Eggs-travaganza

Some of you may be wondering if my darling daughter does any of the cooking here. Why yes, she does. But only certain items and only when she wants to. For instance, she loves what we call Egg-in-Hole and she will often make that for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I guess that is better than her usual bowl of popcorn or ice cream that she will have when she has to make her own food.

First the daughter cuts a hole in a slice of bread with a biscuit cutter. She then butters one side of the bread. Meanwhile a bit of oil in a pan heats on the stove. Place the bread, butter-side down, in the pan. The piece that was cut out is also put in the pan to fry. Then an egg is cracked and poured into the hole.

My daughter pokes the yolks so they cook faster. Salt and pepper season the food.

Looks like she let this cook just a bit long. Don't worry, she'll happily eat it.

All right. I've kept the poor girl from her lunch long enough.

And now on to my egg-cellent story.

One good thing about only being allowed to eat eggs for breakfast is that I have gotten very good at making omelets. Here I have two eggs, green onion, salt, pepper, a tablespoon of water in the measuring cup and sharp cheddar cheese.

I like to take the eggs out of the refrigerator an hour or so before I want to make my omelet. Room temperature eggs whip up better than cold eggs.

I've also had to switch from using packaged grated cheese because I can taste the stuff they put on the cheese to keep it from clumping back together. Yuck.

Carefully stir the eggs until the yolks begin to blend into the whites. If you try to stir too vigorously beforehand, the eggs will slop out of the measuring cup. Salt and pepper to taste and start whisking. If you click on the picture, you will see that the volume is at 125 ml.



After a few minutes of whipping air into the eggs, the mixture is now about 225 ml.

While whisking, heat the oil in an omelet pan over medium-high heat and saute the chopped green onion.



Gently pour the eggs into the pan.

Allow to briefly set before pulling up the edges and allowing the top to run under.

Since I don't like my eggs runny, I flaunt tradition by flipping the omelet.

I've gotten pretty good at the fancy chef flip. The trick is to believe that you can do it. If you hesitate, the flip trick won't work.

Now I turn the heat down to medium and grate some cheese on top. In just about a minute, the omelet is ready to be slid onto a plate and folded over.

What can I say? Light, fluffy and easy.

Can You Say Frittata?

Do you remember the roasted turnip and potatoes from the other night? I had a bit left over and decided that a frittata would be a great way to use the remainder.

May I introduce today's players? Here we have olive oil, salt, black pepper, the leftover roasted vegetables, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, diced onion, fresh flat-leaf parsley, thyme, oregano, chives and the eggs.

Oops, my darling daughter called and is on her way home. So two more eggs will be needed, as I am using two eggs per person for this dish.

First, I heat the roasted veggies and the onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat on the stove top.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs and season with salt and black pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the sauteed veggies and turn off the heat.

Sprinkle cheese and the chopped fresh herbs evenly over the frittata.

Place in a preheated 325 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the egg mixture is set.

Mmm, this is looking good.

Very good.

The nice thing about frittatas, besides the fact that they are just so easy to make, is that there are many options for fillings, such as ham, sausage, or mushrooms. Just make sure that any meats are cooked before adding to the frittata.

Another Day, Another Egg Breakfast

I trust you remember that my sadistic doctor has forbidden me from eating anything other than eggs for breakfast? Yes? Good. Well, as I absolutely loathe runny eggs, I am left with few options for egg dishes. And one can only eat so many variations of scrambled eggs, omelets (not-scrambled, scrambled eggs), fried eggs and hard poached eggs. In utter desperation, I came up with this variation of a breakfast hash. In my defense, recent research suggests that potatoes are a 'good' carbohydrate. Heck, I can live with that reasoning...

Heat olive oil and/or bacon joos (that's bacon fat those of us who are not Sandra Lee) in a small non-stick skillet. Just so you know, I usually use about 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and bacon joos. Once the pan is hot, add about 2 handfuls of frozen shredded hash browns (or 1 medium potato, shredded and drained). Press down and heat over medium-high heat until the bottom is golden brown.


Turn the potatoes over in the pan and turn the heat down a notch.


Crack 2 eggs over the hash browns and break the yolks (remember, I hate runny eggs). Season with salt and pepper at this point.

After the bottom has browned a bit (the eggs will not be set), carefully turn over in the pan. A large spatula will be very helpful here.

Turn the heat down yet another notch. Your patience will be rewarded.











And now the pseudo-hash is ready for consumption. Not bad for someone who can barely make coffee in the morning before she has had her coffee. If there ever was a paradox in life...

Eggs, Any Way

Ina Garten, or the Barefoot Contessa, as she is known, is fond of saying that if you can make scrambled eggs and then can make ten variations of that, then you have ten different dishes. Um no, Ina. Dear, you just have scrambled eggs. No matter what ingredients you mix in, they are still scrambled eggs.

Case in point: omelets, which are just non-scrambled scrambled eggs. Now, the only way I know to make an omelet taste really different is to make a French Omelette (see, even the spelling is different!).

Today I made yet another omelet, as eggs are the only breakfast food approved by my sadistic doctor.

I sauteed some chopped red onion and chopped, cooked bacon over medium-high heat in a bit of olive oil. Just before I added the egg mixture, I added about 1/2 teaspoon of my Herbes de Provence blend, so that the essential oils could permeate the dish.

I added about a tablespoon of water to 2 eggs and beat before adding in salt and pepper. I also grated some Swiss Guyere cheese for later.

I carefully pour the eggs over the onion and bacon, being careful to not push them all to one place in the pan.

The eggs have now set and I will flip the omelet so that the top can cook. What can I say? I'm lazy and don't like runny eggs and this is the fastest way to cook the eggs. The heat is then turned off while the omelet finishes cooking.

After adding the cheese, I fold the omelet out onto the plate. At this point, this is essentially an inside-out omelet. But trust me, it still tastes the same.

As good as this was, it was still just an omelet. And my doctor is still a sadist and Ina still needs to buy a clue.