Cooking a special meal for mom

Surely, mom is worth 5 minutes work?

Because that's all it takes to make these comforting baked eggs that beg to be eaten in bed on Mother's Day. The egg mixture - a simple blend of eggs, sour cream, dill, salt and pepper - even can be whisked together the night before.

The cooking is equally effortless. The eggs are poured into ramekins then slowly baked in a water bath to keep them moist. A water bath is just a baking dish filled with hot water into which you place the ramekins in the oven.

For a particularly luxurious breakfast, I also added chopped shrimp to the eggs. Cooked ham, chicken or sausage could be substituted.

J.M. Hirsch can be e-mailed at jhirsch@ap.org.

Baked dill eggs with shrimp and sour cream

Start to finish: 40 minutes (5 minutes active)

Servings: 4

8 eggs

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream, divided

Dried dill

Salt and ground black pepper

10 raw extra-large shrimp (veins, tails and shells removed), each chopped into 4 to 5 chunks

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Arrange four 4- to 6-ounce ramekins or other small oven-safe bowls in a baking dish. Spritz the ramekins with cooking spray. Bring a large kettle of water to a boil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, 1/4 cup of sour cream and a pinch each of dill, salt and pepper. Stir in the shrimp.

Divide the egg mixture between the prepared ramekins. Place the baking dish on the oven's top rack. Carefully pour enough of the water from the kettle into the baking dish to come two-thirds of the way up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake for 30 minutes, then remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes in the water bath.

To serve, place a dollop of the remaining sour cream on top of each ramekin. Sprinkle with pepper or additional dill.

Nutrition information per serving (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 212 calories; 109 calories from fat; 12 g fat (5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 402 mg cholesterol; 4 g carbohydrate; 17 g protein; 0 g fiber; 319 mg sodium.