Baked Eggs in Ham

For their impressiveness, these are pretty simple. In fact the really hard part is communicating to your deli guy how thick you want the ham to be sliced. I went in with the wrong approach telling him I'd like them a 'little thicker'. To me, this meant not the paper thin slices you'd want piled on a cold sandwich, but you know, something just a little thicker. He started pinching his fingers together somewhere around 1/2 an inch. So, I specified, 'oh no, just like 1/16'. When I give people precise measurements they often give me this look that says you must not know what you're talking about. And then they proceed to make comparisons or hold something up to verify that I actually mean what I said. I really should remember to preface my request with 'I'm an architect so I'm very familiar with rulers and I do know what an inch looks like, no need to show me . . .' So the deli guy asked if the ham should be the thickness of a nickle. To which I replied 'yeah sure', it's close enough. And then I received 2 slabs of ham, a bit chunkier than I would have liked, but still manageable.

Baked Eggs in Ham
Makes 2 Ham Cups

2 1/6" ham slices
4 cherry tomatoes
2 large eggs
1 tsp chopped herbs, such as parsley and chives
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375. In a muffin tin, or similarly sized ramekins, fold ham slice so that it sits inside and forms a cup, repeat with second slice. Break the eggs into each ham cup and top with herbs, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes, then finish under the broiler if white is not yet set. Serve warm from the oven.