I am not a breakfast person.

My entire life has been fraught with morning meal related anxiety and tension. As a child, I would fight with my mother every time she put food  in front of me before I left for school.  She would insist that I needed to finish the hard fried eggs, despite knowing full-well that I hated them with the intensity of  a thousand burning suns. In turn, I would gag, choke and vomit in righteous indignation. She would get mad.  I would cry. To avoid confrontation, I took to extreme measures. This included hiding the rubbery, poison yolked evil in doll houses, under mattresses, and later down the front of my shirt where it would be dumped into the toilet and flushed away at the  first opportunity. Needless to say, I  wound up eating the lunch she packed for me at 7:45 am, on the bus, en route to school. Eventually, my mother gave up any hope of me ever being an egg affectionado, and resorted to letting me dump cold cereal in a bowl. Problem solved.

High-school and college rolled around. I elected to eschew breakfast, instead opting for the award winning breakfast of champions:  caffeine and cigarettes. In adulthood, I would drink coffee “kegger style” at work, chain smoke cigarettes on my breaks, and  only stop to eat “real food” around noon.  The appeal of eating greasy, heavy vittles upon waking was something that I couldn’t understand, and really had no desire to investigate.

Pregnancy changed that. Months of morning sickness morphed into a pathological need to cram every kind of available food into my gaping maw. McDonald’s and their Drive-Thru breakfast menu became my daily companion.  I ate their deep-fried hash browns and breakfast bagels in my car on the way to the office, often with the fervor and anticipation of a junkie taking their next hit. Ahh…sacred grease!

Slowly, I warmed up to Eggs Benedict, the holy egg creation that  now gave me an excuse to drink Hollandaise through a straw.  After the baby was born, I found myself skulking around breakfast buffets, pecking at omelets, and snarfing back on a merry parade of breakfast sausages. I began serving breakfast for dinner at home. I snuck off to IHOP.

Then, as suddenly as it came, it disappeared.The magic of breakfast was no more.

I was left standing at the fridge, staring blankly at the excess that had become my obsession. The cartons of micro-farmed, organic heritage eggs that really tasted no different than the ones from the store. The artisan bread, which was a massive pain in the ass to cut. The milk that I was shelling out astronomical quantities for because it came straight from the cow. My kids preferred Froot Loops, my husband was on a diet, and I was fooling myself if I thought that there was a single soul in the house that liked eating breakfast at all.  Breakfast had once again become a task of drudgery and contempt. In apathy,  I’d toss the kids yogurt, a handful of dried fruit and a piece of toast.  I’d sulk at the table with my coffee. *Sigh*

Enter the breakfast messiah: Baked Eggs in Ham Cups.

Simple. Tasty. Classy enough to serve to guests, and fun enough for the kids to dig their spoons into.  Minimal preparation and cleaning involved from start to finish. I believe that if I were not already married, I would propose to this recipe.

Baked Eggs & Tomatoes in Ham Cups

Ingredients (per individual serving):

• 2 thin deli ham slices
• 1 egg
• 1 oz of grated cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp minced chives/green onions
• 1 slice of tomato
• salt & pepper to taste

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 350F.
• While the oven is heating, dig out either a muffin pan or individual ramekins.
• Line each muffin cup/ramekin with two pieces of sliced ham, and arrange to form a cup.
• Add minced chives/green onions into bottom of the ham cup
• Crack egg into ham cup
• Toss tomato slice on top of egg
• Top with grated cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Pop into the preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until egg is set and cheese is melted.
• Remove from oven, and cool until it has reached safe serving temperature.
• Eat. Nom nom nom.

I’ve attempted variations on the recipe: sauteed mushrooms added in, sauteed leeks, omitting tomatoes for tomato haters, playing with cheese varieties. I have never been disappointed, and the kids as well as adults have requested it again and again. Perfect served with toast and pan fries, or a lighter fruit salad.

Bon appetite!

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