radiation from a microwave oven can be harmful, but it is non-ionizing radiation and no studies have shown any cause for concern with normal use (versus a microwave that's rigged to work with the door open or some other such craziness).

So, I am forging ahead with my love of the microwave, because the most precious thing I have is TIME and this awesome technology lets me make the most of it! Thank you to Percy Spencer for accidentally discovering the specific heating effect of a high-power microwave beam in 1945, and engineers everywhere for inventing new technologies that improve our lives every day, because lord knows I'm not doing it.

In closing, I give you a haiku:

the food's almost done
better hurry and press clear
before I hear beeps!!!

Soup Swap!

This week we've had the coldest weather Cincinnati has seen in 20 years! The real temperature got down to -6 and with the wind chill it felt like -30! I am so relieved it's going to get a little warmer tomorrow. I have to wear my Cold Avenger mask to and from work when it's this cold and it can be a little embarrassing to walk around looking like Darth Vader. But still vastly preferred to freezing my face off.

Obviously all I want to eat when it's brutally, bitterly cold and windy outside is some hot, steaming SOUP. Yum. My coworker, former college roommate and now bff 4-life Sarah suggested the brilliant idea of a soup swap and I screamed YES! at the top of my lungs.  Ok, we work in an office, I didn't really do that. But inside I did! Because a soup swap is pretty much the best idea ever, especially when you are swapping with Sarah, who is truly a legendary soup chef.

Here's the idea: we each make large batches of 2 or 3 soups, and we bring in half of them for each other! So simple yet so, so ingenious. If you love soup, find a coworker, friend, or neighbor who also loves soup and you are in business. Since I eat a pesco-vegetarian diet, Sarah was kind enough to modify her recipes to make them vegetarian (mostly by using vegetable broth rather than chicken) so we could both enjoy all 5 soups. Yes, 5 - I made 2 and she made 3! Overachiever!  So here are the 5 delicious soups we are enjoying this week:

• First I made my favorite, April Bloomfield's Chickpea-and-Rosemary Soup which I originally found in the September 2005 issue of O magazine and have made approximately a thousand times since then. With vegetable rather than chicken broth, of course. This might be my favorite recipe for anything ever. It's so easy, so delicious and so healthy, the golden trinity of recipes. I like to describe it as similar to hummus soup. If you like hummus, and rosemary, do not delay and make yourself a batch. I was lucky enough to have some fresh rosemary from my grandmother's garden left over from our visit at the end of November to add, although I cut corners on the garlic and just used the powdered kind. The one thing, in my opinion, NOT to skimp on is the lemon juice.  Squeeze a real lemon! Don't buy the bottled lemon juice!  Seriously, ugh, it is not even close to the same.

• Next I made a butternut squash-apple soup. I used Ina Garten's recipe as my main reference but also deviated from it somewhat since I didn't have any apple juice, cider or curry powder on hand. For the seasoning I used some turmeric and nutmeg instead. And I used broth and water instead of the juice. There are 4 chopped apples in it so it is plenty sweet! It took forever to chop up 4 apples and 3 onions so I will definitely look for pre-chopped onions next time. Such a time saver!! Plus less crying in the kitchen. When I wore contacts, I never cried chopping onions, but ever since I got Lasik it's a different story. 

The huge time saver I did take advantage of was a big bag of pre-chopped butternut squash from Trader Joe's. I chopped up a whole butternut squash once and I won't be doing that again! 

One other thing I love: my Cuisinart immersion blender for pureed soups. I can't sing the praises of this thing enough. It's so super easy to puree soups and a breeze to clean up. No transferring to a blender or processor - we don't even own a blender since ours broke a couple years ago and I haven't missed it!  I just stick the immersion blender into anything I would blend and my god, it's so much less mess. It also has a mini food processor attachment which I love for things like pesto. Ok, Cuisinart should really start paying me at this point, I'll move on.

Sarah made 3 Rachael Ray soup recipes: black bean, farmer's market veggie and pumpkin, cheddar and chipotle. She modified the black bean a lot to remove the chorizo and add rice and it was super delicious.  Definitely a great black bean soup base reference. The farmer's market veggie comes with a side of pureed herbs in oil and that soup is AWESOME as well, so good. I haven't tried the pumpkin one yet but it also sounds amazing and I can't wait - I am soo spoiled with a fantastic variety of soups this week, I can barely contain myself. Soup swap for the win!

Puerto Rico December 7-14 Part 2 Cabo Rojo

The most relaxing, beach- and pool-centric portion of our trip was the last 3 days, in Cabo Rojo. This whole region had a really wonderful and secluded atmosphere to enjoy some honeymoon-style R&R.  A highlight for us was the awesome view from our condo, where we got to just sit and drink mimosas to start the day.

The key word here is secluded. No one goes to Cabo Rojo for vacation, as least as far as I could tell.  We did not see other tourists around anywhere, and it was honestly a little sad at some points, that we were the only two people in really beautiful settings, enjoying secluded dinners, secluded beaches... it was amazing, but also, it makes me want to get the word out about Cabo Rojo! Why aren't more people vacationing here!?!?  I want the nice restaurants to stay in business!!

We enjoyed lovely dinners at

• Tino's Restaurant, where our waiter was as kind and sweet a middle aged waiter as you've ever met. His English was many magnitudes better than our Spanish, but still he made the most endearing effort to communicate and also quickly correct my meal when the kitchen made the wrong thing by mistake. This was clearly a local place, serving Puerto Rican food and frequented by locals; the only other two tables while we were there were large local families. It's nothing fancy, but fabulous service and authentic food.
• Agua al Cuello at the Parador Bahia Salinas Beach Hotel, on our way back from Playa Sucia. We were the only people here, and the best thing about this place is the ambiance. Really beautiful resort setting on the water.... just lovely. I could not fathom the absolute lack of people at this resort and the restaurant!  Where was everyone?!?!  The food was good, we got a huge salad with mango and almonds, some ceviche and a fried appetizer, as well as some festive and affordable Bahia Sunsets to drink.
  

• Miski Mikuna, which is Peruvian cuisine, and the chef will knock your socks off by coming to your table, explaining what the specials are that night, and customizing your dinner to you. I was SO excited to come here after reading the TripAdvisor reviews and it wasn't fancy like I thought it might be, but the food was definitely the focus. Unfortunately, we had eaten a late lunch that day and didn't have tons of room for feasting, or else we definitely would have tried more courses. As it was, we enjoyed a salmon appetizer, and DELICIOUS passionfruit cheesecake and key lime pie for dessert (the key lime pie!!!! WOW maybe the best I've ever had) -- and... drumroll... our most adventurous food of the trip, the whole red snapper (head included) which was that day's special.
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  We saw the snapper come out to the table next to us and got nervous.... should we have ordered that??? But it was actually delicious and I was proud of us for trying it. It came with tasty leeks and carrots in cream sauce. And I mean, it WAS deep fried, so there really wasn't much chance it wouldn't be delicious, with or without the head and tail.
  
  
  The only "activity" we really did in Cabo Rojo, other than stopping by Walgreens and the grocery, was a day spent at Playa Sucia. It was the most glorious, fantastic day and we did not want to leave.  We had a perfect shady spot under a tree with our beach chairs, books and towels and very few other people around.  The only mistake was not bringing food and drinks (and bug repellent). I may have come away with bites all over my back. Bummer. But totally worth it. Around lunchtime we started getting faintly hungry. Rich said, should we go? I said, maybe another 20 minutes.  2 and a half hours later we finally reluctantly decided we had to leave and get food.  It was absolutely beautiful and zen and one of those days I wish I could relive over and over. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It was a bit challenging to find since it's pretty remote and the trip was rough on the rental car but definitely WORTH it. I'm so glad I got to spend a perfect afternoon in this heavenly spot. I'll always remember it. 
  
  
  I can't recommend enough to anyone going to Puerto Rico to get away from San Juan (as much fun as it is!) and get over to Cabo Rojo for at least a day or two. If you want secluded, this is your place. Not to mention the weather is reliably spectacular. It's more arid than San Juan and the rainier east side of the island; high of 88 and sunny most every day. I would even compare it to Hawaii as a perfect tropical weather location. We had such a lovely time here. Sadly, all good vacations have to come to an end. Bye Cabo Rojo!
  
  
  

Puerto Rico December 7-14 Part 1 San Juan

Hey blog, I bet you forgot about me. It's been over 2 years since my last post! And another year and a half since the last post before that.... okay, we're off to a slow start. A lot has happened in the last 2 years, most notably I got pregnant, became a mom and survived my baby girl's first year, which I really should have blogged about!  We'll start that next time.  This post is dedicated to the trip my husband and I just took to Puerto Rico from December 7-14. It was absolutely fantastic and we have some friends who are going in the next few weeks and months so I wanted to share some of the highlights here!

We stayed for 4 nights in San Juan (Isla Verde) and 3 nights in Cabo Rojo, on the southwest corner of the island. The weather was perfect all 7 days so we really got to enjoy our time to the fullest.  I should also clarify that there were pop-up showers every day in San Juan but they usually lasted about 5 minutes and never killed our mojo so I'm still calling it perfect. It started to rain when we got to the airport to go home so we really could not have timed this one better.

 Rich's MO when we go on vacation is to experience everything there is and go on memorable adventures.  Mine is to relax poolside with a magazine and a beverage.  I am happy to report that we found the perfect balance of both on this trip and we even enjoyed each other's favorite parts.

We stayed in condos that we found through airbnb.com and were very happy with both. We spent some lovely relaxing time by the pools at our condos and we used the blenders that we found in the kitchens to make pina coladas which were outstanding poolside. At the local Supermax grocery store we got the smallest bottle of Bacardi white rum they carry, a couple cans of coconut cream and a jug of pineapple juice. Fill the blender with ice, those 3 ingredients and you have yourself a fantastic afternoon. We finished off the rum and two cans of coconut cream over the course of the week but we did have some pineapple juice left over. A smaller jug would have been ideal but there's only so much of your vacation you want to spend browsing in the (sorry, Puerto Rico) crappy Supermax for a smaller pineapple juice. Ok let's get to the good stuff.

Rich's highlights from the trip:

• Kiteboarding lesson through 15knots.com. He did the 3 hour lesson and did manage to kiteboard on his own by the end of the lesson which apparently most people don't manage. He absolutely loved it. His instructor, Frances, has a prosthetic leg.  She broke her leg kiteboarding and it got infected and had to be cut off. Even with a prosthetic leg, though, she made kiteboarding look SO easy. I'm pretty sure you can find her picture in the dictionary next to "badass." 

I just hung out on the beach, which was very nice, during the lesson. That was when I got fried to a crisp.  Note to self, duh, you need to load up on sunscreen when you are in the sun for 3 hours in Puerto Rico.

•  We did ziplining in El Yunque National Rainforest through JungleQui. That was fun. Bug spray and water shoes/mud-friendly shoes needed!! We had the place to ourselves, which was also our experience for almost the entire trip. Everywhere we went, restaurants, beaches, our condos and pools, we were practically the only people around! However, the Walgreens in Cabo Rojo and the grocery store were packed. If you're looking for people, just go to the store.  You will find numerous Puerto Ricans.
• The same day we went to El Yunque, we did the Kayak Trip to Monkey Island. You will want to book this more than 24 hours in advance. If you like kayaking and want to see lots of monkeys, this excursion will not disappoint. The tour guide Bob took us in a group with 2 other couples and you don't actually get to step on the island but he ties up the kayaks just offshore and you stand in the shallow water and watch the monkeys from there. We also saw some enormous iguanas and a stingray. We went just before sunset, which is a great time to see tons of monkeys.
• In between those two adventures we stopped for a delicious lunch at Erik's Gyros and a brief siesta at Luquillo Beach, which it turns out costs $4.25 for entry, but if you are out of cash and you can scrounge up about $3.43 in coins the kind lady at the gate will let you in. You may not feel your rental car is entirely safe in the parking lot when you notice the broken glass from a previous car window in the parking spot next to yours, but we didn't see any shady characters when we were there.
• The fort at  San Cristobal. We only went for about an hour, it's not really my thing but Rich really enjoyed it and it was cool to walk around, I wasn't toooo grinchy about it.

Some of the restaurants we went to:

•  Kasalta for brunch.  This was walking distance from our condo and we had an enjoyable 15 minute walk to and from there. Rich enjoyed his presidential sandwich and I had a fantastic $12 mimosa which totally satisfied my need for a mimosa on our first vacation morning. We also sat at the table Obama sat at when he was there which was fairly entertaining. It was the only empty table by a window which was why I grabbed it, not realizing it was The Table. I took a picture of the plaque next to it when I noticed it, which then triggered a few other tourists to come over and take pictures. 
• We had dinner our first night at Pamela's on the beach which was excellent. Especially the passionfruit tilapia ceviche. I was nearly licking the plate. It was a little pricey but the food was good. The drink to get at a lot of places is sangria, we had some great white wine sangria there.
• We had mofongo, the Puerto Rican cuisine that you have to try, at Raices in Old San Juan which is right next to the parking garage, which is super cheap to park in. It's touristy but a good place for mofongo, which is mashed fried plantains and a tomato-y broth with your choice of meat/fish/vegetables. I also really enjoyed my passionfruit mojito.
• We had awesome sushi at Sushi City in Condado which is apparently THE hip happening area of San Juan. We love salmon and the salmon sashimi was great here, as well as the sangria. We sat on the front patio which I of course loved, getting to sit out in the perfect temperate air in December. 
• By far my favorite and the best dinner we had was at St Germain also in Old San Juan. It. Was. Amazing and I wish we'd gone there before our last night in San Juan so we would have known to go as many times as possible. Great prices, awesome drinks, super fresh ingredients. If you are there on a Sunday, by god please go there for the brunch, I'm so sad we didn't know about it in time. They have a bar which serves craft cocktails upstairs and it is the old home of Don Pedro Albizu Campos, the Nelson Mandela of Puerto Rico. There are bullet holes in the wall next to the bar where the feds busted in to arrest him... crazy history there.  And then a rooftop level which we didn't get to see because it wasn't open on Tuesday when we were there... seriously go there for the brunch and go again for dinner and teleport me there to join you PLEASE.

This was just the San Juan portion of the trip. I'll do another entry on Cabo Rojo but wanted to get this one out ASAP for our friends who are going next week. This was an outstanding place to vacation that I would recommend to anyone looking for a quiet, relaxing, honeymoon-type trip to the tropics in the winter.  Perfect weather, sunshine, beaches, just a one hour time change from the east coast, relatively short travel time, and no passport needed from the US. And for me, the parent of an almost one-year-old, it was the place I went and got so much sleep every night and felt so marvelously rested for a whole glorious week and can I go back now?

Yummy festive Pumpkin cake balls !

Hey blog, I thought I'd shock you by posting for the first time in about a year and a half! What up! Exciting things are happening in my world. Beyond getting engaged and married since my last post, my friends are starting to pop out babies (on purpose)! You know what that means... time to take a familiar recipe and turn it into a fun and fabulous treat to celebrate a baby milestone! My friend Sarah, who was my college roommate and is now my coworker as well as daily lunchmate and comrade, just found out yesterday that her adorable 20-week-old bump contains a little GIRL! And, since the day after tomorrow marks the first day of fall (okay, it's still a TAD early), I thought, what could be better than a pumpkin dessert to say, IT'S A GIRL!!

So I got this weight watchers recipe for pumpkin muffins a couple years ago from my roommate at the time and it is the easiest, most delicious and crowd pleasing recipe, I swear. It comes out every fall and wins new fans. Here's that recipe:

1 box cake mix (yellow or spice)
1 15-oz can pumpkin
1 cup water
1 bag cinnamon chips

Combine ingredients. Divide into 24 muffin cups and bake at 350F for 22 minutes. Each muffin is 150 calories.

DEEEELISH and I promise everyone who has ever tried one of these will become obsessed!

So, I was feeling ambitious yesterday and I decided to adapt this pumpkin muffin recipe into pumpkin cake balls!! Kroger was, of course, out of canned pumpkin but they did have some canned pumpkin pie mix (with the extra sugar, spices and preservatives added) so I worked with that.

I picked out a "golden butter recipe" cake mix (one of these days my goal is to figure out this recipe without the cake mix so it doesn't have all the corn syrup, trans fat and preservatives... but, there's a limit to my ambition for one day!!).

So I made the cake in 2 9-inch round pans which cooked in about 30 minutes and made the apartment smell gloriously of pumpkin cake. This was just the cake mix, water and pumpkin. SO EASY!!

While the cake was baking I made the icing from scratch, using my Kitchenaid stand mixer. It's probably maybe the third time I've ever used it, which is sad! That thing is worth more than everything else I own combined and it does amazing things. One day I swear to use it to its full potential. The icing is:

1 stick butter (I use light butter)
8 oz cream cheese (I use the reduced fat kind)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

I added a little cinnamon too because who doesn't love cinnamon in her pumpkin dessert!

Then, give the cake maybe half an hour to cool so you don't burn yourself, and then toss the cake and icing into a bowl and mix and mash it up. It makes a mush, which is formed into balls. This recipe turned out extra mushy from all the icing, so it would probably be advised to throw it into the fridge or freezer (depending on how much time you have) so it's a little firmer for ball making.

Next come the cinnamon chips! Heat water in a double boiler and melt a bag of cinnamon chips along with a glug of vegetable oil (or, my friend Jessica adds wax to hers) to make it melt more smoothly. Roll the cake balls in the melted cinnamon goop until they're coated and set them on wax paper. Add more cinnamon chips as you run out; I used close to two bags for this recipe.

If you want to decorate them now is the time; I wrote "it's a girl!" in pink icing on mine, and did a couple different ones, with mini chocolate chips, sprinkles, and icing designs on them, but plain is totally good too. You can get so creative with cake balls, I love it!

Then keep them in the freezer and enjoy at any temperature! Personally I think these work best frozen or really cold.

They were a big hit in the office! YUMMM.... CONGRATULATIONS SARAH!!!! Can't wait to meet baby girl Kortz!!!

mmm brussels sprouts!

Hi blog, I have been neglecting you lately! I just started working full-time again a couple weeks ago and that is my official excuse. I am really going to try and post more often though! My new job, working for a flavor company, is definitely going to inspire me with topics, I'm sure. In fact, tonight's post about brussels sprouts has been brought on by the delicious brussels sprouts served in the cafeteria at work, which I ate last week. Until then, I had never tried them before.

My dad has been known to make horrible faces whenever possible about these spiffy vegetables, and I think this has something to do with my brussels sprouts virginity lasting until now. Obviously, they were never served in my house growing up. In fact, the only vegetables that really were ever served in my house growing up were corn, peas, and those frozen "mixed vegetables"-- you know the ones I'm talking about-- carrots, peas, corn, lima beans. No wonder I hated vegetables as a child. Vegetables came into the kitchen frozen, were popped in the microwave, and served just like that. No sauces! No, these were super healthy, totally boring, blah vegetables perfect for inspiring kids to sit all night at the dinner table, picking at them grouchily.

I was fully grown and moved away from home before I started to really love and appreciate vegetables, and to this day I have no affection for those boring, frozen-microwaved corn, peas and carrots. Give me fresh, whole, roasted tomatoes, broccoli, onions, sweet potatoes, green beans, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms... drizzled with olive oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, maybe a creamy or homemade dipping sauce... mmmmmmm. Vegetables can really be incredible.

So I had read a number of times about how delectable properly cooked brussels sprouts could be and I had been really looking forward to trying them, in spite of the bad rap they got from my dad. And I finally got the opportunity when they were served in the cafeteria last week! To be honest, the first bite wasn't what I was expecting. A completely unfamiliar flavor surprised my tongue and gave me pause. But I forged on, and the second sprout reassured me. These sprouts were definitely not the pinnacle of diet-friendly. They were oh so buttery, soft and shiny, melt-in-your-mouth. But it was the sweet, brown caramelized edges that cemented my love of those delightful little guys. Yummmm! I savored every last smooth, round bite.

And then while I was at Whole Foods last night exploring the enticingly bright and colorful produce section, I came across what else but a bag of the prettiest, greenest, freshest-looking little brussels sprouts just calling my name, telling me that the time was finally here to try making them myself.

I quickly found the perfect simple recipe I wanted to try. Called golden-crusted brussels sprouts, it called for just olive oil, salt, pepper, maybe a sprinkle of shredded cheese, and ten minutes. Sign me up!!!

They were so fun to make, too. They turned the most gorgeous shiny green color when rubbed with the olive oil and of course filled the kitchen with that amazing olive oil-sauteing-caramelizing aroma. I even found half a block of parmesan cheese I'd forgotten was in the fridge that would be perfect grated on top.

The only thing I'll be doing differently next time is cooking them even longer, and maybe cutting them in half one more time, as tasty as they were tonight. The smallest, softest, darkest ones were the best, really mmm-inducing ones. My dad has no idea what he is missing!!! Maybe I will make these for him one day and rock his brussels-sprouts-hating world :)

Perfectly Poached Eggs

I love the internet. Anything I ever want to make is but a quick google search away. This morning I wanted to try poaching eggs in my very own kitchen, without an egg poacher. I have had poached eggs in restaurants before (specifically at The Original Pancake House, yummm!!! their waffles are absolute HEAVEN), but I had never attempted to do it myself before, so I enlisted the assistance of google, of course. Google led me to this wikihow. Who knew that the secret to poached eggs is a dash of vinegar in the water? Well, now I do! My poached eggs came out perfectly, soft and delicious.

As a side note, these were the expensive, $3.69/dozen organic eggs. My inner Ebenezer Scrooge always cringes a bit when I buy these eggs, seeing those 89-cent ones right next door, but thinking of the nasty chicken house in Food, Inc. quickly sets me back on the right path. It is definitely worth a couple extra dollars to support the organic chicken farmers instead of the Tyson/Big Food factory farmers and their appalling treatment of chickens. I believe in voting with my dollar and in this case I feel it's worth every penny! And my poached eggs could not have been tastier. Unless I had made my toast in time to have with them...

Thanks to the organic farmers and distributor and the wonderful, amazing internet with its google and wiki goodness for bringing me this excellent breakfast. Next time I just have to remember to put the toast in while the water's boiling! Oh well, live and learn... and buy organic!