Mandi

fried eggs benedict

Well, it must be recipe week here at Sunny Slide Up! Personally I think it has something to do with the fact that we were all snowed in last week – what a perfect time to try out something new!

I love Eggs Benedict. It is kind of sad how much I love them. If I go to brunch, I almost always treat myself to this amazing goodness that comes together.

Last week I attempted to poach an egg… that was a disaster! So, I improvised, fried an egg, and we were on our way!

Welcome…. FRIED EGGS BENEDICT

This honestly was so simple, delicious and approved by The Mister!

First get your english muffin and split them in half. I used one per person and toasted them just enough so they were warm.

Fry an egg so it will still be runny and top each muffin half with one egg.

While I was frying my egg, I had my bacon – baking in the oven. I always do my bacon this way now… Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil to catch the grease, lay out the bacon flat and it will be crispy in about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven…. NO MESS… NO HOT GREASE SPLATTERING.

Top the egg with bacon. I used 2 pieces cut in half on each section.

While the egg and bacon was cooking, I also sauteed some mushrooms and green onion in about a table spoon of butter… toss that on next!

And finally top with the hollandaise sauce. I used the recipe that Pioneer Woman uses.

I am telling you… This recipe was sooo good! We will make it again. Maybe when I am serving brunch… It looks so pretty and tastes so amazing!

You could top yours with anything you like… ham… spinach…leave off the mushrooms.

Ingredients – for 2 servings

2 english muffins
4 eggs
2 tablespoon butter
1 small can sliced mushrooms
3 green onions chopped
4 pieces of bacon
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375. Once warm cook bacon on baking sheet until crisp. Set bacon to the side.
Cut 2 english muffins in half and toast until warm. Lay on plate.
Use 1 tablespoon of butter to fry 4 eggs, leaving the yolk runny. Place one egg on each half of the english muffin.
Stack bacon on top of egg/english muffin
Sautee mushrooms and green onion in 1 tablespoon butter. Once sauteed, place this mixture on top of your bacon
Top the english muffin “tower” with the hollandaise sauce.
Serve Immediately.

For Hollandiase Sauce

3 egg yolks
2 sticks of butter
1 lemon
cayenne pepper to taste

Directions

Melt 2 sticks of butter in sauce pan. Do not burn butter.
Separate 3 egg yolks and place in blender.
Turn blender on low and leave on during entire process.
Slowly pour all of the butter into the blender.
Immediately add the juice of one lemon to the blender. If the mixture is still thick, add more lemon juice until you get the consistency you want.
Add cayenne pepper to taste. You can add a generous amount as it is not a very hot seasoning.
Immediately pour over eggs benedict and serve.

*note… do not warm hollandaise sauce after it is mixed for long as it will turn into a runny mess!

I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS AS MUCH AS I DID!!!!

must love dogs

by Mandi | fun finds, personal

This past weekend, The Mister and I finally decided to turn in our selfish, no responsibility ways and get a dog. Let me introduce… BELLA!

I am kind of biased, but I think she is just the cutest pup ever. This Great Dane has already stolen my heart!

Her serious face makes me laugh and it is so hard for me to be stern with her!

The droopy eyes, all of those beautiful spots, her floppy ears, her goofy puppy run, and that smile when she is so happy… they all make me melt.

As you can imagine, I have already been on the Etsy hunt.. I love everything on there!

Here are some of my FAVs for dogs!

Have your people call my people dog tag | Personalized Leather Dog Collar | Raised Feeding Station | custom dog beds

And… I also had to look for my Great Dane things… I kind of really want that pillow. I think it would be awesome in my living room! 🙂

Anyone else have a favorite place to buy things for their dogs? Anyone love Great Danes? As a new mom – I would love any advice you have!

aloha hawaii and mahalo

by Mandi | adventures

I recently wrote and said that I was traveling to the amazing state of Hawaii. Well I have to say, it was one trip that I will remember for the rest of my life. Not only the beautiful sights, but the amazing time that I had with my sister. You are my world, baby!

This year at Christmas, I got the biggest surprise! My sister had created a scavenger hunt for me!

Gift 1: A tank top
Gift 2: Long Island Medium’s Book
Gift 3: Hawaiian Tropic Sunscreen (this is when I was getting a bit confused)
Gift 4: a note telling me to go to the computer screen and turn it on – to a screen saying, “SURPRISE – We are going to HAWAII! Last single sisters getaway” I don’t think I could form words for about 10 minutes. Let me tell you that there was not a dry eye in the house as my mom, dad and sister had followed me around doing my scavenger hunt, video camera in hand!

SUCH an amazing sister!

Well, one week after getting home, I am back in my office, listening to the Hawaiian Radio Station streaming and ready to share pictures from my trip! We ate the most amazing food, watched HUGE waves on the north shore, visited the big island (we were staying on Ohau), and saw places that literally take your breath away.

If you go to Hawaii get ready and bring your running shoes, the food there is out of this world. If you like to eat… you are in for a treat!

One of our favorite places is Kona Brewing Company – or Kona Brew. If you make it there, you have to get the pork nachos and a beer sampler – just trust me! They have multiple locations, we visited the one on Ohau as well as the original brewery on Big Island. GREAT times, good food, local music… a must see!

Another restaurant I had to go back to was Haleiwa Joe’s. We went to this place on a previous trip and I knew I had to go back. It has a great atmosphere, great views and the food…. just trust me. The Black and Blue tuna is a must!

And finally, if you are going to Ohau, you kind of have to go to Duke’s Waikiki named after the father of surfing, Duke. The best time to go is on a Sunday afternoon! You are right in the center of waikiki, walking distance to all kinds of fun shopping and more restaurants and bars. You never know who you will run into… we saw Dog the Bounty Hunter, he was having a birthday party, so I didn’t barge in for a photo, but it was fun to see someone so well known. We stopped in to Duke’s to get a few pupus (appetizers) and of course the Duke’s Mai Tai – just check out the cup it comes in!

Speaking of surfers… I flew in town the PERFECT time to see the big waves. The day I got there, they were 50 feet…. INSANE! We went up the next day and caught some 35-40 foot waves. Still very impressive! To see the waves you head up to the north east side of the Island… or the North Shore.

If you look closely in this next picture, it puts it all into perspective… In the top center of the photo, you will see three small white lines coming off the wave… those are surfers…The white is the wake, the guy is the tiny black dot…. crazy!

Here is one guy walking back after going for a surf… these guys have nerves of steel!

The last few days of our trip we went to Big Island. After being on Ohau for a few days, Big Island seems HUGE. You can drive for miles and miles and miles… and we did! We flew into Kailua Kona (West side) and drove around to see other areas including where the volcano is and Hilo (East Side). I strongly suggest checking out multiple islands while you are in Hawaii. They are all so different and beautiful in their own way. On the flight over Abbi referred to the big Island as a masculine island, meaning it did not have nearly as many flowers… man was she right.

Lava rock like this pretty much made up the island… It was everywhere.

On big Island I wore my lei! I had a ginger lei that smelled more beautiful than it looks. It is my favorite and I was so excited when my sister had this one for me!

Also on the big island we saw the oldest church on any of the islands located right in the middle of “downtown ” Kona.

and rainbow falls right outside of downtown hilo. I wish we could have had a clearer day, but… beautiful nontheless.

I could go on and on, but will end the post with some of the beautiful sights… They literally took my breath away and I can’t wait to go back and see them all again!

Sunset on Lanikai Beach