Pancakes are good. French toast is good, well, great actually. A fried egg sandwich with arugula, aged cheddar cheese and bacon is really amazing. But my new favorite weekend breakfast adds a touch of class and a whole lot of deliciousness to my laid back Saturday mornings.

Eating baked eggs in individual ramekins makes me feel like I’ve gone out for a fancy weekend brunch, except I’m really sitting on my sofa in my pajamas listening to Car Talk. Making these takes the same amount of time as a good stack of pancakes, and the recipe is infinitely adaptable to whatever you’re in the mood for, or whatever you happen to have in your fridge.

Grab a ramekin, throw in some quickly sautéed onions and swiss chard, or try some diced bell peppers, mushrooms would be great, crumbled bacon would be divine. My husband would be embarrassed that I’m admitting this, but last time I actually used leftover Easy Mac as the base for my baked eggs, and it was grand. So no matter your tastes, pick something yummy for the filling, crack two eggs on top, add a dash of cream, a grating of your favorite cheese, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, then throw them in the oven.

While you’re busy making coffee, your baked eggs will take care of themselves, slowly cooking until the whites are set and the yolks are still deliciously oozy. Once they’re done, serve with toast for ultimate dip-a-bility. It’s pretty hard to add class to breakfast when you have bed head, bare feet and the cackle of the Car Talk guys from the radio in the background, but baked eggs make it almost possible.

Individual Baked Eggs in Ramekins
(4 servings)
Adapted from gourmet.com

2 cups of your favorite filling (about 1/2 cup per ramekin). Try sautéed veggies like onions, swiss chard, spinach, bell peppers, mushrooms, leeks, squash, or fresh diced tomato. Meats: crumbled bacon, diced prosciutto, cooked sausage. My favorite combo so far (and the version pictured) is sautéed onions and swiss chard.
1 T olive oil
8 eggs
¼ cup grated cheddar or parmesan cheese
4 t heavy cream (1 t per ramekin)
Salt and pepper
4 (6 or 8 oz) ramekins

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Distribute filling evenly among 4 ramekins. Crack 2 eggs into each ramekin. Spoon 1 teaspoon cream over each egg. Sprinkle grated cheese among ramekins and dot the surface with olive oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Put ramekins in a shallow baking pan and bake, rotating pan halfway through baking, until whites are just set but yolks are still runny, about 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with toast for dipping.

How could baked eggs get any better? When you have someone to share them with.

This recipe comes from my Mom, Linda. She’s been baking for decades, so she’s tried hundreds and hundreds of desserts in her lifetime. She says these cookies are one of her all-time favorites, so I had to share.

We made these the last time I was home in Pennsylvania for her church bake sale. I tasted one fresh out of the oven before she had a chance to wrap them in cellophane and tie a bow around them, and they are definitely as good as promised!

If you’re a white chocolate fan, as my mom is, you’ll go, well, nuts. Even if white chocolate isn’t your favorite chocolate, you’ll still love these. They’re buttery, crispy, with hunks of dense macadamia nuts and creamy white chocolate. Make them for your next bake sale, or just for yourself. Thanks for the recipe, Mom!

Cookies almost ready for the oven. Flattened versions on the far left, pre-flattened on the right.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

½ c. unsalted butter, softened

¾ c. packed light brown sugar

½ c. granulated sugar

½ c. shortening

1 egg

1 ½ tsp vanilla

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 ½ c. white chocolate chips

7 oz macadamia nuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toast nuts on a cookie sheet while oven preheats. Note from Mom: Keep an eye on them—you’ll be able to smell them when they’re done, and let them cool a little before adding them to the cookie dough.

Beat butter and shortening with a stand or hand-held mixer until soft and creamy.  Gradually add the sugars and beat well.

Add egg and vanilla and beat well.

Sift together flour, soda, and salt; gradually add to butter mix beating well after each addition. Stir in chips and nuts. My Mom is a big fan of chilling cookie dough for about 20-30 minutes before scooping. I highly recommend this—it keeps the butter cold.

Once chilled, drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. (Note: my Mom used a cookie scoop, which worked wonders!) Flatten each ball of dough slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake for 15 minutes. Let rest about 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack.

Cookies ready for the church bake sale!

Being married means, among many other things, taking part in your significant other’s family traditions. One of these, a favorite of my husband’s family, is weekly Saturday morning breakfasts at Kuppy’s Diner in Middletown, Pennsylvania, where we both grew up. Built in the 1930s and probably still serving some of the same, classic diner dishes like fried eggs and scrapple, Kuppy’s is a Middletown institution, and everyone in our tiny town has been there at least once, if not once a week.

On a recent trip home, my husband’s family, myself now included, packed into a few cars and headed over to Kuppy’s one early Saturday morning. In the midst of mulling over my breakfast choices—chocolate chip pancakes or eggs and bacon?—my husband’s mother leaned over and recommended the baked oatmeal, which wasn’t on the menu. If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that off-the-menu items are awesome, partially because of the food itself, and partially because the idea that not everyone knows to order it makes it taste even better. Although in hindsight, probably everyone in Middletown knows about their baked oatmeal. Oh well.

When my baked oatmeal was placed before me a few minutes later, the warm scent of butter and cinnamon curling up gently from the bowl, I was hooked before I had even taken a bite. I added a splash of whole milk as recommended, and dove in. The oatmeal was finely ground and absolutely soaked with butter, crumbly but not dry, dense but not overwhelming, and utterly homey and wonderful. As my new family dug into plate-sized pancakes and fried slices of scrapple, I took tiny bites of what I had decided was my favorite new breakfast food, savoring the cinnamon and nuttiness of the butter.

When I returned to Pasadena, I called Kuppy’s and asked the woman who answered, one of the Kupps who owns the diner, if I could possibly have a copy of their recipe so I could replicate good, hearty Pennsylvania food in California. I was politely denied. The recipe, she said, was secret, and only known to their family. Rats.

So I embarked on a harrowing, many-months quest to re-create their baked oatmeal. After trying a few recipes, and sulkily eating several bowls of what was called baked oatmeal, but I really knew wasn’t, I finally found the winner. It’s not Kuppy’s, but it’s darn, darn close. Serve warm, with a splash of milk, and a dollop of butter if you think it’s not buttery enough, which it is, but you really can’t beat extra butter.

Baked Oatmeal

From The Barn at Strasburg

3 cups quick-cooking oats (I didn’t have these, so I ground regular old fashioned oats in the food processor until I could only see little bits of oats, and this worked just fine)

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 cup whole milk

½ c. butter, melted

2 eggs, beaten

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Spoon into a greased 9-inch-square baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Serve warm with milk. Yield: 6-8 servings.