Egg-in-a-circle-toast

Egg-in-a-circle-toast was a standby breakfast in my family from as far back as I can remember. It's about as easy as it can get. Take a piece of toast and cut a circle out of the middle with a cookie-cutter. Put it in a pan, crack an egg into the middle, and fry both sides til the egg is done and the toast is crispy. Then, fry the circles so they are crunchy and buttery. Yum.

A month or so ago Auntie BSU called to say that Lil' Eleven had her first egg-in-a-circle-toast and approved of it. I thought hmmm, I haven't made one for Boo yet. No reason, I just got out of the practice of making them. I'll have to do that soon. But, I forgot. Then, we went to visit Oosje and Bampa and they had Honey Wheat Berry Bread, which is the right kind of bread for egg-in-a-circle-toast, and I started thinking about it again. When I got home, I bought the bread.

Try One
Saturday morning (a few weeks ago). Pan, butter, cookie cutter. Complete failure. The circle was too small. The egg oozed out everywhere. Then it stuck to the pan. It was a disaster. I threw it away.

OK. I haven't made one in awhile. How long has it been, I wondered? I have no idea. Years and years.

Try Two
Back to the cookie cutters. You know, nothing says that egg-in-a-circle toast couldn't be egg-in-a-star-toast or egg-in-a-christmas-tree-toast I realized. Maybe that's my addition to the experience. But, I didn't want to repeat my too-small mistake, so I chose a pentagon. It was the biggest cookie cutter I have. The experience went a little better, although it was still too small and still stuck. But, it was good enough. Boo enjoyed.

The next morning I realized "Duh!". I've got this all wrong. I wasn't using the egg pan. What was I thinking? Now, for those of you who don't know, the egg pan was Bampa's. It is older than I am. It's perfectly seasoned so that eggs don't stick. You only cook eggs in it, and you never wash it with soap. Hot water and a towel. When I was about 17 or 18, Oosje and Bampa wrote their wills and asked Auntie BSU and I to make a list of what we wanted from the house when they passed away. I was getting ready to go to college and I put down all kinds of things that were, to me, the things that made our house ours. The things that I remembered had always been there, or things I remembered acquiring that had become fixtures. A few years ago after a death in the family, I reconsidered my list. I realized that it wasn't the old brass fire-extinguisher lamp that made home home, but the more everyday things that were part of what my family is. I asked to revise my list and asked for Oosje's sewing scissors and Bampa's egg pan. For some reason, they gave them both to me right away.

The egg pan scares Daddy. He won't touch it. I think it scares some other people, too. There is a concern that not washing the pan will leave baddies behind and we'll all die from the bacteria. I remain committed to the pan. The first thing you do is get it really hot. It doesn't work if you crack eggs into it when it's cold. I'm satisfied that kills the baddies. Plus the fact that I'm sure I've had thousands of eggs out of it over the last three decades, as have Oosje, Bampa, Auntie BSU, and anyone who had breakfast at our house, and not once has anyone gotten food poisoning.

Try Three
Sunday morning. Boo asked for "sucle toast". Armed with the egg pan, I was still in search of the right size cutter. I tried the brandy glass. Perfect. Egg pan operated flawlessly. Boo enjoyed again. She likes purple jam and peanut butter on the circle toast. I decided to have one. My only remaining lesson was that the handle of the pan gets really hot after two eggs, plus two circle toasts. It requires a hot mitt the second time around.

We've now had several more successful runs. I've got all the kinks worked out. Boo regularly requests it. I even made one for Oosje last week and she approved. Now I need to go get a large circle cookie cutter, because the brandy glass is not a good long-term solution.