baked eggs with chives and cream & candied bacon & a call from ADT home security

Sometimes this blog encourages me to do things I normally wouldn't do. Take making baked eggs and candied bacon for Matt for breakfast on Valentine's day--not that I wouldn't do this, just that I like to be slightly more spontaneous when it comes to my acts of kindness. But then Fine Cooking had this sweet and seemingly simple Valentinesy breakfast menu and I totally fell for it.

Fine Cooking's version:

 

Our version:

The meal should have been easy enough. All we had to do was bake some bacon with maple syrup and brown sugar and some eggs with chives and cream.

(Doesn't this slab of bacon kind of remind you of Tennessee?)

 

The problem lay in the timing and oven space. The recipe calls for the eggs and bacon to both bake at 425, only the bacon was ready before the eggs and since it had gone in the oven first, was situated in the back so that when we pulled it out, we tipped the pan a little too much and some bacon grease spilled onto the hot oven floor. 

Within ten seconds, smoke was pouring out of the oven and every smoke detector in the house was going off. (Here, it should be noted that Matt and I are housesitting.) We turned the detectors off manually, which was easy enough to handle--even though they kept going off every thirty seconds, but when the ADT alarm went off, the situation escalated quickly--a horrible, constant, piercing noise now layered on top of the smoke detectors mechanical beeping. When the phone rang, we looked at each other. "Fire department." The eggs only needed a couple of more minutes, so Matt left the alarms and picked up the phone:

ADT: I see there are fires in rooms one, three, and five.

Matt: No, we're just cooking. 

ADT: OK, then. Happy Valentine's Day!

Matt: Thanks.

Dear Sean and Sara, your house is on fire fine.

As for the food, the eggs were overcooked due to the extended distraction, re: the non-fire, but delicious. And the bacon is something I would definitely try again. If it weren't for the fire and smoke mayhem, it really would have been easy. 

In short: Happy Valentine's Day!

(Above picture via Heath Ceramics & Gilly Flowers.)