Remember when we had to boil water a few weeks ago? For those of you not in Portland, you might have seen it on the news (our family members in the Midwest said they did!) We were supposed to be boiling all the water we drank, cooked with, used for brushing teeth and rinsed clean dishes with. It lasted about 24 hours. Dave and I didn’t have a ton of groceries that morning, so we decided to make something that didn’t require water or create a lot of dishes that we’d have to wash and then rinse in pre-boiled water. (Like many 1920s Portland bungalows, we don’t have a dishwasher.)

Well, once we got to New Seasons and were on a roll making what is basically the ultimate breakfast sandwich, I think we might have lost sight of the goal to keep the dish count low. Lucky for us, the boil water order was lifted a couple of hours later – and we hadn’t done the dishes left. But even if we had used all of our pre-boiled water washing dishes, I think it would have been worth it.

Sometimes a recipe is more like an idea – and this is one of those recipes. There’s not a lot of special techniques or ingredients, but there’s a delightful sandwich combination that we really enjoyed. The timing is a little weird, so I definitely recommend keeping the items you are finished with warm in a 200 degree oven.

Here’s what you need for one sandwich:
– Two large slices of artisan bread
– olive oil
– 1 chicken sausage (we used a chicken apple variety this time)
– 2 slices of bacon
– 1 cup fresh spinach
– Cream cheese
– 1 egg (from a local farmer if possible)
– 2 Tbsp. white vinegar
– 1 tsp. kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350.

Toast up the bread and when it gets to the correct amount of toastiness, keep it warm in a toaster oven or low oven.

When the oven is heated, wrap the chicken sausage in foil and bake for ten minutes. Remove from the oven and slice lengthwise. Finish cooking in a hot skillet with a little olive oil. Set aside – you may want to keep it warm in a low oven also. Cook the bacon in the pan next, followed by the spinach (you will need to add a little olive oil for the spinach)

Finally, poach the egg. Crack the egg into a cup or ramekin. Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer with the vinegar and salt. When it’s at a simmer, stir for 30 seconds to create a whirlpool. Pour the egg into the swirling water. Cover the pan, turn off the heat and allow to sit undisturbed for 5 minutes. I sliced my egg in half and put one on each plank of bread (at the end of assembly).

Finally: assemble. Spread cream cheese on both sides of the bread. Top with the spinach, followed by the bacon, followed by the sausage and finally the egg. Apply salt, pepper and hot sauce liberally.