Baked Eggs with Bacon and Spinach

Another recipe with an egg in a ramekin. I think I'm becoming obsessed with ramekins. I went to the store to find some more, but they only had expensive ones. I'll keep trying.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp; transfer to paper towels. Pour off drippings from skillet; reserve drippings.

I cooked the bacon in the microwave. Once when I was little, my mom was cooking bacon on the stove. I got too close and the popping grease got me in the eye. Now I never cook it on the stove.

Add spinach to pan, sprinkle with pepper, and toss over medium heat, 1 minute. Transfer to strainer set over bowl to drain.

I actually used a 5-oz bag of spinach, so I know this is the right amount. Since I didn't have any bacon grease, I used cooking spray for the pan and the ramekins.

Brush four 1-cup ramekins with drippings. Crumble bacon.

Scrunch up the paper towel and now it's bacon bits. That part was kinda fun.

Place 1 toasted English muffin half, split side up, in each ramekin.

Toasted English muffin. Check.

Divide spinach among ramekins, then sprinkle bacon over, dividing equally.

Spinach on top of English muffin.

With back of spoon, shape well in center of each ramekin. Gently crack 1 egg into well in each ramekin, keeping yolk intact.

Bacon bits and egg. I guess I didn't do a good enough job with the well in the center. The bottom of the yolk is kind of in the well, and the rest of the egg is just sitting on top of the spinach and bacon. Whatever.

Drizzle 1 tablespoon cream over each egg. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Drizzle heavy cream on top? More like cover the top with heavy cream.

Bake eggs until whites are just set but yolks are still runny, 14 to 16 minutes.

I baked it for an extra 5 minutes because I'm really not into runny yolks. Call it an abnormal fear of salmonella if you want, but I just can't eat it.

I like being able to see all the layers. The English muffin ended up a little soggy. I really really hate soggy bread. Other than that, it was pretty tasty. The yolk ended up being just a little runny. I felt nauseous after I ate it, but that's probably just a psychological thing. I'm still alive, right?

Spinach-Egg Ramekins

Have you ever walked into Target and seen that section of seasonal stuff where almost everything costs $1? I check out that stuff every time I go to Target. It's been full of fall and Halloween stuff for the past few weeks. I found a set of four ramekins for about $2.50. I bought them partly because they were cheap, and partly because I knew I'd be able to try more recipes with them. Right after I bought them, I started looking up ramekins recipes; the simplest ones I found were for eggs. I decided to wake up early and surprise my mom with some baked eggs. I chose this recipe because all the ingredients are things I usually have in the house.

1 tbsp + 1.5 tsp margarine or butter, 1tbsp + 1.5 tsp flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in salt and pepper.

I made the cream sauce first so it would be out of the way. It kinda looked like mashed potatoes or cream of wheat. I think I made it a little too thick. Also, I forgot to add salt and pepper. That doesn't matter much for me since I don't like salt, but my mom loves salt.

Melt butter in a 10-inch skillet over low heat; add flour, stirring until smooth. Add spinach; cook 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.

I don't know how much spinach is in two pounds, so I just grabbed a random amount from the fridge. My mom has this thing about taking produce out of bags before putting it in the fridge, so I never know how much anything is. The next time I make this, I'll have to buy it myself so I know it's two pounds.
I was way too lazy to soak the spinach for an hour, and I'm pretty sure I don't have a Dutch oven. I just washed it, drained it, and then added it to the flour mixture in the pan.

Divide spinach mixture between 4 ramekins

Yeah, I definitely need more spinach next time, but this is ok for now. I'll just mix it all up with the egg, anyway.

Fill a saucepan or skillet with 1 1/2 inches salted water, and heat to boiling. When water boils, lower heat to simmer. Break eggs, one at a time, into a clean custard cup. Hold the lip of the cup close to water, and gently slip egg into the water. Simmer until eggs reach desired degree of doneness. (Do not allow water to boil.) Remove eggs with a slotted spoon, and drain well. Place a poached egg on top of spinach in each custard cup.

I've never poached an egg before. I just kept poking it to see if it was firm enough. I'm pretty sure I overcooked all of them, but that's better than undercooked. I know my mom would never eat a runny yolk.

Cover each with cream sauce; top with cheese, and bake at 400° just until cheese melts. Serve hot.

Two tablespoons of cream sauce on top and grated cheese. I left them in the oven a little longer than I should have because I wanted the cream sauce to be warm. I really liked this recipe. It wasn't even as time consuming as I thought it would be. I would make this every day if I could, but then I wouldn't be able to try new things.