12 Days of Christmas Cooking....Day 1 - Egg Nog Flan

Hello Everyone....I have been gone for awhile, but I am back.

Today is the first day of my 12 days of Christmas cooking and I made Egg Nog Flan. This is a surprisingly easy recipe: Eggs (5), Egg Nog (4 cups), Sugar (2/3 cup) and 2 tbsp of water. It seems simple enough and great recipe for day 1. Sugar into the pan with water, medium heat, don't stir - only swirl pan until it turns amber colored. Here is where I ran into my first hiccup. I didn't read ahead to figure out what size pan i needed and I already have the sugar melting. With my right hand, I am swirling the pan and lifting from the heat so it doesn't caramelize before I can get a roasting pan and a pie pan. Left hand starts looking for pie pans for which I have plenty; however, as I read the recipe it calls for a round cake pan. I know I have one, but where??? Swirl, lift from heat with right hand, move muffin pans with left hand. Swirl, lift from heat with right hand, move cookie sheets with left hand. Swirl, lift from heat - success - round cake pan. About 7 minutes later, I have caramelized sugar. I poured it into the cake pan. NOTE to all readers.....when pouring hot liquid into a cake pan, you should not be holding the pan in your bare hand. That pan will get dang hot real fast and if you are like me - you drop it on the counter and a little bit of hot caramelized sugar will find it's way to your foot because you are wearing flip flops.

Next the "flan" mixture. Eggs and Egg Nog - into a bowl. Mix well, but don't get to much air into the mixture. I was careful note to whip the mixture, but I was not careful about the size of bowl had the ingredients in. The bowl was too small so every time I went to mix the egg/egg nog mixture it slopped onto the counter. A smart cook would have stopped and made it easier by getting a larger bowl for mixing. Not me......no need to dirty two bowls - make due with one. Finally both ingredients are mixed and I poured worked to slowly pour it into the caramel lined cake pan. When all of a sudden a plop of mixture sloshes into the pan. Hhhmmmm...maybe a a bit of egg not mixed well??? Maybe, but I really didn't give it a second thought (in hindsight, i should have). Pan into the roasting pan for a Bain Marie. Cover loosely with tin foil and bake for an hour. Here to is where I may have done things differently. Liquid egg mixture in a pan within in a pan of hot water covered with foil will always slosh out on to your foot which is wearing a flip flop. That is pure science right there. Next time - pan in oven then pour hot liquid into the roasting pan while in oven and then cover with foil. Bake for an hour, remove foil and bake for another 40 minutes. Remove from oven, cool to room temperature and then chill for 2 hours. Invert onto a plate and serve. It turned out beautiful, very rich, but quite tasty....I was really surprised at myself. Remember when I said a plop of mixture went into the pan.......well that should have been scooped out because it was a slightly beaten egg that moved to the center of the flan and floated to the top as it cooked into nice area of scrambled eggs.

I think Chris named it the "Flan Frittata" and Mason called it "Scrambled Egg Nog." No matter the name, it was really is good and uniform everywhere else. Maybe tomorrow, I will cut the scrambled part and have it with toast.