With the spring season comes one of my favorite things – eating dinner outside on the patio. Dinners that are nice and light and perfect for summer. Fresh meals that go swimmingly with a glass of crisp white wine and lingering conversation while we watch the sunset in our backyard. I love those dinners.

One of my favorite easy, go to meals for nights like that is a fresh salad, full of mixed greens (Aldi has a box of artisan lettuce this week for less than $2) and garnished with crisp bacon pieces, avocado, and a runny poached egg. We’ve been making this salad for a while and, even thought it’s been yummy, the eggs have left much to be desired. My pot of boiling water was often full of gross stringy egg white bits and my poached eggs usually ended up being fried eggs over easy because I gave up on poaching. It was too hard, too messy.

My whole world changed last night. I decided to give poaching another try and I consulted my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook to see if they had a foolproof method. They do! The instructions were simple and easy to follow. If you don’t own this kitchen staple you should probably buy it. It’s a winner.

Poached Eggs

Fill a skillet nearly to the top with water and set over high heat to bring it to a boil. While heating, add in 2 Tablespoons of white wine vinegar and a healthy pinch of kosher salt. While you are waiting for the water to boil, prepare your eggs.

Crack your eggs gently into a teacup. You can put up to two eggs in each teacup – I made two eggs, each in their own cup. They suggest a minimum of two eggs and a maximum of 8 eggs, depending on the size of your skillet.

When the water reaches a boil, turn the heat down so that the water is simmering. Gently lower the edges of each teacup into the simmering water and let the eggs slide out as you remove the teacups. Remove the pan from the heat and cover. Set aside for 3-5 minutes (depending on how many eggs you are poaching – I let my eggs sit for 4 minutes and they were great! Next time I will probably only leave them in for about 3 minutes as I wanted them just a bit softer). Remove eggs carefully with a slotted spoon, serve, and enjoy!