Baked Eggs on Toast

My favorite comfort food breakfast! I mean, I love oatmeal, too, but there's something about this dish that just makes me feel really good inside.

Several times I asked my hubby if he wanted some, but he would always respectfully decline. He thought it was a bit bizarre for him. One day, he brought up maybe trying them. He's asked for them several times since then. My kids weren't excited to try them. This morning, my boys finally tried them - and I know one of them went back for seconds! My daughter will only have them a certain way, but I'll cover that later.

How I came up with this is that I came across a recipe that included cheese with it, and, in my own opinion, has a misplaced step. (HERE)

Since I love to post food pics of my breakfast when I make this, and I've had enough people ask how to do it, I decided to do a blog post about it. Plus? It's been a REALLY long time since I've done one of these posts! Crazy life, yo!

Here's what I did:

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BAKED EGGS ON TOAST

Ingredients:

* 2 slices sandwich bread of choice

* 2-4 (appx) Tbsp butter

* 2 eggs

* salt & pepper to taste

* pinch dried parsley (optional)


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375° F

2. Take a baking sheet, cover with foil, and spray with cooking spray

3. Place slices of bread side-by-side on the foiled baking sheet

4. Using a spoon, take the edge of the spoon & lightly press inside the perimeter of each bread slice CAREFULLY! Do not tear the bread!

5. Lightly take your fingers to flatten inside the edge created to create a bit of a pit in the bread

6. Carefully butter the raised edges of the bread

7. Add a bit of salt & pepper to the bread pit

8. Crack an egg, then add the yolk & white to the bread pit

9. Repeat with other egg & bread pit

10. If you want a hard yolk, take the edge of the spoon & pierce the tops of the egg yolks (optional)

11. Add a bit of salt & pepper to the top of the eggs

12. Add a pinch of dried parsley for pretties (optional)

13. Place the baking sheet in the oven - 13-15 minutes for a runnier yolk, 20 minutes for hard yolk

14. Remove from the oven & enjoy


Yield: 1 serving

NOTES:

* After you've salted & peppered the eggs, you can add some shredded cheese to the buttered edges if you choose.

* My daughter has an issue with textures & doesn't like egg yolk together; you can scramble one egg at a time before adding to each bread pit - you can use a lesser baking time in this case.

* One time I accidentally picked up Kerrygold garlic & herb butter. I used it anyway, and it actually turned out pretty good. If you want some additional flavor, I suggest this.

* I use whole wheat bread, slivers of Kerrygold stick butter, I pierce the eggs & bake for 20 minutes. The outcome is what you see in the pic.

* Today, I made a dozen baked eggs on toast - the 20 minutes at 375° still worked well.

* If you use the longer baking time, you can do this in the morning while getting ready for the day, just prep it all, stick it in the oven, take your shower & get dressed, then get those suckers out of the oven. I mean, if you can do all of that in 20 minutes.

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Today we enjoyed brunch for our last day of vacation. My husband tried his hand at fried potatoes & onions, so I thought the baked eggs on toast was a great addition! We've been adding a side of fruit, like blueberries right now, to help balance out everything. Having bacon with it is yummy, too!

BOOM! A new go-to comfort food for breakfast or anytime.

ENJOY!

Traditional Irish Soda Bread - Lazy Cooker

I'm all about getting traditional foods right. Like Irish food.

I have done some Irish & semi-authentic Irish fare (click HERE for recipes), and I had the itch to fix up a meal again. Yes, in July.

Now then, the last couple of St. Paddy's Day meals haven't included Irish Soda Bread for one reason or another. But I now have a solution! Make it in the lazy cooker!!

You cannot imagine how stoked I was to find some recipes for the lazy cooker. But most of them had the recipe ingredients WRONG! Irish Soda Bread is a mere 4 ingredients. It is said that if you add eggs, it's cake; if you add sugar, it's cake; if you add butter, it's probably cake. So I took the simplest & traditional recipe and did this:

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IRISH SODA BREAD

Traditional Recipe - Lazy Cooker

Ingredients:

* 4 C all purpose flour, plus some extra

* 2 tsp baking soda

* 1 tsp salt (table, kosher, sea - I used sea salt)

* 2 C buttermilk (or 2 C milk with 2 T vinegar - let set for 5-15 minutes before using)

Directions:

- In a large bowl, mix the 4 C flour, baking soda & salt together

- Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the buttermilk

- Stir it all together until it is a sticky ball of dough

- Take the dough & place it on a flat & lightly floured surface (this is the extra flour)

- Lightly knead the dough into a ball & slightly flatten

- Lightly spray the insert of your lazy cooker with cooking spray

          + NOTE: you can also lightly spray or grease a pan if it fits into your lazy cooker.

                          Check out the fit first, but the pan isn't needed.

                          Also, I used an older, round lazy cooker. Most are oval now & can be used.

- Place the dough ball into the lazy cooker

- Take a knife & make 2 long cuts, forming a cross on top of the dough ball, extending over the edges; make the cuts about a half to 1 inch deep

- Place the lid on the lazy cooker, make sure it's plugged in & set on low for 1 hour

- After 1 hour on low, turn the lazy cooker setting to high for another hour to hour & a half
(Or you can set on low for 4 hours)

- Turn off the lazy cooker, and carefully remove the bread from the lazy cooker insert onto a cooling rack or plate & allow to cool for a short time (you want to serve the bread warm)

- Serve 

* Can easily serve 8-10

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A couple of other recipes I had come across called for 1 & 3 quarters cups buttermilk. It wasn't enough & wish I had bumped it up to the 2 cups, so I put it in this recipe. 

You know what? This was a HUGE hit! My kiddos couldn't get enough of it, my hubby loved it, my parents couldn't get over it, and I was so stoked with how it turned out!! The texture was divine & was perfect for the meal.

SO simple, people! Nothing to complicate anything. Easy recipe, and let the lazy cooker do the rest. You will NOT be disappointed!

And I can now be sure to work it into my future St. Patrick's Day feasts. I'm delighted!

ENJOY!