Goldenrod Eggs, an Easter Favorite

Every year for Easter lunch, my grandma made the same meal: egg gravy and toast (also called, more favorably, Goldenrod Eggs). It was a simple meal, made of simple ingredients. Mainly it was just a way to use up a surplus of hard-boiled eggs that we had at that time of year. We only had it one day a year, and so, naturally, it was my favorite meal. All year long I pined for it and when Easter came, I ate until I could not eat more. Decades later, I still love it just as much. It's a very frugal meal and uses items that are in most pantries. It is a good meal for times when there's more week than paycheck. Use the surplus of Easter eggs or just leftover hard-boiled eggs. If a carton of eggs gets a little too much past the use-by date, hard boil them for this dish.

It's not pretty, but it's oh so good!

Grandma's recipe is simple and frugal. It is the first recipe I ever learned to make myself. This recipe makes around 2 servings. I often make extra so we can have leftovers the next day.

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/4 c milk
~4 hard boiled eggs (you can add more or less, depending on what you have and how hungry you are)
2-4 slices of bread

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and allow it to cook for a few minutes. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking. Allow to cook over medium heat until it starts to thicken, stirring frequently. While it is cooking, separate the egg whites from the yolks. Chop the whites into small bite-sized pieces. Mash the yolks. Toast the bread. Once the gravy is almost as thick as you'd like it, remove from heat and mix in the whites. The gravy will thicken slightly as it cools. Pour the egg gravy over the toasted (and buttered, if you'd like) bread. Sprinkle a generous portion of yolks over the top. Salt and pepper to taste.

The gravy gets very thick when it cools. If you are reheating leftovers, add some milk and mix it in before microwaving so it thins out.

Now I play with the recipe quite a bit to alter the taste a bit, make it healthier or use up something from the refrigerator. Here are some ways I like to alter it:

* Use homemade stock in place of half of the milk when making the sauce. If you are using bones leftover from cooking (thus making the stock almost free), you will lower the cost significantly. This is especially important if you pay extra for raw, organic, pastured or lactose-free milk. I am always looking for ways to sneak more stock into our diets for it's joint-healing benefits. If you are trying to limit dairy consumption, this is also helpful.
* Serve over good bread, not cheap white bread. It's perfect over a strong sourdough bread, but I've used everything from asiago bread to rosemary bread to foccacia. I've served it over bread-sliced bagels, english muffins and biscuits. I've also used savory scones like the bacon cheddar chive ones Trucker brings home from his job. Serve over whole grain bread if you want maximum nutrition and fiber.
* Replace some of the white flour with whole grain flour. It won't be as silky a gravy, but it works.
* Use bacon, sausage or other fats left over from cooking in place of the butter. This adds flavor and reduces the cost of the dish.
* You could mix in crumbled bacon or sausage to amp it up a bit, although there's plenty of protein in the dish without it.