Wednesday 21 November 2012

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday 180

I'm back!!  I would have been back last week but half an hour before I was to sit and write the WOYWW post my hard drive died.  I really thought that the universe was scheming to keep me away... and I didn't have my back-up external drive plugged in so lost everything from the point of leaving Canada. Poop. :(  Luckily Chris got me a new one ordered and has spent days putting my pc back to some usable state.
So this is my desk this morning.... see?  Nothing!!  I guess people who might visit would expect to see something but you have no idea how hard I worked get the desk to this point. LOL
I'll even give you a stepped back shot... and if you think that is a mess, really you should have seen it when it had the contents of five boxes spread all over it!!
Then we pan right and you can see my 'pooter and piles of 'stuff'... yeah, I'm still working on an acceptable solution to the fitting a litre into a pint pot!!
and this is a pan left through the archway into the sun lounge and the remaining boxes to be unpacked and sorted... yep, could take a while but I am getting there!!
So now you have seen my space, pop over to our leader of the desk nosey, Julia, and have a look though some of the lovely spaces of other mad peeps!!

Friday 9 November 2012

"The Egg and Bacon Thing"

You know how we all one meal from childhood that takes you back in time?  This is Chris'... he has mentioned it many times over the years and always describes it as the 'egg and bacon thing'.  Well, when we went South at the end of September we dropped in on Chris' sister and she gave me the recipe for the 'egg and bacon thing'!!  (a recipe without quantities and no visual aid as to what it should end up looking like)!!

But... we had the recipe and we had Chris' memories so giving it a go seemed to be the next sensible step.

The Egg and Bacon Thing
Casserole dish
Butter dish well
a layer of breadcrumbs
a layer of minced bacon
a layer of eggs (raw, just drop them in)
a layer of tomatoes
another layer of breadcrumbs
top with a couple of knobs of butter
cook in oven at 180c - until egg yokes are hard and bacon is cooked.

OK... now I did have a mincer to do the bacon but after checking the contents of my cupboards and not finding it... I sort of figured out that the last time I saw it was in South Africa prior to 2006.  I have no idea where it went and it could possibly be in some of the boxes yet unpacked from that particular trip and not feeling inclined to compound my unpacking and packing situation we opted to buy a new one!! ;)  Chris ordered a nice smart electric version and it arrived yesterday morning.  
When I inquired into the timing of the recipe he mentioned that his Mum always cooked it in a Pyrex see thru casserole dish so you could tell when it was cooked... and yes, I am sure I had a set of those too... but they aren't in this kitchen so we went and bought one!!  (this recipe just cost me £40 and I have no idea if I am even going to like it and I am now thinking that £40 would get me a nice restaurant meal)!!
So I started grating a couple of slices of bread to make the breadcrumbs... and very soon realised that life is too short to grate bread and used my hands instead..
Chris played with the shiny new electric toy of a mincer and made a packet of bacon vanish in seconds and we were ready to go...
layer of breadcrumbs (3 slices of bread)
layer of bacon (1 800 gram pack)
dropped raw eggs (5 eggs)
sliced tomatoes (2 tomatoes)
and the rest of breadcrumbs on top.
Bake in centre of oven for 35 -40 minutes or until your egg yolks are firm

and Chris says it tastes just like his Mum made!! :)

Oh, and I liked it too!  I would have it with a side salad but Chris said it needed potatoes... potatoes in the form of chips!! LOL