books + breakfast

On the flight back from our honeymoon, after having completely devoured our other reading materials, Sean purchased a copy of Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles at an airport bookstore in Atlanta. We were both in withdrawal from the good reads we'd had during the week; I had finished Ann Patchet's new novel State of Wonder, a story of a Minnesotan research doctor who gets plunged into the brazilian rainforest in a search of her dead coworker/secret fertility tree bark/ex professor (I know it sounds sort of wild, but it was pretty good), and Sean read Shop Class as Soul-Craft by Michael Crawford, a book that explores the nature of work in our culture (he read me excerpts, and it sounds phenomenal. Can't wait to get my hands on it). The Sherlock Holmes was a perfect rebound book for us, the only issue being that we both wanted to read it, so we decided to read it out loud with each other. It's has been so much fun! We actually just finished it this morning, which brings me to my next topic: breakfast.

Our routine this past week, before jumping into our "nesting" activities for the day, has been to cook a mighty breakfast. One of us reads while the other mans the kitchen, pressing coffee and frying up eggs. Then we pause to eat together, and afterwards we switch duties reading and doing dishes. It has been quite relaxing and a great way to to start our days. I wanted to share a few notable breakfasts with you that I felt rather proud of. The first was breakfast bruschetta. We had a little left over garlic bread from the night before which I cut into slices and pan crisped. Then I chopped a tomato and a bit of onion and minced up some fresh basil which I stirred in with some sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. Eggs were laid over-easy onto the garlic bread and topped with the fresh bruschetta mixture. Tasty, simple and fresh. The next day we had some fresh guacamole just sitting there in the fridge and some chicken andouille sausages from trader joe's, the latter of which we diced up and threw into a skillet with eggs and salsa. That got served over pan-fried corn tortillas and topped with the guac and some fresh cilantro. My mom also gave us a little table with two chairs that we put out back and were able to enjoy many a meal at. The particular one pictured out there features these great breakfast bowls Sean makes. He fries up a bunch of potatoes with cayenne pepper and onions and peppers and puts fried eggs over the top with cheese. The result is absolutely delicious.

We have been fortunate enough to have made these delicacies in our lovely kitchen, which we spent a lot of time on this week. Sean mounted a shelf above the pass-through and I put screw-hooks in it and red shelf to hang our mugs and teacups in. We are quite proud of it and the way our little nest is taking shape. I wish I had before and after pictures to show you, but alas, just the after pics will have to suffice on their own.