Busy Day Dinner

My Beloved and I tend to eat dinner on the early side, around 6:30 or 7:00; we are not the sophisticated sort who dine at 8:30 or later. However, when he has one of his sales managers in town, it's hard to predict what time he'll be home for dinner. The sales managers are all nice guys but some like to stop for a drink at sunset after a busy day, others prefer to hole up in their hotel rooms and get a little more work done. When MB sags through the door around 7:30pm, I know it's a good night for a quick dinner of poached eggs.

This time, I had a special treat ready. When I made duxelles earlier, I made extra so I'd have some on hand. Duxelles are an easy way to raise a ho-hum dinner into a pretty spiffy one. I just heated the duxelles in a small pan while the English muffins and the eggs cooked, spooned a little of their dark magic over the hot muffin halves and topped them with the eggs. We sat down to a mushroomy, shalloty dinner less than 15 minutes later and just minutes after that, he was flaked out on the bed, ready to relax for the rest of the evening.