Remember your first bicycle? I think it must have been about 3rd grade when I received my beautiful purple Schwinn. I remember how uneasy I felt the first time my dad let go of the handle bars while running along side of me, for my first solo trip without the training wheels. I remember my mom watching nervously and wringing her hands. Of course I promptly fell in the dirt, and with the help of Band-Aids and determination eventually became a bicycle riding fool adding flashy purple tassels on the handle grips and clothes-pinning baseball cards in the spokes to make a lot of racket when I went real fast.
So what does this have to do with food?

Dinner last night was supposed to be skewered grilled shrimp and tilapia finished with some jalapeno butter for dipping, but at 6:30 when I decided I was starving and had better start dinner the recipe instructed that I marinade the seafood for at least an hour. Don’t you hate when that happens?

Plan B: Dig around in the refrigerator, fry up some corn tortillas, top with some warmed up green chili and nestle a poached egg in on top.
I had just started my 2nd glass of wine and feeling a false sense of security, threw caution to the wind and decided to ditch the egg poaching pods.

That’s right, no more training wheels. I boiled some water, added some vinegar, got the water swirling like a tornado and slid in the raw egg. It worked like a charm and I didn’t even fall in the dirt. No Band-Aids were necessary.

Bye Bye green silicone egg poaching pod training wheels. Bye Bye odd-shaped poached eggs…forever!

Don’t they even kind of look like training wheels?
As you can imagine, I’m completely tickled with myself. So tickled that I have to post way too many unnecessary photos.

So with all that said, Happy Mother’s day to all. I feel a perfect celebratory weekend has already begun. The wine we opened last night was a delicious Joseph Swan Russian River Valley Pinot…yum! After my poached egg victory we watched The Blind Side. What a great movie to kick off Mother’s Day. LOVED it.
We’re brunching out this morning with the kids. Tonight I’ll start the marinade early enough to have my grilled shrimp and tilapia skewers. It couldn’t have worked out better since yesterday was chilly and predicted temperatures at grilling time this evening will be in the 70′s
For fun, in the comment section, why don’t you share a bicycle “incident” memory. Whether it be a proud decoration, or a stunt that brought mom running with Band-aids and kisses.
Salute to Moms everywhere, and may your poached eggs be perfectly swirled and runny.