Gifts and Bread and Delightfully Runny Eggs

The past week has been filled with myriad gifts.  And they've all been wonderfully unexpected -- and positively delightful:

• a handful of delicious Girl Scout cookies (stay tuned to hear all about these on Thursday)
• a spectacular dinner at Meritage
• a Glorious grilled cheese event filled with delicious food and new friends
• a loaf of bread

That last one was a particular doozy.  We were the lucky recipients of one of those fantastic looking loaves of  Cook's Illustrated Multi-grain Sandwich Bread that Rebecca from Cakewalk made this week.

To be honest, I've been drooling all over myself ever since she brought a loaf of Lahey bread over to our house for Soup Night (seriously -- it was one of the best loaves of homemade bread I've ever had in my life -- and Peef just about inhaled the leftovers).  So, I was pretty excited when she dropped that hefty paper bags into my hand as we were pulling out of her driveway.  I just knew this loaf of humble bread would be the beginning of something wonderful.

And it really was.
We got up fairly early on Saturday. It was an ordinary day (barring the nasty pinched nerve I seemed to have developed in the muscles surrounding my left shoulder blade).  But, the sun was shining, and we had no place to be but home.  I'd been craving an egg sandwich all week, so I was delighted to remember that loaf of bread, which was sitting on the counter.

Just this side of 2 minutes later, we had bacon grease sizzling in our cast iron frying pan... and eggs dropping out of their shells into gently sputtering pools. Next thing I knew, Peef had four slices of that delicious bread slathered with mayonnaise (and one with mustard -- since that's how HE rolls)... and the eggs were done.

It's interesting how, after eleven years of marriage, I still ask Peef how he wants his eggs cooked for egg sandwiches.  He always answers exactly the same -- "runny."  What he means is that he'd like them over-easy -- cooked just enough that the whites aren't "snotty."

Sometimes it's difficult to get four eggs perfectly cooked -- so we often end up with a combination of kindof-right, mostly-right, and perfectly-cooked eggs.  But, not today. Today was a special day.  I slid the eggs out of the pan onto the bread, and Peef placed the final slices on top.

The slightest bit of pressure sent the yolk from one of the eggs exploding down the side of one of the sandwiches -- into a gloriously orange puddle of deliciousness.

We bit into our sandwiches.  The tender crust yielded just perfectly, and we chomped through it into the impeccably cooked egg.

We both smiled.
Sometimes the best gifts come in the most unexpected packages.

So, while we're on the topic, how do you like YOUR egg sammich?


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