Eggs are the perfect food

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eggs, frittata, postaday2014

I have to say that ever since I have discovered the beauty of the frittata, I see how the egg is the perfect food, conducive to marriage with so many different vegetables, herbs and cheeses. I can even envision a dessert frittata in the works one of these days.

Whenever I want to make our son happy, I turn out a frittata and he is satisfied and excited about eating which always makes me happy as well. This time around for the frittata experience I kept it very simple; eggs, goat cheese, garlic and potatoes. I also used a combination of olive oil and duck fat to sauté the diced potatoes before adding the egg mixture.

I am happy to say that the frittata was a hit; everyone enjoyed it. This is definitely one of my favorite things to make especially when I don’t have much in the refrigerator or I don’t have that much time to prepare dinner. I will experiment with the dessert idea one of these days; it could be fun and tasty. 🙂

Waking up with frittata on the brain

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eggs, frittata, postaday2014

Last night before falling asleep, I was going through the pantry and the refrigerator in my head, trying to come up with something to prepare for the baby boy as he stays home watching Jack our other baby. Being on the road as much as I have been, I haven’t really had the time to restock the refrigerator and the pantry, so I fell asleep thinking about food. I dreamt of food and somehow in all of that dreaming, frittata, spinach and ricotta came about. I woke up with frittata on the brain.

I, somewhere in the night, had remembered that I had two bags of fresh spinach in the crisper, I still had an unopened container of ricotta cheese and I still have onions and garlic plus eggs, bingo frittata. The spinach, ricotta mixture made, in my mind, a lot of sense for a frittata because spinach and ricotta make really good raviolis, so why not a frittata? It may be a stretch to go from ravioli to frittata, but spinach and eggs are lifelong friends so why not throw in some ricotta to make a nice trio of flavors.

I was busy getting these two frittatas together so I completely forgot to take pictures, but really most frittatas look alike, this one was nice and brown on the underside, because after being in the oven I flipped it out of the pan and onto the plate. If I had flipped it back to the right side, it would have been a nice fluffy yellow with the green of the spinach and the white of the ricotta.

I am happy to say that the baby boy, before we left, had a slice and he said that it was delicious. It is quite an amazing thing, that something relatively easy to make, can be so tasty. All it is basically, is chopping an onion, mincing a few cloves of garlic and sautéing them, throwing in a bag of fresh spinach and wilting it down. Meanwhile in a bowl whisk six eggs, throw in some half-n-half, along with a cup of ricotta, salt and pepper and when the sautéed stuff is ready, pour it in the pan and wait until it sets along the side. The oven was preheated to 350 and I put the pan in for about 8 minutes or until the top is set. Be very careful when you pull the pan out of the oven, I have burned my hands and my arm, I don’t know how many times, remember the towel or the mitt, anything to protect your exposed skin. And viola frittata time.

The baby boy is on a frittata kick

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cooking, dinner, eggs, postaday2013, preferences

I thought that I was alone with zeroing on a favorite food and eating it until the cows came home, but apparently I bestowed this quirk to the baby boy. He has latched onto the frittata, the same way that I had latched onto smoked salmon, whipped cream cheese on black cracked pepper and poppy seed water crackers spritzed with lemon juice, very specific I know, but I love it. I got over my obsession with the smoked salmon a few weeks ago and moved onto turkey and provolone on rye bread with golden brown mustard. My baby boy so far just has the frittata obsession, he doesn’t care what’s in it, as long as there’s a lot of garlic and cheese, the rest doesn’t matter, it could be bacon, prosciutto or simple ham, he doesn’t mind and he loves most vegetables so whatever needs to get cooked and eaten, is fair game, another good thing about frittata’s, anything goes.

Tonight’s frittata had ham, diced Swiss cheese, I didn’t feel like grating it, chives, fresh thyme and oregano, onion, garlic, eggs and salt and pepper. It didn’t take long to prepare or to make, a half hour at the most. I wonder what will be the next meal of preference, I hope nothing too labor intensive, I have gotten spoiled with the ease of the frittata.

It’s frittata time again

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cooking, eggs, garlic, peppers, postaday2013

When all else fails you can always count on a frittata to please everyone. As long as you have garlic, some type of herbs and salt and pepper and of course at least 8 eggs, you can make a frittata work. However if you have other ingredients on hand then you are really going to have something delicious to serve. Tonight I asked the baby boy to go out back to gather a bunch of chives and on his own he rummaged a bit in the refrigerator and asked if prosciutto could be included, as a result I asked him if he minded chopping the chives and prosciutto while I was sautéing the shallots and the trio of peppers that needed to be used. The baby boy did a beautiful job and into the pan went the chives and prosciutto to meld with the caramelizing shallots, peppers and the many cloves of garlic that I had minced. I also found some basil leaves that I ribboned and added to the hodge-podge of ingredients in my oven proof pan. All that was left were the 10 eggs that I had beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper and in they went to join the vegetables, the proscuitto and the extra bacon that had been sauteed before. Once the bottom had set, into the 350 degrees the pan went and about 18 minutes later it was done. You know that it is done when the top doesn’t slosh when you shake the pan. It was very pretty when I inverted it onto the plate and according to the baby boy and my hubby it was yummy for their tummies.
I love frittatas.

Bacon makes everything better

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bacon, comfort food, cooking, dinner, eggs, food, pasta, postaday2013

Yes, I said it, bacon makes everything better. I know that nutritionally it isn’t the best for you, but if you have bacon, say on a once a week basis, how bad can it be? There are many comfort foods that have bacon attached to them in some fashion. One of my family’s favorite comfort foods is pasta carbonara and that is what’s for dinner tonight.

The baby boy and the baby girl discovered their love for this dish at a small restaurant next to our rental apartment in Le Canon, France a few summers ago. There is nothing that beats the comfort level of this pasta dish; eggs, bacon, parmesan cheese, sautéed onions and a little cream plus the pasta. There is nothing not to like here.