Bird in a Nest

  Based on the simple ingredients, I suppose the secret is out.. Bird in a Nest is no exotic meal.

It is, however, a favorite breakfast at my house.  It was a favorite of mine as a kid as well.  It certainly sounds exotic and I love that my kids think of it as a treat, or a fancy breakfast, since it actually requires very little effort.  Even though my kids now realize that it's not so fancy, they keep coming back for more.

Gather together:

sliced sandwich bread ~ the "nest"

eggs ~ the "bird"

Frying pan & spatula

butter (or margarine)

salt & pepper

a drinking glass with a small mouth

1. Spread butter on both sides of the bread.  Yes, both sides; this is not a meal for health nuts. 
2. Using the drinking glass as a cutter, cut out a hole in the center of the bread.  Consider the nest feathered!
3. Heat up the pan and get the bread toasting.  I toast the inner-circle from the bread too.  
4. When the bread is 1/2 way toasted, crack the egg right into the hole in the bread.  You'll need to let it cook to flip-worthy doneness, salt  & pepper the egg while you wait.
5. Flip! Try not to break the yolk!  (We weren't so lucky)
6. Cook on the other side till the whites are cooked but the yolk is runny. --- Yum Yum!

That's all there is to it.  You'll end up with deliciously eggy-toasty-buttery bread which is perfect for dipping in the yolk!

Quesadillas

Ingredients:
Flour Tortillas (we used 9" tortillas today)
Shredded Cheese (we like colby jack & cheddar blend)
butter
all the extras that you like, that you can fit inside the tortilla, of course!
(We included jalapeños, pre-cooked chicken & beef, & pico de gallo)


STEP 1
Put about 1 regular spoonful of butter in the pan, turn the heat on high & coat the pan.
STEP 2
Put the tortilla in the pan & add cheese, your toppings on  one 1/2 side of the tortilla.   Add a little more cheese over everything that so it's extra gooey & the tortilla sticks together when folded.
STEP 3
Once the cheese starts to melt fold 1/2 over.  Give it a little time before flipping completely.
Look at how browned the tortilla should get before flipping it over.  Good flipping!
STEP 4
Let the other side brown as well.  Slide it out of the pan & cut it into triangles.  (Can you see the nifty pizza cutter Craig got??)
STEP 5
Dip in salsa, guacamole, or sour cream and enjoy!  We didn't have any of those extras since we had "Build Your Own Quesadillas" (on 12" tortillas) for dinner last night and all the good stuff got eaten up!

While we cooked, we mostly chatted about how hungry Naomi was.  (Craig is cooking tonight & didn't get started early enough so this was a pre-dinner snack.. Go figure.)  When we were done, we lounged on my bed eating and watching "Celebrity Ghost Stories".  Lucky for me, I don't believe in ghosts, but I learned that Naomi does...no matter though, the show was lame anyway.

Hope you enjoyed this simple snack!  Please check out our choices and vote for next week.

"COOK THIS.. Love, Mom"

When I was a kid, my mom would leave a to-do list on the counter each day.  The list included ingredients and instructions on how to cook whatever I was supposed to make for dinner that day.   Often, the necessary items were piled up on the counter top and the meat was labeled in the fridge "COOK THIS.. Love, Mom"

I was responsible for picking my little sister up from the babysitter's house on the walk home from Jr. High.  I learned a lot during this time.  In addition to cooking dinner most nights, I often ironed, ran laundry, helped get my step-dad ready for work & got my baby sister fed, bathed, & ready for bed.  But I missed out on a lot too.

As I got older, my family & friends would ask how I knew to cook so many things and I would simply explain that I had to learn and be responsible from a fairly young age.  Once, my mom overheard a friend asking how I came to be a "good cook"... My mom jumped in before I could respond and proudly said, "She learned all this thanks to me!!"  Though it is true that I learned so much from my mom, I don't think that she has ever understood that I would have liked to learn in a different way. I'm not sure I could get the idea across without being hurtful.

Anyway, now that my daughters are getting old enough to learn to cook & to take on more & more responsibility, I try to spend time with them teaching them the things that my mom taught me.  My goal is to teach in a different way.  Naomi loves to cook with me & I love spending the time with her.

(I have to bribe Hannah into cooking, and she does so occasionally, but never with the interest & gusto that Naomi does!)

Naomi & I have lots of fun together!  I'm so glad that I get to give my girls a different experience that the one I had!