February 22 2005, 08:45 PM The Evening's Consumption

Apples: braeburn apples, crisp and wet. They are heavy in the hand, and have a light sweetness. I should peel them, but I am lazy, and hungry, too.

Cheese: cheddar cheese. And old one, creamy and tense. I take big bites of the apple, and then nibble bits off of a fat chunk of cheese. The cheese fights through the apple and coats my tongue.

Water: good water, clear and cold. It has been sat out for a day, to calm it. I have put it through a filter, too.

Eggs.

The eggs are made in something of an error. I was given enthusiasic advice: add cream cheese to scrambled eggs just as they begin to set (with a little butter) in the pan. The more air in the cream cheese, the better; look for the little tubs of the spreadable stuff. The cream cheese will take up heat, making it harder to overcook the eggs, and the cheese itself will be an excellent indicator as to when the eggs are well and ready: the whole mass will rise up in the pan, and turn fluffy and cheesy.

(Or, to put it another way: "you will know when the eggs are done when they explode!")

This is not what I have done. I misremembered the ingredient; instead of cream cheese, I came home from the store with small curd cottage cheese. The glorious part is that it still works: as the eggs (in a little butter) begin to set, add a dollop of cottage cheese and stir. Keep stirring. The eggs will get wet a little, then set again, and when the curds have mostly (or completely) disappeared the eggs are done. Scoop them out and eat them up. Scatter salt on them, and perhaps pepper. Eat them up.

As I am out of Grape Nuts, there is no dessert.