Cooking for a Community Fridge

[patti]

I did a test oven grilled cheese sandwich for Mike (my husband), who doesn’t usually care for grilled cheese (IKR?), and he thought it was really good. I’d weighted down a cookie sheet and put it on top, and boy, it was a smashed grilled cheese. Decided no weight was necessary and “tested” a batch and then ended up making 22 of them and taking them to the fridge. They were kind of greasy (sorry, recipients). I’d either use less butter next time or switch to mayo. Not a great pic, but the first full batch:

 

 

The cheeses were a medium cheddar and havarti. I may or may not make more this week. Might make them another time and pair with homemade tomato soup (which I’ve never made before).

 

Anyone have an opinion on a hard fried egg and cheese sandwich? 

 

Breakfast sandwiches are another option, especially if my granddaughter participates as planned. I’ll cook the sausage patties ahead of time, and bake the sheet pan scrambled eggs ahead of time, too. She can help me with cutting the eggs into rounds to fit on the sandwiches, and assembling. Frozen Grands biscuits will be used (sorry to all the people who are cringing over using frozen ready made biscuits). 🤷‍♀️

 

I might have unintentionally worried my granddaughter when I told her we would be making the sandwiches for children who don’t have enough food. She looked worried and later asked if her little brother could come, too. Maybe she thinks I meant the hungry children would be at my house? Will have to confer with her mother about it. 

 

 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, patti said:

Anyone have an opinion on a hard fried egg and cheese sandwich? 

 

For some reason this seems problematic to me, in a way that scrambled eggs in the breakfast sandwiches you're considering don't. I realize that all these sandwiches will be cooked, chilled, and presumably reheated somehow. So why am I skeptical of hard fried, then reheated? It sounds aesthetically less pleasing to me, but maybe that's just me.

 

Would they be likely to explode in the microwave when reheating, do you think? I assume the yolk would (ideally) still be intact, so its air bubble would still be present. A hard-boiled egg, or at least an almost-hard-boiled egg, will explode. Ask me how I know. 😆

[Darienne]

15 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

For some reason this seems problematic to me, in a way that scrambled eggs in the breakfast sandwiches you're considering don't. I realize that all these sandwiches will be cooked, chilled, and presumably reheated somehow. So why am I skeptical of hard fried, then reheated? It sounds aesthetically less pleasing to me, but maybe that's just me.

 

I feel this way also.  A reheated fried egg sounds somehow unappetizing to me.  But then eggs are one of the things that have to be cooked just right for my taste and I usually like to cook them myself.  But then that's me.  I do have a long history with eggs.  

[patti]

47 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

For some reason this seems problematic to me, in a way that scrambled eggs in the breakfast sandwiches you're considering don't. I realize that all these sandwiches will be cooked, chilled, and presumably reheated somehow. So why am I skeptical of hard fried, then reheated? It sounds aesthetically less pleasing to me, but maybe that's just me.

 

Would they be likely to explode in the microwave when reheating, do you think? I assume the yolk would (ideally) still be intact, so its air bubble would still be present. A hard-boiled egg, or at least an almost-hard-boiled egg, will explode. Ask me how I know. 😆

😂

 

 

27 minutes ago, Darienne said:

I feel this way also.  A reheated fried egg sounds somehow unappetizing to me.  But then eggs are one of the things that have to be cooked just right for my taste and I usually like to cook them myself.  But then that's me.  I do have a long history with eggs.

Hard fried egg sandwiches are off the table!

PB&J back on the list. 

[Maison Rustique]

When I left my first husband suddenly many decades ago, I had little money. I lived on hard fried egg and cheese sandwiches for about a year. Not sure most people would be interested. I must have OD'd on them because I don't think I've had one since 1979.

[TdeV]

I love soft yolk eggs -- though I really love eggs, so I would try a hard fried egg sandwich.

[Darienne]

6 hours ago, patti said:

😂

 

 

Hard fried egg sandwiches are off the table!

PB&J back on the list. 

That's the choice?  Of course, so many choices would not work as the bread would get so soggy.  Hmmm...  I've never really given it much thought before.  I googled the topic to see what I could find and the vast majority of them are too 'wet'to last the time frame required or too costly for your budget.   The only one I could see using is a pulled meat.  But then you've obviously done your homework.  

[MaryIsobel]

13 minutes ago, Darienne said:

That's the choice?  Of course, so many choices would not work as the bread would get so soggy.  Hmmm...  I've never really given it much thought before.  I googled the topic to see what I could find and the vast majority of them are too 'wet'to last the time frame required or too costly for your budget.   The only one I could see using is a pulled meat.  But then you've obviously done your homework.  

Maybe egg salad sandwiches? I like my yolks runny but egg salad on whole wheat (with some romaine or spinach or sprouts is a pretty healthy lunch or dinner. Those and some carrot, pepper strips on the side?

[Darienne]

What exactly is your time frame from a) finished meals at home and ready to go to b)be placed in the community fridge to c) pick up by eating public?   No, there is no rush on this question.  Just trying to get it all straight.  

[patti]

 

Re: hard fried egg sandwich: I was just nostalgic for a hard fried egg on white bread with a slice of American cheese sandwich from my childhood. ☺️ Mayo on one side, mustard on the other, and salt and lots of black pepper on the egg. 

 

Since my granddaughter was joining me, I needed to get things prepped before she arrived. First, I fried up a bunch of sausage patties, allowed them to cool, and put them in the fridge. (Dark color, not burned.)

 

 

Next, I baked sheet pan scrambled eggs topped with cheese 

 

And baked some frozen biscuits (2 batches)

 

 

At this point the camera was forgotten because … three year old. 
 

Her job was to use a mason jar lid to cut the eggs into rounds, and pop them out, in her words. Her interest lasted long enough to cut eighteen egg rounds and go through two pairs of hot pink disposable gloves. While she played outside with the dogs and Gramps, I put the sandwiches together and wrapped them in foil and refrigerated, because before delivery I needed to paint some fingernails, apply some pretend makeup (and a little real, don’t tell), and be impressed that she could spell her name in blocks. 
 

 

We ended up with 25 sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits to deliver. They weren’t gorgeous, as you can tell by the elements pictured. And if you can cut eggs into rounds, they’re probably overcooked. That’s two days in a row that I wasn’t satisfied with the final product. 

I have two loaves of honey wheat and a bunch of peanut butter & jelly, so maybe I’ll try that tomorrow. 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by patti (log)

[Smithy]

I love the story! And I'm sure the sandwiches were delicious: the kind of thing I'd pick up at a good roadside stop, but made with much, much, much more love.

 

I hope you'll indulge yourself with the hard-cooked egg and slice of cheese on bread, at least for yourself (and post it in the Breakfast topic). Just because some of us looked askance at the idea doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea. Without reviewing the responses, I'm pretty sure that everyone (including me) who answered with a "nix, nyet, no" is a Northerner. If you're nostalgic for it, you may have lots of company in your neck of the woods.

Edited 9 hours ago by Smithy
Changed the second sentence, which in retrospect didn't seem as complimentary as I meant it (log)

[Darienne]

I just googled 'hard cooked fried  egg'.  To be honest, I was not really clear about what the "hard cooked" part meant.  Well,duh... 

 

Of course, it's what in East Central Ontario at least, we would call 'over hard'.  And something I would never ever order.  Ruins the entire egg experience for me.  So therein lies the complete answer for me.  I'm officially disqualified from having an opinion on your fried egg question.

 

[blue_dolphin]

I also Googled “hard fried egg” as I’d never heard that description.  In truth, it’s not all that different from how McD’s cooks the eggs for an Egg McMuffin.  Of course, they use a ring to better fit on an English muffin and I prefer them with the yolks less than hard cooked (hence my preference for making them at home) but McD’s  seem to cook them through pretty often. 
To @Smithy’s microwave explosion concern, the hard fried methods I found and the McD’s eggs get the yolk broken before getting flipped so should be safe from that drama. 

It's not something I’d choose but I know plenty of folks would be totally skeeved out by my beloved runny or jammy yolks and it sounds like it might just be comfort food in your area.  

[AlaMoi]

heehee-hee....

 

nice brunch place, DW ordered an egg sandwich type dish . . . it came, she bit, egg squirted out all over dish, table, napkin, lap . . . .

there's a reason places do hard over eggs. 

 

as to McD, this is a continuous real time video for the McMuffin eggs:

 

obviously a corporate/researched/defined temp controlled flat top, plus cute lid&rings . . . 

about ~5 minutes cook time.  note the 'burnt on egg residue' as the eggs are moved to 'production'

 

I do McMuffin with egg&sausage at home - I use rings, I poke-the-yolk . . . not coming out 'runny' - soft, yes.

 

 

[AlaMoi]

btw, the Community Fridge people need to get more active.

no information about "local" on their web site.

 

we have three (?) local food banks . . . none of which have any clue about a "community fridge"

being retired, I have the time & ability to contribute to such - but (sigh) not the energy to invent it for them....  that's always a very steep hill to climb.

[blue_dolphin]

19 minutes ago, AlaMoi said:

as to McD, this is a continuous real time video for the McMuffin eggs:

 

obviously a corporate/researched/defined temp controlled flat top, plus cute lid&rings . . . 

about ~5 minutes cook time.  note the 'burnt on egg residue' as the eggs are moved to 'production'

Wow! Back in the day, I probably made thousands of Egg McMuffins at McD’s and would have been totally in the weeds if we did it like that! Of course, we were scrambling eggs and making pancakes on the same flattop and cooking sausages over on the side we turned up to a higher temp. So different!