Conquering Hollandaise

Conquering Hollandaise this past weekend was a frazzle for my nerves up until the actual moment of doing it!

I did use the cheater (and fool proof) version suggested by Julia Child and I can happily say that I have mastered the art of the Hollandaise sauce! I blended those eggs and added the butter so that sauce heaven was created. 

I feel like sauce is really the main point of a dish if it's full of butter. Look at beurre blanc! Another sauce I happily lap up in any dish. All the food you have with the Hollandaise, in my own personal opinion, is just a vessel to get the sauce into your mouth.  If it didn't make my stomach hurt from how absolutely rich it was, and didn't mind doubling my size in weight, I would eat it everyday... possibly as soup.

I didn't put it into anything fancy, although, I realize that the Pirex really doesn't show it off very well, if you had tasted it, you wouldn't care either. I'm fairly certain if any had been split, someone would have licked it up.

I was totally freaking out about the sauce so my mom made the poached eggs. They are kind of freaky too. I mean you crack an egg into simmering water and wait for it to cook? I was sure this was just going to turn into egg drop soup. But it didn't! However, dropping them in is the easy part, getting them back out and onto the toast is the hard part. Plus, we sat them onto a napkin while waiting for the toast, (we weren't really on top of our time management skills) and then lifting them off of that was ridiculous. What a dumb idea! DON'T put your eggs on a napkin! Haha.

Asparagus was also sauteed with oil and garlic to go with the sauce. Need to have some greens to balance out that 2 sticks of butter.

Look at this fabulously delicious brunch!!!! Almost too pretty to eat!.... almost

Finally, another new attempt. I cooked whole artichokes!

Turns out you just boil them for like 45 minutes and they are like to die for! (that might be in part because we dipped them in Hollandaise ... hmm... )The leaves just pull off and you scrape them against your teeth to get the "meat".

 
When I got to the middle I thought the purple  leaves looked like a flower so I had to show it off. Life's little happinesses you know?

Anyway, who knew the hearts were so big! You get them in a can and they are pretty small but I guess they use baby artichokes for that. These 2 artichokes made about a cup of hearts!

PERFECT! Why you ask? Because it's game day! And artichoke dip is a perfect game day treat! (go buckeyes!)

I like to add crab to the recipe so you get chunks of extra deliciousness on the chip. I used the imitation krab because that is was was brought home for me but usually, had I gone to the store myself, I would have gotten real chunks. YUM!

Fresh artichoke hearts give it a lot of flavor! I suppose I should have guessed that but whatever. Don't judge me for usually using canned.