Oven Baked Broccoli Frittata and Dave's Killer Bread

 I can never get frittatas right in a pan, the top is always runny while the bottom burns, so I baked this one in the oven. Awesome for a weekend breakfast.

Oven Baked Broccoli Frittata
Serves 2

4 eggs
1 stem of broccoli
2 oz cheddar (optional)
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375. Chop up broccoli, I recommend using the stem and just shaving off the tougher parts of it, and steam it for a minute or two. Meanwhile crack four eggs into a bowl and beat them along with salt and pepper. Spray olive oil or pam on an oven proof pan, I used a small pyrex rectangle, add eggs and broccoli to the pan. Top with 2 oz of shredded cheddar. You could use another cheese or skip this altogether, but Charlie won't eat eggs and broccoli together without cheddar, so we always use it. :)

The broccoli frittata is shown here with Dave's Killer Bread, a new discovery from Elizabeth. She was eating it on our snow shoe day and I zeroed in on it for its high seed content. Great for vegetarians, this bread is made with flax seeds, a non-animal source of omega 3s and B-12. In addition to being scrumptious bread, it comes with a great story of how an ex-con turned his life around through baking bread, it's 100% organic down to the cane juice and it comes in a biodegradable bag. One of these days I am going to get organized and use the bags for composting food scraps in the yard waste bin.
 

Arugala Tomato Pasta

 Quick, easy and satisfying! This is a great way to eat the mature arugala (pictured) that isn't as good in salad. What do I mean by mature arugala you might ask? I mean larger leaves that are still excellent, but don't have quite the same crisp peppery pizzazz as their younger counterparts. Oh god, am I describing myself in my 30s?

Arugala Tomato Pasta
Serves 2

4 oz whole wheat spaghetti
half bunch mature arugala
2 tomatoes (I used Roma, but it doesn't matter)
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil (this is a recipe where more is even better, but I'm trying to watch calories a bit)
2 cloves garlic
dash of red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
Dusting of Parmesan and Pine nuts (optional)

Set pasta water to boil. Saute chopped garlic in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil on medium low, add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Add chopped tomato, followed by rinsed and chopped arugala (you want it to be ever so slightly wet). When pasta is finished, drain it and add it to the saute pan to mix. Separate into two bowls, then top with Parmesan, pine nuts, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil per bowl. Correct with additional salt and pepper if you like. Buon Apetito!
 

Tricks of the Trade

While prepping tonight's dinner it occurred to me that I've picked up a few things working in restaurants that have helped make my prep work go more smoothly. I'm no virtuoso, but I thought I'd share the ones I used tonight. Some of these are especially for Full Circle people.

Basil is a very fragile herb. It's tricky to stop it from going black. It doesn't want to be held at room temperature, but it's too fragile for the cold fridge. The key to making it last is to insulate it, which is probably one reason why it's often sold in those plastic boxes. Alas, Full Circle is way too PC to send us their home grown greenhouse basil in a plastic box. What does a girl do? You've got to baby your basil, big time. I like to use at least three bags to keep it warm, first a plastic layer, then a paper layer, and then another plastic bag layer. This picture shows Thai Basil that has been in my fridge for over a week without blackening, along with all the crazy baggage I used to keep it warm:
 

The easiest way to cut up a mango is to slice it in thirds, then cross hatch it, then slice it out of its skin. Which sounds like nonsense, but this is what it looks like midway through the process:
 
As for the middle section, you can usually slice off a few slivers, but I love mango so much I generally just eat this part like corn on the cob. LOL.

The easiest and most effective way to de-seed an avocado is to cut it in half, hack your knife into the seed and twist it out. This picture shows your knife hacked into the seed:
 

And this one shows what it looks like after you twist and pop the seed out:
 
Also, for Full Circle people, I've noted that Avocados, Tomatoes, Mangoes, and Pears all arrive a bit under-ripe and need a week on the counter before eating. I actually really love this about FCF because I can eat the stuff with a short shelf life first and enjoy those items in the second week (I get an every other week delivery).

Spring is coming!

Behold! My very first harvest of 2010! Two green onions! I am very excited. But clearly from the picture, my cats are even more so. I could not get a picture of this without a cat in it!

 

I am so so excited about the idea that my garden will be back soon!!!! So excited. Here is a picture of a one day harvest from my veggie patch last September, just to give you all a tiny sense of the loss I feel during the winter:
 
I am drooling over it. I can't wait. Also I'm excited to post more stuff here that include things I grew myself. Anyway, I've decided I'm not going to tough out this locally grown thing too much longer. Expect to see more summery dishes here soon. Full Circle is hip to the winter problems and has some tropical stuff available from Mexico that I will soon be taking advantage of.

Green Bangers and Mash

 Another great winter vegetable recipe complete with a fun pub grub name. This was inspired by a Mark Bittman post on the New York Times Website. It's a Morning Star Farm Italian Veggie Sausage along side kale mashed potatoes. Both are delicious and even better together.

Kale Mashed Potatoes
Serves 2-4

2 Large Yukon Gold Potatoes
2/3s of a bunch of green curly kale
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
grated parmesan (optional)

Preheat oven to 400. Heat some water to boil while you chop up your potatoes. Add them to the boiling water. Wash and rinse your kale, then chop it into inch strips or smaller. I don't use the thicker part of the stem, but you can if you like it. In a nonstick pan add kale and a bit of water for steaming. Cover with a large lid. Meanwhile chop up the garlic. After the kale has steamed for a couple of minutes, pour off any excess water (if there is any) and then add garlic, salt, pepper and a dash of olive oil. Saute on medium. As long as it has been at least 15 minutes, drain the potatoes and mash them in a bowl with salt pepper and the 1/4 cup of olive oil, stir in the sauteed kale. Personally, I view this next step as optional, but it's how Mark Bittman did it so I followed suit. Transfer your green mashed potato mixture to a greased oven proof baking pan. I used a souffle pan because that is what Mark Bittman did. Here I had to differ because I don't have any breadcrumbs, let alone homemade ones. So topped my dish with parmesan cheese and pepper. Bittman baked his dish for 15 minutes. I baked mine long enough to cook up my sausage, make tea and prep my camera for the photoshoot. The result was a very comforting, yummy dish:

 

Winter Vegetable Pasta

  This may be the best dish I've ever made. No joke. Better yet, it's another way to use leftover roasted root vegetables.

Winter Vegetable Pasta
Serves 2 heartily

4 leaves green kale
half medium onion
2 cloves garlic
6 cremini mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup roasted root vegetables (my most recent batch featured sunchoke and rutabega, both were really good in this dish)
1.5 cups whole wheat farfalle (or other short pasta)
2 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons walnuts
2 oz white wine
2 oz half and half
Pecorino or Parmesan to garnish (optional). Picture shows pecorino ribbons.

Melt butter in sauce pan on low for several minutes, you want the butter to begin to brown like this:
 
Meanwhile, set the pasta water to boil. Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat. Add chopped kale, mushrooms and garlic until cooked thoroughly. Set aside. If you are using leftover roots, microwave them for 3 minutes. If not, microwave chunks of yam or another root until full cooked.

Keep a close watch on the butter, once it has browned and begun to evaporate, add your wine to deglaze the brown bits from the pan. Add walnuts. It should look like so:
 

Then add half and half:
 

Stir well and add your vegetables to the pan. Salt and pepper the lot. Once pasta is finished cooking, add it and stir well. Serve in bowls with shaved pecorino ribbons or parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Leftover Rice Recipes

I am a huge fan of cooking with leftovers. I always try to make extra rice or any other staple, so that I can use it to make something else later. The only exception here is pasta, where I just seem to eat it all no matter what. This post features 3 recipes for using the left over rice I made as a side to go with Mexican Lasagna along with the recipe for the "Spanish" Rice shown in the picture.

I made two dry cups of short brown rice in the rice cooker and set one cooked cup of it aside to make deliciously simple Breakfast Fried Rice, inspired by Elizabeth:
 

Breakfast Fried Rice
Serves 2

1 cup cooked brown rice
2 eggs
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon Soy Vay Teriyaki sauce

Fry the rice in in oil. You can either add the egg and fry it in with the rice or fry it separately and top your rice with it (both ways are really good). Add teriyaki sauce to the rice just enough to heat it up before serving. YUM.

"Spanish" Rice
Makes plenty - enough to eat now and have more for leftovers

2-3 cups cooked brown rice
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper

Saute olive oil, garlic, and tomato paste in a large pan. Add rice and mix in. Season with salt and pepper.

Here's what I did with my leftover "Spanish" rice after serving 1 cup along side Mexican Lasagna.


Breakfast "Spanish" Rice
Serves 2
Very similar to Breakfast Fried Rice

1 cup spanish rice
1 tsp olive oil
2 eggs

Fry up rice in saute pan with oil on medium heat. Once it's heated through, make two indentations in the rice separate from each other and crack an egg into each. Top your pan and wait about 4 minutes for the egg to steam cook. Use a spatula to carefully transfer one egg rice hash to each plate. Enjoy!

 
Rice Fritters
Serves 2-4

1-2 Cups Spanish Rice
1 egg
1-2 Tablespoons Whole Wheat Flour
salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together. The flour binds the egg and makes it possible to fry the patties, but you can replace it with a gluten free flour. Once your ingredients are mixed together it should have the consistency of cookie dough. Heat your fry pan and put pam or oil it it. Spoon 2-3 Tablespoons of the mixture onto your pan and cook for 4 minutes on medium for 4 minutes a side. Enjoy!