Louis Fowler vs. The Pioneer Woman: Egg-In-The-Hole with Basic Breakfast Potatoes

First off, I’d like to offer my deepest sympathies—whatever good those are, I guess—to Ree Drummond and her family during these trying times. I hope everyone comes out of it alright.

That being said, I figured for this edition of Louis Fowler vs. The Pioneer Woman I’d take things down a notch and attempt something that, years ago, I gave her guff for—and received an ample amount of slap-back from her fans for it—her lauded Egg-In-The-Hole recipe. I mean it’s eggs and toast…how hard can I screw that up?

Still working my way through The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, I procured all of the necessary items needed—some healthier than others, natch—pairing the perforated toast and fried ovum with the additionally simple Basic Breakfast Potatoes which, like the name says, is pretty basic. Or so I thought.

Carving a small hole in my bread, after warming the cast iron skillet with a bit of healthy-ish butter, I placed two slices of wheat bread in there to get a nice warm outside. After a few moments, I cracked a couple of eggs into the medium holes and let them cook for a few minutes before flipping them, giving the now-toast a golden hue and the eggs a fried pallor.

And while that was set aside, I would soon learn the basic breakfast potatoes were really anything but. Reading the recipe closely, I learned I had to bake the potato first at around 45 minutes—I did fifteen; sorry, but I ain’t got 45 minutes!

Taking the slightly seared tuber out of the oven, I cut it into medium cubes, as well as dicing an onion, per the recipe. The cast iron skillet was already heated up, so after drizzling a bit of canola oil in there, I started with the onions. In her usual babytalk, Drummond recommends letting the onions turn black and you know, I agree with her here—about the onions, not the babytalk.

After a few minutes, I placed the potatoes in the skillet and walked away for about ten or so minutes. I sat at the dining room table and went through the Pioneer Woman’s cookbook a bit, planning possible future recipes, many of which I know I’m not up to and never will be, but my possible failures should make for good reading. Should.

Stirring the potatoes and onions a few times with a wooden spoon, I decided they were ready and placed them in a small bowl, next to the Egg-In-The-Hole. After reasonably darkening them with pepper—sorry, no salt here!—I took a few bites of the egg and bread and, as I predicted, it made for a delicious breakfast. I did, however, eventually add a bit of non-fancy ketchup for additional splendor.

The basic potatoes, however, were still a bit too firm for my tastes—my fault, I know!—but the blackened onions were a great choice that made it edible. Still, coming in with only half of a good meal is only second place in the two-player tournament of tastes and, as we all know, second place is first loser. I shrugged it off and finished off my eats.

Pioneer Woman 5, Louis Fowler 0.

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Follow Louis on Twitter at @LouisFowler and Instagram at @louisfowler78.