Split Pea Soup with Fried Egg and Chard Open-Faced Sandwiches

It feels darn good to cook again especially when Karl is making fresh bread everyday! Here is a simple split pea soup I felt inspired to cook up (thanks Alyse!) and it's served alongside fried eggs and chard-tapenade open-faced sandwiches.

Serves: 4
Make this split-pea soup, and add 1 T of Thai green curry paste instead of the curry powder. It adds just a little bit of heat.

For the open-faced sandwiches:
1-2 cups chard, chopped (include stems if young using chard)
1 clove garlic
3-4 green onions (bulbs only)
1 tsp olive oil
4 eggs
4 T water
2 T shredded parmesan
pepper to taste
Prepared olive tapenade
4 slices bread

1. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, once hot add in chard, garlic and green onions. Cook until the chard is wilted and soft. Remove from pan and place in a bowl.
2. Crack eggs in pan to pan fry. If using large to medium eggs do 2 or 3 at a time. When halfway done cooking (whites will have set, yolks look uncooked) add 2-4 T of water and cover the pan. Let sit 2-3 minutes. When done, sprinkle with pepper. You may need to add more or less water
3. Meanwhile mix parmesan with chard mixture, and toast the bread slices.
4. Assemble the sandwich by spreading tapenade on bottom, then chard mixture on top, then top with egg.

Impressive bread, right?

Saint Nectaire Cheese

It appears that Khavanu has fallen into a deep food coma with the lack of posts, but rest assured that this short hiatus will soon pass. I have been traveling for almost a month, and will resume posts, updates, recipes etc. soon.
So, I am in Geneva, a lovely town that seems to cater to almost everyone else, but not its locals.  It is an expensive city, and of course, food and drink is included in that category (I should add that maybe it's locals like paying out the wazoo for dining out, but I'm going to say that I have not yet found this part of the city). I did find, on a day trip to Aigle at the other end of Lac Laman a Carrefour Market (yes, basically a mondo-grocery store with an insane cheese selection). There, Karl and I, spent the last bit of money we had on picnic items and picked up some Saint Nectaire cheese (it was 2 E, and really I had no idea what I was buying) and it was utterly delicious and divine and it forced me to write this.

Then I had to look it up. I found the French wiki site for Saint Nectaire cheese
and learned that there is an organization (with support from the EU) that is working to protect food origins, as in a protected designation of food origin or PDO.  That makes me pretty happy, and it also probably means that this is health-food, right?!

It's semi-soft, nutty, creamy, has a soft thin rind and tastes delicious on crusty bread. A cheese worth seeking out.