My Eggs Charlotte courtesy of Loblaw.
This year one of my dreams is to practice foodie gratitude. Appreciate not just the food I eat and enjoy but those who make my foodie life easier, more interesting and share their products with me. Not to worry, I will still be 100% honest and not hold back if I do not like something. That is just not in my character!
Loblaw noticed via my blog that I could not get PC Black Label’s Truffle Aioli that I adored and ended up being my number 1 product of 2011 at my store and sent me some! I was shocked!
THREE bottles of this unbelievably delicious spread. I was blown away! Oh the delicious foodie treats I will create.
I am grateful not only for their generosity but for helping me heal a foodie wound. Almost four years ago after just moving here Reg and I packed our car with all new food since we had nothing when we moved here from BC. There was an un-forecasted ice storm followed by snowstorm that happened while we were shopping. On our way home, we drove one block and had a head-on collision.
After that moment, grocery shopping terrified me. My post-traumatic stress is so severe that I will do anything to avoid shopping in the car with Reg in the winter. I walk on roads without sidewalks covered in snow and ice with cars passing so close they sometimes move the bags of food strapped to my bad back and injury-proned shoulders.
Over the four years, grocery shopping and food in general have gone from reminding me of that horrific day to being my place of solace. My home away from home. I still can not buy the same box of chicken breasts we bought the day of the accident that thawed while we were in the hospital but I can buy bagged greens again. (Long story)
My store has recently had a makeover while I have been sick. I am thrilled they have a bulk section now and I can not wait to go to the olive bar and take some home. It is so much the same that I think I know where everything is but really, I can’t find anything yet.
It is nice to have a place where people kind of know me. I am pretty well housebound so this is the only place I actually hang out with the human race. I bought a plant once and the florist said, “Hey, you’re the one who’s always here!” I am sure the produce guys call me “the crazy shiitake mushroom lady” since I am always asking about them.
May my foodie journey continue to heal my wounded heart and bring more and more delicious joy into my kitchen.
Easy Eggs Charlotte
Before By The Way Cafe was a Middle Eastern Restaurant in Toronto it was a cafe that introduced me to Eggs Charlotte: poached eggs on an English muffin with smoked salmon slathered in Hollandaise sauce. Divine! Every time I visited my family in Toronto I tried to make sure to go there. So much so I had my bridal shower there!
You would think I would have made it myself but make all that Hollandaise sauce just for me?! Nope. Thankfully you could get this dish out west (we lived in BC for eight years) all over the place but now… Now on the east coast I can make it myself and so can you!
Not an easy shot to take!
I referred to my poached eggs tutorial (it had been a while) and brought some water with a little vinegar in it to a boil. Not a rapid boil, close to simmering. I put an egg in a ramekin dish, swirled the water and carefully added the egg.
I got out a wooden spoon and swirled the egg white closer to the yolk. It got all long and whispy but eventually got back together. I let simmer for four minutes.
I removed the egg with a slotted spoon and dried it on some paper towel. Then I made another poached egg as I toasted an English muffin.
Considering the expiry date of the aioli is the end of this month, I put some sauce on the bottom layer, topped with a piece of smoked salmon, added the poached egg, then spooned even more of the aioli on top and sprinkled with chopped chives. I am not letting any of it go to waste!
Unbelievable! The egg was perfect. I like it when the egg yolk is solid around the edges and just a little runny on the inside. The aioli, I have to say, might even be better than the Hollandaise sauce for this dish. And it required no work from me! Divine. Absolutely divine. I went to foodie heaven when I had this and I will make it again today!
Yes, I have come a long way on my healing journey with food and Loblaw/my Superstore has had a lot to do with it. Focusing on food as a beautiful part of my life has healed a deep wound. It has also been liberating. To create my favourite foods in my own kitchen anytime I want? Now that is foodie freedom.
What an inspiring post, Suzie! May food continue to work its healing magic in your life!
PC rocks and comes through again. That was very generous of them to come to the “aioli crisis” foodie rescue. Suzie, I’ve totally been enjoying your foodie journey with each and every post, you’ve inspired so many of us along the way.
Those look really good!! Adding a few things to my shopping list now. I can’t wait to make them.
Oh Suzie, my heart breaks for you!
But yet another reason to love Loblaws.
Hugs and best wishes your way.