The Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich

With a new grand-baby here, I have been visiting our son and daughter in law to help with their 3 year old.  One morning our son Hyrum made breakfast for us and I knew
 I needed to share the recipe!
 Now, just to let you know right up front, you can make this sandwich with Turkey bacon and saute the onions in olive oil.  You can also use low calorie cream cheese and 
the cheese and bread of your choice. 
We used Pork bacon, sauteed the onions in the bacon grease and used regular cream cheese and Gouda cheese and placed it all on whole grain bread  LOL! I had to have something healthy in there!  

(something funny about this picture....if you look closely at the half of sandwich on the left, you will see that the tip of it is gone.  After we got it all set up to take a picture, Hyrum and I both went to get our cameras and when we turned back around my 3 year old grandson was taking a bite! 

 I knew then that it was a master piece!)

For one sandwich

1/8-1/4 of an onion, sliced

2 slices of bacon or turkey bacon or ham

2 eggs

1 teaspoon butter
1 slice of  your favorite cheese

Cream cheese or light cream cheese

strawberry jam

bread of your choice, toasted (bread, bagel or English muffin)

black pepper

Slice onion and set aside.

Cut bacon in half 

 Hyrum says that it is important to cook the bacon on medium heat.  

This way you don't set the smoke alarm off.

Add bacon to hot skillet and season with pepper.

fry until golden brown on first side, then turn over, add pepper and fry until the second side is golden brown.

Remove from pan and drain on a paper towel and set aside.

Add onion slices to bacon grease and cook until tender crisp.  Or you can use olive oil or baking spray.

Remove onion from pan and drain on a paper towel.  Set aside.

crack eggs into a bowl and beat until foamy.

Heat a flat bottom skillet, add butter, (or baking spray) let it melt and spread it around the bottom of the pan.

carefully pour the eggs into the pan making sure that it covers the bottom of the pan evenly.

As the eggs begin to set, take a hold of the pan handle and give it a gentle swirling motion so the egg will continue to spread out and cook evenly.  Season with pepper.

When the egg is almost all set (cooked), slip a wide spatula under one side and flip it over to finish cooking the other side. it will only need about 1-2 more minutes to finish cooking.

Remove from heat and fold egg around the cheese slice.  


First lay the cheese in the middle of the egg,

 Fold over one side, bringing the edge to the middle.

 gently pat it down to keep it in place.

 Fold over second side

 Fold ends over

gently press and hold to keep ends in place 
making a perfect egg bundle. 

Toast the bread of your choice.

Now lets make a sandwich!
Spread cream cheese on one side of each of the toast.

Add egg bundle to one half of toast

( Its not your eyes, the picture is out of focus)

Now add the bacon and onions

Spread strawberry jam on the other piece of toast and 

place on top of sandwich.  We used strawberry freezer jam. the recipe is found at this link on this blog...http://nrappleye.blogspot.com/2012/02/strawberry-freezer-jam.html

Cut sandwich in half and serve with fruit and a glass of milk or juice

Thanks Hyrum for an ultimate breakfast party on the taste buds!  

© Nancy Rappleye 2012

Caramel Popcorn

This recipe is our son Jake's favorite! He asked for it so often when he was younger that I taught him how to make it, so he could have it any time he wanted it.  He is in his twenties now and is still making it, in fact, he made some just the other day and posted it on Facebook.  One of our mutual friends saw it and requested that I post the recipe on my blog.  So here it is!

I'm pretty sure that you will not be able to leave this
 yummy gooey sweet popcorn alone once you start to eat it!  

20 cups popped popcorn (air, microwave or stove top popped)

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup Karo syrup (corn syrup)

2 cup brown sugar (light or dark)

½ cup butter (1 cube)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Pop popcorn and remove the un-popped kernels so you have less of a chance to break a tooth!
 (I usually pop two batches in my air popper using the measuring scoop from the top of 
the popper and that gives me just the right amount of popcorn.)

Set the popped corn aside.

Be sure to replace the scoop to the top of the popper or you will have popcorn all over your kitchen.  Although that could be fun!  
Plug it in and pop the corn!

I like to pop the corn and then loosely take handfuls out of the bowl so the un-popped kernels fall to the bottom of the bowl, then place the good popcorn into another larger bowl.
(I am using one hand in the picture so I can take the picture but two hands will make it go faster!)

These are the little things that can cost you a lot 
of money at the dentist! 

.
Add the rest of the ingredients together in a large sauce pan except for the vanilla.   Bring to a boil stirring constantly
 over medium- high heat.

Sweetened condensed milk

Corn syrup 
(Karo is a brand name)

 Brown sugar

Butter 

Stir until it boils

 Lower heat and cover pot with lid.  Simmer for 7 minutes. 

 Take caramel off heat and add vanilla stirring (do not scrape the bottom of pot) to blend well.  The caramel usually will be scorched on the bottom of the pan so if you are careful to not scrape the bottom, you'll only have a little bit in your popcorn.  If you do get some in it, it will still taste great!

Pour  caramel over popcorn and fold with 
a wooden spoon to coat popcorn well.

This dark brown is the scorched caramel, do not scrape

 this on to your popcorn.

OK! now I have a whole bowl full of some really yummy gooey goodness and I'm the only one home! I better find some help to eat it but this bite is for me!!

Jake I thought about you today!
Love mom!

© Nancy Rappleye 2012