Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Baked Eggs!

Baked eggs?  Yes, baked eggs. 

Last week we stopped at a Goodwill Outlet.  This is NOT to be confused with a Goodwill Store, where there are racks and racks and shelves and shelves of stuff organized as well as possible.  The Goodwill Outlet we went to was a huge space where there were many many four- by eight-foot rolling bins.  There were women pushing loaded bins here and there shouting at a high level in some language that I could not understand at all.  By their appearance it was maybe Arabic.  I suppose they were telling us to watch out as they were coming through. 

Anyway, these bins were hardly sorted at all, except there were three or four bins that were almost all books.  That is where I went.  Dear One looked for other things.  In one bin I found a cookbook of recipes from the Portland Journal newspaper which cookbook was printed in 1938.  In it was a recipe called "Tillamook Eggs".  I thought that sounded delicious and decided to make them for breakfast.

We have a nifty silicon baking pan that has six square wells in it. I purchased it ages ago (but since we arrived in Oregon) to make some kind of meatless meatloaf for sandwiches. I thought it would be the perfect way to bake these eggs.  For some reason, when I was reading the recipe, I had one idea.  When I re-read the recipe, I discovered that idea was totally wrong.  Oh well. I went with what I was going to do but will share both recipes.

What I did:

Tillamook Eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a six-well silicon pan with vegetable spray and place on cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, break six eggs (trying hard to keep little bits of egg shell out of the bowl . So unpleasant to bite into something hard in an egg dish...!) and whisk until very well mixed.  Add 1/3 cup dried Italian bread crumbs and 1/3 cup shredded Tillamook cheddar cheese.  Stir again until nicely combined.  Use a 1/4 or 1/3 cup portion scoop to portion into the six wells.  Place in the oven and cook about 15 minutes.  Check to see if they are cooked to your liking. I seem to remember we cooked them a couple more minutes. 

Remove cookie sheet from the oven and let sit about 10 minutes.  The eggs will pull away from the edges of the wells and will be very easy to remove from pan.

We ate these on toasted whole wheat bread with catsup.  They were pretty good.

The Real Tillamook Eggs:

Grease six ramekins very well with butter.  Break one egg into each one.  Sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste, then sprinkle on one tablespoon of Tillamook cheddar cheese in each ramekin.  Top with 1 tablespoon of dry breadcrumbs and bake for the amount of time you like to get the hardness of yolk that you like.

This is the PACC Tillamook Eggs.  The good news is that for three mornings we know what we are going to eat for breakfast, though I think we will add a Morningstar Farm sausage then next time, and maybe serve on a toasted English muffin. We shall see.  Dear One really likes those sausages. I wish I could figure out the seasonings. I think I will ask my sister if she has our mother's Farm Journal Cookbook where there was a fabulous homemade sausage recipe.  That is what we used to make "at home"...and that has been the go-to sausage flavoring for me.  I have been searching for it in all kinds of places online and off every since.  Country Breakfast Sausage does NOT have fennel in it, but that is what you find online in virtually every sausage seasoning I have found.  Blaaaaah!

Food Friday: Sautéed Kale and Scrambled Eggs

Food experiments can turn out okay sometimes.  This time is one of those okay times.  It is not a great time, just okay.

We got a nice bag of baby kale while shopping last week.  It was a biggish bag and the refrigerator was rather fullish!  So...I put the kale bag on top of the eggs on the top shelf of the refrigerator which is right below the freezing compartment.  You guessed it!  Part of the bag froze.

Not wanting to waste it I decided to sauté it like I do spinach, except I did not take the time to chop any garlic or onions...well, we are down to our last onion and I never want to be without an onion in case some important dish comes to mind before I can get another bag.  So, this was just kale, a little granulated garlic, and then a couple of eggs scrambled in.

It looked rather nasty so I did not take a picture of it, but with a little bit of Table Tasty seasoning, it tasted okay, plus it had the added attraction of being slightly healthy.  Very little coconut oil in the pan and two eggs are not the best but...dark green leafy vegetables and protein...not all bad.  Better than the chocolate wafers from earlier.

Food Friday: Egg Salad on Vacation

When you use your Instant Pot to hard boil a dozen or more eggs the day before vacation, what do you do?  Why, you take the eggs with you in the ice chest.  Then what do you do?

At the beginning of the week we had a few eggs chopped into green salad.  After that we ate out a couple of lunches so the eggs were aging in the refrigerator so something had to be done.

This morning I peeled the eggs, rinsed off the egg shells, then chopped the eggs on the cutting board I had purchased at Goodwill thrift store (which was conveniently close right across the street from our resort!!) and tossed them into a bowl.  I mashed them up somewhat with a fork. We had some celery and some small onions so I chopped both celery and onion and tossed into the bowl.  Next I squirted in a couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise,  at least the same amount of mustard, and a good 2-3 tablespoons of sweet pickle relish.

After stirring everything together I tasted it.  Too bland, SO  I added in some Garden Harvest Seasoning.  Quite a bit, actually.  After blending well I scooped some onto a nice crispy red leaf lettuce leaf, folded it over, and ate it.

That was a mistake...to eat it right then.  The harvest seasoning actually needs to soften up in the egg salad overnight.  If not, you feel the "grit" in your teeth.  That really puts you off the egg salad. 

However...the next morning things were different.  There was no grit.  Sadly, we still needed tiny bit of salt to make this fun to eat.

Tomorrow I plant to scoop some into a luscious tomato for lunch. Or maybe breakfast...

Munchie Monday: Muffin Tin Quiches

Dear One sent me a possible breakfast idea.  It was a sort of quiche-like thing.  This is what I did:

Used a King Arthur Flour six-reservoir roll tin

Large cupcake papers

1 onion, finely diced
1/2 cup yellow bell peppers, chopped fine
1 cup frozen broccoli, chopped fine
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk--dairy, coconut, or almond
1/2 shredded cheese
1/2 teaspoon Montreal Steak Seasoning

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

With non-stick spray, completely spray the inside of the cupcake papers then place inside the roll reservoirs.  The papers are smaller than the pan I used.  The better pan to use would be the Texas Muffin Pan. 

In large bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, cheese, and Montreal Steak Seasoning.  Add all the vegetables and mix well again.  Using a portion scoop, place six portions into the large cupcake papers. Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool five minutes.  Remove quiches from pan and then from the papers.

These were pretty good but not as flavorful as I would have liked. Next time I will add more Montreal Steak Seasoning and maybe add turmeric and granulated garlic.

These are a good size to put between toasted English muffins as if they are a breakfast sandwiches.  Well, a little thick, but still, they work well.