Mayme's Egg Cluster

A cast iron egg mold is one of the cutest kitchen accessories you can own. Instantly, your eggs are perfectly round. You can make egg in the hole (bread that has a round cut out in the middle filled with egg) or use it as a cookie cutter. Although it is more aesthetic than function, we believe it is still worth investing in because the visual punch tricks your mind into making the flavor go a long way. Why is this a recession recipe? Well, we had three eggs on hand, bacon and bread and there were three hungry people. When cooking eggs, the molds come in handy as it allows you to stack up ingredients as a result of it's tall walls and everything stays cute and contained.

Yummmm!

Mayme's Egg Cluster

yield: Serves 3

cook time: 15 mins.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• dash salt
• dash pepper
• 6 pieces of bacon
• dash of balsamic vinegar
• 2 fist fulls of basil
• 1 fist full of chives
• mayonnaise
  
• 2 teaspoons chilled unsalted butter
• 3 slices of bread

Preparation

To begin, punch out bread (one circle per piece) with egg mold in the manner you'd use a cookie cutter. Butter edges of egg mold and place eggs in skillets inside the egg molds. Dash of salt in pepper on each egg and dash of olive oil.

As you let it congeal, pick fresh chives and basil from garden -- one fist full for chives and two fists full for basil. A word of advice from our house gardener Jon: pluck it from the stock so it grows full. Planting your own garden is cost effective and nutritious. For more inquires regarding starting and sustaining gardens contact Jon at freeman.jk@yahoo.com; he also can help with your landscaping needs. Sprinkle herbs on eggs - rip chives into pieces or cut them

Place bacon on griddle and add a dash of balsamic on top. We used an expensive bottle of balasmic called Villa Mandori Dark Cherry at Surdyks Cheese Shop. Even though it's an investment, you only use a teaspoon at a time because it's so sweet and rich that you can put it on icecream or add it to a savory dish and it will instantly be special. Sometimes it is worth it to spend more money on cheese, balsamic vinegar and olive oil if you use it in special ways.

Spread mayonnaise on bread. Sprinkle any kind of cheese you have on hand on the eggs. We had Mexican Farmers' cheese. Mayme suggests investing in a good brick of artisanal cheese ( $7 or $8) because a little bit will go a long way. In other words, you end up using a more generic brand of cheese to compensate for the lack of flavor, whereas artisanal cheese is so intense you need only a small amount.

Cook eggs for about ten minutes. Place them each on a slice of bread. Add fruit to balance out the salty, rich egg and bacon. We cut up slices of watermelon, which has a lot of water content; perfect after you've had a wild night out on the town and you're craving a greasy spoon breakfast but you're also in need of serious hydration. Garnish with flowers (if you have them) from the garden, otherwise we trust your creative instincts to use what you have around you to create a beautiful presentation.

Recession = Resourcefulness and Thinking Outside Of The Box.

Shout out to Aunt Cheryl: she has the very novel suggestion of using an empty "CLEAN" tuna (with both ends cut out) can to create your own egg circles. Tip: lift it out of the pan with a tong -- apparently, she speaks from experience. She also suggested that we bloggers stress the -- in her words --" no money, no means" with a lot more imagination, which is a very good idea, because most down and out people won't go out and buy cast iron egg molds.

If anyone has any interesting suggestions, please contact us and we'll include it on our blog.

THANKS!

Now go to it, kids.

-- posted by Mayme and Michelle