In honor of Father’s Day, I created this recipe for my Pop. He’s a lifelong fan of breakfast sausage and eggs…and, um, English muffins. But who needs bread when the filling’s the best part?

To make this breakfast sandwich resemble those from a certain fast-food joint (you know: the one with the freaky clown mascot), you’ll need some special equipment—namely, stainless steel biscuit cutters—but if you’ve got ’em, this recipe’s a snap. Plus, you can totally eat these sammies with your hands.

Here’s what you’ll need to make one “McMuffin”:

• 2 tablespoons ghee, divided (plus more for greasing the biscuit cutters)
• ¼ pound bulk raw pork breakfast sausage
• 2 large eggs
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• ¼ cup water
• 1 heaping tablespoon guacamole (optional)

(If you don’t have bulk sausage handy, just cook up some bacon. I just Instagrammed a photo of a Bacon Egg “McMuffin” this morning—and if you’re not already food-stalking me on Instagram, you really should.)

Gently press the meat down to uniformly shape a sausage patty.

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add a tablespoon of ghee. When the fat is shimmering, add the patty to the pan. If you really want the patty to keep its perfectly round shape, you can keep the mold on until the cooked patty shrinks away from the sides.

Clean the biscuit cutter and grease it again.

Fry the sausage about 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until fully cooked.

If your patty’s thick, you may need to cover the pan to make sure it’s cooked through. Once the patty’s ready, transfer it to a plate.

Now, onward to the eggy “buns”…

Grab two small bowls and crack one egg into each.

Pierce the yolks with a fork.

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat with the remaining tablespoon of ghee. (Make sure you’ve got a tight-fitting lid for this skillet.)

When the ghee’s shimmering, place the two greased biscuit cutters in the pan…

…and pour an egg into each mold.

Season the eggs with salt and pepper to taste.

Add ¼ cup water to the skillet (outside of the egg molds), making sure not to splash the eggs.

Turn down the heat to low…

…and cover the pan.

Cook the eggs, covered, for about 3 minutes or until cooked through.

Transfer the eggs to a paper-towel lined plate. One easy way to do this is to slide a spatula under the mold as you tilt it up while wearing a heat-resistant glove.

Assemble the faux-“McMuffin” by sandwiching the sausage patty in between the two egg rounds.

If you’re feeling old-school, you can eat the sammie as-is…

…or wake up your palate with a squiggle of sriracha.

But my favorite addition to this breakfast burger? A big dollop of homemade guacamole.

Once you’ve gussied up your “McMuffin,” pick it up and chow down!

Sorry, Dad—I ate this one. I’ll make you another.

Happy Father’s Day!

Gadzooks! Father’s Day is THIS SUNDAY! But don’t fret if you’re unprepared—I’ve got you covered. In this edition of Forky Friday, I’ll share links about how to make the perfect steak and the best grills to cook it on. I have plenty of other ideas for gifts, too. Nothing’s too good for the top Pop in your life, right?

Even if dear old dad prefers Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joes to real food, I bet he wouldn’t turn down a home-cooked meal. For breakfast, you should make him a satisfying plate of Paleo-friendly Eggs Benedict (by Spoon & Knife, the self-described “gluten-free meat-atarian” site by my new pal Christine and her husband Mike), or my personal fave: steak and eggs!

Want some great tips on making the PERFECT steak?

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School’s out for the summer, but the lunchbox-packing continues. To keep the boys’ tummies full while they run around at camp, Henry and I still find ourselves scrambling in the morning to make sure they have plenty of fuel to get them through the middle of the day.

Sometimes, the protein consists of scrambled eggs, frittata slices, or rolled-up deli meat, but today, it’s sausage with marinara sauce.

We rounded out the Double-O’s lunches with a handful of cherries, strawberries, and carrots. (In case you’re wondering, the stainless steel food containers are by LunchBots, and the creamy stuff is homemade Paleo Ranch Dressing. The recipe’s in my forthcoming cookbook.)

Looking for more ideas about what to pack for lunch? Check out my series of posts about A Week of Paleo School Lunches!

What are you having for lunch today?

Can I tell you how happy I am to be home? Getting back from Texas in time to tuck the boys into bed made my heart sing, though it’s a bittersweet tune. Every time I give my kids a fierce bear hug, I know I’m on borrowed time; one of these days, they’ll refuse ’cause it’s no longer cool to hug their mom.

Ai ya! Enough kvetching already. Let’s cut to the chase and take a peek at my meals for the day. I didn’t make anything fancy—just a few dishes I threw together with the odds and ends I scavenged from the fridge. 

Although the school year is officially over, the Double-Os still wake up at 7 a.m. on the dot every morning. We even took the clock out of their room, hoping they’d sleep in a little longer—but to no avail. They’re like machines.

For breakfast, I sautéed sliced mushrooms…

…and tucked them into omelets, one for each member of the family.

At five to nine, Henry hustled the boys off to day camp, and I headed over to CrossFit Palo Alto to get my sweat on with the women’s class. After a challenging workout alternating rowing, running, and deadlifting, I came home and scarfed down a half a small sweet potato and a few slices of prosciutto.

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I’m still in Austin, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about you and your cooking needs. Here’s a fantastic recipe you can braise in the oven TODAY for your Sunday supper:

Doesn’t this dish look fantastic? What’s even more amazing is that my guest blogger, Joshua Weissman, isn’t even old enough to vote yet. In fact, he just finished his finals for junior year last week. Of high school. Boy, do I feel old.

Joshua Weissman is a 17-year-old food blogger with a passion for cooking, food and health. Joshua always loved food but his love for food led to an eventual weight gain. After years of endless ridicule and physical harassment, he decided to change his life and lost over 100 pounds through healthy eating and exercise. On his blog, Slim Palate, he documents his latest culinary creations with fun stories and gorgeous photography.  To keep abreast of his kitchen shenanigans, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. Take it away, Josh!

Before I start rambling, I have to take a moment to thank Michelle for having me guest post. Of the many food bloggers that I adore, she has a special place in my heart because we share a similarity in cooking styles and tastes. At my house, we joke around and call Michelle one of my “second mothers” along with Stacy from Paleo Parents. Now look what I’ve done; I’ve begun rambling and I haven’t even gotten to the post.

The dish I’m writing about is Lamb Osso Bucco With Gremolata.

I’m in love with braising because the technique’s practically foolproof and almost always yields perfectly voluptuous, tender and flavorful meals. When braising meat, you can opt for tougher cuts because the low and slow cooking melts the tough connective tissue. 

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This week, Henry and I are back in Austin—this time, for BlogHer Food 2013. At last year’s event in Seattle, I attended all by my lonesome (remember?) while the boys hit the town, but this year, both my hubby and I are speaking today on the Mobile Development for Food Blogs panel. I’ve been telling everyone that there will be two experts on the panel, but they’re not named Michelle or Henry. We’re just the dumb bloggers who stumbled into app development.

Right now, I just finished watching the always-awesome Hank Shaw of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook teach a group of us about knife skills (did you know that the money zone of your chef’s knife is the back 2 to 3 inches?) while impersonating Napoleon Dynamite.

I could certainly use some better knife skillz.

So anyway, life’s been pretty hectic lately, especially with parenting, cookbook editing, and tons of travel. Oh, and don’t forget the zombie drug dealing, too. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have time to put together a Forky Friday for my loyal readers. See how much I love you?

On tap this week: a bunch of articles on fake food, sustainable farming, and as always, tasty recipes. 

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My co-pharmacist (a.k.a. Work Husband) is on vacation in Spain, so I had to deal drugs all by my lonesome last night after 2 am. I’m exhausted and hungry and sleepy, so rather than blathering on and on, I’m just going to post a bunch of photographs from our meal at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon when we were in Las Vegas last week for the 2013 Saveur Best Food Blog Awards. Geez. Was that really less than a week ago?

I’m going to let the pictures speak for themselves (mostly because I desperately need to pass out), but I’ll say two quick things about the experience:

Not surprisingly, the food and service were exceptional. This shouldn’t be a surprise; Chef Robuchon was named Chef of the Century by Gault Millau for good reason. Even though the kitchen is run by his Vegas team in his absence (I’m assuming the chef doesn’t spend much time out in the desert), the restaurant here (located in the MGM Grand) must make him proud.

It was a surprise, however, to see that the restaurant is situated right off the casino floor. The floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the restaurant reveal row after row of flashing slot machines, and the wafting odor of cigarette smoke seeps into the restaurant unless the host is diligent about sliding the glass door shut. As a diner, if you happen to sit facing the back of the restaurant, your view is of a sleek, dark, high-end eatery punctuated with vibrant bursts of color. If, on the other hand, you’re seated near the front of the restaurant and facing the gaming floor, your view is of people losing their money at slot machines and shuffling past the restaurant in search of the restrooms.

We ordered the Seasonal Discovery Menu, nine small tastes of L’Atelier’s signature dishes. You’ll see 10 dishes below, but that’s because you have a choice of quail or steak and we got one of each. Almost everything was gluten-free, except for the desserts and the soy sauce in the quail dish. It was definitely a splurge meal and we savored every bite.

Okay, I’ve written enough. Here are the pics:

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I’ve already kept this secret for longer than I thought possible, so I’m just going to blurt it out: we wrote a cookbook.

I’m not talking about our iPad® cooking app, but a hardcover, 8- by 10-inch, 288-page full-color book stuffed with over 100 recipes and more than 900(!) photos and cartoons. Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans will be published by Andrews McMeel and available on December 17—just in time for the holidays! 

I guess it’s no secret that I’m obsessed with cookbooks. Growing up, I dreamed of writing one, though I always dismissed the notion as insanely presumptuous even after this blog’s readership began to take off.

Then, two years ago, I suddenly started receiving inquiries from book publishers. Their unsolicited offers were incredibly tempting, but after much hand-wringing, I turned each of them down. At the time, Henry and I were up to our eyeballs in app development—not to mention our day jobs and parenting duties. If we threw a cookbook on top of our mounting pile of responsibilities, we’d drown. 

It wasn’t until after the Nom Nom Paleo app was released (and more than a few pep talks from Henry and some of our good friends) that I started to come around to the idea of penning a cookbook. If we were to pour our hearts and souls into this project, however, we had to do it right. Henry and I promised ourselves that we would throw everything we had into this book: there would be no compromise on content, design, or quality.

So last year, my co-conspirator and I quietly began working in earnest on the book. When we weren’t working, parenting, blogging, or sleeping, we were developing, shooting, and writing recipes.

Every chance I got, I experimented with flavor profiles and tested recipes; meanwhile, Henry worked doggedly on the book layout and design—usually after a long day at the office. He also started plotting and drawing the dozens of cartoon illustrations featured in the cookbook. 

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Hello from Sin City!

Rather than posting in my usual Forky Friday format, I’m going to share with you a bunch of links to awesomeness inspired by our trip to Las Vegas for the 4th Annual Saveur Best Food Blog Awards.

We won last year in the Best Special Diets category, but due to my zombie drug dealing responsibilities, I couldn’t make it out to NYC for the celebration, which was held at the magazine’s test kitchen. So when I heard that current and past winners and finalists were invited to this year’s bash at the Bellagio, I immediately booked our flights. (We did our best to convince our pal Russ, a finalist in this year’s awards, to join us, but alas, The Domestic Man couldn’t make it out to the desert.)

After our arrival on Wednesday night, we treated ourselves to dinner at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. We were in a celebratory mood, but then again, any meal at restaurant without the kids feels like a special indulgence. Adult conversation? Sign me up.

We ordered the chef’s seasonal tasting menu. To our happy surprise, we discovered that it was virtually gluten-free…that is, until dessert. I’ll write a detailed post about my meal later, but for now, I’ll share with you one of my favorite dishes of the night: l’asperge blanche…

…white asparagus topped with prosciutto di Parma (shaved right off the leg on the counter) and served with a creamy butter sauce. Henry had to stop me from licking the plate clean. Next time, I’m packing a miniature spatula—a tip I learned after dining with Melicious and Dave at Barley Swine.

The next morning, the official festivities began. We headed down to breakfast at the Bellagio Pool Cafe with the whole gang from the Saveur Best Food Blog Awards.

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