What do our fellow bloggers, writers, and online friends eat, first thing in the morning? We are asking some friends to share their favorite morning nourishment with us. I will cook and eat it too, and bring you their thoughts on what to eat first thing in the morning. Here's Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere.

Emily passed along her favorite way to tuck into a bagel, for me one of the ultimate comfort foods. Delicious any time of day, they are the perfect vehicle for classic or inventive toppings. Join Emily and I for this scrumptious combination of satisfying flavors.

Emily's fashion, lifestyle, design and, occasionally, cooking blog, Cupcakes and Cashmere, has been on my list of daily reads for a little over a year now. I appreciate her mix of food and artful fashion, a combination you don't often see. Emily lives in Los Angeles and her sassy outfits and sunny attitude always take me right back to my days in SoCal. Cupcakes and Cashmere will leave you inspired to don your tallest heels, scour flea markets for treasures or whip up a batch of chocolate–covered orange peels. Emily's fashion observations and her joie de vivre both jump off the pages of her blog.

About this breakfast Emily simply says:

Here's my favorite breakfast: Poppy seed bagel with chive cream cheese, lox, capers, red onion and tomato. Served with a glass of fresh–squeezed orange juice and coffee with cream.

After making this breakfast (I left out the lox and the capers because I don't care for them), I was reminded of the Mark Bittman quote, "Simplicity is not a compromise but a treasure." The familiar ingredients and simple play of textures and flavors of this meal is divine. The sharpness of a well–toasted bagel with the rapturous fat in the chive cream cheese, punctuated by the acidity and spice of both the tomato and onion, well I could go on and on. It's bagel nirvana. As good as this type of breakfast gets! Living on the West Coast, Portland, Oregon to be specific, it can be a challenge to find a good bagel. We don't have the heft of East Coast dough bombs, so deliciously starchy they keep you full for an entire day, but we do have a reasonable, slightly lighter, version. This is hardly a recipe, more a myriad of toppings to keep in mind, next time you're at the bagel shop or better yet, in a tattered bathrobe reading the paper in bed.

Emily's Classic Bagel
(serves 1)
poppy seed bagel
organic cream cheese, with fresh chives mixed in
tomato, thinly sliced
red onion, thinly sliced
capers
lox

Thanks Emily for contributing to our Breakfast with a Blogger series!

• Visit Emily's Blog: Cupcakes and Cashmere

Related: Five Things to do with Leftover Bagels

(Images: Leela Cyd Ross, photo of Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere)