Bacon and Egg Tarts

What is that saying? The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry?

It definitely applies to home cooks.

Sure, I had a healthier, sausage-ragu recipe planned for Tuesday night. But the DDH looked so dejected when I presented the recipe to him. ("I just don't really want to eat chicken sausage." "But it's spinach and feta flavored!" "Yeah, I guess....")

I had been saving this bacon and egg tart recipe for a weekend (after we got our new egg order in), but the DDH brought home a dozen eggs from a coworker who has chickens. And since he obviously didn't want to eat what I had planned to make, I decided to make the tarts.

The DDH was happy. I'm not sure his arteries were.

This recipe is quick and easy to throw together using ingredients you probably have lying around the kitchen (bread, milk, eggs, cheese, bacon). Children and husbands will love it, and admit it, you will too.

Bacon and Egg Tarts
Adapted from Cooking Light January/February 2012

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Grease a muffin tin. Now, the recipe advises you to spray both sides of your bread with cooking spray and not grease the muffin tin. Do not listen to the recipe. Grease the dang muffin tin, or you will be trying to get the baked on eggy bread off the darn thing for the rest of the week.

I mean, I hate cleaning muffin tins under the best conditions. These are not the best conditions.

Save the crusts to make breadcrumbs.

Take 8 1-oz. slices of bread and remove the crusts. I guess a normal bread slice weighs one ounce. I don't know. I didn't read the recipe all the way through and just cut eight ounces off the loaf of bread I baked Sunday, and then had to try and shave individual slices off that. It was a mess. Note to self: Read the recipe before doing anything, don't just scan it.

Press each crustless bread slice into a muffin cup.

Bake at 425 degrees for ten minutes or until lightly toasted; let cool.

While the bread toasts, cook bacon. The recipe called for two slices. I live by the creed, if two slices of bacon are good, four slices are better. The DDH lives by the creed, if you're putting bacon in the dish, why don't I also cook up four extra slices to eat on the side.

We used local fancy-pants nitrite free blah blah blah bacon (I could go all Alice Waters on you and list the local origin of everything in this meal, actually (ok, except for the cooking spray), right down to the wheat I used to bake the bread, but I won't), but feel free to use microwave bacon or whatever you have. You might want a little more of the microwave kind, since slices are so thin.

Whatever kind of bacon you use, get it pretty crispy so you can crumble it.

Once the toast is done, turn oven heat down to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup milk and 4 large eggs.

Divide egg mixture more or less evenly among your little bread cups.

Sprinkle with green onion or chives and your crumbled up bacon.

Top each tart with 1 Tbs. cheddar cheese or whatever kind of cheese (we used colby jack). And, like you're actually going to measure out one tablespoon per tart. We shredded a half cup and sprinkled it around.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until set.

Now, a serving technically is two of these, but be honest: you will eat as many as you make. If that means you need to halve the recipe (or double it), do so.

They were exactly as delicious as you would expect.