Breakfast on the deck

The thermometer said it's 70 degree outside, so I thought we should eat brunch out on the deck.

I love baked eggs, but when I use hash browns instead of crackers as the base, they stay too soft, and almost mushy. I saw a post on Pinterest recently that showed baking the hash browns first, so I thought I'd try it.

I baked them 30 minutes and they were just barely beginning to brown around the top edges. It was taking too long, so I went ahead and took them out of the oven. I added diced ham, chopped green onions, and a few sliced mushrooms.

Then I added a couple of eggs to each pan and topped mine with sharp cheddar cheese. It takes about 20 minutes to bake them at 350.

They looked good, but the hash browns were still too mushy. I'm going to have to work on that, but 30 minutes is waaay too long to wait for them to brown.

Anyway, we moved everything out to the deck and enjoyed watching a little wren sneak bites from the bird feeder. It felt much cooler than 70 degrees, with a strong breeze coming out of the north, but it was still nice. We have the windows open in the kitchen today--partly to enjoy the fresh air, and partly to let the smell of smoked turkey drift on out of the house!