Farm Fresh Breakfast Bowl Scramble
This morning as I was finishing my almost daily workout with a cool down walk, I noticed something: In one of the raised beds I have around my greenhouse, there was some volunteer garlic bulbs sprouting. This discovery excited me for two reasons, one, because I was hungry, and two, I love me some garlic scapes.
The fresh green growth on top of garlic is soooooo yummy. Well, to this constantly eating scallion girl it is! I love the peppery garlic taste that chopped up garlic scapes infuse into my food, so after my cool down walk elapsed, I grabbed some scissors and cut me some scapes.
I then stopped by the greenhouse and snipped some Red Russian Kale. The leaves are in the just past micro stage, otherwise known as the tender, throw a handful on whatever you are eating, and enjoy stage.
Lastly, I stopped by our mobile hen house. The little cedar sided house on wheels is home to our four Ameraucana hens. Quick as you can say, "Oh I gotta clean the coup again." I had removed three blue-tinged eggs from the nest box on the end.
Midway between greenhouse kale selection and hen house egg procuring, I was waylaid by a homestead helper. Okay, I was distracted by something cute, a cat. Imagine that, Kat being distracted by a cat. And not just any cat, it was none other than the illustrious LT. LT is named after the cat in my avatar, the irreplaceable Lizard. A cat so bonded to me that she was referred to as my familiar. In fact, the Lizard had her babies in my lap. I am not kidding, she stuck her claws into my legs, made me sit down, and popped out three kittens while I sat in a butterfly pose.
Lizard got mad at my parent's red heeler one day and left us. I have missed her terribly. A couple of months ago I walked out my back door and in a shoebox on my porch was a Lizard doppleganger of a kitten. She was the loviest thing of all time, and as we got to know her, Lizard-like personality traits emerged. Almost reincarnation level traits. Long story short, we christened her LT, which stands for Lizard Two, and the rest is part of farm lore.
So, when the lizard was being trying to distract me as I gathered my breakfast ingredients, I most decidedly lost focus on what I was trying to accomplish. You try to walk past a tabby cat who is seeking to steal your attention by rolling around on a concrete block and falling off, only to rise and flop again. I'm not ashamed to admit I stood there and laughed at her antics for at least a couple of minutes. There was also appreciated back and ear scratching administered, cause I am a sucker for cat antics of distraction cuteness.
After my Lizard Two intermission I finally got around to breakfast creation. The first thing I got out after I washed the garlic scapes and mini kale was some frozen Anaheim chiles that I had grown and roasted last fall. I set them on the counter, plopped my favorite cast iron skillet onto the stove, spooned a Tablespoon of avocado oil into the skillet, and started the oil a heating.
I then retrieved some Crimini mushrooms from the fridge, gave them a wash, and set them next to my cutting board. Ahh, mushrooms. It is Morel season here, I've yet to go Morel hunting, but I love eating them, so I am sure that is something I should do in the future. What I would rather do is get a patch of the fungi of tastiness growing on the mushroom friendly back hill on my property. I really need to look into doing that.
Anyway, I chopped up the chiles and the mushrooms, added them to my heated oil, salt and peppered it all generously, and cooked the two ingredients for a bit. While they were doing their thing in the skillet, I minced a clove of garlic, because even with the addition of the garlic scapes, one can never have too much garlic flavor. After five minutes of sauteing, I added the minced garlic and chopped up the garlic scapes.
Of course I sampled a bit of chopped scape. Garlic scapes have this glorious yet mild peppery garlic flavor. I added the chopped scapes to my shrooms and chiles and let them cook for a couple of minutes.
While the scapes were cooking a bit, I cracked my three fresh eggs in a glass and gave them a whisk. In my head I heard my dad, Rambling Ron, spouting off one of his favorite sayings, "Two eggs in a glass, if that don't rhyme then kiss my a$$." Ahh Dad, so poetic, so classy.
The time had come to add the eggs to my veg and fungi, I poured the whisked eggs into the skillet and proceeded to cook up the scramble to my desired level of doneness. Just on the other side of not runny. I don't like my eggs over done.
It was plating time. Er, bowling time? I have a whole bunch of melamine bowls, the kind that they use in Asian restaurants that I bought from a restaurant supply store. They are a lovely large size, wonderful for things like soup, ice cream, and breakfast scrambles. I scooped my scramble into a blue lotus flower bowl, sprinkled my baby Red Russian Kale on top in a none too artful pattern, and gave the entire meal a bit of a flourish of hot sauce.
Then I got down to the business of actually eating my breakfast. Let me just say one word: YUM! The roasted Anaheims added a smokey hint to my scramble, the garlic scapes peppered each bite in a mild garlic flavor, the extra garlic had infused my mushrooms with allium family flavor explosion in each bite, and the kale gave each mouthful a hint of a spring fresh crunch. All in all my scramble made a right fine breakfast to enjoy. Not only was it tasty, I am sure it was somewhat healthy too, which is a good thing as I need to go spread weed block and plant some cabbages now!
Farm Fresh Breakfast Bowl Scramble
3 Eggs
1 TBSP Avocado oil (or butter or oil of your choice)
2 Roasted Anaheim chiles (you could sub a couple of Tablespoons of chopped, canned green chiles)
4 Crimini mushrooms, sliced and chopped
1 handful chopped garlic scapes, mine were baby scapes, fresh, green, and tender. You could sub a chopped green onion
1 handful baby kale
1 minced garlic clove
salt and pepper to tasteHeat avocado oil in a skillet. While the oil is heating, chop pepper and mushrooms. Add both to the skillet, salt and pepper a bit, and saute for about five minutes. Towards the end of the five minutes, add minced garlic.
Next, add chopped garlic scapes, let them cook down for a minute or two. Crack eggs in a bowl (or cup:) and whisk well, add eggs to skillet and cook until desired level of doneness.
Top with kale and hot sauce and enjoy!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's heavily garlic scented and not too dented iPhone.