Cooking Up Conversations: Hardly Strictly Breakfast; Kiwi Berries? Kiwi Berries!; The Pink Eggs and No Ham Post

This weekend, I requested Friday and Saturday off so I could go to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, yay! It’s an amazing free, non-commercial music festival founded and funded by one man: the late Warren Hellman, a private equity investor and avid aficionado of bluegrass and country music, not to mention a Berkeley alum. The festival features artists from genres other than bluegrass and country- there’s indie, folk, rock, etc. I was most excited to see Beachwood Sparks, Ben Kweller, Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, and the Head and the Heart. None of them disappoint- altogether it was a moving and uplifting experience, especially in the sunny, green setting of Golden Gate Park.

How does this connect to cooking, you may ask? Well, my friend Anya, also a fan of Hardly Strictly, coming from a somewhat bluegrass background as a former Nashville native, joined me this weekend in enjoying everything the festival had to offer. You may recognize her from my Improvised Pie Post. Anyhoo, she stayed with me Saturday after we saw the Head and the Heart, so Sunday morning, we made breakfast together. I wanted to make her some muffins, to repay her for the delicious Maple Almond Scones she made me, so I whipped up some Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins. The texture turned out looking kind of lumpy, but they were quite fluffy upon tasting. My guess is that the melted butter was too hot when I mixed it with the sour cream, so the mixture curdled. I’ll just have to keep on experimenting. I’d like to perfect a basic muffin recipe, so I can start doing variations. I’m going to try using 0% Greek Yogurt instead of sour cream next time. According to Anya, the acidity reacts with the baking soda to create air bubbles (like in elementary school volcano experiments) that make the muffins fluffier.

To go with the muffins, Anya cooked some tasty “eggs pink.” I had never had my eggs like this before meeting the Desai sisters (her sister, Danika, also told me about this egg style), and I love it! It’s a cross between a fried egg and a poached egg. First, you heat the pan with oil or butter at medium heat. Then you crack the eggs into the pan- they should make a sizzling noise. Once they’ve cooked a bit (don’t let them get too fried), you add a little water and put a lid over them. This should result in a fried egg shape without the fried edges and with a white film covering the yolk that makes it look sort of pink. YUM. We placed them atop some toasted Vital Vittles Sesame Oat bread.

Finally, we had a mini fig and kiwi berry salad. I found the organic kiwi berries at Berkeley Bowl, and they blew my mind. I thought they were literally baby kiwi, but they’re actually cousins of the kiwi. Scientifically known as Actinidlia arguta, or hardy kiwi, the kiwi berry is originally from China. The ones I bought were green, fuzz-less, and absolutely DEElicious! I highly recommend them to spruce up your fruit salads or decorate your desserts.

As for conversation, Anya and I always seem to have plenty to talk about- with our similar interests in food, farming, people and their stories, and men (heheh). I’m not afraid to be open and giving with her, because she’s even more open and giving than me! We have to constantly be telling each other to stop apologizing or giving, which ends up just making us laugh. I’m so happy we started spending lots of time together- I feel like I’ve found a new sister and am truly grateful to have her around. Now both Desai sisters are like my sisters! That’s all for this week- it was hardly strictly wonderful!