I am 27. I live in the city. I love to cook. Due to my recent past, I have found myself eating alone more often. At first, eating alone was really difficult. Instead of enjoying meals and nourishing my body I was mitigating my hunger. I found it hard to make the time to sit like a civilized person and experience the taste and textures of my meal. Rather, I would shovel down a big bowl of something that was thrown together in minutes. I changed the way I approached my meals. At one time a chore, I now consider eating alone to be an art form.
My method of cooking is inspired by a book called The Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler. Her approach to cooking is simple. With some good olive oil and fresh ingredients, creating tasty dishes can be easy, no recipe necessary. I was born with the skill of knowing how many glugs of oil to put in the pan, how many shakes of salt to sprinkle, and how to apply heat to food to make it better (instead of killing it). My goal is to instruct anyone to do the same in the context of eating alone.
I recommend this blog to the recently heart broken, to the college student, to the post work loner, or to any one that needs help putting some random items in their fridge together for a healthy, comforting meal.
This meal will take no more than two minutes to prepare and maximum 15 minutes to bake. If your brain isn't working -- all the better, you don't need it to make Egg in a Little Pot. What you do need is a piece of bread, an egg, and some kind of filling stuff such as tomato sauce, ratatouille, goat cheese or even some stir fried vegetables like mushrooms, wilted spinach, roasted tomatoes. Be creative. You will also need a little oven proof ramekin and some garnish like chopped parsley, scallions, lemon zest, grated cheese, cured ham slices etc.
I use ratatouille today. I just fill the first inch of the ramekin with it and then crack the egg right on top, sprinkle some salt and pepper and pop it into an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees. If you like your eggs runny, leave it in for 10 minutes, if you like them hard, 15 minutes. As long as the egg whites have turned white you are safe.
I use some sliced scallions, some grated comte (hard cheese similar to gruyere) and lemon zest as garnish and prepare them while my Egg in a Pot is baking. The last five minutes that the pot is in the oven, I throw some bread in to toast.
Once the whites are white, and your toast is toasty, pull it out and enjoy. I like to butter my toast and make little soldiers for dipping. It makes it a bit more fun. Pour a big cup of coffee and read the comics.
All done!