Raison d'etre: Breakfast

This is the irony of my life: I am not a morning person, but I luuuurrvve breakfast. Love love love it! Fortunately, eggs don't care when you eat them. I mean they're dead, right? Right?? Well, if not, I have murdered thousands of tiny chickens. And this morning I added 6 more little chicken stamps to my fighter jet.

I recently saw a recipe for BAKED eggs and I found out that I could BAKE bacon. I thought I had discovered a secret entrance into heaven. Does anyone else know about this miracle? Well, I had to try it out for myself. I made baked eggs this morning, but I didn't bake my bacon (heehee!) because it was frozen.

Here's the recipe for baked eggs (totally easy!), and I hope to bake my bacon (heeheehee!) soon. I got this from Ina Garten.

What you need:

1/4 tsp each fresh rosemary, thyme, and chopped garlic

1 tbsp fresh parsley

1-2 tbsp shaved parmesan cheese

2 tbsp cream or milk

1 tbsp butter

salt and pepper to taste

6 eggs

What to do:

Heat the broiler.

Mix the rosemary, thyme, garlic, parley, and cheese in a bowl. Set aside. (Note: You can use dry herbs, but cut the amounts in half.)

Crack the eggs carefully into two bowls (3 in each bowl), being careful not to break the yolk. Set aside.

Put 1 tbsp of milk into each of 2 oven safe dishes. Ideally, these dishes should be small and shallow to ensure even baking. Divide the butter between the two dishes and put them under the broiler for about 3 minutes or until slightly bubbly, like your personality.

Slide the eggs into the oven safe dishes and divide the herb mixture between them. No need to mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place under the broiler again for 5-6 minutes. Take them out of the oven and allow to rest for 1-2 minutes before serving since the eggs will finish cooking outside of the oven.

Serve with crusty bread, hashbrowns, bacon, and earl grey tea. Slainte!

Pumpkin Pie Au Natural Part 3

And here it is...the prize at the bottom of the cereal box.

This recipe is for 2 cups of pumpkin puree, so you'll have to change it based on the size of the pumpkin you prepared. It takes about 2 cups of pumpkin puree to fill one 8 inch pie. I made two pies with my medium sized pumpkin.

What you need:
2 cups of pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups heavy cream or one 12 oz can of evaporated milk (I used both)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs plus the yolk of a third egg at room temperature
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 pie crust

What you need to do:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix the sugars, salt, spices, and zest in a large bowl. (Note: I used premixed pumpkin pie spice. It was a little old, so my pie wasn't that spicy. Just keep in mind that your baked pie will probably be less spicy than your unbaked pie, so it's ok to overdo it a little and only add what makes you happy.)
3. Beat the eggs and add to the dry ingredients.
4. Stir in the pumpkin puree, cream, and/or evaporated milk.
5. Pour mixture into the pie shell and bake for 15 minutes. You can put little pie crust decorations on the top at this point if you like.
6. Turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and bake for 40-50 minutes. The pie is done when a knife or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. You'll have to check fairly often in the last 10 or 15 minutes. I like mine a tad bit underdone, so I took it out at about 40 minutes.
7. Cool on a rack for one to two hours before slicing. Add whipped cream and enjoy!



And here's a neat whipped cream recipe:
Whip heavy cream until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold in one or two tablespoons of bourbon (such as Maker's Mark). This make the pumpkin pie fun! (Note: If you freeze cream, it separates into the milk liquids and solids and doesn't make good whipped cream. Yes, I did this and we ended up with Bourbon Butter.)




I did plagiarize and paraphrase quite a bit. Here are my references (NOT in MLA format):
Pumpkin Pie Puree: http://expatriateskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/pumpkin-shortage-make-your-own-pumpkin.html
Pie Crust: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/perfect-pie-crust-recipe/index.html and http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/piecrust
Pumpkin Pie and Whipped Cream: http://www.bunkycooks.com/2010/11/pumpkin-pie-with-bourbon-whipped-cream/