Make Mom a Memorable Breakfast – With Local Food

Erin Tormey, founder and director of the in Half Moon Bay and Pacifica, is also a farmer. She raises a flock of chickens — the Farm Fatales south of Half Moon Bay (see photo in media box at right) — and sells their pastured eggs every Wednesday at the farmer's market in Pacifica.

On Friday in her weekly Coastside Farmer's Markets Field Notes, Tormey shared a recipe she encouraged readers to consider serving on Mother's Day. The recipe features pastured eggs, organic leeks, spinach and cream and is reprinted as follows (with permission from Tormey):

My poor Mom suffered through so many  Mothers' Day Breakfast in Bed horrors that it's amazing she even speaks to any of us after what we did to her kitchen, cookware, and boudoir linens,  but you can not go wrong  - really you can't - when you start her day with a healthy and beautiful breakfast featuring pastured eggs baked with spring spinach, and served with a bowl of the seasons' first Albion or Seascape strawberries.  So easy it will feel like an accident. Which it kind of was the first time I made it. 

Here's what you do: Grab a lovely bunch of local spinach and a bunch of leeks, and dozen locally pastured eggs (Ben's in HMB, mine in Pacifica).  Of course be smart and make sure you also nab a whole lot of sweet peas for the table.

Seriously. Sweet Peas, now those are love on a stem. And they are my Mom's favorite, and she knows best.

Anyway, you just slice the leeks and sautee them in a bit of butter in a covered sautee pan on low-ish heat so they don't brown, but get nice and soft and shiny. While the leeks soften up (the way my Mom does when I show up with Sweet Peas) clean some spinach, removing the stems.  Take the nice soft leeks off the heat, and cover with a nice layer of spinach.  Grind a bit of pepper and some seasalt on the spinach layer, then crack 2 eggs per lucky diner on the spinach, pour a  bit of cream (or Half & Half or whole milk - not more than enough to moisten the bottom of the pan and come right to the edges of the sunny-eyed eggs), put the lid back on the pan and pop it into the oven (350º oughta do it), rinse and halve the berries and put in a lovely bowl (blue, if you don't mind) squeeze a few tangerines (we are so lucky we can still get them - the wierd winter means no blueberries yet, but there is still great citrus for another week or so), bust out the bubbly if you are the sort, and then set the table - really.

If you decide to make this recipe for breakfast today, let us know how it turns out.