tossed salad and scrambled eggs

Today I tried a new way of scrambling eggs. One of my New Year's food resolutions is to try a new recipe from each of my cookbooks. This one came from Helen Corbitt's cookbook, published in 1957. Drew's mom gave it to me for Christmas.

I have always heard that the way a person cooks eggs (well, really, an omelet, but close enough) shows how well she can cook. Well, I'm embarrassed to admit that my scrambled eggs are usually a failure--brown, ugly, and mostly stuck to the bottom of the pan. So, of course, now I want to master them.

I'm not sure if this is my favorite recipe--the eggs were delicious and at least they were bright yellow, but the texture...hmm. The eggs lacked the characteristic big fat curds that define scrambled eggs for me. Instead, they were just one light, fluffy, creamy mass. Maybe the texture was different because of the cottage cheese?

Now, the difference in texture might also be due to the double boiler* in which I cooked the eggs. I read in another cookbook, I can't remember which, that a double boiler is a good way to keep the heat nice and low so that the eggs don't dry out. Helen Corbitt just calls for a saute pan.

*This is my "double boiler."

I added truffle oil to the recipe because when I was a waitress at Dante's Kitchen in New Orleans, there was another waitress, Ginny, who would beg the line cooks to make her scrambled eggs with truffle oil before the brunch shift started. She was right; truffle oil (in very tiny quantities) is unbelievably good with eggs. So, while these may not be the perfect eggs, they are pretty darn tasty, and they made for a nice lunch.


Better-Than-Usual Scrambled Eggs
(as adapted from Helen Corbitt's Cook-book)

2 tablespoons butter (!)
4 eggs
3/4 cup cottage cheese, drained
salt and pepper
2 drops of truffle oil


Melt butter in your double boiler. Crack the eggs into the butter and add the cheese and salt. Stir until eggs look done. Add pepper and truffle oil and stir to combine. Serve atop buttered toast. I topped the eggs with a little arugula dressed with some balsamic vinegar and some fancy oil my sister Tallie gave me for Christmas.