Bacon Egg and Cheese Baskets and Opening Doors

Do you ever feel stuck?  Or maybe you feel like a plastic bag?  Yes, those are actual words to a song...this generation of song makers really hit a gold mine with these lyrics.

No, but for realz.  Do you ever feel stuck?  I do.  Especially yesterday.  I was at work and we just got a new  fancy dancy elevator...I stepped into the elevator and said "I don't like elevators they always get stuck when I am in them."  Fortunately it didn't get stuck this time.  Fast forward 6 hours and I am once again stepping into an elevator in the evening in a pretty quiet parking garage.

I press level 2.  The elevator goes up.  Stops at level 2 and freezes.  The doors will not open.  So I press level 3.  Nothing.  Still frozen.  So I press the open door button.  No go.  Then I do the next logical thing and press all the buttons on the keypad.  Of course, brilliant idea.  Now all the buttons are lit up and the elevator still won't open.  I begin to panic thinking at this point I will most likely die in this well lit elevator.  Water, do I have enough water to get me through the night?  Food...I can make that 1/2 eaten granola bar last me a few hours at least.  Right?  I have to step back and laugh at my predicament and I think back to my earlier statement of the day about elevators always getting stuck when I am in them.  Wish I had a video camera to document this predicament.  I heard once that if you jump the elevator will be tricked into thinking it is empty and the doors will open.  I try this tactic and the only thing I get is winded.  I decided at this point to try and manipulate the elevator buttons with my Jedi powers and I stare intensely at the panel of flashing lights.  Apparently I am very gifted because this works.  The elevator begins moving. 

This time it lands on the 3rd level.  I decide if the doors open I will just exit here and walk down one level to my car.  The door does open I step out into an abandoned floor of a parking garage. Completely empty.  I can't even see where the stairs are.  I stop and realize this is an ideal location to get mugged, or abducted.  Suddenly the broken elevator is looking very appealing.  I weigh my options and decide that getting back into the possessed elevator would really be the lesser of 2 evils, and this decision would probably make my parents a lot happier.

I step back into the elevator cab from hell and pray that this time it works.  I press level 2 and wait...so does the elevator.  It just sits there suspended in the air.  Finally it moves and this time it passes level 2 and goes back to level 1.  The doors open this time and I step back out to exactly where I started.  I decide that walking is my best option at this point, and vow to never cheat by taking an elevator again.  Serves me right.

This brings me back to my first point.  Do you ever feel stuck?  Stuck in your life?  Stuck in a relationship?  Stuck in a job you dislike?  Stuck with a car that has no air conditioning? (This last one applies to me : ) )

What can you do?  Do you find a friend with a crowbar to help get you out?  Do you use Crisco to try and wiggle your way out?  Do you try to escape? 

 "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." 

 - Matthew 7:7-8 

What do you want from your life?  Have you tried asking for it?  Looking back on my elevator debacle I realize that in my state on panic I forgot to do the one logical thing.  Pray.  I skipped that step and moved right into the seeking and knocking phase...How much simpler it would have been if I had just asked God to open that darn door for me first.  I think that in the chaos and insanity of life we often forget to first step back and just ask for what is nagging at our hearts.  Another thing about this quote that stands out to me is that it tells us to do things in this order:

1.  Ask - ask for directions, pray!

2.  Seek - actually get up and look around for what you want to find

3.  Knock - take action!  Don't just stand in front of that door waiting for something to happen...knock, knock like your life depends upon it. : )

Then I recommend making this for breakfast.  If this breakfast awaited me every morning upon my rising I would have no need for the snooze button and would never be stuck in bed.  Unfortunately, in the real world where time exists this is not possible.  However, our little brains can make a compromise and come up with an alternative solution.  Make these on a Sunday, and then reheat them the rest of the week.  Problem solved.  Boom!

Did that make me sound like a superhero?  I hope it did, because lets face it - we are all super hero's in our own right.  That is why from now on I will be saying "Boom" after each genius thought escapes my fingers.  

Eat your heart out,

Dagny

Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit Baskets

Step #1:  Make the biscuits:

Biscuits

In large bowl whisk together the following:

4 1/3 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1/2 TBS salt
3 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking powder

With mixer running add the cold butter and mix until butter is small and pea sized. If you don't have a mixer you can cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or your fingers.

1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

With mixer running quickly add the following and mix just until batter comes together...do not over mix!

1 1/2 cups cold milk

Step#2:  Assemble the breakfast cups

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Spray 2 - 12 count muffin tins.  Take about 1 1/2 TBS of biscuit dough and press into pan.  Be sure to have the dough go slightly above the muffin tin to create a lip of sorts.  Press dough evenly.

3.  Place in oven and bake for 3-4 minutes.  Remove from oven.

4.  For each muffin tin that you filled with dough crack one egg into a bowl.  So if you filled 12 muffin slots, crack 12 eggs.  Whisk together with a little bit of milk until smooth.

5.  In each muffin tin place one slice of cooked bacon.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Pour egg into tin.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cheese of choice.  I don't like a lot of cheese, so I put very little, but if you like cheese - go to town!

6.  Bake in preheated oven 10-12 minutes until eggs are barely set and biscuit dough is slightly toasted.

Please note:  I used about 1 pound of bacon for all the biscuit dough.  Also, you can use any filling you like...add veggies, maybe some cream cheese, or any cheese you like, sausage, some salsa, etc...go to town!