Oeufs en cocotte recipe

I can't take credit for this recipe - my roommate-slash-BFFF read about it in the book Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell and came up with this version. It's still one of my favorite breakfast-y things to make.

Preheat oven to about 360-ish F. I don't have a digital display, so I just estimate it to be somewhere between 350 and 375 F.

Gather stuff -- 4 oz. ramekins; a baking dish to put them in (for the water bath); butter; cream cheese (or whatever soft cheese-esque product you'd prefer to use); salt; pepper; eggs; herbs (here I've used fresh-snipped chives from the backyard -- mmm). There are endless variations you could do with this recipe.

Butter the ramekins and add a chunk of cream cheese to the bottom of each.

Spread the cream cheese around to cover the bottoms of the ramekins.

Crack an egg into each ramekin over the cheese.

Add salt, pepper, & herbs. The ramekins go in a bigger baking dish; add boiling water to the baking dish for a water bath. Fill it as high as possible without spilling too ridiculously & put into the oven. I usually set the baking dish onto the oven rack first and then fill it with boiling water.

Cook the eggs for about 13-15 minutes or until desired done-ness. Ideally, the whites should be mostly set but soft, and the yolk runny. Mmmmm.

Serve with whatever. I made toast and sauteed potatoes with onions & herbs. Oh, make sure to serve the eggies with a spoon; you'll want every last molecule, believe me.