It’s been quite the week.  Between Sunday afternoon & Thursday night I consumed 3 cows, 1 pheasant & a chicken. Along with a large quantity of interesting lettuce, strange vegetables & funky sides. Plus 9 desserts. And that was just the evening meals.  The {very} best part of all that noshing was the people I got to share it with.  So much so that I didn’t take a single food photo.  I know.  Believe me when I tell you that I love these people.  All 38 of them.

Then yesterday I ate chocolate & drank Sprite Zero, and, if my memory serves me well, nothing else until I downed a pound of peas just before I hit the sack.  Yep, it’s been quite the week.

So today, although I was not ready to get up at 6 am, I was definitely ready to hang out at my favorite breakfast joint & eat my favorite breakfast with one of my favorite people.  I was also ready to play with my new gear, which has been lounging patiently in my office for 10 days waiting for some attention.  So Cindy picked me up at 6:30 and we headed over to Capitol Hill for Cindy’s long awaited, inaugural baked-egg-fest at Cafe Presse.  My first breakfast of 2012.  Happy New Year!

I busied myself with shooting stuff at ISO 2500.  Awesomeness.  Nice noise.  Not.  Cindy busied herself with catching me up on her new job, her new boss & her crazy cats.

Meanwhile, our lovely server busied herself with bringing us baguette & butter.  It’s always hard not to start eating it before the Baked Eggs ($7) arrive.  Epic fail on that front today.

Then she busied herself with a Chocolat Chaud ($5) for me , a soy latte for Cindy and jotting down our breakfast desires.  Baked Eggs for me & Baked Eggs without the jambon for Cindy, an almost-all-the-time vegetarian.  The Chocolat Chaud was as spectacular as ever.  So I had two.  I have never done that before.

At some point we also got another baguette.  And more butter.  I was still fiddling with knobs & dials & listening to Cindy.  She is a great conversationalist.  We’re never at a loss for words.

Our Baked Eggs were a long time coming, because as our lovely server explained, the first one the chef baked was not perfect, so she made it again.  Have I ever told you how much I love Cafe Presse?  The Baked Eggs, when they came, were as perfect as every one I have ever eaten there, and let’s face it…that’s a lot.

So perfect that I had two.  Two dishes of Baked Eggs – one after the other.  I have never done that before.  I think all that food I ate this week must have stretched my stomach.

Once I’d done with 2 dishes of Baked Eggs, I felt the need to have dessert.  And with *still* no Tart au Citron back on the menu, I went with the Chocolate Mousse, despite that fact that I had already downed 2 cups of Chocolat Chaud.

Cindy loved her latte so much she had another.  It was like having breakfast in the Ark – everything came two by two today.  Oh, and look at the foam on that puppy.  Even at ISO 2500.  Awesomeness.

And, because I know that Cindy’s Mom is reading this, I snapped a shot of Cindy in mid-flow, along with her rather fetching hat.  Hi, Mom!

Given that there was no light in the place, I am pretty stoked with how the shots came out.  No flash.  No cell phone lighting.  Just ISO 2500.  Awesomeness.

So to add to the ever-growing list of reasons to go to Cafe Presse, I give you another: it’s a great place to test out your new gear.

Happy Saturday!