Facebook Breakfast

It was Saturday morning and I was up before Donna. I was checking Facebook and I updated my status with “I am going to cook breakfast for Donna, what should I cook?”  Within what seemed seconds, Facebook friend and co-worker Stephanie suggested Baked Eggs and provided the link to the NY Times site. Thanks Stephanie. I clicked on the link and it provided a straight forward recipe on a version of Baked Eggs in a video.  Check it out for yourself.  I also got suggestions and encouragement from Nat (great Canadian Breakfast ideas) and my son Steve in Canada.

Naturally the NY Times recipe called for ingredients that I didn’t have but it was inspiring enough to try with some basic substitutions. To make the Baked Eggs, I buttered the ramekins, placed some Tomato slices on the bottom, some pre-cooked Bacon, dried Basil, cracked Egg, grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  I placed the ramekins in the pre-heated oven for 12 minutes and started the hash browns.

Donna prefers the grated potato Hash Browns. I used a couple of Yukon Gold potatoes, grated them into a bowl, added some Thyme, salt and pepper and mix them together.  Just like potato pancakes I cooked the potato mixture is some hot oil, browning the outside while allowing the inside to cook and get creamy.

We turned the ramekins over after running a knife around the inside edge to release the Baked Egg goodness.  The bright red colour of the Tomato slices came to the top make the dish more appetizing.  I thought the dish was a success because of the mix of flavours and textures. The Baked Eggs were still hot from the oven as we bit into them releasing the soft sweet yolk over the tomato and slightly salty bacon. The Basil flakes and parm cheese flavours were there but mild. The addition of Hash Brown pieces into the egg mixture brought interesting textures to the bite.  The hash brown also soaked up the egg mixture changing the taste to include a creamy potato flavour with some crispy bits from the outside of the hash brown.

In her recommendation, Stephanie suggested that these could be a romantic dish as well with some spinach and ham substitutions. Maybe they could but we ate ours so quickly the mood didn’t strike. LOL (My kids read this from time to time LOL). What did strike us is how simple and elegant the dish was so thanks to Stephanie for the recommendation, we will be making this again.