The first time I scrambled eggs for Nancy was our first anniversary. We were staying in a friends’ cabin in North Lake Tahoe. The night before we went to the store and bought a bunch of supplies. I offered to make Nancy breakfast. For those of you who haven’t read the past posts about my cooking skills four years ago, suffice it to say that I had none.
This was one of the first moments when I started to realize that I really didn’t know “anything” whatsoever about cooking. It’s really funny looking back because my relationship with food was so different then. I just stuffed food, as much as I could get, into my mouth. It didn’t matter if it tasted good or not. I didn’t really appreciate what I was eating. I was one of those people who would go to a restaurant because of the size of the portions, not the quality of the food.
On this occasion though, as I watched Nancy try to eat my overcooked, overstirred and overworked eggs a small light went off in my head. I can’t say for sure, but it was probably the start of my desire to actually learn how to cook and appreciate food.
Fast forward four years and I think I have a pretty good grasp on making perfect scrambled eggs. I put my skills to test multiple times this week. I escaped the restaurant early a few days ago to come home and work on the books. We had two dozen farm eggs in the fridge, so I made scrambled eggs for Jacob, Randy and I. Thursday night Nancy had plans with her sister so I decided to make breakfast burritos for dinner.
Everything was pretty straight forward with the exception of trying to take the pictures of the finished product. Right now the most difficult part of putting together this food blog is the pictures. Everything I cook we are going to eat for dinner and my family, though very understanding, isn’t excited about eating cold food. At first I think they thought it was funny… watching me try to style a plate, then trying to find a place with proper lighting and lastly taking a zillion pictures with different settings since my photography skills are amateur at best.
Other than the many things you can add to the eggs, there seem to be two different methods on the actual scrambling of the eggs. One produces small, even-sized curds while the other, the one I use, produces big fluffy scrambled eggs. The difference comes down to how much stirring and disturbing of the eggs happens as they are cooking in the pan. Many recipes call for the cook to stir continuously while the eggs are cooking. This method with produce smaller, even-sized curds, but in my opinion they lack any visually interesting texture and overall look (and taste) quite boring.
In the method I use you let the eggs start to set a bit, then slowly push the eggs toward the center of the pan, allowing the runny parts to distribute to the bottom of the pan. If you haven’t tried this way I would recommend it! The below recipe will serve two hungry people. Adjust for the group you are feeding, but don’t try to make more than a dozen at a time in one pan. Use two pans if you have more mouths to feed.
Breakfast Burrito (serves two hungry people)
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 3 teaspoons low fat milk
- 3 pinches kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons Italian parsley
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 burrito-sized tortillas, I used sun-dried tomato tortillas
- 3 – 4 pieces of cooked bacon (we like bacon and we baked it)
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lay out tortillas. Place bacon and shredded cheese down the center of each tortilla. When you start to scramble the eggs, you will place tortillas with the cheese and bacon in the oven to melt the cheese and soften the tortillas.
Combine eggs, milk, salt and parsley in a metal or glass mixing bowl. Whisk mixture until evenly combined, about 30 seconds!
Place the tortillas directly on a rack positioned in the middle of the oven.
Melt butter on medium heat in a NON STICK PAN and tilt to distribute. Add egg mixture to the pan and let it sit undisturbed until the eggs just barely start to set. Using a flat wooden spatula start to push the eggs toward the center of the pan forming large, soft curds. You can tilt the pan to distribute the runny parts.
Continue with this process, flipping over the eggs to cook the runny parts.
When the cheese is melted on the tortillas pull them out of the oven and place on a plate. Transfer the eggs to the burritos, wrap them securely and devour. Top with salsa for extra fun.
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I think your photos are awesome. Believe it or not, when I first saw the top photo I was wondering (not for the first time) whether you took your own photos, used stock photos, stole them from cookbooks or what. They look professional to me. You apparently stop to take pictures while you’re cooking, too!
I’m really enjoying your blog. (I like Nancy’s, too, but she doesn’t post as often.)
How fabulous! I too am a scramblies fan – definitely the slow, but steady scramble şis the one. Sadly, in Turkey, bacon is hard to come by and ruinously expensive – I’ve sometimöes used pastirma in desperation – not bad, but not the same at all
All the best and keep at it
Chris
shifokont.wordpress.com
You just beautifully demonstrated our SECOND most favorite southwestern breakfast. Our first, and most often prepared is Huevos Rancheros.
But my wife (a native of San Antonio) and I (from Houston, Texas) have certainly eaten our share of breakfast burritos.
Your version looks like a real winner.
I am sitting here starving and trying to reach thru the screen to grab this – Looks so wonderful.
Cheers
Cathy
Amateur, I think not. Your photos are beautiful. I’m from El Paso, Texas – land of the breakfast burrito. And I must say yours is one of the most appealing ones I’ve seen. I’m ready to eat. Thanks for sharing.
That breakfast burrito looks really good!
these looks great – might have to try them this weekend! as easy as breakfast burros sound, they are quite difficult to make and turn out. mine seem to be entirely too much flour/eggs…im going to try yours!
Yum! That does look like the perfect breakfast burrito! I’m definitely going to make this tomorrow morning! That’s for the recipe!
<3
Beautiful picture!
One suggestion: Let your family eat their food while it’s still hot, while you photograph your portion.
I am a big fan of putting breakfast foods into tortillas. Maybe I should post my breakfast tacos?!
What a beautiful breakfast burrito. Thanks for the tips re perfect scrambled eggs: I’ve had more than my share of hard scrambled eggs!
Hi Joe, I saw your introduction on the Foodie Forum and clicked over. This is a great blog!
That breakfast burrito sounds so tasty. I was so glad to see the list of ingredients. So often lately I’ve been seeing cream and mounds of butter and it is like, duh, of course it is going to taste good. Show me something impressive though, make it taste good with out all of the fat and cholesterol -you know?
Anyway, I love the simple layout of your blog too, it is very masculine!
Hot Garlic, Thanks! I’m just checking out your blog and it looks great. I added it to my feed.
Hey JS- always good to see you here, thanks for your support.
Shameria – Thanks, you should put up your breakfast tacos.
Tarah & Kevin, DocChuck, Kathy & Teresa + Arleen – Thanks for coming by to check out the blog. If you make them , let me know how they turn out.
shifokont – wow, I don’t know what I would do without eggs. A few years back I couldn’t cook them to save my life and now I love them.
Ann Onn – love it. Love your blog too and thanks for the compliments!
Thanks All, keep em coming. I like all comments, the good, the bad and the ugly!
Joe! I love you more than I love eggs. Which is a LOT. So. Thanks for making them so nicely. I love the blog. You are the best thing ever.
Love, your wife
This is a perfect recipe for us, now that we’re on a fixed income.
Being a licensed practical nurse married to a lovely, but older man with a heart condition, I altered the recipe somewhat.
My husband cannot tolerate “Egg Beaters,” but I did lower the cholesterol by omitting 1/2 of the egg yolks and using a vegan cheese products. Oh, and vegan bacon, too (not bad, by the way).
Everything else stayed the same except that I also used a bunch of chives from my garden.
Let me tell you it takes something special to lure my husband up from the basement when he’s in the middle of an internet posting session … but the savory aroma of these burritos made him lope up the stairs like a man half his age.
It’s a recipe we’ll make often. THANKS!
I’ve actually never thought to cook scrambled eggs that way. In all honesty, I’ve usually microwaved my scrambled eggs – as this is the way my mom did it! Produces delicious fluffy scrambled eggs.
This is by far the best way to make scrambled eggs in my humble opinion. I love em!
Great recipe and I love the fantastic photographs that accompanied it. Thanks for helping me make breakfast this morning!
thanks for the inspiration…. i just made the best southwest chicken breakfast burritos ever!!!!!