I just got back from Uruguay so all things Latin are still on my mind. I have been wanting to try this cake for forever. With the sun and beach of South America still fresh in my memory I decided to take the plunge and I am so glad I did. You will be too if you try this. I warn you though, the taste and texture are addictive.

I have been eating meat. Yes, it’s true, when I’m away from this blog I am probably eating meat. Away from home I have eaten it here, and here, and here, and here, though definitely not here, but I loved this place as well.

Happy New Year! Holidays behind us (and soon resolutions as well), I am busying myself with my college final, set for Inauguration Day. Two days following I will be shipping off to Tokyo for two weeks! This somehow excuses my lack of updates.

The last time I posted I was making Christmas dinner. After Christmas we went on a road trip with friends from New York down to Tennessee, and celebrated New Year’s Memphis-style. There was The King, blues, luscious barbecue, and good company.

Only those that have known me longer than a year will appreciate the significance of this statement: I love eggs for breakfast. I love making eggs for people for breakfast. Allow me to take a moment’s pause and count the ways that I love eggs. Scrambled with a touch of cheese and nutmeg; thinly laid atop alliums, sprinkled with cheese and herb, and folded into a perfect omelette; placed under the broiler to puff up into a frittata; stuffed with mushrooms; coated in mozzarella; fried up and eaten on toast; placed in a toast hole; and finally, my favorite to date, good old chewy, runny, savory, baked eggs.

We are making history here. Another perfectly good egg prejudice blown wide open: the stuffed omelette. I always thought it was silly and French to make the omelette and fold it around some cooked vegetables. Why can’t the ingredients be cooked into the eggs? Then I decided to add mushrooms to an omelette recipe. It didn’t seem right to have mushrooms floating around. So I gave them a cozy home inside the soft, warm center of that fluffy pillow of eggs. And voila! The flavor of the eggs really stands out, enhanced by the dill, and puffed up by the cheese. The first bite of savory smoked mozzarella and mushroom against the delicate egg makes you feel almost sophisticated. Then you remember you’re eating an omelette at the oven top in your underwear. And you feel even better. I will say, egg and mushroom are a harmonious duo.

Praise be to the omelette. They are easy, quick (if done right, they cook in 3 minutes), delicious, and an excellent way to get protein in at the start of the day. The dill in this recipe is subtle, but adds some complexity to the always excellent combo of basil and goat cheese. I generally put a splash of milk in my omelette to keep it soft and a fresh grind of nutmeg to bring out the sweetness.

This one was a winner. Sage is a wonderfully rich herb on its own. But pair it with blue cheese, which I had leftover, and then add in some alium and chewy rosemary sourdough, and the taste sort of hits you in the face (in a good way), and then lingers on your tongue. This pairing actually got better halfway through.

Baked eggs are an essential peak to conquer on the 100-ways-egg chef’s hat. These little buggers are easy to make and totally versatile. Besides being a hearty breakfast, they can be made lighter or heavier (take or leave cream, greens, breakfast meats, and cheese), and can be dressed up for dinner. But best of all, they have the essential food groups to cure a hangover: carbs, lipids, and some vitamin C thrown in for good measure. This particular baked eggs recipe cured the effects of a Maker’s Mark bender.

This egg salad is wet and hot and makes you want to tongue it. Unlike that hideous grayed out shit you know you’ve had for lunch at the local deli. You won’t be sorry you spent the extra 20 to make the mayo from scratch. If you are, get off my blog NOW. If you dare, eat this sandwich with some mouth-puckeringly salty and rough to the tongue potato chips.