Tub-stoppers (English Muffins with fried eggs and Canadian Bacon)

Without straining the gray matter too much, you might’ve guessed that I don’t haul five kids out to eat breakfast in restaurants very often. Leaving aside the expense of the endeavour, can you even imagine me getting them all ready to go BEFORE I’ve been sufficiently caffeinated? Or before they’ve actually eaten? Because my kids don’t budge out that door until they’ve consumed a few dozen eggs, half a pig and the amount of juice it takes an entire orchard to produce. And I’ve mentioned here before that cold cereal just doesn’t cut it around here. When we have it, we tear through an entire box at breakfast. On my continuing quest to provide home-cooked breakfasts for my kids we entered homemade English muffin territory a week or so ago. They were so delicious and so stinkin’ easy to make that we’ve been playing variations on the English muffin theme most days since. 

 

The current favorite variation is one that bears a striking resemblance to a breakfast sandwich available at a restaurant chain that employs a clown to hawk its wares. My kids love these sandwiches; English muffin topped with fried eggs, Canadian bacon or smoked bacon, and sliced cheese. I eat mine with a superhuman quantity of hot sauce:  My husband eats his plain. **This is extreme roll reversal and I can only explain it by saying that eggs belong with hot sauce. That is how it is and always shall be. He is missing out.

 

Not only do my kids love this breakfast, it seems to make them behave better. Perhaps its the uber-dose of protein with breakfast that keeps ’em calm. Perhaps it’s the fact that they’re so full that chills them out. I don’t know what does it. I only know that I like it because it keeps them happy and comes together in a flash.

 

My father-in-law, a charming man, has a not-so-appetizing name for these sandwiches (having apparently produced more than his fair share of these for my husband and siblings while they were young):  Tub-stoppers. Thus named, says my husband, “because they look like tub-stoppers.” Oh yes. That would be logical. I was hoping for something more obtuse. I have a call into Pappy right now hoping he’ll give me a more outlandish story to reprint here about how they procured their name.

 

In the meantime, I’ll pass along the recipe for Tub-Stoppers.

Tub-Stoppers

Scale this down if you need to do so. Once again, I’m writing for large families, but this recipe is easily and infinitely scalable.

 

Ingredients:

• 8 English muffins, preferably homemade, split
• 8 large eggs
• 8 slices Canadian bacon
• 8 slices cheese
• butter for coating the griddle and muffin rings (if using for eggs)

 

Heat a large griddle over medium-high heat. Lay Canadian bacon slices on hot surface and cook until underside is lightly browned. Flip over and heat through, removing when second side is also lightly browned. Transfer to a piece of foil and cover until the rest of the sandwich components are done. 

 

Butter the griddle and toast all English muffin halves, split side down. Remove to a plate and lightly cover with a paper towel.

 

Lower griddle heat to low-medium. If you want perfectly round eggs, butter the muffin rings and lay them on the griddle to preheat. Crack an egg into each ring (or directly on the griddle) and cover. Cook about 5 minutes or until cooked to desired doneness. If using a ring, shake the ring gently and remove. 

 

To assemble the sandwiches, stack an egg, a piece of Canadian bacon and a slice of cheese on the toasted side of an English muffin half. Pour half a bottle of hot sauce on top (if desired) and top with another English muffin half. Serve hot, warm, or room temperature. 

 

You could do worse than to serve this with a thick slice each of garden fresh tomato and red onion. Mmmmm.

 

How did we like this recipe?

 

This gets a solid 14 thumbs up out of 14 after one child removes the cheese from his sandwich, another removes his eggs, and a third removes everything but the Canadian bacon and adds blueberry jam. English muffin, blueberry jam and Canadian bacon? There’s no accounting for kids’ tastes.