Recipe, without pictures

This past Sunday, I intended to make french toast for breakfast. I had plenty of homemade bread, and a dozen safe, healthy organic eggs in my fridge that have been completely unaffected by any recall. But when I looked at my bread, it had gotten moldy! It was less than a week old (usually I struggle to keep bread around for longer than that) but I think the humidity must have gotten to it. I read that it is best to keep bread at room temperature so it does not dry out, as it would in the fridge. But I opted to keep the bread I made later on Sunday in the fridge to avoid spoilage.

I had to switch gears for breakfast, then! I briefly considered making omelets, but while I was a master at making an omelet for myself in Kentucky (almost every Sunday morning, while reading the New York Times and listening to Sunday Baroque before buckling down and ruining a perfectly good thing with homework), I have not mastered cooking omelets for two people. Do you use two pans and cook them simultaneously? Do you cook a really big omelet and cut it in half? Do you use one pan and serve the omelets at different times? I don't know. I make scrambled eggs instead.

I had about three pounds of red non-storage potatoes hanging out on my kitchen counter from our CSA, and I decided to serve scrambled eggs with fried potatoes. I quartered and sliced three medium potatoes then microwaved them for 5 minutes while chopping my other ingredients. For the scrambled eggs, I diced a small onion, chopped up four bruised tomatoes, throwing out the bad parts, shredded about 1/4 cup of farmers cheese, and about 1/3 cup of muenster, and took some pesto out of the fridge.

When the potatoes had warmed up in the microwave, I put a little bit of vegetable oil in a pan and cooked the potatoes over medium heat until they were browned. I thought the pan might be a little dry, so I added a little bit of butter as they cooked. They turned out to be the best fried potatoes I have ever made. Microwaving the potato first makes all the difference. Without that step, I end up with potato hunks with one side burned to the bottom of the pan, the top side still raw.

While frying the potatoes, I actually cooked down the tomato and onion for a bit before adding the eggs. I don't like scrambled eggs that are watery from vegetable juices, so I typically cook my veggies for a while first to get some of the water out. (Garlic would have been a good addition here but I did not think to add it until after the eggs were cooked.)

I whisked four eggs in a bowl, added a splash of milk, and some salt and pepper, then added the egg mixture to the tomatoes and onions. I let them cook for a while, then added the pesto. It smelled heavenly. When the eggs were almost done, I added the cheese and let it melt.

I am usually a big fan of sweet breakfast foods (hence the french toast - which I make with plenty of vanilla, cinnamon, and I used to add sugar but next time intend to use maple syrup in the batter instead) but as far as a savory breakfast goes, this was one of the best things I've ever thrown together at a moments' notice.