I found this “recipe” years ago in an issue of O magazine, and have been using it with wild abandon ever since. The recipe is basically to use the yolk from a poached or fried egg, along with some flavorings from the dish you are saucing, as the sauce. Here’s an example of how it goes:

Take fresh asparagus, (the first joy of Spring), and pan roast it. You do this essentially by putting some olive oil (1-2 Tbs. depending on the amount of asparagus) in a pan over medium-high heat; add the asparagus, some salt and a little water (2 Tbs.); cover and steam for a few minutes, until the asparagus is almost cooked. Then remove the cover, let the water evaporate as it simmers, and the asparagus will start to brown on the bottom. This is perfect.

Now, take that asparagus and put it on your plate and slip an egg into the hot pan to cook. While the egg cooks grate some parmesan cheese over the asparagus. Now place the cooked egg on top of the asparagus on your plate (or bowl), salt and pepper it all, and grate a little more parm over the egg.

Once you break the yolk and dig into this deliciousness, the egg yolk, olive oil and parmesan cheese combine to make a “lazy” hollandaise sauce. This is a great dinner when you are eating alone, and you can add one of the delicious parmesan crisps (available in the crouton section of the market) or a slice of crusty bread for some crunch. The egg and parmesan give you protein, you have your green veggie, and a little starch for satisfaction.

This sauce also works over pasta, just add the egg over your cooked, hot pasta; grate some parmesan cheese over the top, add salt and course-ground pepper and you have a lazy carbonara. Keep the pasta a little wet from its cooking water, and the starch from that will help make it more of a sauce. (I just use tongs to take the pasta out of the water and into the bowl, without draining the pasta first.) If you are feeling flush, or have a little wiggle room in your jeans, then cook the egg in butter, pour the browned butter on top with the egg, and send this into nearly sublime territory.

You can also combine veggies, such as broccoli or baby spinach, roasted or steamed or grilled, with some leftover pasta, add the egg on top, the parmesan, and have a quick meal that tastes way more complicated than it is. Whether you poach or fry the egg is up to you – I think frying is much easier since the pan is already hot and coated with olive oil. You can change up the cheese if you like – a little feta is also good – and add anything that strikes your fancy. Simple and delicious, this lazy sauce feeds body and soul.

I’d love to hear what you think about this, and any other “lazy” cooking techniques you have.

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The phrase mise en place is French for “everything in its place” – loosely translated, since I don’t speak French. When I look at my kitchen and see a clean counter, free of school papers, old recipes, serving plates that need to be put away in the top cupboard, etc., I am eager to cook.

When I to into my kitchen and a different kind of counter greets me, I feel too tired to even make the attempt. And I love to cook. If you don’t, I can’t even imagine how you would motivate yourself to get started. It is just depressing to think about cleaning up the kitchen before even starting to cook, then cleaning it up again.

Which is why I was thinking of mise en place. At the end of the day, when I clean my kitchen and put everything in its place, I feel a sense of peace and calm. I am in control of my little world and all is well. If you are thinking that my world must be really small, then you are right. But I am happy here and the food is good.

So now I am off to finish what I should have done last night, and get my kitchen in order. So when dinner time rolls around, what I can whip up in my darling little world seems much more appealing than delivery pizza.

How does a clean kitchen make you feel?

Yes, I know that mise in place usually refers to measuring all of the ingredients and putting them in little bowls before starting a recipe. But since I never actually do that, and I like the phrase, I use it my way. Like I said, loosely translated.

Yes, I am crazy enough to make my own granola. Which is actually very easy. If you can measure ingredients and turn on the stove, you also can have your ideal, perfect granola just the way you like it.

This version is adapted from a recipe by David Lebovitz, and makes a lot of granola. It is hearty enough that 1/2 cup, with some blueberries, will keep you full all morning. The recipe makes a lot, and lasts for a few weeks in an airtight container in the pantry.

Pumpkin Granola

5 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 cups chopped raw nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, pecans – I use a mixture

1 cup sunflower seeds

3/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds – also called pepitas

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 generous teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp kosher salt

3/4 – 1 cup pumpkin puree or sweet potato puree (not pie filling)

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 Tbs honey

2 Tbs. canola oil

Preheat oven to 300 F

1. In a small saucepan heat the pumpkin, maple syrup, honey and oil until warm and loose enough to pour.
2. In a large bowl, mix oats, nuts, seeds, brown sugar, spices and salt
3. Add pumpkin-syrup mixture and mix thoroughly.
4. Spread the granola onto two large jelly-roll pans, or three smaller ones, lined with parchment paper if you have it.
5. Bake until a deep golden brown, about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes so the outsides don’t burn before the middle is done.
6. Let cool completely in pans, then put into an airtight container.

Enjoy! I wait to add fruit as I eat the granola, since I like fresh berries if I can find good ones. Also, I don’t want dried fruit when I add granola to yogurt.