One of my favorite dinners is breakfast. The first few months after my son left for college, my daughter and I played with many variations on the theme. There is a comfort factor to breakfast outside its usual context that I suspect we truly needed because we were so far outside our usual context. <br /> <br />This is a variation I come back to often. For one thing, it comprises staples always on hand. It can be changed up and never suffer: no tomatoes, use mushrooms, or peppers; no basil, use parsley, rosemary, whatever. Not only is it an economy of ingredients, but also of preparation and of washing up. At the end of a complicated day, the last may be its greatest blessing. <br /> <br />And it's easy to eat. You can go outside, balance the plate in your lap, and hold a book. And it goes with whatever wine you have to hand. <br /> <br />Richard Olney. I'm not going to go all Julie and Julia here, but his dictum of simple, magnificent, pleasurable is nowhere more perfect than in his description of how to scramble an egg. If you've not read it, it's well worth hunting down. Brace yourself; it is one of the most sensuous pieces of writing ever. - boulangere <br /> <br />

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