Seat Of My Pants Food Preparation

 Today is the tenth day since I had a positive Covid test, which means that when I wake up tomorrow the CDC says I will no longer be contagious. It was also my first meal for the priests and clergy since starting my quarantine.

You may remember that I am cooking in the rectory kitchen Sunday morning, Monday night, and Wednesday mid-day. My system is to take items for any given meal out of the freezer the meal before, and stop at the grocery store for perishables on my way there. Thanks to my quarantine the system had broken down, but I knew that there was a bag of sheet pan pancakes in the freezer that would be enough to feed the six clergy. All I had to do was heat the pancakes, cook bacon in the oven, scramble a dozen eggs, and rinse some raspberries.

However, when I arrived I saw that someone had broken into the bag of pancakes and they were half gone. (I was happy they liked them, but still annoyed. I will need to come up with a system to indicate off limits food.) 

I didn't have time to go back to the store and still have breakfast ready on time so I put on my creative thinking cap.

The planned meal for last Sunday was an egg casserole with ham and two kinds of cheese. Everything was in a plastic grocery bag in the refrigerator. It had been there for a little over a week, which is almost over the edge of acceptable. However, I decided to take a close look at the ingredients. All seemed fine. Even the most problematic ingredient (the ham) still looked fresh and pink. It was well wrapped and not past the sell-by date. Just to be on the safe side I microwaved it and drained off the juices before incorporating it into the dish.

My recipe was more like a list of proportions: 2 parts bread, 1 part milk, 1 part eggs, 1 part add-ins (in this case, ham) and 1 part cheese.

The procedure couldn't have been simpler. I greased a baking pan and filled it with bread chunks, then tossed in the ham and most of the cheese. I mixed eggs with whole milk and seasonings, poured the mixture over the bread, and pressed down to make sure all the chunks were saturated. I let the eggs soak in for a half hour before adding the rest of the cheese on top, covering the dish with foil, and baked it for 20 minutes. I took off the foil and baked it for an additional half hour.

When it was time to serve I put the casserole on the counter, added bowls of salsa and raspberries for those who wanted fruit, and stepped aside. The clergy don't have much time before the next Mass starts, so they come through quickly, eat, and put their plate next to the dishwasher before leaving again. However, as the pastor left he told me with a grin to pack everything up so he could have more later.

 Five years ago today: From Gardening Shoes To Galoshes