As I was looking through my mother’s stacks of Junior League cookbooks from across the Southwest, I came across this intriguing egg recipe. The eggs are cooked in muffin cups and then topped with a fresh salsa. Yum, right?

It’s super easy. I went a little overboard with the olive oil, but it’s not too hard to get the eggs on the plate without taking all the oil with them.

You are actually supposed to be able to cook the eggs in the heated muffin tin without putting it back in the oven, but I like my eggs a bit more cooked than these were getting. So I stuck it back in the oven (which had been turned off, but was still hot).

Now, in the 80’s-era El Paso Junior League cookbook this came from, the recipe was called Peña Blanca eggs — apparently after a ranch in Mexico. Since I have never heard of said ranch, I renamed them. You can put your own spin on the name if you’d like.

No matter what you call them, I think you’ll like them.

Southwestern muffin-cup eggs (Adapted from an old edition of Seasoned with Sun, makes 6 eggs)
1 tomato (or a handful of cherry tomatoes)
1 jalapeño
1 small onion (I didn’t have one)
Fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
6 garlic cloves
Pinch dried oregano
Pinch dried parsley
6 eggs

Preheat oven to 400 F. While oven is heating, chop the tomatoes, jalapeño (remove seeds unless you like things very spicy), onion and some cilantro leaves (I used a lot, but this is up to you). Stir everything together to make a salsa. Season with salt and pepper.

Pour a little bit of olive oil into 6 muffin cups in a (large or regular-sized) muffin tin — just enough to cover the bottom of the cups. Add 1 smashed clove garlic, a dash of oregano, salt and parsley to each cup. Put the muffin tin in the oven.

When the container is hot and spitting oil (and garlic is golden), remove from the oven and discard garlic. Drop an egg into each cup. Turn off the oven.

The eggs should cook without returning to the oven, but if they don’t seem to be setting the way you want them, go ahead and stick them back in the oven (turned off, but should still be pretty hot) until they are cooked to your taste.

Top the eggs with the salsa to serve.