I have a friend who fancies himself a pie baker,
With minimal attention given to the spice shaker.
The cleansing effects were second to none,
He went home to figure out what he had done.
What we thought was cinnamon in his blueberry pie,
Was spicy cayenne pepper...it was worth a try.
This week's Adventure in Domestication happened during breakfast. I love having eggs for breakfast. They are a great source of protein, they're filling, inexpensive, and delicious. On any other day I would have something boring like cereal or oatmeal or toast with jam. Maybe if I had some extra time I would cook up an egg and eat it with toast. If I was really lucky and had a lot of time maybe I would cut up some vegetables and make an omelet or some turkey bacon. Today I had class at 10, with a bit of extra time but not a ton. I didn't want a heavy breakfast like oatmeal and I find cereal doesn't get me through until lunch.
A friend recently posted about this website Gina's Skinny Recipes. I am especially interested in any of the recipes that are healthier variations of my favourite foods, particularly those that incorporate vegetables into otherwise vegetable-less meals.
As a kid my dad would sometimes make 'Birds in a Nest'. It is a piece of bread, buttered, with a hole cut out in the centre. You crack an egg into the hole and give the bird a home...in your stomach. This recipe is a variation on Birds in a Nest where instead of a piece of bread with a hole in the middle, you use large rings of bell peppers and eat as is or put it on toast! How amazing does that sound!?
Here is a LINK to this recipe but I will summarize it here.
I have never done this before but I decided to rinse the shells of the eggs before cracking. I did this for a few reasons. First, Salmonella may be on the outside of the shell and the contents might slide along the outside of the shell before hitting the pan. Most people check egg cartons by touching and looking at each egg to make sure no eggs are cracked, so a variety of other bacteria could be on the shell of the eggs from other consumer's hands. And also, because I like the yolk to be runny, the entire egg will not be fully cooked. Take from that what you will, I will be rinsing my eggs from now on.
I melted margarine in a pan and let the pan heat up. Just as the recipe suggests, I cooked the red bell pepper rings for about a minute before adding the eggs.
I cracked the eggs into the centre of the pepper rings. Because I like my egg yolk to be runny but my egg whites to be cooked, I turned the heat down to low and covered the the pan with a baking sheet. I find this helps to keep the heat in and cook the white without overcooking the yolk.
When the egg white was cooked and almost at a consistency that I was happy with, I flipped the pepper and egg over and let it sit for only a few seconds to allow any runny egg white to cook a bit more. It's very time sensitive because if you leave it for too long, the egg yolk with start to cook and won't be runny.
I ate one pepper ring on a piece of toast and the other on its own.
I like it more on the toast because it soaked up the runny egg yolk.
I'll admit that Gina's breakfast looked a lot better than mine but I was happy with the results and would definitely make this again for breakfast. It didn't take long and with a glass of milk you are getting all 4 food groups and lots of great energy to start off your day.
If you have any great tips on cooking eggs I would love to hear them. Eggs are the most fragile of foods and I just love to give birds homes.
