Guest Blogger: Joe's Special, Breakfast for Dinner

My friend Lynne and I talk daily, and inevitably the conversation always turns to food. The other day she told me about her breakfast for dinner, and then her leftover "breakfast for dinner" for breakfast the next day. (Got that?). She offered to do a guest blogger post on her delicious version of Joe's Special and of course I gladly accepted. So here she is....

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Breakfast for Dinner (and then breakfast the next morning)

I thawed out a pound of ground beef from the Queen Anne Farmer's Market, purchased at Proper British Bacon Meats & Cheese and my husband and I didn't know what to do with it. Tacos? Bolognese? Nothing sounded good. I suggested Joe's Special and that's what we did! And here I am the next morning eating leftovers for breakfast. I combined 2 recipes and think this is a winner.

Joe's Special

Splash or two of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper or more to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
2-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound white mushrooms, sliced
1/2 pound lean freshly ground beef
1/2 pound fresh spinach (I used 5 oz and it was plenty),
freshly grated parmesan

Crack the eggs into a small bowl and add the Tabasco, salt, and pepper. Whisk just enough to combine; you should still see large bubbles. Set aside.

Warm the oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat until the butter melts. Add the onion, garlic, mushrooms and sauté until soft but not beginning to brown. Add the ground beef and continue cooking until uniformly brown, breaking the meat into small pieces as it cooks. Stir in all spices. Cover with the spinach, place a lid over the mixture, and cook for about 3 minutes, just until the spinach wilts. (If using frozen spinach, cook, covered, for 1 minute, just to take off its raw edge.)

Stir the spinach into the meat, cooking briefly to eliminate excess liquid if the mixture seems watery. Pour the egg mixture over all, stirring with a spatula from the bottom until the eggs begin to set. Remove from the heat and stir a few more times, as the eggs cook through from the residual heat. Serve immediately with fresh toasted bread and sprinkle with parmesan.