Marie Cookpad

  If you are a Vegetarian or a Vegan, you might want to look away now.  What follows isn't going to be pretty for you, however tasty it might seem to the rest of us. Sorry about that!   When I was a child I used to love it when my mom made us Egg in a Hat  (or Egg in a Hole) for breakfast.  It was a real treat.  A lovely runny egg, cooked into a piece of golden brown buttery toast.  Oh boy was it ever yummy.   I've been thinking about that sandwich all week long and pondering how I could make it even better . .  . in a way that has never been done before.  I think I might have cracked it! (No pun intended! Seriously!)    As you know at the weekend I like to pull out the stops a bit and give Todd (my husband) a bit of a treat for breakfast on at least one of the mornings.  When I first moved over here we would pop into town and go to one of the shops and have a fry up at their cafe.  We haven't done that in a long time...

  At the weekend I like to cook the man something a bit heftier for his breakfast rather than his usual Oats or Wheatabix.  I've never had him complain.    When I first moved over here we used to pop into Chester often on a Saturday morning and treat ourselves to an all-day breakfast . . . .   Bacon, sausage  . . .  eggs any way you wanted them . . .  grilled tomatoes, baked beans, mushrooms  . . .  hash browns, black pudding (only if you liked it) and beautiful crisp fried bread . . . oh, I so loved the fried bread.     Thick  slices of white bread that's been fried in fat until crisp . . . oh, it is sooo good.    They closed down the local BHS a few years back, so no more Saturday breakfasts . . .  Oh, I know we could get one easily somewhere else, but there was just something about the BHS, and they were the only ones I knew that served fried bread.   I'll tell you something however  . . ....

   I am determined this year to use all of the pears from our pear tree.  I struggle with this each year.  We have a Conference Pear Tree, (Bosc Pears) and they are not the best pears for eating. (Lesson learnt.)  They are however great pears for cooking with, so bring on your crumbles, cakes and pies!    Our landlord brought us a big bag of cooking apples yesterday and I looked at the pears that Todd had picked and the apples and thought, crumble . . .  and then I thought why not add blackberries.  But I had only a handful of blackberries, so threw in some frozen cranberries I had to make up the difference.  But you can use either all blackberries or all cranberries if you wish.   I can't think of anyone who wouldn't love a crumble . . .  not quite a pie, not a cake . . . fruity and sweet and topped with a nutty/buttery/crispy/crumbly topping.   I love to make crumbles. There is no faffing about with rolling out crusts or...