I love Florida in the winter. I snapped this photo of my Kalanchoes in all their blooming glory this morning. Yes, it is mid-February! While sipping my third cup of coffee and thinking about what to have for breakfast, I had the sudden craving for Eggs Benedict. I used to think they were way too much trouble to make on a weekday morning but once you master the poached eggs, the rest is easy. Here's why. I use packaged Hollandaise sauce. Yep, I said it.  There is no shame in taking help from the store!

Several years ago my husband and I made a trip to St. Augustine, Florida, one of our favorite places to spend a weekend. While we were there, we stopped in a little cafe which sadly isn't there anymore but it was absolutely, hands down, the best Hollandaise sauce ever. Inspired by the lemony, creamy, buttery sauce I set myself to making my own blender Hollandaise. Epic fail. "No problem," I said. "I'll just try again." Riiiiight. Two years later, after making batch after batch of gloopy, lumpy, oily paste, I gave up on the home made sauce idea. The good news is that all of the practice with the sauce made me a pro at poaching eggs!

Let me tell you a secret. If I ever get an egg, poached or fried, and there is any runny, snotty white part, I can't eat it. I want to yak looking at it (think unborn chicken juice). Gross. So, I practiced a lot with the poaching process and finally managed to get it under control so now, I'm fairly confident that I'll get a perfectly poached egg every single time. Its really not that hard but somehow I made it so because of my fear of runny white stuff.

Anyhooo, head over to my Eggs Benedict page and check out the recipe. These lovely eggs with Canadian bacon (let's face it, it's just round ham) don't need no stinkin' English muffins to make them delicious. The McCormick packaged Hollandaise has 2 carbs per 2 tablespoons of sauce and is easy to make; you just mix it with butter and water. If you MUST have bread, you might try some of the commercial low-carb loaves on the market though they can be pricey. I keep mine in the freezer and toast a slice when I just gotta have it.