lar_laughs | Recipe 1/100

Why look! I made something today. This recipe is what gave me the initial idea, actually. So I hurried into the kitchen and took a picture and VOILA! My first challenge entry.

This recipe was in our local weekly paper this week. Since we still have THREE DOZEN hard-boiled eggs left over from Easter, I figured we needed some new recipes for them. I'm going to give you the recipe as it was in the paper and then give you my thoughts.

Bacon and Hard-Boiled Egg Casserole
(Basic recipe serves 18)

INGREDIENTS:
18 hard-boiled refrigerated eggs
1/2 pint sour cream
1 lb. bacon
1&1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste

(Lar says: I'm going to assume you know how to hard boil an egg. If you don't, please see the internet for further instructions because I'm not sure that I do it the best way out there.)

Make the white sauce:
1. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter until the foam begins to sudside.

2. Turn heat to low and, with a wire whisk, stir in the flour for about 1-2 minutes.

3. Keeping the heat low, stir in the milk with the whisk, a little at a time, until the mixture is nice and smooth.

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You can keep the sauce warm over gently simmering water for an hour or so, stirring occasionally.

For the rest of the casserole:
5. Fry the bacon and crumble.

6. Peel eggs and separate the yolks and the white.

7. Mix the yolks with the sour cream and 1 cup cheese.

8. Slice the whites and line the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan (use non-stick spray to coat the inside).

9. Pour the yolk mixture over the egg whites. Pour the white sauce over all. Top with remaining cheese and bacon.

10. Bake 20 to 30 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven.

WHAT I LEARNED:
First off, I halved the recipe so that might account for part of the problem I had with this. I used ham and white cheddar cheese (except on the top since I ran out of the white stuff and went back to the normal orange stuff).

It didn't turn out like a casserole. It was very... floppy. There's nothing in this recipe that firms it up. We had it with toast which was nice. It was lunch (as I was too lazy to make it for breakfast) and there wasn't a lot there to make it interesting so it's really more of a breakfast food.

It was good but it was odd. My sister didn't like it because the eggs were colored (well duh!) but she's also not a huge hard-boiled egg fan. My parents both ate it eagerly enough.

I've looked up other recipes online (as I didn't want to have to retype) and I found variations on this theme that might be better. This is a very plain recipe compared to some of those. Most all of them made a cheese sauce instead of just a white sauce and I think that might be a better use for the cheese.

There you have it. Recipe Number One is complete for your approval!