Michael Van Cise

Ingredients

• 1/4 lb. sausage
• 4 eggs
• about 1/4 cup heavy cream
• cheese to cover egg & sausage mixture

Cooking Instructions

Turn your stove to medium heat and place a skillet over the heat. Add the sausage and cook the sausage, breaking it up with a spatula or spoon as the sausage cooks. While the sausage cooks, scramble four eggs in a bowl. Once the eggs are sufficiently scrambled, add the heavy cream to the eggs and scramble the egg/cream mixture. Once the sausage is fully cooked and broken into small pieces, turn the heat to low and add the egg mixture, stirring and turning to prevent the eggs from burning. Once the eggs are almost done, cover the egg/sausage mixture with cheese. Finish cooking the eggs to full done-ness and serve once the cheese is melted.

Comments

The German Farmer's Breakfast Recipe is simple and delicious, but it is slightly more involved and time-consuming than I can manage on a workday morning even though everything is in one dish. Using the German Farmer's Breakfast as my inspiration, I tried cooking sausage in a pan, then adding scrambled eggs to the sausage.

Throwing the eggs into the cooked sausage worked well. The fat which cooks off of the sausage eliminates the need for adding butter to the pan for scrambled eggs, and the eggs cook fairly rapidly in the hot pan and hot grease. Since the sausage is salty, I do not add salt. Both of these things save time. I find this to be a quick, one pan breakfast, that is tasty and full of good fat. I enjoy this dish on many workday mornings.

Sausage Selection. Because the sausage will add the bulk of the flavor to the dish, select a sausage that has flavors you like. If you like spicy dishes, try a hot sausage. If you prefer something sweeter, select a maple sausage. For more savory flavor, go with a sausage that is seasoned with sage. I particularly like Jimmy Dean's Regular All-Natural Sausage because it contains no grain fillers, no msg, and no sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite preservatives.

Heavy Cream. I add the heavy cream to the egg mixture for multiple reasons:

• It makes the eggs creamier and tastier
• It makes the eggs go farther
• It increases the saturated fat and total fat content of the dish

Cheese Variations.

I typically use cheddar cheese in this dish because it does not overpower the dish, is inexpensive, and can be purchased already shredded in easy-to-open-and-close bags. I typically purchase something like Kraft Natural Cheese. Buying pre-shredded cheese saves time, but the pre-shredded cheese often contains some starch to keep the cheese from caking, so if you have the extra time, you may want to shred the cheese yourself immediately before cooking the dish. An excellent cheese which I recently tried (though I haven't had it in the eggs, yet) is Trader Joe's Raw Milk Cheddar.

Parmesan cheese is a vary good variation. I first tried parmesan when I had run out of cheddar. Parmesan has a stronger flavor, and even though it is a hard cheese, it melts very well. Again, to save time, we typically have pre-shredded parmesan in the fridge. Mixing a small amount of parmesan in with cheddar is tasty and nice for a change.

My mother, who was eating a low-carb diet at the time and aware of my low-carb eating, shared a recipe for a "German Farmer's Breakfast" with me. This recipe serves two easily with leftovers. If you were serving a side, such as fruit or yogurt, 3 people could easily eat off this recipe. The recipe is as follows,

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1/4 an onion cut into one inch pieces
• 3-4 slices bacon cut into one inch pieces
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• 1 tomato chopped

Cooking Instructions

Cook the onion and bacon on medium heat in an iron skillet until the bacon is crispy. Add the tomato and reduce heat to low, cook on low for five minutes. Scramble the eggs in a separate bowl, then pour the eggs into the skillet and mix everything up. Cover the contents of the skillet with the cheese, then cover the skillet and continue cooking on low for five to ten minutes.
As with all the recipes my mom gives me, you'll note that salt and pepper are not mentioned. In my mom's world, salt and pepper are assumed. With the the saltiness of the bacon, however, you might try just pepper the first time, and if you prefer a saltier dish, add salt to the ingredient list.

Comments
This dish is simple and tasty. I have also doubled the recipe to serve six people. If you are doubling the recipe, you'll want to increase the cooking time, or perhaps place the covered skillet in a pre-heated oven for 5 -15 minutes. While I haven't tried it, 300 - 350 degrees might be the right temp.

If you're looking for something simpler, try my variations on the German Farmer's Breakfast.

One Pan Sausage & Egg Breakfast
Fried Cheese Variation of Sausage & Egg Breakfast