Eggs in a Nest

One of my favorite breakfasts as a child was what we called “eggs in a nest”. I have heard it called by many names: egg in the hole, egg bread and egg in the basket are a few others.

When it was decided that I would be in charge of breakfast for our recent camping trip, these immediately came to mind. They are easy enough to make over a campfire and allow everyone to craft to their liking.

My plan for breakfast was egg in a nest, bacon (saving some grease for the eggs),  and fresh fruit. We were lucky enough to have leftover tomatoes, cheese, and green onions from dinner the night before to add a little extra embellishment, but these are as fantastic just sprinkled with a little salt and pepper.

You will need:
Bread
Eggs (same # as slices of bread)
Butter or grease of some kind
S/P
Any other toppings you happen to have around

How to make:
Start by cutting or tearing an egg-sized hole in each piece of bread. I will often use the top of a cup to cut out the hole.

Grease and heat your pan to medium/medium high.

Place a slice of bread on the hot pan and immediately crack an egg into the hole.

Cook until the egg is to your desired liking. For me this is cooking a few minutes on the first side then flipping and cooking just a minute more so the white is completely cooked, but the yolk is nice and runny.

Season and top with whatever topping you have on hand.

Repeat until everyone is happy and full.

15 Minute Tomato Sauce

This is a super quick and easy tomato sauce that gives the illusion you spent hours on it. We ate it over quinoa, spinach, and pork chops, and then tossed the leftovers with some pasta for lunch the next day.

The whole sauce, from start to finish, should take less then 20 minutes, and can be done while the pasta boils or meat cooks.

I generally try to cook pretty healthy and calorie conscious, but this could easily be made richer by adding more butter and substituting heavy cream.

1T butter
1T olive oil
1 onion diced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped or 2T minced jarred garlic
1 can diced tomatoes – if you have them, use the ones with Italian seasonings
1/4-1/2 C half & half
1/4-1/2 C grated parmesan cheese

• Heat oil and butter over medium heat, then toss in the onions.
• When they are starting to become translucent, add the garlic and saute a few more minutes.
• Dump in tomatoes and bring to a light boil, squashing some of the tomatoes with the back of your spoon.
• After it has simmered a few minutes turn down the heat and stir in the half & half and parmesan cheese.
• Let simmer until it is to your desired thickness.
• Season with S/P to taste.

That’s it!

Let the Canning Adventure Begin

I have always wanted to try my hand at canning, and this year I am going for it.

I guess I had been talking about it a bunch because a couple of weeks ago when Brett and I were grocery shopping he convinced me to buy two boxes of canning jars. No more excuses. I now had twelve pint jars and twelve quart jars with rings and fresh lids.

That Saturday I had a few free hours in the morning and decided to start my canning adventure. My first project was an apple rosemary jelly that had been intriguing me for quite some time. I was especially drawn to it because it did not use any pectin. Instead, it had you throw in all the seed, core, and stems, which apparently contains enough pectin to make it set. The jelly did set and when we tried it the next day, it tasted pretty good. Brett has been eating it on his PBJs for lunch the past few weeks. First attempt = success.

While the liquid from my jelly was draining, I started my first attempt at pickles. I bought some adorable little cucumbers at the farmers markets and knew they would be great for spears. I am big bread & butter pickle fan, but since Brett doesn’t really like them, I decided to try a semi-sweet dill pickle. I found a couple of 10-day refrigerator pickle recipes I thought would be good to start with, as they do not require processing. They turned out tasty as well and now I am ready to try my hand at some real canning. Attempt 2 = success. Let’s hope this trend continues.

I know I want to make some more pickles and jams/jellies, as well as try my hand at some fruit butters, and applesauce.

If anyone has any tips or recipes for me, I would love for you to share.

Silk Dyed Easter Eggs

For this Easter weekend my dear friend Rebecca came and visited me. We have had a lovely time so far, and there are still more plans in the works. Somewhere in my continual Internet browsing I came across the idea to wrap eggs in silk scarves, and then boil them. The dye for the scarves is suppose to transfer to the eggs and make cool patterns. They Worked! We made some pretty eggs, and I thought it would be fun to post so you can share in this easy craft.

Eggs – not boiled
100% silk scarves/neck ties
white fabric
rubber bands or twist ties
3 T vinegar
a bit of veggie oil

1. Cut approximately 7″x7″ squares out of the scarves and white fabric
2. Wrap each egg in the scarf and then the white fabric and secure with the rubber bands.
3. Add the vinegar to a pan of water and place the eggs into the pan.
4. Bring to a boil and boil 15-20 minutes.
5. Remove eggs from pan, rinse in cold water so you can handle
6. Unwrap eggs
7. After they dry rub with a little oil to shine

Verdict – It was super easy and I enjoyed it. It would be an easy project to do with kids. You can find the scarves for cheap at thrift stores or good wills.

Calamity – 9/10 Most of our eggs turned out but you have to be careful with some materials of overlapping the fabric or you get a weird pattern.

Tips to AVOID Calamity in the Kitchen

Need some tips to help AVOID the Calamity in your Kitchen?

Have a look at the 25 most common cooking mistakes put together by the guys at Cooking Light magazine.

Here are a few of the top mistakes:

• We make unwise substitutions when baking
• We overheat chocolate
• We don’t know our oven’s quirks and idiosyncrasies
• We overcrowd the pan

Check out the entire article HERE

Busy, Busy, Busy!

LOOK! We’ve been Busy, Busy, Busy and Dash of Calamity is nicely coming together. Check out our new pages…

About Us – Want to know a little more about Bek and Renee? Here is where you’ll find it!

and

CRAFT FOR SALE – As well as playing in the kitchen we are getting into craft. Today (Valentine’s Day) we filled our first bulk order of 60 hair accessories!

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?!

We are starting an ‘Ingredient of the Week Challenge’. You name the ingredient and we will each have a week to cook a creative and tasty meal using the ingredient. You can play along at home too by cooking using the ingredient and posting your recipe and review in our comments section.

Got an idea for week 1 of our challenge?