Don't Wait Till Mother's Day for a Special Breakfast (for Dinner)

Even if you are a mother, there’s a chance Mother’s Day won’t be all about you. Because if you have a mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and/or some other motherly figure in your life (and they live less than a plane flight away) there’s a good chance you’ll be spending the day with them.

Which is a delightful in its own right! (Unless it’s not, and then maybe bring the makings for a Bloody Mary bar?) But as nice as it is to spend the day celebrating the person who raised you (or your partner), it’s not as great to miss out on a special Mother’s Day breakfast. Luckily you don’t have to—you can have breakfast for dinner tonight with three Genius recipes that all come together in about as much time as it will take to read through the instructions. Plus you probably have half (or more!) of the ingredients on hand already, so start celebrating the awesomeness of you* tonight.

*This applies even if nothing else in these two paragraphs does—make yourself breakfast for dinner tonight. You’re worth it.

We're assuming dinner is for 2 people, so we're scaling back the Mushrooms in Pickle Brine Butter recipe to only make 1/3 of the recipe—if you'd rather have leftovers, make the full amount!

Pick these groceries up on the way home:

• 1 shallot
• 1 pound mixed mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake, etc)
• 1 potato
• Pimentón (smoked paprika)
• Crusty bread

We're guessing you have dill pickles (you actually need 1/4 cup of their brine, not the pickles themselves), eggs, olive oil, butter, salt, and pepper—but if not, pick those up too!

Get Cooking

• Start with the mushrooms: Slice the shallot and slice or quarter the mushrooms. In a very large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter in 2 teaspoons olive oil over moderately high heat, swirling, until the butter is golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the shallots to the skillet and cook, stirring, until softened, about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Add 1/4 cup pickle brine and cook until absorbed, about 1 minute. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Transfer the mushrooms to a serving bowl or small pot and keep warm.
• Wipe out the skillet and heat 4 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat until quite warm. Add 1/2 teaspoon pimentón and tip the skillet to swirl it around so it dissolves into the oil. Crack 4 eggs (or fewer, if you don't each want 2) into the skillet and reduce the heat if it gets a little too hot. Fry the eggs, basting them with the olive oil with a spoon, until the whites are firm and the yolks remain soft.
• As soon as you get the eggs started, sizzle some butter (salted, if you happen to have both types on hand) in a second large skillet. When the foaming subsides, coarsely grate half of an unpeeled potato into the skillet using the large holes of a box grater. Don't pile up the potato in any one spot—you want to still see as much pan as potato.
• Once the potato hits the pan, salt it. The reason you want there to be so much space is to give the steam somewhere to go. Give them room and let them bind with each other as the starch comes out. The shreds will form a latticework snowflake of starch, butter, and salt. Once this happens, slide it out of the pan onto a plate in one motion. Then flip, salt lightly again and cook for another 15 to 20 seconds. Remove from the pan and repeat with the second half of the potato.
• Once the eggs are done cooking, season them with salt and serve them with the oil spooned on top, alongside the hash browns, mushrooms, and crusty bread for mopping up your plate.

Tell us: What's your favorite way to have breakfast for dinner?