Purple Haze'd

May Day!  When I worked in Chicago my former boss would recite this little ditty each May 1-"Hurray, hurray, the first of May, outdoor screwing starts today". Nice right?  He was Canadian, maybe that explains it... Anyway today is May Day Brunch Day.  I still have some flowers from my Easter bouquet which is nice since we were gone the better part of the week.
The Greater Los Angeles Veteran's Administration is our home away from home these days.  More tests for Steve's ailments.  We don't know what is going on but the Doctors ordered a battery of scans, grams and positrons.  He is back to having difficulties swallowing. We shall see what the results tell us at the end of this month.  Keeping the faith, friends!

Saturday we joined our friend, Vilia, on a drive out to the wine country in Paso Robles to pick up a wine shipment from a wine club she belongs to. The tasting room happened to have a couple of cheeses to sample.  One was Cypress Grove Chevre,  "Purple Haze".  It is a goat cheese round rubbed with lavendar and fennel pollen. Soo good in a goat-y, anise-y, sweet way. I bought a round and decided to use in an egg dish for brunch today.

 Out came "The Breakfast Book" by Marion Cunningham.  She has a really good souffle-like omelet she calls "Puffy Omelet".  I have made it before with good results.  As is my way, I like to overstuff things.  This is no exception. Where she calls for a few tablespoons of say, sauteed mushrooms and a little cheese, I have to saute mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes, sometimes ham, then,  add cheese and herbs.  We like omelets that way. This my version for today.
                                          " Purple Hazed Omelet"
3 eggs, separated
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. butter
Filling:
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. butter
¼ c. chopped bell pepper
2 Tbsp. chopped onion
2 mushrooms, chopped
½ roma tomato, seeded and diced
2 Tbsp. crumbled Purple Haze goat cheese1 tsp. chopped Italian Parsley
1 Tbsp. chopped fennel fronds plus some fronds for garnish
 (If you can, go outside and pick some wild fennel fronds and chop about 1 Tbsp. saving some for garnish.The Sicilian fennel is like a weed here in California. If not, fennel bulb is in farmer's markets and usually in commercial ones too. Save the fronds to use in vegetable dishes or this one!)Heat oven to 400*
Saute the chopped veges in the melted butter and olive oil, add the herbs and keep warm.
Whisk the egg yolks until blended. Sprinkle salt over the egg whites, beat until stiff but not dry. Combine yolks and whites until just incorporated.
In a non stick 10” skillet, melt 2 T. butter. When butter foams, pour the eggs into the skillet. Spread out with a spatula. Cook over medium heat until the bottom of the omelet just starts to brown. Pop the skillet into the oven, set the timer for 3 minutes and heat the brunch plates. When the omelet is just set, spread the cooked veges down the middle and sprinkle the goat cheese over them. Using a rubber spatula fold over and press down a little so the filling stays inside and the goat cheese starts to melt.
To serve, cut in half and garnish with a piece of fennel frond. This is very light and moist and benefits from "over filling" with savories.

To round out the menu, I made chipotle-brown sugar coated baked bacon.
Mix 2 Tbsp. brown sugar with 1 tsp. chipotle chile powder ( pretty easy to find this now days). Sprinkle over 6 slices of bacon on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. You can coat both sides if you want to!
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min. check it and add a few minutes if it isn’t done.

Also on the menu were basic pork breakfast sausages. Usually I cook chicken or turkey breakfast sausages but this week it was the good ole sage-y pork! I put four of them in a little skillet with some water and slowly cooked them until the water evaporated, turning once. Pour some maple syrup over them, for a nice glaze, and pop them in the oven with the bacon. When they are done cover the skillet and keep warm.
Next up was Fruit Hash. This could have been the boring usual I guess, except this week I decided to keep the Goat milk and Fennel theme going by adding some goat milk yogurt and chopped fennel to chopped up mango, cantelope, pineapple, strawberries, banana and blueberries, finishing it off with a drizzle of organic maple syrup.

Salsa de Bruncha was in attendance: 1 cup mild salsa, 2 Tbsp. ketchup, 1 Tbsp. hot Mexican style salsa and a little chicken stock, heated until bubbly.  Steve loves this salsa and it makes everything go down easier.
We had Latetia’s Brut de Noir in sweet small cobalt blue champagne flutes from Tobin James Cellars winery.