Egg-in-a-hole

When I was a kid, my dad was the breakfast man. He would wake us up each morning for school, and my brothers and I would pitter patter in my parents room to eat breakfast. He would bring in cinnamon twists (store bought in an aluminum foil pan) patted with butter and heated in the oven. We'd eat them upstairs in my parents room while watching Howdy Doody. (Oh, the luxury.) Then we'd grab a dime from the little drawer at the top of my dad's dresser and go wait for the MARTA bus, which in those days, doubled as a school bus in the morning and the afternoon. (A19 in the morning P29 in the afternoon. I can't believe I still remember the bus numbers.)

But on the weekend, things got a bit more elaborate. Pancakes, bacon and eggs, cream of wheat, etc. I have recently revamped one of my favorites that my dad would make. Egg-in-a-hole. It's extremely easy in concept, but I'm still playing around with the timing.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium with a big ol' pat of butter. Take a drinking glass and press it into a piece of bread, making a hole in the bread.

Once the butter starts to bubble, plop in the bread - both pieces - and crack the egg in the middle of the hole.

I keep a close watch in the flame, so the bread doesn't burn leaving the egg raw. The circle off to the side is a great way to check how done the underside of the bread is (without messing with the egg).

Then when things look pretty good, I flip.

But I don't like to leave it in more than a couple of seconds on the other side because I like my eggs runny.

Yum!

Today I played around with putting in the bread and toasting one side with no egg. Then I flipped the bread and added the egg to the second side. But I'm not sure this is the way to go. I'll have to ask my dad how he did it.