Simple Pleasures

A fried egg sandwich on wheat toast. Even if you truly believe you can't cook, you can make a fried egg sandwich. It's one of the first things I learned to make all on my own and in college I ate them late night, for breakfast and many times in between. Here I've written out the recipe to be as basic as possible, so that even those who are afraid to cook will feel like it's possible.


FRIED EGG SANDWICH

YOU NEED:
a toaster or toaster oven
any size non-stick pan and a lid you could put over it (they do not need to match)
a spatula

INGREDIENTS:
2 eggs
2 slice wheat toast
1 T butter
cheese (any kind really, but I like cheddar or American)
salt and pepper
water

DIRECTIONS:
1. Get a your non-stick pan and put it on the stove. Add 1 tablespoon of water - if you don't have measuring spoons, use the one of the big spoons that comes with your forks, knives and spoons. If you only have little spoons, put 3 little spoonfuls in. Add 1 tablespoon of butter - your butter wrapper has lines for this, so look at the wrapper and slice accordingly. Turn the heat on under your pan. Make it pretty high, but not at the highest setting.
2. Pop your toasts in your toaster oven or toaster. My toasts take 4 minutes to cook, if yours are much faster, you can do this later, but it should be okay to start them now.
3. Check your pan. When the water boils (starts bubbling and bouncing around, instead of just sitting there) add the two eggs. If you're good at cracking eggs, you can crack them right in the pan. If you're no good at cracking eggs, break them in a bowl first, fish out any stray eggshells and then add to the pan. Picking eggshells out of a hot pan is no fun. If your pan was hot enough, the whites of the egg should turn white almost immediately after the eggs are added to the pan. If they didn't, no worries, but remember for next time. Add your salt and pepper.
4. Lower the heat so it's not on the lowest setting, but maybe second lowest. Cover the eggs. Cook for about 2 and a half minutes and then check the eggs. I don't like runny eggs, so rather than keep my fried eggs as pure sunny side up eggs, I do them over "medium" which just means, that I very gently flip them in the pan and cook for long enough that the eggs yolks aren't completely liquid. If you don't want to flip yours you should probably cook them another minute right side up. If you want those yolks less liquid, flip the eggs and then add the cheese. Cover again and cook another thirty seconds to a minute.
5. When the cheese is melted and the eggs are cooked enough for you, use the spatula to slide the eggs onto the toast.