One egg, many cookies

My dad got back into the darkroom today and produced this... which, like any good 21st century dad, he promptly scanned and emailed to me.

I'm going to go ahead and call this a picture of me making my first batch of chocolate chip cookies under mama's watchful eye. In our small family of three, we almost always made half of the recipe on the bag of Nestlé Toll House chocolate chips. Which means that... YES! You can even make chocolate chip cookies with one egg... as long as you also use plenty of butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, and chocolate.

An egg in purgatory

My current favorite way to eat an egg is savory, rustic, warming, and downright delicious. It's great for a quick, hearty lunch (for one or a crowd), or a simple dinner. If it hadn't been for my paltry budget a few years back, when I worked from home and was always looking for cheap new meals to try, I might never have stumbled upon this one because, well, it just seemed like such an unlikely combination. Unlikely but very tasty, that is.

I've decided this dish must get its name from the hellishly red, devilishly spicy sauce, and heavenly textured egg on top. So how do you make it? The necessary ingredients are simple and pictured here; olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, some canned peeled whole tomatoes, and - of course! - the egg. And salt and pepper - always. Sure, you can supplement it with some fresh basil and grated cheese (grana padano or parmigiano reggiano), but you're just fine without too.

Improv: Un oeuf, Mexican style

I've been waiting to add my first recipe because I wanted to write about one of the more fun preparations of an egg - in purgatory. But it seems that will have to wait until later; I'm trying to be good about finishing leftovers in my fridge and had a couple of unexpected lunches out, so I've decided instead to share my current favorite breakfast: huevos rancheros.

I should probably clarify that I have no idea whether the following preparation can really even be called huevos rancheros, but hey, if you start making it, you can call it lo que quieres!

There are 3 main components to this dish:

Why just one egg?

My godfather once told me the following joke: 

Q: Why do people in France eat only one egg for breakfast?
A: Because in French, one egg is un oeuf!

A real groaner, yes. At the same time - it kind of represents how I feel about cooking.

So.. why One egg is un oeuf? Because so often it is! My mission is to share how much fun weeknight cooking and kitchen experimentation can be, with the egg as example to bind together my approach (groan, again).

While all the dishes on this site involve more than just an egg, the idea underlying each is that cooking is simple. Like 20-30 minutes from fridge to fork simple. For me, each meal is a personal challenge in creativity: what can I make out of the contents of my kitchen? How quickly can I be done from start to finish? That's how most of these dishes came to be.

Sure, you'll be slow at first - you'll get faster (I did). You'll break yolks when you flip an egg over easy - but less and less often. You may never get the hang of peeling a hard boiled egg (I haven't), and you'll probably have a few disasters as you get more ambitious (hello, smoke alarm while trying to impress a date)! BUT - when you have to scrap scorched lamb chops, you'll be so grateful for  eggs standing by in the fridge as your backup plan.

Thanks for reading – and please let me know of specific topics you’d like to see addressed here! Happy cooking and bon appétit!!