Herbed Baked Eggs--Barefoot Bloggers First Recipe!

I stumbled across Tara's blog, Smells Like Home the other day and was very excited because not only does she have a great blog, it also happened to be the day she announced a new blogging event: Barefoot Bloggers (check it out here!) It turns out that a lot of us are like Tara and love the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, but maybe don't cook as many recipes from her books as we would like to. The Barefoot Bloggers will be taking turns selecting a Barefoot Contessa recipe and making it, twice a month on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. Having all of Ina's cookbooks, I signed right up and will be picking recipe #13 (or so I thought I signed up quickly! Hopefully it will be a lucky 13!). What fun--I have done a few different challenges and events in the past few weeks and it is great to get involved with a new one that is just starting up! Tara kicked us off with a simple recipe for Herbed Baked Eggs (you can find it here) or in Ina's Barefoot in Paris Cookbook (pgs 64-65).

I was really surprised by how much I liked this recipe. I don't think I would have ever picked it out to cook it myself as I like eggs but don't love them. I made sure to get great ingredients--so important in such a simple dish. I got fresh, local eggs and herbs from the farmer's market and good Parmigiano-Reggiano from the cheese and wine store. The eggs were very easy and quick to put together. Because the Le Creuset “Petite Au Gratins” I used are fairly small, I used two eggs in each. The herb mix of the garlic, rosemary, thyme, parsley and Parmesan was dreamy! I felt like I should be sitting in a little cafe in Paris while eating them. My only issue with the recipe was that although my eggs were cooked well for me (firm whites, runny yolks for dipping into) the cream made them seem a bit runny. Next time I would use less cream or even omit it, as I don't think it would hurt the recipe at all. I served the eggs with fresh croissants and little tomatoes from the farmer's market and listened to a little Edith Piaf (got to set that French Cafe atmosphere!) A great dish to kick the Barefoot Bloggers off with and one I would definitely make again.

Thanks Tara for an excellent idea and a fun blogging event. I look forward to the next one: Pasta, Pesto and Peas in a couple weeks!