Baked Eggs with Pullet Eggs

A baked egg.

I received some beautiful little pullet eggs from our CSA (community supported agriculture) and I wanted to do something special with them. It isn't every day that you get pullet eggs. What are they? Well, they are small eggs that are laid by chickens that are less than one year old. They are so small and so cute.

The pullet egg is on the left and the large eggs is on the right.

It took me a couple of days to figure out what to do with them. I decided I wanted baked eggs. I thought baked eggs would appropriately showcase the petite eggs. The last time I made baked eggs I had a terrible time cleaning the ramekins; so, I decided to make a version of toad in the hole. I had some lovely bakery hamburger buns and used them as my edible ramekins. If I was using large eggs, I would need to use large hamburger buns or maybe dinner rolls. As it turns out the hamburger buns were just the right size. I am on a Herbes de Provence kick so that's what I used but I usually use a sprinkling of fresh chopped herbs. For a healthier version, use whole wheat buns, fat-free half and half, and egg whites.

Baked Toad in the Hole

Butter or Margarine
Hamburger Bun (One to two per person)
Eggs (One per bun)
Cream or Half and Half
Herbes de Provence or Fresh Herbs, Chopped
Salt and Pepper, To Taste

Preheat your oven to 350F/176C/Gas Mark 4. Grease a cookie sheet (you don't want the buns to stick to the cookie sheet and they will because some of the cream is likely to escape). Carefully remove the center of the bun without breaking though the bottom. Butter the inside of the bun and place on the cookie tray. Repeat until all of the buns are buttered and on the tray.

Hollowed out buttered buns

One at a time, break the eggs into a bowl and pour into the center of each bun.

Pouring the egg into the center of the bun- it just fits.

Top off with a bit of cream. Sprinkle with the herbs and salt and pepper.

Ready for the oven

Bake for 15-25 minutes (depending on whether you want a hard or runny yolk. For those who want a runny yolk, test to see if the white is set and take the eggs out of the oven. For those of you (like me) who can't stand runny eggs, jiggle the bun and if the yolks don't move you are set. For me, twenty-five minutes of baking resulted in perfectly cooked eggs.

Yummy!

The bottom line: will I make these agan?  Yes, I enjoyed these. I love the fact that I did not need to watch the eggs or worry over them. I was able to sit back, relax, and enjoy my morning coffee. Afterwards I had very few dishes to wash (well, for Katie to wash). Next time I may place some chopped tomato on the bottom or creamed spinach. The possibilities are endless.

Sausage and Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole

A slice of yumminess

I love breakfast for dinner. This is an easy dish that tastes great. I lightened this traditionally fat and calorie laden dish by using egg substitute, fat free half and half, and low fat milk. Turkey sausage will work in this dish as well. Yes- it is still good. It was so good that we ate all of it. There were no leftovers.

1 lb (.45 kg) of Sausage
1 Tbsp of Canola or Vegetable Oil
20 oz (570  g) of Grated Potatoes
1 Cup (240 ml) of Egg Substitute (4 Eggs)
1 Cup (240 ml) of Fat Free Half N Half
1 Cup (240 ml) of Low Fat Milk
2 Cups (240 g) of Grated Cheese (Your choice)
Salt and Pepper, To Taste
Several Dashes of Cayenne or Southwest Seasoning (Optional)

Preheat oven to 350F/176C/Gas Mark 4. Spray a 9x9 inches (3.5x3.5 cm) baking pan with cooking spray. In a large skillet cook the sausage until no longer pink. Dump cooked sausage into the bottom of the baking pan.

I love the smell of frying sausage

Pour about a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and dump in the grated potatoes. Lightly cook the grated potatoes in the skillet and dump over the sausage.

Lightly frying the potatoes

Whisk the eggs, milk, and half and half until combined and pour over the top of the grated potatoes. Sprinkle with cheese. Sprinkle with seasonings.

Ready for the oven.

Place uncovered in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Yum!

The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes and I will continue to use my lower in fat and calorie substitutes. 

Breakfast Quiche

It's all in there quiche

I thought it was Father's Day last week so I made bacon, eggs, and hash browns for Steven. It wasn't Father's Day. Opps! Well, at least we had a nice breakfast. I couldn't do the same breakfast twice for Father's Day, so I decided to make a quiche. Real men do eat quiche; they know that it is delicious.

I made it easier on myself by making it the night before and heating it up in the morning. I am not usually an early early morning person. Also I used a premade pie crust. I baked it prior to adding the quiche filling. I used 2% milk but half and half works well soon. To lighten this you can use egg substitute. I have and Steven hasn't noticed the difference. When I use egg substitute, I add a little more black pepper, more herbs, or I spice it up. Also you could delete the bacon and the bacon grease; it will still be good, just not great. This makes a 9 inch (23 cm) quiche.


It's All in There Quiche

1 Pie Shell
1 Cup (191 g) of Onions, Diced
6 Slices of Bacon (Reserve 3 Tbsp of Bacon Grease)
6 Large Eggs, at Room Temperature
2 Cups (480 ml) of Milk or Half and Half, Warmed
1 Cup (105 g) of Grated Mozzarella Cheese
6 Basil Leaves, Chopped
Salt and Pepper, To Taste

Fry bacon until crisp, crumble, and set aside. Saute the onions in 3 tablespoons of bacon grease until the onions are soft and golden brown (this takes about 20 minutes).

Meanwhile, bake pie shell according to recipe or package directions. Once, the pie shell is baked, lower oven heat to 350F/176C/Gas Mark 4. (I put the pie shell on a baking sheet because sometimes it spills over and it is easier to work with).

Baked pie shell

Once the onions are done, beat the eggs with the warmed liquid and add the cheese, bacon, onions, basil, and salt and pepper.

Egg mixture

I usually add a bit of both. Pour into the pie shell.

The quiche is ready for the oven.

Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. The quiche should be set but it should still jiggle a little in the middle.
The bottom line: will I make this again? Yes I will. I may change the ingredients but they are so good together, I don't know what I would change.

Egg Salad

This is egg salad, in my opinion, the way it should be. It is fresh, light, and no one flavor overpowers the others. It is also a great way to use those hard boiled eggs from Easter. If you can get farm fresh eggs, they will make this recipe shine. Also homemade mayonnaise is incredible in egg salad and I think worth the trouble. If you have any kids at home it is a delicious way to teach them about emulsions and sneak some science into their day. Making mayonnaise is how my 7th grade science teacher taught my science class about emulsions and I still remember it some (undisclosed number of) years later.

Egg salad does not have to automatically become a sandwich. I like egg salad on crackers, on chips, in celery ribs, and on a bed of lettuce or spinach. My all time favorite way to serve egg salad is in a summer fresh tomato. If I am going to make an egg salad sandwich, I like go all out: egg salad, tomato, bacon, alpha sprouts and lettuce on potato bread (lightly toasted).

Egg Salad

The Whites from 6 Hard Boiled Eggs, Roughly Chopped
The Yolks from 3 Hard Boiled Eggs, Roughly Chopped
2 Ribs of Celery, Finely Chopped
2 Slices of Slab Bacon, Cooked until Crisp and Finely Chopped
Salt and Pepper, To Taste
2 Tbsp of Mayonnaise

Gently mix all of the ingredients together and eat.

The bottom line: will I make this again? Oh yes I will! As soon as the farmer's markets have fresh tomatoes I will be stuffing them with egg salad.

Natural Egg Dyes

Our pretty natural dyed eggs

This year we decided to create natural dyes for our Easter eggs. I thought it would be fun and I also thought I could teach Katie some science. We had a lot of fun brainstorming what we were going to use as dyes. "What if we used..." seemed to be the question of the day. We tried to guess what color egg would result from each ingredient.
Also we had a discussion about vinegar - why we add vinegar to the colored liquid. Our discussion about vinegar and acids resulted in a fun experiment.  We took an egg (raw) and placed it in a jar of vinegar.

You can see the vinegar dissolving the calcium in the shell

It takes about 24-48 hours for the vinegar to break down the calcium in the shell of the egg. The egg becomes rubbery. It's awesome! I don't think Katie knew we were talking about chemistry and chemical reactions until it was too late.  She had already admitted that this was fun.

The result: a rubbery egg!

We had a lot of dyes to try, so we boiled ten eggs. The trick to boiling eggs without them cracking is to take a straight pin and poke a tiny hole in the broad side of the egg. It works. I promise. It lets the pressure out of the egg so as it boils it doesn't crack.

We chose the following:

Food processed spinach combined with water and two teaspoons of white vinegar.

I thought spinach would dye the eggs a darker green

 Beet juice, water, and two teaspoons of white vinegar.

The beet dyed eggs

Several tablespoons of chai tea, hot water, and two teaspoons of white vinegar.

We loved the chai tea dyed egg.

Crushed dandelion, hot water, and two teaspoons of vinegar.

The dandelion dyed egg was a light yellowish brown

One tablespoon of turmeric, hot water, and two teaspoons of white vinegar.

The turmeric dyed eggs were an intense gold

 A chuck of purple cabbage cooked in water and two teaspoons of vinegar (remove the cabbage after the water turns purple and before adding the vinegar).

Purple cabbage dyes the eggs a beautiful blue.

 It took our eggs two days in the jars of coloring liquid to dye to the colors we wanted. Katie was slightly disappointed because they didn't color immediately and she couldn't dip the eggs in multiple colors. I liked this process because we had to wait for the results and wonder what would happen. I was surprised at how great they turned out.

The bottom line: will we do this again? Yes, we will. Next year we will try different natural dyes and will write on the eggs with wax crayons before we dye them.

Eggs Benedict

Eggs Benedict

Ever since I was little, my family has always had Eggs Benedict for special occasions. It was also one of the foods I craved when I was pregnant. Ok- it is one of the foods I crave when I am not pregnant. Well-made eggs Benedict qualifies as a "perfect food". At least in my humble opinion.
I love eggs Benedict even though it is a balancing act in timing-- four separate parts of the dish that need to be made in a relatively short period of time.

Lots of tasks to juggle at once

I have alternated between using Bearnaise and Hollandaise sauce and Canadian bacon and ham. I have always used the Knorr sauce packages because making the sauces from scratch terrifies me. I always think that I am going to get the sauce wrong-- it won't come together and I will have eggs Benedict without a thick fattening French sauce which would be a small tragedy.

Today-- I am going to make the sauce and I am thinking positively so I am toasting the English muffins, poaching the eggs, and cooking the ham as if I am going to be successful!

Hollandaise sauce is a tricky sauce to make-- there are several versions-- one is made over a double boiler with care taken not to get the eggs to hot because the will scramble and not be that wonderful thick sauce. The second is made in a blender. The third is a method advocated by Alton Brown where you cook the egg yolks first, add cold butter to the mixture, and add the lemon juice last (he has it marked as easy). Ok there is a fourth- it is from a packet and is foolproof-- I know I could make it in my sleep.

As I write this I am tempted to forget this blog and just go out and buy the sauce packet. Both Hollandaise and Bearnaise sauces scare me there are so many things that can go wrong-- oh well I am repeating myself. I have made homemade mayonnaise before (absolutely amazing stuff I might add) and it is an emulsion just like Bearnaise and Hollandaise so how hard could it be? Except that mayonnaise is never heated so you don't have to worry about your eggs scrambling or your sauce curdling or your emulsion failing to form.

The first question is whether I will make the one of the easy versions or the full-fledged-risky double boiler sauce. When I have a quandary like this, I usually turn to my Joy of Cooking, one of the first cookbooks I owned. Since my early days of cooking, my cookbook collection has grown. I read them like most people read novels, even though I hardly ever follow the recipes- except when I bake (and sometimes not even then). I am nervous enough with this sauce to follow the recipe (at least the first time I make it).

Ok I am not a coward so I am making the full fledged version-- without a safety net. I can do this.

Recipe (Adapted from Joy of Cooking)

Melt 10 tablespoons of butter (skim the foam off of the top and keep warm).

Place in the top of a double boiler or in a large stainless steel bowl:

3 Large Egg Yolks
1 1/2 Tbsp of Cold Water

Off of the stove, beat the yolks with a whisk until light and frothy. Place the top or bowl over (not in) barley simmering water and continue to whisk until the eggs are thickened, 3 to 5 minutes being careful not to let the eggs get too hot. (Note-- it took my mixture a lot longer than 5 minutes. I felt like I whisked forever).



Remove the pan or bowl from the hot water and continue to whisk to allow the mixture to cool slightly. You guessed it-- while whisking the mixture slowly add the melted butter.



Next whisk in:

1/2 to 2 Tbsp of Lemon Juice (I like mine lemony so I added 2 tablespoons)
(Dash of hot pepper sauce-- optional)  I added freshly ground cayenne pepper
Salt and white pepper to taste

Now that the sauce is done-- make your Eggs Benedict!

Toasted English muffin, add ham, and poached egg

The finished product!

So was it worth the work?  My family says yes (but then they weren't the ones whisking!) The sauce is better than the sauce from the magic package but it is a lot of work. Will I make it again? Yes-- for special occasions and with the promise of my family to help with the whisking.