Tag: Eggs

Not Mama’s Breakfast

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, perhaps because it is associated with fond memories of my maternal grandmother. All the grandkids called her Mama. I’m not sure how that came about, but it’s what we called her. Anyway, I'm feeling nostalgia and decided to write a short post.

Mama made the most delicious breakfast that, to this date, has never been surpassed. It was a simple breakfast of fresh-baked bread, sliced thick and slathered with salted yellow butter, fried jackfish, fried ham, which is almost like a form of Canadian bacon. The smell of the ham cooking was sort of a hint that breakfast was almost ready. Fresh eggs from the chicken coop and sometimes, if I was lucky, Mama fried up thick slices of cou-cou or bakes.

I would devour my breakfast as fast as I could. Every bite was like a warm all-engulfing hug from Mama. She would always ask, “You want bush tea or cocoa tea”. Either one was heaven in a mug.

An old photo of my grandmother, Mary Marguerite Ollivierre.

The breakfast I eat now is far removed from the love that Mama cooked up in her charcoal-fired stove and oven in her outdoor kitchen. Turkey bacon and English muffins and grits are a poor substitute. It was while making this morning's breakfast that memories of my grandmother came flooding in. I miss her.

Eggs and bacon | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ 32.1 mm | f/4.0 | ISO 10000

Oven Baked Bacon

I've cooked my bacon this way for several years. It's easy and simple. I like simple breakfasts.

I like thick cut bacon but my family (except for my vegetarian wife) prefers the thinner slices. The bacon expert in the house, my daughter Kiran, says the thin slices cook more crisp. I'm still practicing and developing my technique for cooking super crispy bacon while preventing burning. But I think she's correct; the thicker cuts will produce chewier bacon while the thinner cuts will produce crisper bacon. When I choose bacon, I look for a nice blend of meat and fat, with a little more meat than fat.

Every year we take part in my wife's family's version of the white elephant game. My wife doesn't believing in wasting money so we always try to buy something that still has practical use. Better yet, something we would use ourselves. My wife and I are good bargain shoppers on Amazon.com and find it easy to find something within the defined dollar limit. One year we found two items we liked, an electric breakfast sandwich maker and an electric waffle maker. Both met the dollar limit. We bought both. We kept the waffle maker and won back the sandwich maker.

One Thomas' English Muffin fits perfectly within the sandwich maker. I learned how to make egg, cheese and sausage sandwiches in three minutes with minimal clean up. Just separate the English muffin layers and layer on the fixings: egg, cheese, sausage. At first, I put the whole egg directy into the top layer. But in the last few months I've experimented with whisking a a tablespoon of heavy cream into the egg. It produces a light fluffy (and less chewy) egg layer for the sandwich.

Oven Baked Bacon

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

A hands-free, easy method for cooking perfect bacon in the oven.


  • Nutrition facts: 390 calories, 29g carbohydrates, 19g protein, 19g
  • Credit: Khürt Williams

Ingredients

  • 2 slices Trader Joe's Uncured Apple Smoked Bacon
  • 1 Thomas' Cinnamon Raison English Muffin
  • 1 Wegmans Organic Large Brown Egg
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400ºF (~ 204ºC).
  2. While the oven is heating up, arrange bacon slices side by side on an oven baking rack and place in baking pan.
  3. Put pan in oven when oven temperature reaches 400ºF. Cook in oven for 20 minutes.
  4. Pre-heat electric sandwich maker.
  5. While the sandwich maker is heating up, whisk the egg and heavy cream for 15 seconds.
  6. Pour egg into top half of sandwich maker. Cook for 3 minutes, 30 seconds.
  7. Separate halves of English muffin and toast.
  8. Remove cooked egg from sandwich maker and place atop English muffin.
  9. Remove cooked bacon from oven and set to cool.
  10. Make coffee.

A Simple Breakfast

Thick-cut bacon, eggs, whole-grain toast and a mug of freshly brewed coffee. Good morning.

Thick-cut bacon, eggs, whole-grain toast and a mug of freshly brewed coffee.

A Simple Breakfast

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: Easy
  • Print

Bacon, eggs, toast and a mug of freshly brewed coffee.



Based on the information I compiled from FatSecret my breakfast had about 507 calories, 24.77g of carbohydrate, 30.58g of protein, and 32.94g of fat.

Ingredients

  • 2 slices Dave's Killer Bread Thin-Sliced Organic Bread 21 Whole Grain & Seeds
  • 3 slices Farmland Foods Thick Sliced Bacon
  • 2 large eggs

Directions

  1. Heat the oven to 400°F.
  2. Arrange the bacon slices in one layer on top of the oven rack.
  3. Position the oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
  4. Bake until the bacon is golden brown and crispy, 12 to 20 minutes. The exact baking time will depend on the how thick your bacon is and how crisp you like it.
  5. Remove bacon from oven and set aside on a paper towel to cool.
  6. Re-use some of the bacon greases and add to a cast iron skillet on medium-low heat.
  7. Beat the eggs with a whisk.
  8. Scramble eggs in cast iron skillet.
  9. Make toast.
  10. Make coffee.