Mmm, Mmm, Good!!

I have several favourite foods.  I especially like to make things from scratch.  And I love kitchen gadgets and small appliances.  I also enjoy collecting and using "compilation cook books".  You know the kind - a group needs to do a fund raising thing, so they collect recipes from their members, and then compile them into a cookbook that sells for anywhere from $5.00 to $20.00.  Usually the group raises the money for a good cause of some sort - even if it is just to sustain their group.  But you know that the recipes are great, because they are tried and true recipes made by real people and loved by families and friends.  Not that professional cookbooks are bad, just that they tend to use fancy ingredients that aren't everyday things, that not everyone stocks in their kitchen, or they are prepared in professional kitchens, and have a certain - unattainable - quality to them.  I still use those cookbooks, they aren't all bad.  But, they are seldom my first choice, and the recipes that become repeaters in my home hardly ever come from them!

Anyway - recently, I purchased a cool toy.  I like those breakfast sandwiches, but am not fond of standing in a line-up and paying $$ for someone else to make them, or buying frozen ones from the store that have whatever unpleasant preservatives and additives.  I did once find some little silicone rings to make the eggs in your fry pan so they would come out perfectly round.  The problem - I use extra large eggs, and the rings aren't quite big enough.... Also, I can only really use one at a time, since two don't fit across the bottom of my large fry pan.  And the clean-up! :P

Anyway, the new toy - a "Breakfast Sandwich Maker" from Hamilton Beach.  Small, easy to clean up, works great -- still can only make one at a time, but instead of having to clean up a fry pan, as well as getting out the toaster, and having the cheese not really melt well (unless I put it on the egg in the pan, and then half of the cheese melts off the egg and burns in the pan....)  What I'm trying to say is, the new little sandwich maker is a winner!!!  And it wasn't really expensive, either!  :)  I might even buy a second one, so I can do two sandwiches at once, so there is no waiting if I'm cooking for two!