When I interview a cookbook author, I like to ask them to sign their cookbook for me. After the nice chat I had with Marie Simmons, author of "The Good Egg" (Houghton Mifflin), she inscribed: "For Mike, Another good egg! (I can tell.) Marie" Don't ya just love it?

Marie is a good egg. And a wonderful cook and writer. She is a regular contributor to Bon Apetit with her column, "Cooking for Health." She showed me a recent column, "the fish looks a little different in their picture than when I cooked it!" It looked very tasty. She also writes a weekly column for the Contra Costa Times (San Francisco bay area) and has authored many other cookbooks. Including one that I have relied on and it very well used, "365 Ways to Cook Pasta" (Harper Collins).

Marie also teaches cooking classes. (Find out where she is teaching on her website.)

We shared a bowl of fruit that she just picked up at the farmers market and sat down to chat about "The Good Egg." The book is definitive on the subject, winning the James Beard Single Subject Cookbook Award. Lots of basic information in the sidebars about eggs, including notes about egg safety.

Maybe now we can talk about eggs and not worry about the cholesterol cops. Marie notes, it's a matter of how much is too much. "You wouldn't eat a steak 3 times a day, so therefore, you wouldn't eat an egg 3 times a day." Good thought.

And talk about lots of protein and nutrition in a small, inexpensive package! Not to mention, eggs are the quintessential fast food. You can make an omelet about as fast as you can say it.

So let's talk eggs….