Eggs

This popular restaurant bowl is easy to make at home but the technique is a little tricky. The finished soup should have pale yellow petals of barely set egg floating in a rich chicken broth. To achieve this, you have to wave chopsticks above the surface of the hot soup with one hand while you slowly pour in the eggs with the other - without overcooking the eggs. If you’re starting with commercially prepared chicken stock, enhance it by simmering it for 10 minutes with several slices of fresh ginger and scallions, both bruised slightly with the flat side of a broad knife.

Classic avgolemono, the Greek egg-lemon soup, typically contains a little rice and a few pieces of chicken. Add more chicken if you want to make the bowls substantial enough for a main course. This recipe begins with 3 chicken breast halves to give the broth lots of flavor, but you use only 1 1/2 of them for the soup. Make chicken salad from the rest or roll up shredded meat in warm pita with chopped cucumbers, lettuce, and salsa. Orzo is rice-shaped pasta.

Called en cocotte in French or shirred eggs, these baked eggs are cooked in individual dishes. Add a little flavorful ham, salami, turkey or smoked salmon to the bottom of each, goat cheese to the top. 

 

This makes a flat omelet that can be eaten hot or at room temperature, cut into wedges.

Instead of apples, you can make this with Bartlett or Anjou pears. Peel and halve them, cut out the cores, and chop them coarsely.

Huevos rancheros or “ranch eggs” is a classic Mexican dish that is great for a quick dinner. Traditionally, it’s made with a red tomato-based sauce. Here we use tart and tangy green salsa instead. Serve with: brown rice and slices of avocado.

Pair the asparagus with potatoes and small cubes of ham or roast turkey. Blanch them separately so the green spears maintain their vibrant color and then saute the whole mixture together until crisp and browned. Top with over-easy eggs and sprinkle with fresh thyme. The eggs here are over-easy, but you can poach, soft-boil, or scramble them before setting them on the hash.

A quiche is ideal if you're expecting house guests and not sure when exactly they're arriving, or need something to have on hand for a weekend when everyone is coming and going at different times. Set the pie on the counter with a knife and a few plates and you'll see it disappear quickly. For some cooks, making pastry is daunting. But if you buy a quiche, the price is high - certainly higher than eggs, pie crust, and some vegetables cost. You're paying for someone to roll out that flaky crust.

You'd be surprised how many famous American chefs were raised around very simple food prepared by mothers, grandmothers, and aunts. ''In Mother's Kitchen: Celebrated Women Chefs Share Beloved Family Recipes" by Ann Cooper and Lisa Holmes (Rizzoli), the authors tell lots of stories about women in the food world and capture some of these basic meals. We learn about Washington restaurateur Nora Pouillon's Hungarian goulash, the French Culinary Institute's founder Dorothy Hamilton's Czechoslovakian strudel, and other dishes from Europe, Asia, and the Far East.