Springtime Brunch: Avocado Toast with Cheesy Eggs & Grilled Ham

Sunday is the first day of Spring:  warmer weather, balmy breezes, longer days, blooming flowers...it's all right around the corner.  Celebrate it by making brunch for someone special.

This menu is so easy because you can prepare your avocados, grill the bread and ham at the same time, and while all that's resting you can quickly scramble the eggs.  Cheesy, buttery, smoky goodness is what you have right there!

So open a bottle of Prosecco and make some grapefruit mimosas, grab your phone and set the Sonos to Pandora's Brunch Café Radio, and settle in for a long leisurely afternoon of good food, intimate conversation, laughter, and love.  Welcome, Spring...I thought you'd never get here :)

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WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
(serves 2)

mimosas:
fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
prosecco

avocado toast:
1 loaf of your favorite multi-grain bread, thickly sliced
2 Haas avocados
red pepper flakes
olive oil
1 lemon
sea salt/fresh cracked pepper
I garlic cloved, peeled, the side cut off to expose the garlic

cheesy eggs:
6 eggs
a little milk to scramble the eggs
sharp white cheddar cheese, grated

1 ham steak (mine is Kentucky smoked ham)


First, make mimosas for yourselves.  We're not savages...no need to cook without a cocktail

Next, prepare avocados:
slice and spoon avocados into a bowl, squeeze the juice of half a lemon over them.  Smash, but leave chunky for texture.  Add salt and pepper.  Mix carefully.  Cover with saran wrap touching the top of the avocados to keep the air out and prevent them from turning brown.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

grill ham and bread at the same time:
Drizzle olive oil over bread (I use 2 pieces of bread per person)  and grill with ham steak, long enough to char the bread and heat ham all the way through.  Remove from grill.  Take garlic clove and rub cut side over slices of grilled bread.  Set aside.

Make scrambled cheese eggs--use your favorite recipe.

When eggs are done, assemble toast:
Remove avocados from refrigerator and spread on garlicky toast.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle red pepper flakes over the top, add more salt and pepper to taste, if needed.

If you haven't already, make more mimosas, set the table, and enjoy your day--

Fresh Blackfin Tuna Salad with Crackers

I love tuna salad.  Love it.  But my friend who's an offshore fisherman always laughs at me because I make it from the tuna that comes in a can.  Like...where else would you get it??  He says you can make it with fresh fish and I didn't believe him because the fresh tuna I'm picturing comes covered in sesame seeds, is served with wasabi and a tasty soy ginger dipping sauce, and you eat it with chopsticks.  "No" he says, "that's Sashimi grade tuna".  Well then what the hell are you talking about??

Blackfin Tuna.  Caught fresh (his in the waters off the Florida Keys), grilled and cooled, then flaked with a fork, and made into tuna salad.   All in under an hour.  The freshest, most delicious tuna salad on earth, NOT packed in water and NOT in an aluminum can.  Swear to God.  Try it.  Try it now.  Today.  Right now.  Go ahead.  You know you wanna...  :)

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WHAT TO BUY:

I was given 2 types of fish:  tuna and swordfish, so I grilled them both and used them.  But if you just want to use tuna, only buy that.  How much you buy is up to you, it depends on the amount of tuna salad you're making.

You can also use your own ingredients, whatever your usual recipe is.  This is mine:

lemon
red wine vinegar
grape tomatoes, halved
green onions, chopped
mayonnaise (I use Hellmann's)
salt/cracked pepper
cajun seasoning
olive oil
crackers (I use Triscuit's)

Rub fish lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Grill fish.  They're steaky fishes, so grill until firm and cooked all the way through (this is NOT the time for rare tuna, it should be grayish white inside).

Remove from grill and cool to room temperature. 

Seasoned and grilled tuna and swordfish

Flake with a fork (In the picture above, I used the piece of tuna in the middle and the 2 little pieces of swordfish on the top right).

flaked

Add tomatoes, green onions, cajun seasoning, and cracked pepper.

Add mayonnaise, lemon juice, and a few sprinkles of red wine vinegar.

Mix all together.

Cool in refrigerator and serve with crackers