Tonight's very interesting dinner

Due to lack of planning/shopping, we didn't really have anything ready to cook for dinner tonight...soooo, we decided that we'd have an egg dinner.  Yeah!  Mmm, eggs.

However, also due to the above, when it came time to cook these delicious eggs, I realized we only had three of them.  Woops.  Good thing we also had a lunch-sized portion of leftover hunnybun meatbeals and spinach to divvy up between us!  I also wanted to try frying the eggs in the rendered beef fat I made a few days ago (oh yeah, I forgot to load those pics!).

So, I put about a teaspoon of the fat in the pan and cooked the eggs.  EGG-citing story so far, eh???!  Well, seeing as I'd never cooked eggs in beef fat before (usually butter or bacon fat), I wasn't entirely sure how this would go.  Anyway, they turned out slippery (yay - no sticking to the pan like usual!) and were really tasty.  I'm sold!

Eggs (sunny side up) with meatballs and a small pile of previously-frozen spinach.  It was really yummy!  (Apologies for the lack of photo...)

Here's the pile of beef fat in the slow cooker...

After a few hours on low, the golden oil started to accumulate.  I scooped it out in two separate attempts...

And the crispies that resulted (some of which kind of tasted like fat from a steak, but others, not so much!)...

 

Lesson learned for next time:

- Spread the bits more across the bottom of the crock

- The bits should be cut into smaller bits - some pieces remained puffy and held the oil within

- I need to think ahead and get a glass jar to store this stuff in

2-Ingredient "Cake"...First Attempt

I went down to the kitchen tonight with the intention of opening a can of tuna and eating it, but then I remembered we bought eggs last night so I got sidetracked!

Here's where I got the idea from.

When I first saw that thread, I bought a package of un-sweetened baker's chocolate to use for the recipe. That was about a month ago. Tonight, I finally got around to trying this out.

I took 100g (5 pieces) of the chocolate:


I then put the bowl into the microwave for 20 seconds at a time until the chocolate was melted enough to stir:


Next, I learned a lesson; that I should have let the chocolate cool down a bit before adding the egg to it. The egg started to cook a little as I stirred it in:


Once the egg was mixed in as best I could, back into the microwave the bowl went, for about 40 more seconds (my microwave is pretty powerful!). Here was the result!


Beauty! It was perfectly moist and spongy. However, unless you like a bitter chocolate "cake", don't use un-sweetened baker's chocolate. I'm getting minor tummy cramps now. Next time I'll use 85% cocoa, but there WILL be a next time! :D

Successful Experiment: Eggs in Bacon Baskets

Got a couple of updates for the blog today, and the first is to proudly show off our eggs-in-bacon-baskets! :D

Successful Experiment: First Time Frying in the Cast Iron Pan

For my birthday this past September I had asked my parents to buy me a cast iron frying pan, and my hopes were to become a cooking expert with this "pro" tool. (laughs) After reading many different instructions on the 'net for seasoning this thing properly, we finally decided to DO it...IN DECEMBER!

We put it through only one 'round' of seasoning and time ran out and we just haven't gotten around to continuing for 5 more rounds. I've been reading that some people also say to just start using it (provided there's no rust in the cooking area), so today that's what I decided to do.

Today is Sunday, which is bacon 'n eggs day. I got the pan out, heated it up (I also read that there are two keys to preventing food from sticking; the pan has to be hot enough, and there has to be enough fat in there), and tossed the bacon in.

Once the bacon was done (and the fat was drained once part-way through), the eggs went in. Now I was pretty nervous about the eggs, because they would be much more likely to stick, so I kept a close eye on the grease and the heat. Luckily, they didn't stick all that much and I was able to lift off what did stick. Yay!

Then when the eggs came out, I added a couple more tablespoons of bacon fat and a bunch of sliced cremini mushrooms, and tossed those around for a few minutes. YUM.

In the end, the pan is free of stuck food and the oil just needs to be dumped. Then I'll wipe it down with paper towel and it'll be ready for next time.

W00t!