How do you make an omelette? Practice!

With all due respect to the great Julia Child, I followed the instructions for the easier omelette in MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING—in which she is very fair about having to memorize the steps so as not to delay the process—and the result? Pitiful, just pitiful. My own common-sense method turns out a fluffier, moister omelette than this piece of shoe leather, with its unappetizing insole of herbes de Provençe.

As Julia would arguably say, keep it simple. This morning’s egg sunny-side-up hit the spot after a dinner last night of spicy bar mix and two glasses of white wine, courtesy of Don’t Tell Mama where I was part of the raucous audience for “Words and Music," a cabaret of songs by Jerry Herman, Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern, Stephen Sondheim, and Comden and Green. In all-American diner-speak, an order for that English muffin on the side would’ve gone into the kitchen as “Burn the British.” The French and American colonists would appreciate that!