Sunday Frittata

Ah...  Sunday Breakfast!

Breakfast is one of my most favorite meals.  I love the bazillion-and-one flavor combinations that one can come up with.  Sweet stuff and savory stuff and everything in-between.

In my restaurant-cooking days, it was probably the most difficult meal to cook.  Folks have some really serious issues about how they want their bacon cooked and how they want their eggs cooked - to the point of being completely and totally overly-neurotic about it.  Really overly-neurotic.

But I digress...

This was a really simple throw-together using leftovers in the 'fridge.

I cut up about a cup of cooked teeny potatoes from the other night and cooked them with 3 green onions and 1 stalk of broccoli.  I mixed up 4 eggs, poured them in, topped it with some buffalo mozzarella and a sliced tomato from the garden.  Salt and pepper.

I stuck the pan under the broiler for about 5 minutes, and breakfast was served.


Sunday Brunch

What a fun day we had today!  Our dear friend Ruth was visiting from Vermont, so she stopped by to spend a few hours with us.  Naturally, that means food.

I made a variation on the Rustic Summer Tart from a couple of weeks ago.

Here's the original recipe and my changes will follow...

Rustic Summer Squash Tart Recipe

By Woman’s Day Kitchen from Woman’s Day | August 1, 2008

Active Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Recipe Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 lb mixed summer squash (zucchini, yellow squash and pattypan), cut in 1/4-in. rounds
  • 2 shallots, thinly sliced
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme or marjoram, plus sprigs for garnish
  • 1 tsp chopped garlic
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1 refrigerated pie crust (from a 15-oz. box)
  • 4 oz Roquefort cheese, Gorgonzola or other good-quality blue cheese
  • 1 roasted yellow or red pepper (freshly roasted or from a jar), cut in strips
  • 1 large plum tomato, sliced, seeds removed
  • 1 large egg, beaten

Recipe Preparation

  1. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add squash and shallots and cook, turning pieces as they start to color, 7 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove from heat; stir in thyme, garlic and pepper to taste. Cool to room temperature.
  2. Heat oven to 400° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; unroll or unfold pie crust on the parchment. With a rolling pin, roll crust to a 13-in. round. Crumble half the cheese over crust to within 2 in. of edge. Arrange squash mixture, pepper strips and tomato slices on cheese; fold edge of the crust over filling and brush crust with egg.
  3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until pastry is golden. Slide tart, still on parchment, onto a wire rack. Crumble remaining cheese over top. Let cool before serving.

I made it with arugula, mushrooms, leeks, red onions, zucchini, red and yellow peppers, tomatoes, really good gorgonzola, and assorted fresh herbs from the garden.  And homemade crust, of course.

A bit of fresh fruit, of course...

And scones.

This is the second batch I made.  I forgot the baking powder in the first batch.  They didn't come out very well.

The second batch came out great!

Scones

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 1/3 cup jam

Preheat oven to 400°. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Gradually add 1 cup cream, mixing until dough comes together. Pat to 1/2-inch thickness. Ccut scones into wedges.  Make indentation on top of scone and fill with 1 teaspoon jam. Transfer to baking sheet. Bake scones until brown, about 18 minutes. Serve warm.

We had a lot of fun sitting around and talking up a storm.  And eating.

And we'll be seeing her in October in New Hampshire.

Life is good.

Oh...  And tomorrow is Victor's Pasta Day.

Life is really good!


Breakfast For Dinner

Considering I've been in bed more hours than up the past few days, breakfast for dinner somehow seemed fitting.  Besides, we had everything we needed and I didn't have to go outside for anything.  The cold from hell coupled with hellish temperatures outside have not done much for my normally charming disposition.  Cranky?!?  MOI?!?  Of course, not...  Much...

Potatoes roasted in the oven, thick-sliced Niman Ranch bacon, and local, cage-free, jumbo eggs... Toast sliced from yesterday's homemade bread...

The appetite is still not quite back, and the taste buds are still on hiatus, but all things considered, it was pretty good.

I cooked us each three eggs, although Cybil ended up with most of them.

Three eggs are what I first flipped circa 1975 at The Old Post Office in Carnelian Bay, California.

I was collecting unemployment in San Francisco after being laid off from The Red Chimney restaurant when a friend of mine, Steve Johnson, called me up and asked me if I would be interested in a cook job up at Lake Tahoe.  I figured I had nothing to lose and a few days vacation at the lake would be fun, regardless...

So...  I flew up to the lake.  Steve picked me up and off we went.

The interview went great until Norma, the owner, said she wanted to see me flip some eggs.  They were famous for their three-egg breakfast orders...  Panic set in.  I had never - ever - flipped an egg before in my life.  Ever.

So with a brave face I went into the kitchen, heated the pan, added some butter, cracked three eggs, waited for just the right moment... and... a perfect flip!  I was shocked!  And Norma hired me right then and there!

The beginning of five years of living in the mountains started by flipping a couple of eggs.  Actually, it was the start of life as I know it, today!  Had I not flipped those eggs, I wouldn't have gone to work for Hyatt, met Dusty, Susan, and Michael, moved to Boston in 1980, and met Dorrie who was just here to visit.  Who knows how different things would have been if I had stayed in that house on 28th Avenue with Kira and Robert - and their soon-to-be-born son.

I wonder if I would have quit cooking and gone back to school for social work?!?  It's what I actually wanted to do.  I got pushed into hotel and restaurant by my old boss, Barry Beaupre, and he was signing my outrageous $1000.00/mo paycheck - a hellava lot more than social workers were getting paid at the time!  It was the path of least resistance, and Uncle Sam was only paying $260.00/mo in GI Benefits for us Vietnam Veterans to go to school full-time.

Me a Social Worker.  That really would have changed my life dramatically!  I never would have left San Francisco.  I think that's the most difficult part to imagine.  Never leaving the city...

No...  the most difficult thing to imagine is life without Victor.  I am sooooo glad I flipped those eggs!

So there it is - my life in an egg shell.

This cold is driving me crazy!


Coffee, Bird Houses, and Friends

Friends.  What would life be without them?

Ours would be decidedly less fun and interesting, that's for sure.

Two days ago, a regular customer who has been in Costa Rica since December came in with a pound of Costa Rican coffee for me.  What fun!  We all know how much I love fun, unique, and interesting foods.  And my love of a good cup of dark roast coffee is legendary.  What could possibly be better than a pound of dark roast coffee labeled especially for me?!?

The coffee comes from Finca Flor Mar, in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

It is rich, it is flavorful, it is bold without being overly acidic and in-your-face.  In short, the perfect cup of coffee.  I'm drinking it iced, right now.  Black.  No sugar.  No cream.  The way Mother Nature intended it to be.

They do have a website but it appears to be getting updated and there's no information on how to purchase right now.  I'll publish it when there is, because I would like to get more of this!  Rachael said that they sell it as a fundraiser of sorts and I would definitely prefer giving my money to a sustainable farmer in Costa Rica than a multi-national corporation somewhere.

And what better way to celebrate coffee from a friend than sharing it with friends?!?  This morning, Mike and Barbara stopped by from South Carolina on their way to NYC.  I met Mike through an online newspaper bulletin board several years ago.  Politically, we're on the same wavelength, and personally, we all just have a lot in common for being from such different places.  They are just fun people.  They stayed with us a year or so ago with their daughter on another trek to the Big Apple.  Did I mention they're fun folks?!?

This trip, I made Lemon Corn Blueberry Pancakes with a Strawberry and Raspberry Maple Syrup.  Did I take any pictures?!?  Of the friends or the food?!?  No.  Oh well.  It's not the pictures, it's the company and conversation.  It was great seeing them, again, even if it was just for a couple of hours.

Back to coffee for a moment...

I bought Victor a way-cool, ridiculously expensive KitchenAid coffee maker a year or so ago.  Problem was, it was about an inch too tall to sit on the counter under the cabinets.  It had to live on the island.  It brewed a really good cup of coffee - it actually heated the water hot enough - but it also took up valuable real estate.  And the paint was corroding around where the water was poured in.  Great features.  Too big.  Great coffee. Looked like hell.  A perfect love/hate relationship.

After Mike and Barbara left, Victor and I were standing in the kitchen and he made an off-hand comment about getting a Mr Coffee.  I looked over at the coffee maker and noticed the time was off by a couple of hours.  I hit the button to change the time and - nothing.  I turned the knobs, and no lights.  I unplugged and plugged back in.  Nothing.  This time the clock was gone, too.  Even though I knew the socket was working, I plugged it into another.  More nothing.

Victor had hurt its feelings.  The coffee maker committed suicide.

Oh well.  I'm not about to cry over dead coffee makers.  And I'm also not about to spend a gazillion dollars on a coffee maker, again.  This last one replaced an $80 Cuisinart.  Down to Kmart and a $38.00 Mr Coffee.

It just made a really good cup of coffee.

And back to friends...

Victor was talking to our next door neighbor, Ed, this morning, and Ed said he had a bird house for us.  Ed's wife, Peg, calls him Geppetto.    He has his woodworking shop down in the basement and is down there for hours on end making and creating.  He has done commission work replicating complete homes for people.

They are the perfect neighbors.  The day we signed the papers on the house we were standing out front when he walked by with their dog.  He said "You boys buy the house?"    When we replied, yes, he said "Good!  I'll be over with a bottle of whiskey."  The perfect neighbor.

Peg used to drive around in a bright yellow MG until her health went down hill.  She's slowed down but refuses to stop.  She's quite the amazing woman.

So it's been a day of friends and sharing.

And we're very grateful for all of it.


Valentine's Day Breakfast

It's funny how Valentine's Day changes the longer we've been together.

The first few years we were together we showered each other with pounds of chocolates, dozens of roses - all of the Hallmark-trappings of the day.  There's a lot of pressure those first few years.  The pressure recedes as the love grows.  The heart above is from a pound of See's candy from one of those early years.

16 years later it's "Let me cook breakfast for you" and "I'm going to the drug store to get something for that cough of yours."   That's love.

I've been fighting a cold all week, but it's been a losing battle.  And you know the saying "Feed a cold, starve a fever"?  Well...  we're feeding the cold!

Victor cooked a really good egg pie this morning - eggs, white asparagus, fingerling potatoes, mushrooms, peppers, cheese - but the surprise part of breakfast was Trevor's Pepper Jelly!

Trevor sent us a jar at Christmas and it's been sitting right in front of the cabinet, staring at us every time we opened the cupboard door.

I can be of two different minds when it comes to special foods.  One is to just go for it and eat it all up - enjoying every bite and morsel with abandon.  The other is to kind of hide it away because there isn't going to be any more, sneaking a peak now and again and imagining how wonderful it would be.

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for just the right moment to open it up.

So... what could be a better day than Valentine's Day to enjoy a gift from a good friend?  You're right.  There isn't one.  And I'm glad we waited until today.

The Pepper Jelly is unbelievably wonderful. Repeat. Unbelievably wonderful.  A rich pepper flavor with the perfect amount of sweetness.  Spread on thick slices of toasted and buttered whole wheat Italian pane, it was the nectar of the gods.  I had to stop myself from eating by the spoonful right from the jar.

I think I'm going to be making some really soon!

The egg pie was just what the Doctor ordered.  And alternating bites of egg, potato, toast, and jelly - with sips of coffee in between - was the perfect way to start the day.  Fortunately, my taste-buds are still in full operation.

We passed on dinner with Victor's family tonight.  No sense spreading this around.

I see a chicken noodle soup in our future.  And maybe a pepper jelly crostini...


Sunday Breakfast

Blueberry pancakes topped with warmed lemon curd.

Is this the way to start a Sunday, or what?!?

I must admit that I rarely ever buy fresh berries (or most fresh produce of any sort) out of season.   I love that first strawberry of the season after being without for months, or that raspberry, or blackberry...  I gorge myself on them when they're at their peak - and then wait for another year to do it, again.

Of course, nowadays we have tasteless, under-ripe fruits and vegetables being grown all over the world and shipped to our supermarkets so we can enjoy bland foods year-round.  I tend to stay away from these things.

Yesterday, however, I tasted some fresh blueberries and visions of blueberry pancakes started dancing in my head. It's amazing how quickly I can toss aside principles when presented with a fresh, juicy blueberry.

This morning, that vision was realised.  No pancake-mix pancakes, either.  These were the Real McCoy.  I resisted making whole wheat oatmeal whole-grain whatevers.  My vision was for light, fluffy pancakes studded with juice-popping blueberries.

Blueberry Pancakes

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • pinch salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup neutral oil
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup blueberries

Mix dry ingredients together.  Stir in eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla.  A few lumps are okay - they actually help to make the pancakes light.  Stir in blueberries and cook on hot griddle.

While my vision of the pancakes, themselves was traditional, my thought for a topping was not.  Victor went traditional and chose butter and maple syrup.  I chose warmed lemon curd.

A little bit of sunshine in what is supposed to be a wet and rainy day.


Tahoe Brunch

Tim Dineen

In five years of living at Lake Tahoe in the ’70s, one dish always stands out in my mind — our famous “Tahoe Brunch”.

There were 4 very social guys and gals (Susan, Clare, Michael, and me) living in a huge 4br home with 20′ ceilings and a wall of windows leading out to a deck and lake views from everywhere.

Whether we were entertaining friends, or just having a leisurely weekend, food (and lots of it!) always entered into the picture. (Fast-forward 30 years and some things haven’t changed at all!)

We cooked everything from scratch in those days – we made our own tortilla chips, baked most of our own bread, made huge pots of soups and stews in the winter and grilled all summer long. Communing with nature in style.

This is one creation we came up with to serve a crowd — and every time I make it I (vaguely) remember those thrilling days of yesteryear… Ah… sweet youth…..

  • a loaf of good quality bread
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
  • 2 bell peppers, sliced
  • 1 1/2 pounds Italian sausage
  • 1 pound Cheddar Cheese, shredded (or assorted cheeses to make 1 pound)
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 cups half and half
  • 2 tbsp dijon mustard or other good mustard
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs

Saute onions and mushrooms in 2 tbsp butter until lightly browned and tender (about 5 minutes). Season with salt & pepper. Cut sausage into bite-sized pieces, cook and drain.

Butter a 9×13 pan. Layer six slices of bread. Add half the mushroom and onion mixture, half the sausage and half the cheese. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Mix together the eggs, half and half, mustard, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the casserole and cover. Refrigerate 24 hours.

The following day — Preheat oven to 350°. Bake uncovered about an hour, or until set all the way through.

In true Tahoe fashion, serve with plenty of Mimosa’s, Bloody Mary’s, or freshly squeezed juices and a huge fresh fruit salad…


Fast-forwarding, again…

There weren’t that many sausage varieties back in 1978 Lake Tahoe (Italian, hot or mild) mushrooms were white, and cheese was American, cheddar, Swiss, mozzarella, and jack (we don’t count velveeta). Parmesan came in a green can. Heck, there weren’t that many bread varieties, either!

By switching out the bread, the cheese, the sausage, the mushrooms, adding different peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, whatever, you can create your own fun variation.


Apricot Quinoa Cereal

  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 1 cup quinoa, washed and drained
  • 1 cup apricot nectar
  • 1 cup chopped dried apricots
  • 1/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

In a 2-quart saucepan, bring the water, apricot nectar, apricots, cinnamon, and nutmeg to a boil. Rinse the Quinoa according to the package instructions. Add the Quinoa to the saucepan. Reduce the heat to a simmer. Partially cover the pan and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the grains are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Press the cottage cheese through a sieve into a small bowl. Stir in the maple syrup. Stir the mixture into the cereal. Serve warm. Serves 4.

 


It's all about the picture...

2-7-fritatta-1

One of the key ingredients of writing a food blog is posting pictures of the food.  One can wax poetically about lighter-than-air cake or the tangy contrasts in a sauce, but it is the pictures that really showcase the meal.

This morning's fritatta is a case in point.

This was a true clean-out-the-refrigerator-fritatta.  Everything in it was a leftover at some point.  A quarter of an onion in a baggie, dying broccoli, 2 really small steamed potatoes, a small piece of ham, a piece of bell pepper.  The last 2 slices (each) of asiago and provolone cheeses.

But pulled together with olive oil, eggs, and garlic, they all had one more moment of gastronomic glory.  Nothing wasted.

But back to the picture...

The fritatta tasted even better than the picture suggests, but the picture doesn't necessarily show the whole story...

2-7-fritatta-2

As I said... It's all about the picture...


Panettone French Toast

 

Breakfast is served.

Okay...  breakfast is actually over, and there are no leftovers.  Sorry.

Panettone French Toast (if you use Italian bread, is it still French toast?!?) for breakfast this morning with real maple syrup, along with some Niman Ranch bacon.  Steaming hot coffee.

The bread is so rich and flavorful that the batter doesn't need anything other than eggs and milk.

Later today is football and chili dogs.

I can't wait!


Sunday Brunch

Today was our Annual Christmas Get-Together with Linda and David.  Linda and Victor have known each other since grammar school.  Ours was the first house Linda ever handled as a new real estate agent.  And they both love food like we do.

And they love to talk like we do... six conversations going on simultaneously.  They're great fun.

We started off with coffee and lox and bagels, cream cheese, onions, tomatoes, capers... The basics...

We consumed our requisite amount of appetizers while I was busy pulling the main course together.  Of course, everyone stayed in the kitchen.  We didn't even bother trying to move them out to the living room.  They're definitely kitchen-friends.  We were talking about designing our "dream home" and figured all we really needed was a big kitchen, a bed and a bath.  Really. And if I had the money, I'd do some serious wall-rearranging...

The most wasted space in our house is the dining room.  It's too small to be of any real use.  Knock down a couple of walls, relocate a stairway...  Piece of cake.  But I digress...

We're all chatting away and I'm cooking away.  Actually, at this point I was merely poaching eggs and trying to pull it all together...

The main course was our version the Eggs Benedict we had at Maverick in San Francisco this past November.  Andouille Sausage and Langostinos with a jalapeño hollandaise.  Downright good!

This is what putting four plates together simultaneously looks like!

(I want a bigger kitchen for my birthday.)  The plate was finished off as the last time with cubed fried potatoes.  It works.  What can I say?

The finishing touch was individual Panettone Bread Puddings.

This was out-of-this-world-good!   I make a lot of bread pudding, but this one was over the top!

  • 1 large loaf panettone, cut into cubes
  • 8 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar

Preheat oven to 350°.
Butter 6 individual 10 oz souffle cups (or a 9x13 pan.) Whisk the eggs, cream, milk, and sugar to blend and then add bread cubes. Press the bread cubes gently to submerge.
Let stand for 30 minutes, occasionally pressing the bread cubes into the liquid.
Spoon into prepared cups, filling to rim. (An ice cream scoop works well.)
Place filled cups into a deep-rimmed pan and add boiling water to fill about halfway up side of cups.

Bake until the pudding puffs and is set in the center, about 55 minutes.  If using 9x13 pan, omit water bath and bake about 45-55 minutes.

It really came out good!

And here are Linda and David enjoying dessert!

We finally retired to the living room and opened presents!

Our next big meal together will be in at their house in July for my and Linda's birthdays.  More presents!!  And more good food!


WOW Eggs Benedict

Victor just christened this the best breakfast I have ever made.  He may be right.  WOW!  is all I can say!

When we were in San Francisco a few weeks ago, we had brunch at Maverick with Renee, and we had these excellent Eggs Benedict.  I've been dying to make my own version ever since.  Today was that day.

Maverick made theirs with andouille and crayfish.  I made mine with andouille and langostinos.

Now... cooking breakfast is not for the faint-of-heart.  It can be one of the most difficult and time-consuming meals to pull off.  A good breakfast cook is worth his weight in gold - and can make some seriously good money at the right place.  It's all timing.  Well... and lots of pots and pans. (And, hopefully, someone else to clean up!)  I know.  I cooked a LOT of breakfasts in my day.  And was paid well for it.

For breakfast today I started by lightly toasting the English muffins.  I then started the poaching water with a splash of white vinegar to keep the eggs from spreading.

I sauteed the diced andouille sausage in a bit of butter and at the last minute, added the langostino.  It only takes a second to cook.  There's enough spice in the sausage that I didn't need to add anything else.

Meanwhile, I had diced a potato and had it cooking in a bit of grapeseed oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.

Hollandaise is extremely easy to make, and Maverick made theirs with jalapeno.  I had Happy Hal's Jalapeno Relish in the fridge and used it.  Fantastic!

Blender Jalapeno Hollandaise

  • 3 egg yolks
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • 1/2 tsp Happy Hal's Jalapeno Relish
  • 1 cup butter, melted and hot
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Place egg yolks, salt, Happy Hal's and heavy cream in blender, blend for a few seconds at high speed. Add hot butter in a thin, steady stream.  Add vinegar about half-way through and then add the rest of the butter.  Enjoy.

To make a traditional hollandaise, substitute a pinch of cayenne for the Happy Hal's.  You may also use lemon juice in place of the vinegar. (I didn't have any lemons in the house this morning.)

So... English muffins on the plate, topped with andouille and langostinos.  Atop that went the poached eggs.  Careful here... the eggs will not sit flat upon the andouille.  I almost lost one egg to the floor.  Cybil was extremely bummed that I saved it.  Make a bit of a nest, if need be.

Potatoes on the plate, hollandaise on the eggs, and breakfast was served.

This is definitely one to share.  It is outstanding!