Adventures in Baking

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and I do believe this is true.  When a person has need they can improvise, learn new skills, and in general bluff their way through all sorts of situations creating all sorts of new ideas. 

I love to bake - bread in particular, and oddly enough I'm a huge fan of casseroles.  At my workplace we were planning a pot luck to celebrate another baby that is due, and without thinking I said Sure! I'll bring a breakfast casserole!  Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day, and breakfast foods are far and away the tastiest dishes that should be eligible for consumption at any time of the day.

I went home after a long day of work, taking kids to doctor's appointments and errands, took care of my little farm and animals - adventures in goat wrangling that left me sweating and the little doeling playing hide and seek behind the donkeys - feeding my family, and finally... finally I was ready.  I got out a couple of casserole dishes, and took stock of ingredients. 

A dozen eggs fresh from the hens, Check
A pound of turkey sausage, Check
Shredded potatoes, Check
Sweet onions, Check
Homemade goat Gouda cheese, Check
Salt and pepper and dry mustard powder and parsley, Check

Oven... oh bugger.  It came - the unfortunately belated realization that both of my ovens are still out of commission due to damaged elements.  Crap! 

So I kind of gave up on it and said Eh, screw it.  I'll go watch a movie with the kids.  So I did and it felt incredibly good to do nothing for a little while.  That little while turned into 3 hours of watching Shakespeare In Love, and crawling into bed at 11:30pm!  Still no casserole.  Ok, I'll set the alarm 15 minutes early and figure something out. 

5:45 a.m., and laying in bed inspiration strikes!  If I can do a crock pot meatloaf, why couldn't I do a crock pot breakfast casserole?!  The office party isn't until 10:30 or 11:00, so it should have time to cook, right?  Off to the kitchen to brown the turkey sausage, saute the onions, mix those with shredded potatoes and shredded Gouda.  Pour over it a blender full of a dozen blended eggs to which the salt, pepper, mustard powder and parsley have been whizzed together and give it a little toss.  Pour it all in the crock and turn it on.  The morning moved on a little more rushed than usual, but I managed - even Cindy, my big lamancha doe was unusually cooperative for her milking!  By the time I left for work it was just starting to cook around the edges... Screw it, it can cook at work, so away I go.

3 hours later, cooked on high (so the edges are a little on the dry side, unfortunately), it's done. And it tastes FANTASTIC!  I have a new way to conquer weekday breakfasts with the family!!