Addalyn's Adventures in Millerville: Our Birth Story

Most of my birth story takes place on December 10, 2011.  However, I would be remiss not to prologue our tale with a few details from the days leading up to the birth of my beautiful daughter.  Such as walking up to five miles a day for the last two weeks of my pregnancy.   Such as seven weeks of practice labor (aka, Braxton-Hicks).   Like dreading checking Facebook or answering my phone or going to church or anywhere else where someone (everyone) was guaranteed to ask why I hadn’t "had that baby yet". Or the daily tears of frustration when it seemed like I would be pregnant forever.  Like laughing with my friend Hannah about all the ways that we might be able to jumpstart things without actually inducing labor (like chocolate cupcakes with blue frosting and green dinosaurs, sworn by another mom to have started HER labor).  Like constantly telling Addy that the members of my birth team were all taking a long vacation, to try to provoke her to come at a seemingly inopportune moment.  Like getting really irritated whenever some wiser, experienced mom would tell me that I would “just KNOW” when I was in labor. Or driving my friends crazy while I waited very impatiently for 43 very long weeks until my superstar made her debut.

Don’t get me wrong.  I loved being pregnant. (Yep, I’m crazy like that.)  But when you are huge and feeling the social pressure to have a baby YESTERDAY, forty-three weeks is an eternity.  And so on December 9, when the Walmart employee rotating the chicken in the cooler sidled up to me and predicted I would start labor at 7pm that evening and followed it with a declaration of her prophetic track record where births were concerned, I shot off a text message to my birth team warning them to clear their calendars.  Good thing I did, because the good lady was right again. 
 

That evening (Dec 9), my back was getting pretty uncomfortable as I headed out the door to a choir dress rehearsal for our Christmas Cantata.  We’d had so many false alarms by this point that I was determined to go to choir to keep my mind off things.  Once I got to church, I stopped walking several times to lean against a wall, a door frame, a chair to counter the pressure in my back.  By the time we filed into the sanctuary at 7pm to start rehearsal, my back ached so much that I couldn’t stay on my feet.  After rehearsal, still unconvinced that something was actually starting, I foolishly agreed that I would cover for the main soloist if she was still sick by Sunday and headed home.

When we got home, Chris and I took a long walk (about 1.5 miles) around the neighborhood, arriving home just in time to greet my dad and grandma as they arrived from Wichita.  They were coming to visit for the weekend and the whole bunch of us was pretty sad that there was no grandbaby (or great-grandbaby) for them to play with.  My dad walked in the door, gave me a hug, and told Addalyn she could come any time since he had arrived.  Feeling tired, achy and a bit nauseous, I excused myself and went to bed.

 

I woke up around 1 AM from a silly dream in which one of my Wichita friends was in my kitchen washing dishes because she believed the smell of the dish soap would make me go into labor.  Those pregnancy dreams, I tell ya!  But I digress.  However, that imaginary dish soap must have done the trick, because I woke up with the most intense discomfort around my middle.  It felt like someone had looped a rope around my waist and was pulling it too tight.  I ignored it and rolled over, only to have another wave hit me.  I glanced at the clock every time it happened and soon realized that I’d had four or five contractions exactly four minutes apart.  Soon I couldn’t lay down anymore.  Not wanting to wake Chris, I went to Addalyn’s bedroom, sat on the birth ball, and rocked until all I could do was groan through the contractions.  Around 2 AM, I texted my friend & labor coach that it was baby time.  At her directive, I went back to bed for all of ten minutes and my groaning woke Chris up and I told him we were going to have a baby.  Soon I sent out another text to my team to come over and crawled into a hot shower, kneeling on the floor of the tub under the water while the contractions continued. 

At this point I lost all track of time.  By the time my labor support arrived, I was back in bed trying to relax, while Chris was gathering birth supplies.  I quickly came to the conclusion that I could not labor in bed.  At all.  I had to move and I had to try to shift the pressure from the back labor.  Soon I was back on the birth ball in the living room trying to have a conversation between contractions, and absolutely unable to focus on anything else during them.  Hannah arrived some time later just as I was puking my guts up into a pink bowl that someone so graciously held for me.  Labor is not so pretty and that’s the honest truth of it.  

[Some of you are getting anxious for the part where I finally decided it was time to go to the hospital before it was too late.  Not happening.  We had started researching and planning for a home birth around 18 weeks.  Once I did the research and learned the often unnecessary medical interventions & saw the evidence-based truth that birth is actually safer (in most cases) for mom & baby to be at home than in the hospital, I was sold!]

I don’t remember much about Chris filling the birth pool.  We'd had it blown up and resting on its side in our bedroom for weeks.  But I do remember how awesome it felt to get into it.  The pressure lessened significantly as I settled into the water.  Not that I had too much time to enjoy my warm bath in between intensifying contractions.  My water broke a little while later and the next several hours went by in a blur.  The back labor was intense and I thought several times that my body was going to turn itself inside out.  I changed positions several times, from floating on my back in the water to hands and knees, to being draped over the side of the birth pool. 

My birth team was absolutely fabulous.  I could not have asked for better friends and support.  Chris held me through various positions, reminded me to breathe deeper, fed me popsicles and trail mix to keep me hydrated & energized, and reminded me to stay calm and focused.  My friend prayed for me a couple of times when I felt myself spiraling into feeling like I couldn’t continue.  Hannah popped in and out of the room from time to time, doing whatever she could around the house to help out and even running a few errands to pick up a few items as after thoughts (we decided I needed bananas for extra potassium to get rid of the nasty leg cramps that were really an unwelcome part of the program).  Somebody gave me a rogue M&M from the trail mix bag.  That was the best chocolate I have ever tasted!

I got a laugh out of my team when I announced that I understood then why people use pain meds in labor.  Hey, I never said I didn’t need pain meds; I was just determined not to have a drugged-up sleepy baby!  Hannah disappeared for several minutes and returned with a bottle of whiskey (Baptists, stop reading now!), from which I promptly received a good, strong, nasty-disgusting shot to take the edge off.  (Note: if you think I’m a horrid mom for drinking whiskey while in labor, it was ONE shot toward the end and NOT a constant pumping of meds into my baby’s bloodstream through an epidural).  I wasn't really supposed to tell that part, but it's one of my favorite parts of the story so I couldn't resist.  There aren't too many things you find amusing while in active, intense labor, so you have to make the most of it!

Soon it was brought to my attention that I should probably try to go to the bathroom before I reached the pushing stage.  This in itself became a problem, because although my coach’s experienced eye could see the physical signs that it needed to happen, I felt absolutely no urge to go or to get out of my warm pool.  So it didn’t happen.  While it probably didn’t help speed things along, I’m not sure how much of a difference having a full bladder actually made in the scheme of things.  The one time I made the effort to get out of the tub to head to the bathroom, I had to sit on the side of it for a minute to let a contraction pass, and that was when I felt the baby start to descend & I started feeling like my body would start pushing her out on its own soon.  So I got back in the pool and there I stayed and stubbornly refused to come out.  I’m sure it has happened, but giving birth in a toilet was not quite the romantic birth story I had envisioned!  

I changed positions so many times that my memory is fuzzy as to what happened when. So I’ll just tell it the way I remember it. My one and only dilation check found Addalyn’s head to be less than an inch away from crowning and only a tiny bit of cervical lip left, so we knew it wouldn’t be long. I did stand up (with strong support) for a few agonizing minutes to encourage baby to move down a little bit more. That was probably the most uncomfortable part of the whole ordeal and I had to make eye contact with my friend directly in front of me in order to focus and make it through those contractions.

At some point soon after that, my friend asked for a camera and started taking pictures of my progressing labor (which I still have not seen!).  I felt a little bit frantic when I sat on the side of the pool again to see if I could bring the baby down any farther.  Although she wasn’t quite crowning yet, it sure felt that way and I was a little bit panicked that my labor coach was standing across the room, casually taking pictures when I just knew my baby was going to pop out any second (for the record: it was another 8-10 minutes)  I actually find it a bit comical that the first time rookie was shooting orders at the experienced baby-catcher to GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW! (Sorry, friend! Hehe). 

Soon Addalyn started crowning. My mother-in-law came into the bedroom then with the video camera (more camera footage that I haven’t seen!), since she was designated the official birth videographer.  I was on my knees, leaning on my arms on the side of the pool with Hannah kneeling in front of me, who kindly donated her fingernails to the cause as I somehow started biting HER fingernail.  Oh, the crazy things that happen when you are completely out of your right frame of mind and focused on getting a child out of your body! (Hannah, I think I owe you a manicure!)

Crowning felt like a lot longer than it probably took.  It felt like I pushed and pushed forever (reality check: about 5 minutes) without making any progress.   While I knew Addy was not actually stuck, I felt like I could not work with my body well enough to get her head down & around my full bladder.  I had to change positions again and knelt on my left knee with my right knee up. (Seriously, I don’t know how women do this flat on their back in a bed with their legs in stirrups…that would NOT have worked for me!)  That was when I was able to reach down and feel the top of her head, and that gave me a new determination to keep going.  I knew I was going to meet her any moment. 

Looking back, I now know what women mean when they say they are totally focused on the task at hand.  I made myself focus and graphically visualize the baby’s position and what I needed to do to help her out.  A moment later, her head was born (with her right hand pressed against her face) and I took a deep breath, pushed with the next contraction and Addalyn shot out into her daddy’s waiting hands at 12:22pm.  I’m told she was wide-eyed and a bit startled when he scooped her out of the water. [Note: Water birth is safe for the baby because the placenta & umblical cord are still the baby's oxygen supply, so there is no need for her to breathe under water.]   I then had to stand up and lift my leg over the umbilical cord so that I could sit back down and meet my daughter.  The cord was so short (8 inches!!) that I couldn’t lift her high enough to hold her to my chest, and had to lean forward a little.  My dad got the first phone call (follow up to the excited text in the middle of the night that I was in labor).

 

The short cord caused a little bit of pulling on the placenta, and thus a lot-a-bit of bleeding.  The placenta completely detached pretty quickly.  We had every intention of waiting several minutes or even an hour or two before cutting the cord, but due to the amount of blood in the water, we decided we needed to get a move on and get me out of the pool.  The cord was cut, Terri got some time with her new granddaughter, and my birth team & Chris helped me stand up with such a sudden gush of blood that I apparently fainted and woke up on my bed about 5 or 10 seconds later.  I opened my eyes and was looking directly into my friend’s concerned face, with my husband standing next to her wearing a terrified expression and a few tears.  Yikes.   

 

My bleeding was quickly brought under control.  While my friend helped me clean up, Addy hung out with her grandparents for a few minutes, totally alert and staring fixedly around the room, taking everything in as if she was determined to remember every detail of her birthday.  But soon somebody placed my angel next to me and even though I felt like I was going to break her, I was glad to get a little snuggle time.  It was a beautiful thing to be resting with my newborn baby and my husband in our own bed, minutes after giving birth. 

Addalyn Mae clocked in at 8 lbs 1 oz, and 21.5 inches long, at exactly 43 weeks gestation.  Her Apgar scores were 10 and 10, and she was absolutely perfect in every way. 

In those moments after birth, I felt so much gratitude.  I was so grateful to the Lord for a beautiful, unassisted birth.  Grateful that He created my body to carry a child and give birth as naturally as breathing, and that He had given me the strength to birth without medications.  Grateful that He led Chris & I to the research, people, and decisions that allowed me to experience the beauty of birth in my own environment.  Grateful that my dad and Grandma were in town and able to be at the house within an hour of Addy's birth.  Grateful for the friendships that developed with my birth team during my pregnancy, and for the fact that they were both there to love me through my labor and celebrate my daughter’s birth with me.  And most of all, grateful for my healthy, perfect baby girl trying to nurse and looking at me through great big, trusting blue eyes. 

<><> <><> <><>

Moments after birth

<><> <><> <><>

Daddy with his baby girl



Best labor coach ever! :)
So thankful for this sweet lady's wisdom & friendship
throughout my pregnancy.



Winner: Cheeseburger Quiche

Think Quiche only belongs at little girls' tea parties?  Yeah well, so did my husband.  That is, until I proved him wrong and shocked his tastebuds with this yummy little winner.  It's easy, delicious, and best of all, one serving packs a whopping 27g of protein (and all the preggos cheered).  Since I'm gonna copy this straight out of a magazine, I'd better give credit where it's due: this is from the October issue of Family Circle, which I found in my chiropractor's waiting room and later begged for a photocopy.

• 1 refrigerated pie crust (from a 15-ounce package)
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 2 packed cups baby spinach
• 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved (actually I just diced up one Roma tomato and that was sufficient).
• 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
• 5 large eggs
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1. Heat oven to 400 F.  Unroll crust and roll out slightly. Tuck it into a 9-inch pie dish.  Flute the edges (if you are so inclined).  Line the crust with nonstick foil & bake at 400 for 12 minutes.

2. While your crust is baking, cook beef in a large nonstick skillet over med-hi heat for 5 minutes.  Spoon into a bowl & stir in ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. 

3. After removing beef, cook onion in the same skillet for 5 minutes over med heat.  Add spinach & tomatoes.  Cook for 3 more minutes and season with 1/8 tsp each of salt & pepper.  Stir in the beef.  Transfer this mixture to the pie crust & sprinkle cheese over it. (Tip: the cheese goes in BEFORE the egg mixture coming up, so that it doesn't burn in the oven).

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mustard, and remaining salt & pepper.  Carefully pour it over the beef mixture.  Bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes.  Let it stand for 5 minutes before slicing.

Slow cooker fave: Melt-in-your-mouth BBQ Pork Chops

Dear Slow Cooker:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: Pork chops with homemade BBQ sauce... 

Okay kids, here's a super-dee-duper easy recipe for some DELISH pork chops that absolutely fall off the bone and will force you to go back for seconds.  All you need is a crock-pot and a few basic pantry staples.  Thanks once again to my favorite slow-cooker edition of Taste of Home magazine from last summer.  Yum.

-- 4 bone-in pork loin chops (8 oz each) 
-- 1 tsp garlic powder
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp pepper 
--2 Tbsp canola oil/olive oil
--2 cups ketchup
--1/2 cup packed brown sugar
--1 tsp hickory-seasoned Liquid Smoke 
**You may want to just go ahead and double this recipe.  It's that good. 

First, try to remember to thaw your pork chops the day before, so that you don't suddenly get to 2pm and discover that they are still frozen.  (Hence, I just ate dinner at 9:30pm. Still good.)  Hot water to the rescue - it takes just as long to thaw them in the microwave, and who wants to ruin perfectly good pork chops by thawing in a microwave??!

Sprinkle the pork chops with garlic powder, salt & pepper.  Seriously, I don't bother with the measurements.  Just season both sides of each pork chop & call it good.  It WILL be good.  I promise.

In a large skillet, brown chops in oil on both sides.  Drain.  (I use olive oil for everything...it tastes better than canola oil & is a smidge healthier, too.)

In a large bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar & Liquid Smoke.  Pour half of the sauce into a 3-qt slow cooker.  Top with pork chops and remaining sauce.

Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours.  Or longer, if you have to go to church in the middle of your cook time.  Mine cooked from 3pm to 9pm and they were still amazing.
By the time these puppies (piggies?) are done, you will need tongs, or a large spoon at the very least, to remove them from the crockpot.  Don't even bother with a fork - they are so tender, they fall apart the second you touch them. 

One question: WHY have I only just discovered this Liquid Smoke stuff? It is amazing.  (If you've never used it before, it's over with the sauces in the grocery store).  I keep trying to find excuses to use it.

Put these on your menu for next week with some mashed potatoes and a green salad, and you're good to go. 

(Bonus:  Fast "smashed" potatoes:  Grab a handful of new potatoes - or red potatoes. Stab 'em with a fork, throw in the microwave for 4-5 mins til fork tender, then smash them up into chunks and load with butter, pepper & garlic salt.  Easy, quick, yum. Thank you, Pioneer Woman, for this life-changing little twist on mashed potatoes.)

Husband Favorite: Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake

My husband always likes what I cook, but tonight he is still raving about dinner an hour later.  He loved it.  Since this casserole was such a hit, I decided to post the recipe.  As I was not originally intending to blog tonight, I didn't take any pictures of the prep, but it's so easy, it's almost ridiculous.  I should give a shout out to the freezer meals magazine that inspired such husband happiness.  I made a few subtle modifications to the recipe, but without this publication, I would not have had the recipe to modify in the first place.  So in the interest of covering my rear & not being sued for plagarism, here's to Taste of Home Magazine.  This recipe could use a few modifications in the sodium department, but it's a goldmine of protein (pregnant mamas, take note!).

Without further adieu, I give you Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake...

What you'll need:
4 cups cubed cooked chicken
1  6-oz package of reduced-sodium stuffing mix (I used chicken flavor)
4 tbsp butter
1 can (10-3/4 oz) Cream of Chicken soup, undiluted  (I might suggest a reduced-sodium version)
1 cup milk
1/4-1/2 tsp pepper (to taste)
1/2 lb sliced deli ham, cut into 1-inch strips.
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese  (seriously, swiss cheese makes this thing)
2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I didn't have any. I used a blend of what I did have, which happened to be a combination of shredded colby/monterrey jack cheese and mozzarella cheese.  Still yummy).
Optional: french fried onions.

What to do:

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Cut up your chicken into 1-inch cubes, dump it in a skillet & cook it.  On the next burner, cook your stuffing according to packaged directions (you'll need about 1.5 cups of water & 4 tbsp butter for this part). 

2. In a medium bowl, combine soup & milk.  Whisk til well-blended.  Set aside.

3. Grease a 9x13in. baking dish.  Put your (cooked) chicken in first, sprinkle with pepper to taste, and then layer with ham, swiss cheese, 1 cup cheddar cheese, soup mixture, and stuffing.  Sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese.  I also sprinkled french-fried onions on the top of mine because I had them in the pantry & they sounded good.

4. Cover with foil.  Bake for 30 mins.  Uncover; bake for another 10 mins or until cheese is melted.  Serve hot and bubbling with a tall glass of milk.  Yummy.


Fact:  French-fried onions are addictive.  When cooking with them, one should be quick about putting the rest of the package back in the pantry ASAP!

My ever appreciative hubby washed his supper down with the rest of the caramel brownies I made on Friday night, and the rest of the milk.  What can I say?  The way to a man's heart is through his stomach!

Breakfast To-Go: Mini Quiches

Breakfast has become something of a forced habit for me over the last several months, mainly because I’m growing a baby, and it’s not exactly fair to expect her to grow without food.  I don’t mind eating something, but the thing is, if I’m going to find something protein-rich and nutritious, I know I’m going have to think about it.  I may even have to cook something.

Problem: In the morning, I’m tired, cooking takes far too much effort, and I don’t want to think that hard before I’ve finished my coffee. 

Solution: Take 45 mins at a reasonable time of day, and make something that will last all week. 

To that end, I bring you one of my personal breakfast favorites.  This is one of my own recipes, and I’m not sure why I haven’t made it at all during this pregnancy.   Mornings could have been a lot less traumatic.  
Please note that the pictures in this post reflect more than the actual measurements, because I’m making a double batch.  My husband, also a non-breakfast-eater, eats these like candy, so in order to accomplish feeding MYSELF, I have to make extra.

Here’s what you’ll need (for a single batch)

1 dozen eggs (9 whites, 3 whole)
¼ c. milk
1 c. baby spinach, chopped
Half of a green and red bell pepper, finely chopped.
Half of a small onion, finely chopped (not pictured – oops)
Crumbled sausage (or vegetarian sausage substitute), bacon, or diced ham.
½ c. Feta cheese (or more, if you’re addicts like we are!)
Dash each of sea salt, black pepper, chili powder & Italian seasonings.
¼ c. shredded cheese

Heat your oven to 350.

Deal with the eggs first, because this takes the longest.  Strain 9 egg whites into a bowl.   Then crack three whole eggs into the same bowl.  Add the milk.  Beat with a fork, whisk, or hand mixer until foamy (make bubbles!).  Set aside.

{Note: This is where the nay-sayers will get you.  They'll tell you eggs are really bad for you and you're going to have super bad cholesterol and your arteries will clog up and your heart will explode.  None of this is accurate.  Seriously, eggs get such a bad rap.} 

At this point, I put my bacon on to fry because it also takes a bit.  (I have finally learned the secret to cooking good, non-charcoaled bacon:  DON’T heat the pan first!!   Put it in a COLD pan & cook over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes per side or to desired crispiness.).  Note:  I grabbed a package of smoky maple bacon because it was on sale, instead of my usual lean or turkey bacon.  It was AH-mazing.  Go ahead, fry up the entire package.  If you’re anything like me, there will be none left by the time you’re done cooking anyway. 

{Bacon isn't THAT bad for you.  It's protein, for Pete's sake!}

Heat another skillet for your veggies.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil in the pan & warm it over med heat.  Break out the cutting board & chop up your spinach, bell peppers & onion.  Sauté over med-hi heat for 3 to 4 minutes until spinach is reduced. 

Give your egg mixture another beating just to make sure it’s still foamy.  Then add your sautéed veggies to the bowl.  Finely chop 6 to 8 pieces of cooked bacon (it’s hot!!) and eat the rest.   Add bacon to the bowl, along with feta cheese, salt, pepper, chili powder & Italian seasonings.  (Just a dash of each, although I tend to be generous with the chili & Italian seasonings. YUM.)

 

Spray your muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.  *MUY IMPORTANTE*  Or else these suckers will make a MESS that you will eventually give up on and your husband will have to spend 20 minutes scrubbing baked egg out of the pan. (Thanks, Honey!)

Fill each muffin cup ¾ full.  You will have *just* enough.  The egg  & milk tend to get a little excited and leave the good stuff in the bowl.  Use a spoon to scoop the veggies & meat into the cups, and to transfer any of the egg & milk from over-flowing cups into the ones that didn’t get very much toward the end.

Pop in the oven for 17-20 minutes.  (I think they set better on a 20 minute baking time).   

Remove pan from the oven.   They’ll be very bubbly & puffy when you take them out.  Immediately sprinkle with cheese & let them cool completely before removing them with a spoon (very carefully!).  The quiches will shrink rapidly as they cool.  TIP:  If they don’t completely pull away from the edges of the muffin pan, then loosen the edges with the spoon before removing.  They will still be a bit crumbly & fragile on the bottom, so be careful!

When cool, remove from the pan into an air-tight container for storing in the fridge. 

This is a GREAT grab-n-go breakfast.  You can eat them cold straight from the fridge (I do) or zap them for 20-30 seconds in the microwave before you head out the door.  Yummy!

Bacon Egg & Toast Cups

If anyone in your family loves breakfast for dinner as much as my husband does, then this is the way to make them smile.  You might even bag a few cheers instead of boo's from the kids at the dinner table.  This recipe is packed full of protein, thanks to the eggs & bacon (I used low-sodium turkey bacon).  Kudos to Martha Stewart and my Pintrest friends for these clever little winners.

What you'll need:

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
6 slices sandwich bread
6 slices bacon
6 eggs
course salt & ground pepper
(Hmmm...didn't realize til right now that I'd forgotten the S&P...and they were STILL delish!)
Parmesan or shredded cheese for topping.
(Forgot that too..another excuse to make these again soon!!)

To get started, preheat your oven to 375. 

Put 3 Tbsp butter in a small bowl or measuring cup & pop in the microwave for 45 seconds to melt.

In a skillet over medium heat, put your bacon on to fry. 
(Tricks: Don't fry in oil - bacon makes its own grease.  Cook 4 mins per side & flip.)
Let it fry til almost crisp (it will continue cooking in the oven)

Place a piece of bread on a cutting board.
Using a round cookie cutter, cut a circle out of the bread. 
(I didn't have a cookie cutter, so I just turned a 1-c measuring cup upside down & cut around it with a knife.)

Then, cut the rounds in half.

(It's probably time to flip the bacon!)

Use a basting brush to lightly butter 6 muffin cups.
I suppose you could do all 12, but I didn't have that many eggs, or that many mouths to feed!  By the way, Martha says if you're baking 6 in a 12 cup pan, leave a space in between.  I don't know why, but she must know a secret...after all, she is Martha Stewart.  So that's what I did and I felt fancy & smart like a real chef.
Don't use all the butter!

Lay two halves of the bread over a muffin cup.  Press it down so that it overlaps slightly in the bottom. The bread should also come up to the edge of the cup.

Brush the bread with the rest of the butter. 
Be sure to get the edges!  This stops it from burning.

Lay a strip of bacon over each cup. 
Push the middle down into the cup a bit to make room for the eggs.

Then crack an egg right over the top of each one.

Martha forgot to mention that this part gets a little messy.  The egg whites like to skate all over the pan.  But then again, she is Martha Stewart, and she probably doesn't make messes. 

Never fear. Scoop them in as best you can with a spoon & call it good.Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Put it in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes until egg whites are just set.  The yolks will still be a little soft.Meanwhile, go ahead and fry up the rest of that package of bacon to serve as a side.  The extra bacon will also placate curious husbands & children who are lured to the kitchen by the delicious smell wafting through the house.  Use a nice crispy piece as a bribe for setting the table.

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with parmesan cheese (if so inclined), loosen with a knife & serve immediately.

 

Chris thought the baked beans idea was totally weird, but thankfully decided he liked the combination. My mom always made baked beans when we had breakfast for dinner.  Is that really so odd??

Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

I made these tonight and they were ah.mazing.  Sorry again for the lack of pictures - I'm really slacking these days!

2-3 whole sweet potatoes, washed and peeled.
1/2 c. olive oil for drizzling
3 tsp sea salt
3 tsp rosemary
3 tsp thyme
black pepper to taste

Preparation:
--Preheat oven to 400*F. Cover two baking sheets with foil.
--Wash & peel sweet potatoes (I don't peel mine). Chop 'em into wedges. Doesn't matter how you do it, and they don't have to be perfect. Just cut them up until you have a whole bowlful of fry-sized chunks.
--Put into a large mixing bowl.
--Drizzle with olive oil (just enough to coat them. Keep shaking the bowl to toss the potatoes & coat them).
--Season to taste with sea salt, black pepper, rosemary & thyme. I was pretty generous with the salt, and my fries were to die for!  Again, keep shaking that bowl to toss the fries and get them good & covered in your seasonings.
--Bake for 40-45 mins or until tender, turning 2-3 times to avoid excessive browning.
--Let them cool just a bit before serving. Might need to eat these with a fork if you are in a hurry to try them - but watch out, because they're HOT!!