Considering yesterday was national Liver and Onion Day, I'm pretty relieved to know today, May 11, is the official Eat What You Want food holiday! It's not that I have anything against liver; I love a good Jewish chopped chicken liver spread and I adore a little liver in my Thanksgiving stuffing, but good-ole liver and onions never made it into my regular dinner recipe rotation. Thankfully the less-structured foodie holiday we're celebrating today allows me to get creative in the kitchen.

I opened my refrigerator and scanned its contents and reminded myself over-and-over, “I can eat anything I want.” I snagged several eggs and put them on to boil. For a split second I thought I was going to whip up a few deviled eggs, but opted instead to steep them, Chinese-style, in an aggressively spiced mixture of tea and soy sauce. Not only are the tea and spiced steeped eggs flavorful they are quite beautifully marbled after a soak in their bath.

From there I grabbed some bacon because in my world bacon and eggs are a much more attractive pair than liver and onions. I crisped it up in a pan and cooked in a smattering of the tea-egg broth to bring some bold flavors to the bacon. I decided to toss the chopped eggs and seasoned bacon on top of some steamed broccoli. I figured “eating whatever I want” entitled me to do something a little dastardly to an otherwise healthy vegetable. So to round the whole dish out I mixed up a quick Sriracha-honey sauce to bring some heat to the plate.

The creation, based on my whims of the day, was totally delicious. The whole dish would be lovely served over some brown rice if you wanted to make a couple servings, but I was happy to go without. Celebrate your own food desires today or take a page out of my book of wants and serve up my broccoli with bacon and eggs. After all, you can eat whatever you want today!

Tea and Spice Steeped Eggs

4eggs (plus water to cover)

3cups water

1/2 cup soy sauce

3 bags of black tea

2star anise

2cloves

1 1/2teaspoons sugar

1teaspoon salt

1cinnamon stick

1/2teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2teaspoon chili flakes

1. Put the eggs in a pot and cover with water by 2 inches and bring to a boil. Boil the eggs for 8 minutes, drain and rinse under cold water until cool to the touch. Crack the egg shells all over by gently tapping with the back of a spoon.

2. Place the crackled eggs (unpeeled) into a saucepan. Cover the eggs with 3 cups of water and the soy sauce. Toss in the tea bags, anise, cloves, sugar, salt, cinnamon, cumin and chili flakes. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes.

3. Uncover and allow the eggs to cool to room temperature in the broth. Eggs can be stored in their shells in the broth for up to 24 hours. Peel before eating or using in recipes and reserve the broth.

Broccoli with Bacon & Eggs (Makes 4 servings)

For the bacon crumble:

6strips of bacon, chopped

1/4teaspoon pepper

1tablespoon of the reserved tea egg broth

For the honey Sriracha drizzle:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Sriracha (more or less to taste)

2teaspoons honey

1 garlic clove, minced

Pinch of salt

For the broccoli:

3-4 broccoli crowns, cut into florets

Pinch of salt

To serve:

1cup reserved tea egg broth

Chopped tea and spice eggs

Black sesame seeds and sliced scallions

1. To prepare the bacon crumble: Season the bacon with the pepper and fry it over medium high heat until crispy and cooked through — about 8 minutes. Drain the grease from the pan, return to the heat and add the tablespoon of reserved brine. Cook, stirring constantly, until the pan is dry (about 1 minute) and transfer the cooked bacon to a plate lined with paper towels until ready to serve.

2. To prepare the honey Sriracha drizzle: Combine the mayonnaise, Sriracha, honey, garlic and salt in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside. Sauce can be mixed a day ahead and refrigerated until ready for use.

3. To prepare the broccoli: Fit a pan with a steamer and enough water to come up the sides of the pan, but remain below the steamer holes. Bring the water to a boil, add the broccoli to steamer, cover and cook for 4 minutes or until florets are tender. Season with salt.

4. To serve: Place ¼ cup of reserved tea-egg broth in the bottom of each of 4 large bowls. Top the broth with the hot broccoli and drizzle each portion with ¼ of the honey Sriracha sauce. Divide the bacon crumble evenly over each portion and top with chopped tea eggs, black sesame and scallions.