My husband and I have a tradition of cooking a holiday ham for Christmas Eve – and then feasting on it for days afterwords (that and staying in for three days straight together). One of our favorite go to recipes is eggs Benedict. With our fresh eggs from the gals this year it was especially good. We like to omit the bread, but feel free to add your favorite english muffin or hearty slice of bread. Here’s our simple take on a classic dish.

To start:

Heat a large pot of water. Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to the water. Heat until water just starts to boil, then turn down heat slightly (this is important – if the water is boiling when you add the eggs, it will cause them to break up. But if the water is too cool, then the eggs won’t cook fast enough and will also break up).

While waiting for the water to heat, gently warm a large ham slice per person and prepare hollandaise sauce following the recipe below.

Easy Hollandaise sauce:

Ingredients:

• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon warm water
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon course salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

In a blender, combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, paprika and salt and blend until frothy. Heat the butter in a pyrex over a double boiler until completely melted. With the blender running, pour in the butter in a very thin stream. Blend until the sauce is thin and emulsified.

Put hollandaise sauce aside.

Now, this will probably be a new technique for poaching eggs! Crack 2-3 eggs per person into a pyrex measuring cup (that’s right, all of the eggs). Turn the heat up slightly on the boiling water (so that the temperature doesn’t drop when you add the eggs). Now, pour all of the eggs at once into the hot water. Cook 2-3 minutes until the egg whites are cooked and the yolk just start to cook too. Monitor closely so that you don’t overcook. You want the centers of the egg yolks to be runny when your done.

Place the warmed ham slices on plates. Top with the poached eggs. Pour over the hollandaise sauce and sprinkle with paprika or hot sauce (your preference). Enjoy!