This cast iron skillet changed my life. Well, that’s obviously an overstatement, but I can’t wait to make cornbread, casseroles, skillets, stratas and crumbles in this fantastic cooking essential.

I found this recipe somewhere on Pinterest. While I am in the beginning stages of looking for a job, I find myself spending way too much time in the kitchen. This was my first time baking eggs. I usual settle for scrambling them, but am ready to take the next step in learning other ways of cooking them. Poaching, frying, hard-boil, soft-boil, over easy; the possibilities seem endless and in time, I’ll attempt them all.

I also barely followed this recipe, using it as a loose guideline for my baked eggs. Sometimes, I’m just not into trying making fake ‘cheez’, and this morning I wanted the real deal. I eliminated steps 1 to 5 by adding crumbled goat cheese before popping my skillet in the oven. We don’t have any sun-dried tomatoes or coconut oil in the farmhouse so I subbed olive oil for the latter and didn’t attempt to replace the former. Also, produce in winter in Charlottesville has not been impressive. Granted, I’m stating this after one trip to the grocery store, but the selection pales in comparison to the year round markets in the bay area.

I halved the recipe as well because I was cooking for one. It’s pretty simple and I recommend it if you have the time to slowly sautée the onion and enjoy crispy kale.

Takeaways: This is the beginning of a love affair with baked eggs and a cast iron skillet.

Who ate the egg? Me, for breakfast.

February 4, 2014. Day 75. Recipe #77.