Easter in the Kitchen

Easter was my second favorite holiday as a kid. Thanksgiving was the first, especially when we would make the trip from down south up to Connecticut to stay with my grandparents during the holiday. The over abundance of family and food combined with the mini-celebrity of being the cousins from out-of-state made for a really great family vacation.

Growing up, Easter was a little different. I can't really remember spending an Easter with my extended family in Connecticut before we moved back when I was in high school. Instead it was spent with with my brother and parents in Tennessee or Georgia, a bit less hectic than Thanksgiving, though just as festive. Easter baskets, eggs hidden around the house, church with the family.

And of course, the food. Easter candy is the best holiday-specific candy hands down- Cadbury cream eggs and mini eggs, malted milk ball robins eggs, Reese's peanut butter eggs, jelly beans. Yeah. The best. And of course for real food, ham. Most of you know this already, but I love ham. I'm sure there were other things served, but I'll always remember the ham.

This Easter, J and I spent a quiet day at home, but I couldn't quite let the day pass without a food celebration. Save for a short run in the morning, I spent most of the day in the kitchen feeling cozy as the rain fell outside.

On J's request I made what I can only call eggs and tomatoes for breakfast. This is a dish that I was first introduced to at a neighborhood Italian joint called Basta's. We went there one morning for brunch about a year ago and I ordered something similar to this. As they stopped serving brunch a while back, I haven't had it from them since, but this comes as close as I can get to it from memory.

When I had this at Basta's I remember saying "This is so good, I wish I was hungover."

Eggs and Tomatoes
Serves 2

4 eggs
1 28 oz can chopped tomatoes
10-12 basil leaves, torn
3 tbs olive oil, plus some for drizzling
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
fresh mozzarella, sliced

Preheat broiler.

Heat tomatoes, basil, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper in a saucepan over medium heat until hot. Break each egg and slip them into the tomato mixture. Allow them to cook until the whites are no longer translucent and hold together.

Turn off heat and scoop as much of the tomato mixture into two smaller casserole dishes as you can without disturbing the eggs. Next, scoop out the eggs and place two into each dish. Cover eggs with slices of mozzarella and a drizzle of olive oil. Place under the broiler until the the cheese bubbles and browns slightly.

Remove from oven and serve with grilled bread drizzled with olive oil.

So that was breakfast. After breakfast I went about making homemade pirogis, a staple on my extended family's Easter table and a damn good rainy day dinner...look for the recipe later this week.

I also managed to make some bread and just to let C know that I haven't gone over to the dark side, I made some carrot cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese icing to share at work on Monday.

See C? I'm still doing the cupcake thing...no need to worry!