Whenever I go to Hollywood, there is one thing that I look forward to the most. It's not the Hollywood sign, the movies, the chance celebrity sighting, the proximity to Disneyland, no. It's the Eggs Verde that I get at Mel's Drive In. I was going out there for the TCM Film Festival every spring, but since I'm not planning on returning I figured I better try to make my own version of this dish at home. It's either that or pay for a plane ticket to LA *just* for this restaurant (which I would 100% do if I could afford it, lol!!) or cook at home.
And this was so simple to whip up! I just fried a couple of eggs and put them on a bed of kale, then topped it with chopped tomatoes, corn, and fresh parsley. Add some roasted asparagus (400' for 20 minutes) and voila! This tasted so fresh and healthy and it's so filling. At Mel's they poach the eggs, use arugula instead of kale, and the corn mixture is more like salsa than just fresh vegetables. But this was so easy to whip up, and I made so much corn and asparagus that I had enough for leftovers the next day. I just had to make the eggs, and chop up some tomatoes!
This is sort of unrelated, but I was meeting with a career counselor this summer and for this one exercise she showed me a couple of recipes and asked me to choose the one that stood out to me. They were all for the same dish, but one was spelled out with very precise instructions in a numbered list, one was more casual but it still included specific measurements and times, and the last one (the one that I went for) was more like a conversation about a recipe. It reminded me of the recipes I grew up with, the kind that my mom and grandmom have written down. Stuff like "combine salt, flour, water. Bake." lol! Recipes that require eyeballing it, and just trusting your own instincts. Obviously those recipes don't really work for more science-y foods like cookies or cakes, but when you're throwing together an egg dish or biscuits or pasta sauce it can be fun to wing it!
Anyway, my whole point is that after I got home and was looking over the paperwork she gave me, I realized that the recipe reminded me a lot of the ones I've written here. I don't know if I've ever actually typed out a numbered list of steps. It's usually casual and leaves room for tweaking. Sometimes I still get messages from people telling me that they have tried my chickpea and tomato dish (still one of my favorites!) or my cranberry walnut pasta and it makes me so happy! Not just that I've helped you find a meal that you like, but because it meant my instructions were somewhat follow-able! ha!
