Considering the time it was served, it should have been styled a very late lunch, but since it was our first meal of the day it was our breakfast. We skipped lunch.

Whatever it should be called, it was delicious, also very rich, but it was an early-in-the-day rich, and it showed a number of big smiles while still in the terra cotta cazuela.

• four sections of thick bacon from pastured pigs raised by Millport Dairy Farm, fried inside a classic steel restaurant pan, each of them then cut into four sections and arranged, not touching, inside a large glazed ceramic baking pan, followed by a layer of sliced heirloom tomatoes (one large orange tomato from Eckerton Hill Farm, and one red, one small yellow, and one small maroon version from Alewife Farm), 6 free-range eggs, also from Millport Dairy Farm, broken into pan on to of the tomatoes, scatter with sliced Japanese scallion from Norwich Meadows Farm, and 10 or so medium size fresh sage leaves from Echo Creek Farm in the 23rd Street farmers market, baked inside a 375º oven until the whites had solidified, or a little over 25 minutes [as the picture shows, the yokes had also solidified, or come close to solidifying, which suggests that the next time I prepare something like this I try covering the pan loosely with aluminum foil], sprinkled with Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper, a pinch of dried fenugreek from Bombay Emerald Chutney Company (purchased at the Saturday Chelsea Farmers Market as well), and garnished with red micro amaranth 
• toasted slices of three different day-old or several days-old breads, a She Wolf Bakery ‘miche’ (in the picture), a 12 grain bread from Bread Alone, and a Paris-style baguette from Orwashers
• the music was the beautiful intellectual exercise of the album, ‘Bach: Morimur’, by the Hilliard Ensemble & Christoph Poppen

We took a break from fried eggs at breakfast today. I baked eggs, and a few other odds and ends, inspired in part by the rare appearance in the refrigerator of both crème fraîche and heavy cream, not to mention some very ripe tomatoes and a wonderful sturdy and crusty bread.

It started with leeks.

• four or 5 chopped thin leeks from Willow Wisp Farm, cooked with 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter inside a tin-lined heavy copper sauté pan until they were tender, approximately a third of a cup of chopped herbs added and stirred in (thyme, rosemary, and parsley from S. & S.O. Farm; peppermint and sage from Phillips Farm; tarragon from Willow Wisp Organic Farm; oregano from Keith’s Farm; and lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge), plus 2 chopped fresh habanada peppers from Norwich Meadows Farm, after which leeks, herbs and peppers transferred to a buttered glazed ceramic oven dish, the mixture spread evenly on the bottom, 6 eggs from Millport Dairy Farm cracked on top, a couple handfuls of golden cherry tomatoes from Phillips Farm scattered about, and dollops of Ronnybrook Farms crème fraîche, which had been stirred with a little heavy cream from the same local maker, dropped on the surfaces around the eggs and the tomatoes, the dish seasoned with good sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, a bit of crushed dried Sicilian pepperoncino, a pinch of dried fenugreek fromBombay Emerald Chutney Company, the pan set on a rack in the middle of an oven that had been preheated to 400º, until the eggs had set and the cream almost entirely absorbed, served on 2 plates atop 4 thick slices of a whole wheat sourdough Miche  from Bread Alone bakery that had been toasted on my no-bread-too-thick ‘Camp-A-Toaster’ [see this post], and garnished with purple micro radish from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• the music was the entire album of music by Johann Adolf Hasse, ‘Salve Regina’, with Barbara Bonney and Bernarda Fink, Reinhard Goebel conducting Musica Antiqua Cologne

It was again Sunday breakfast with eggs, this time without the bacon, but with tomatoes (which usually make an appearance at this time) – and leeks, which were standing in for one or more of the smaller alliums which are usually a part of our weekend treat.

Because of other commitments, right now I’m in the midst of almost a week of evenings when I am unable to cook dinner. I hadn’t foreseen this when I was buying vegetables in the Greenmarket, which helps explain the inclusion of the leeks here.

• three medium leeks from Norwich Meadows Farm, cooked with 3 or 4 tablespoons of butter inside a tin-lined heavy copper sauté pan until they were tender, approximately a third of a cup of chopped herbs added (thyme and rosemary from Eataly, peppermint from Lani’s Farm, flat-leaf parsley from Whole Foods, oregano from Lani’s Farm, and lovage from Two Guys from Woodbridge), transferred to a buttered glazed ceramic oven dish, the mixture spread evenly on the bottom, 6 eggs from Millport Dairy Farm cracked on top, 6 large Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, each cut in 3 slices, scattered about, and dollops of Ronnybrook Farms crème fraîche, stirred with a little whole milk (double cream would have been more convenient, but I had none), dropped on the surfaces around the eggs and the tomatoes, the dish seasoned with good sea salt and freshly-ground Tellicherry pepper, set on a rack in the middle of an oven preheated to 400º, then served on 2 plates atop thick slices of a toasted ‘polenta boule’ from She Wolf Bakery [I sprinkled some micro bronze fennel from Two Guys from Woodbridge on the plated eggs after I had taken the picture at the top]
• the music was Heinrich Schutz’s 1619, ‘Musikalische Exequien’, Sigiswald Kuijken conducting La Petite Bande 

I had managed to cut off the end of my most important digit while using a mandoline to put this meal together 11 days ago. Knowing something had gone wrong, I immediately pressed index finger and thumb together very firmly and finished preparing the potatoes before I stopped to check the damages. They were considerable, but the meal was terrific, even if I have to assume that I was literally a part of it.

I’ve had to keep the wound dry and I was told it could not be covered with a latex glove until it had totally closed and was pretty secure, so making dinner, even washing the dishes of a made dinner, has been out of the question until, well, yesterday.

On Friday I was told that I would probably be told Monday that I was now free to do stuff in the kitchen, and that’s what happened, but that day was my birthday, and we dined out with friends Michelle and Felix, at Faro, in Bushwick. No kitchen for me that day.

But I had actually jumped the gun, a little, the night before.

I had not prepared a real meal in 11 days, but on Sunday I was determined to do something very easy that might also include a lot of perishable vegetables I had around that were about to go beyond their natural expiration date.

The baked egg dish I whipped up with one hand tied behind my back (never touched anything with my injured finger) turned out super, and it did virtually empty the shelves.

I’m not sure I’m remembering everything that went into the mix, which I baked in the oven at 375º for about half an hour, but it certainly included olive oil; 4 or 5 small scallions from Norwich Meadows Farm; a few ounces of Colameco’s uncured diced pancetta from Whole Foods; torn arugula from Lani’s Farm; a few tablespoons of organic heavy cream; one tiny hot yellow pepper from Eckerton Hill Farm; 8 eggs from Millport Dairy Farm; 15 cherry tomatoes from Alex’s Tomato Farm, Carlisle, NY, at Chelsea’s [Down to Earth] Farmers Market; salt; pepper; black oil-cured olives from Whole Foods; finished with some Hong Vit micro radish and a very small amount of pea shoots/sprouts, both from Windfall Farms, scattered on top once the eggs had been plated; a small jar of an aromatic seasoning blend called L’eKama placed on the table with the eggs

We wanted eggs on the first morning of a new year.  We like eggs, and 2 each didn’t seem quite enough; we had 5, so fried would be out of the question.  I decided to put them together and split them down the middle, thinking of an earlier outing with some of these elements.

I’m not entirely sure of all the ingredients that went into this dish, since I wasn’t entirely awake at the time, and it wasn’t really planned, but I know it included eggs from Millport Dairy, Norcino sausage from Olli, Backyard Farms Maine ‘cocktail tomatoes’ from Whole Foods, sage from Keith’s Farm, green garlic from Lani’s Farm, salt, pepper, a taste of an aromatic seasoning blend with the proprietary name, L’eKama, and California parsley from Whole Foods.

There was toast made from a loaf of Balthazar’s ‘Potato Fendu’ from Whole Foods.