I know you know baked eggs. Sometimes called shirred eggs and sometimes Frenchified with the romantic name of Oeufs en Cocotte.

Well I guess the real point I am trying to make is this. I know and love baked eggs. Sometimes the thought of baked eggs is sitting so close to the front of my subconscious that they come falling out of my mouth when I least expect it. Take this recipe for Eggs Baked In Yogurt with Spinach, Tomato & Watercress. I made it up– because honestly, I had to. Its birth was a classic Freudian slip.

I hope you know about the podcast I do with Nathan (The Chocolate of Meats) and Andy (Wind Attack). It's called The Table Set. It's part of The Homefries Network produced by Joy The Baker and Michael Friedman, an Emmy Award winning television big wig.

The basic premise is fun. The three of us sit around the table and plan parties. We throw out ideas for recipes, cocktails, and decorations. Then we see what sticks to the wall where you live. We laugh and joke, sure we do. But we try to present some actual information too. Oh (gasp) sometimes we drink a little wine when we do it.

So you see these yogurt baked eggs got their start over a glass of wine.

I am a sucker for regionalism. It’s nearly dead in this country, so it’s often hard to distinguish one city from the next. Chain stores. Chain restaurants. Same stuff. Same food.

I am old enough to remember when there was more diversity of choice when it came to dining out; certain restaurants in certain towns where you could get the best this or the best that. In fact sometimes these were the only places to get those particular or regional this & thats!

It used to be if you really wanted to understand a place and the people who lived there; you sat down and ate with them– maybe not at the same table, but at least sharing the same food. Food that was completely unique to that place and those people. Because food like that gets passed down through generations. It comes from a time when people tended to stay put. This is how regional cuisine developed, through heritage, tradition and pride.

It’s a different world today for all sorts of complicated reasons. It’s much harder to define a place through its food traditions, because so many of those traditions have become homogenized.

Salads needn't be boring even in the winter. They can be hearty, they can be substantial and full of flavor. They can even tweek your expectations about the season and its food possibilities.

Take this Spinach Salad with Roast Pears, Dried Cranberry Vinaigrette and Flank Steak. My brother Grant paired it with Bonny Doon "Le Pousseur" Syrah 2007. It's made with ingredients that are easily available in the coldest corners around the globe almost any time of the year.

I see you nodding your head saying, "sure pears, spinach and dried cranberries can be winter food. But, flank steak– well Greg– that's summer food."

But I am here to prove to you that even flank steak can be winter friendly. But I know what you are thinking right now. You are thinking there is no way you are going to trudge out to the back yard and light up the grill just so Sippity Sup can prove some inane point about flank steak being winter food. You are thinking that although (of course) you love Sippity Sup dearly, and you want to try and make us happy. But really, grilling outside in your swim suit during a snow storm that's starting to cross some unwritten line of allegiance. Is that what you're thinking?

But please, stay close. Stay inside, and stay warm. But listen to me. Everyone knows flanks steak is great cooked on the grill. It's marinated in something flavorful, then it's quickly cooked over hot flames until barely past rare. Because flank steak must always be served fairly rare. It dries out easily, so it's best cooked fast and hot and licked by flames. Which, you're thinking, makes it summer food. Right?