I've had sort of a hard year so far. Not too much that turned out to be terribly serious, but a lot of this and that all piled up at once. A few things that have kept me going: my upcoming trip to Iceland; Marcos Gutierrez, DVM; listening to the same song over and over; and huevos rancheros.

Oh, my beloved huevos rancheros. Literally ranch-style eggs, huevos rancheros are, at their most basic, eggs with salsa or chile. Anything more is ornamentation, but delicious ornamentation it is. You'll usually get your huevos served on a tortilla, most commonly corn, with a side of beans, and, if you're lucky, fried potatoes. You can order the eggs themselves cooked however you want them, and then, in New Mexico at least, you have your pick of red or green chile.

I didn't like eggs for a long, long time. Then last year, I became somewhat obsessed with omelets, and when I got back to New Mexico this summer, I decided to try huevos rancheros. Since then, I've had them exactly 26 times (and counting), in restaurants and homes throughout the state and Colorado. That's 26 times in 18 weeks, or an average of one plate of huevos every 4.85 days. There was one stretch where I ate huevos rancheros at least once a day for six days straight.

I've been looking for a good all-purpose New Mexican food cookbook. My main criterion for determining the value of any given cookbook is its huevos rancheros recipe. My mom has a cookbook that says huevos rancheros are a great hangover cure. Counterintuitively, I've found that they also help a stomachache. And of course they're a great comfort food and a balm for the soul. For my huevos rancheros recipe, visit the Pizza Pants recipe page. On the next page, you'll read reviews of all the huevos I've ever eaten.

Next: The huevos, good and bad