Week 15: Sausage, White Bean & Rosemary Frittata

A friend told me she spotted a recipe for a white bean frittata and I was immediately interested. Rather than waiting for her to find the recipe, I concocted my own. I also had two other frit recipes sent to me by my sister and a good friend, both of which I look forward to making.

6 eggs
1 small onion
1/2 can cannelli beans
2 links of chicken/turkey sausage
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

 

We sauteed the onions and sliced sausage together and then added the white beans toward the end to warm them up. I covered the mixture and let it "simmer" for a couple of minutes. The chopped rosemary got mixed in with the eggs and some salt and pepper and a dash of milk. The egg mixture was poured over the sausage mixture and cooked on the stove top for a few minutes. We transferred the frit to the broiler, allowing it to puff up and brown, then adding the Parmesan cheese to the top and let it melt under the broiler for less than a minute.

This was okay, the sausage really saved this one for me. We should have added a touch more rosemary. I'm usually a big fan of white beans, but I wasn't really in love with them in this frit—they were a little to dry and pasty.  I am curious to see my friend's recipe now to see if I could make the white beans work in a frit. The sausage was awesome. We also had an iceberg wedge with blue cheese dressing and tomatoes, a house favorite.

Week 14: Easter Morning Frits—Scrapple & Lox

Ah, sweet Spring! Lovely sunny days, flowering trees and bulbs, and long breezy walks all lead to me spending less time on the computer. We made these frits last Sunday and now almost a week later I am finally getting around to posting.

Hubs, pup and I drove down to Baltimore to spend time with family for the holiday. Our frittata making skills were requested and put to the test—cooking in a new kitchen without our own equipment did have some challenges, but I'd say all in all the frits were good.

My mother-in-law did the shopping for us after a brief discussion of what we would make. One frittata would be a tribute to home (MD) and the other a bit more refined and fitting of an Easter breakfast. We prepared both frit "bases" with 8 eggs each, ~2 tbsp milk, and ~1/4 cup sauteed onions, salt and pepper.

The first frittata had fried thinly sliced Scrapple and Kraft cheese, simple and yummy. The second frit had smoked salmon, finely chopped red onion, capers, and dollops of sour cream.

We enjoyed these with a great green salad and roasted red potatoes with rosemary.

Week 13: Potato, Fennel and Garlic Frittata

It's Thursday! The weeks go by quickly and our Sunday night frittata has pretty much turned into any night we can squeeze it in. Yesterday after a nice country walk with a friend and the pup, we stopped at Terhune Orchards to browse around. I bought some delicious guacamole, chips and a lovely fennel bulb. Armed with the bulb I looked for a frittata recipe that uses fennel. After a quick Google search, I came across the below recipe published in The Boca Raton News, September of 1994.

This frittata was good. I followed the directions pretty closely, with a couple little cook time changes. One of my complaints in this recipe is the cook time for the potatoes, it was not enough time, they were a slight bit underdone even after I cooked them for about 5 minutes longer than directed. I also cooked the garlic slices for a bit longer, slightly browning them, yum. The fennel added a lovely flavor to the frit as did the jarlsburg cheese—bubbling and delicious on top!

Preparing the potatoes and fennel and the finished frit below. We kept it simple and served this with an arugula, carrot and tomato salad.

Week 12: Chicken Satay Frittata

Tonight's frit was a last minute decision inspired by roaming aimlessly around Trader Joe's. I spotted a jar of Satay sauce and my gears started turning—I had a bush load of cilantro at home, throw some coconut milk & chicken in the cart and I was ready to cook. I decided to put the TJ's brand Satay back on the shelf and make my own. I loosely based my satay sauce on a couple recipes I viewed online, it was very hard not to eat it while the frit was cooking, it was delicious.

I used 4 small boneless, skinless chicken thighs and browned them in the frit pan in a little olive oil and s+p.

The egg mixture:
6 eggs
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/4 chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp sriracha sauce

Satay sauce:
1/4 natural chunky peanut butter
1/8 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp sriracha sauce
1/2 tsp agave syrup
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tsp soy sauce

Mix together all ingredients to make the Satay sauce. Mix together all egg mixture ingredients and pour into greased (from cooked chicken, drain extra oil out) pan over medium heat. Stir gently around a bit until the mixture starts to set on the sides and then throw in the broiler for a minute or two. Slice the chicken breasts into strips and brush with satay sauce. Arrange the slices around the frittata and then throw back into the broiler for a couple minutes until the top is nice and browned. Serve garnished with more chopped cilantro, thinly sliced red onion and the remaining satay sauce on the side.

This was great. The coconut milk gave the eggs a wonderful smooth and delicate texture and lovely subtle essence. I was surprised that the cilantro flavor in the egg was a little lost, which is why it was great to have the backup garnish. I made a simple salad with little heirloom tomatoes and dressed it with this outrageous 18 year balsamic vinaigrette mixed with a dash of olive oil. We got this balsamic for Christmas and I just cracked it open this weekend, what took me so long? It is divine drizzled over strawberries.

Special happy birthday wishes to my wonderful friend's beautiful daughter, she turned 1 this past Monday and I was lucky enough to celebrate with them this past weekend.

Week 11: Tunacan! Frittata Nicoise

This week’s frittata was inspired by a gift from our friend and
upstairs neighbor Paloma Torres. In our local grocery store, she found
jarred tuna in oil like they sell in Spain and gave it to me for my
birthday (March 10. Yeah, I’m 36.). The tuna became the centerpiece
for this week’s frittata, which after some back-and-forth with the
wife became a frittata with all the ingredients of the French nicoise
salad: tuna, red potatoes, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, black olives,
hard boiled egg, green beans, capers, and Parmesan cheese.

                           
The dressing was awesome, taken from this recipe on simplyrecipes.com—we had none of the fresh herbs, so we used tarragon Dijon instead of plain:

1/2 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot, minced
1 Tbsp minced fresh thyme leaves
2 Tbsp minced fresh basil leaves
2 teaspoons minced fresh oregano leaves

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

We had some guests over so we made a 9 egg frittata instead of 6 and
we used a larger Le Crueset platter instead of a cast iron skillet. In
advance, wife boiled and halved the red potatoes, blanched a mess
of green beans, and hard-boiled three eggs. I steamed the spinach for
a minute or two until it wilted. Then I beat the 9 eggs with 2 tbsp
cream and 1 tbsp water. I grated a 2 cups of Parmesan cheese.

I coated the big platter with olive oil and the oil from the tuna jar.
Vanessa suggested mixing the steamed spinach into the egg batter so
that the spinach wouldn’t be clumped in one layer. This is smart, but
we also wanted to avoid having spinach touching the bottom of the
platter. So after warming the platter and oil, I cooked a thin layer
of spinach-less eggs first, then poured in the remaining mix of
spinach and egg.

The eggs cooks like an omelet under high heat on the stove. Peel the
edges back to allow the wet batter to seep under and cook fully. Have
the broiler ready on high. We felt the bottom cooking too quickly, so
we put the platter under the boiler to cook the eggs from above for a
bit. With the eggs barely wet on top, we removed it from the broiler
and layered the tuna on top in thin pieces. Back it went under the
broiler for a few minutes to warm the tuna and cook the last of the
egg. Then we topped it with Parmesan cheese and return to broiler
until the cheese was melted.

We served in a buffet style: a slice of frittata, some potatoes, some
beans, some lettuce, some tomatoes, some black olives, some capers,
some sliced of hard boiled egg. Add some vinaigrette to everything.
The plate cold and fresh except for the hot frittata, making for a
tasty spring meal on our first 60 degree afternoon. We also served a
fresh baguette. The delicate eggs and tuna with the salty capers,
olives, and vinaigrette was delicious!

Quick Mac and Cheese

On our drive home from New Hampshire yesterday we were able to catch the end of Splendid Table on npr. A non-bechamel based Mac and Cheese recipe was briefly discussed and after a mental tally of my post-vaca pantry at home I thought (and wished) that I just might be able to pull it off without a visit to the grocery store. And sure enough I did have everything give or take an ounce or two less of cream cheese and the cup of milk which was an easy borrow from a neighbor. Also, I used regular breadcrumbs instead of saltines and I used a smoked Spanish paprika which added a wonderful rich undertone to the dish. This was easy to put together and quite delicious. We ate it as a main with arugula (that amazingly made it through the vacation wilt free) and a California chardonnay.

Here is the recipe:
21st Century Mac and Cheese

Week 10: Frittata's Fancy Cousin Visits for a Birthday Party

It's hubbie's birthday and he requested Quiche Lorraine for his birthday dinner—which he insisted should take the place of the frittata this week, phew. While attending a pastry course at the French Culinary, we made this dish as part of our pastry dough and custard session. I brought it home and hubs loved it so much and couldn't stop going on and on about it. Whenever we're looking for something to make he always mentions Quiche Lorraine, much to my chagrin. It is incredibly delicious, but I remembered it being a bit daunting to make, so I always shy away from it. But I could not deny a special birthday request, despite a hectic schedule. After Pasta Pietro on Monday, a lovely friend helped me prep for Tuesday night's dinner—I made the dough and she weighed and finely grated the Gruyere (we also made a chocolate buttercream for the birthday dessert). Tuesday morning before work, I rolled out the dough, placed it in tart pans, then covered and chilled for the day.

Pâte Brisée (flaky tart dough)

For a 8 to 9” tart , ~240 grams

125 grams cake flour

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp granulated sugar

62 grams cold butter, cubed

32 mL water

Mix together flour, salt and sugar. Cut the cold butter into ½ cubes. Add butter cubes to flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter pieces are the size of dried lentils. Form a well in the butter-flour mixture and add some of the cold water (be careful not overwork the dough). Dough should be soft and shaggy, add more water as needed. Gather pieces together and wrap in plastic, chill for at least 30 minutes.

Quiche Lorraine

240 grams of pâte brisée

50 grams bacon, cut into ¼ cubes (I used pre-cut proscuitto)

50 grams Gruyere, grated

125 mL milk

125 ML heavy cream

2 eggs

pinch of salt

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of ground black pepper

Roll out dough until 10” in diameter and 1/8” thick. Line your tart pan and chill the shell. Preheat the oven to 350°. Blind bake the tart shell until light brown, set aside to cool. Cook the bacon in a bit of oil until the fat is rendered and the bacon is lightly browned, remove and drain on paper towels.

Making the custard: Scald the milk and cream by heating on the oven top until there is a “skin” layer on top, set aside to cool. Whip the eggs and spices in the mixer and add the semi-cool scalded milk and cream. You don’t want the milk mixture to be to warm—it could start to scramble the eggs. I added the milk mixture while my mixer was on low-medium speed and then turned it up and whipped the eggs and milk until it was quite frothy on top. My French Culinary recipe has you fine strain the custard, I skipped this step.

Arrange the bacon and Gruyere on the bottom of the cooled tart shells. Pour the custard over the bacon and Gruyere. Bake the quiche for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the custard is set and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

My quiches were in the oven for over 45 minutes…I don’t think I blind baked my tart shells long enough— the dough could have been a little flakier, and the custard took forever to set. But the end product was very tasty and hubs was happy! I am confident I can take on this quiche more often in the future.

Friends added to the birthday feast: dates wrapped in bacon, red potatoes stuffed with onions and smoked salmon, fried cheese with cilantro paste, a green salad laced with dill, and an awesome potato salad. The meal was finished with double chocolate melt in your mouth whoopie pies. Yum.

Pasta Pietro for Friends

I am taking an oil painting class, something I have always wanted to do. My homework this week was to make this pasta recipe, created by my instructor, and paint from the experience of cooking it. I made it last night for hubs and some friends. It was delicious! I was a little worried about the amount of garlic, but the taste was delightful and it is an easy dish to put together. I am missing class this week for a much needed vaca, but will post the results of my painting later next week...

 Pasta Pietro, directly from PietroDesigns.com

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 8 cloves garlic
• 35-oz can peeled tomatoes
• 1 small dried hot pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp. capers
• large bunch Italian parsley, chopped
• 1 lb. imported Italian pasta (e.g. DeCecco)
• 10 sun-dried tomatoes

Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Chop garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Drain juice from tomatoes. Chop tomatoes and hot pepper and add to pan. Add salt, capers and black pepper. Cut each sun-dried tomato into 8 pieces and add to pan. Simmer for 20 minutes. Cook and drain pasta, preferably a short shape such as penne or fusilli. Remove half of sauce from pan. Toss pasta in pan and mix well with sauce and chopped parsley. Move pasta to 4 plates and ladle remaining sauce on top of each serving. Serves 4. Mangia!

Week 9: Chile Rellenos Frittata

Last week after posting on Facebook, a friend asked if I would be willing to make a Chile Rellenos frittata. Sure, why not—I've never made chile rellenos before, so it might be fun, right? Ugh. I decided there were two routes I could take with this frittata: the first route would be straight on, make rellenos and throw them on top of a frit; the second route could potentially be great, or boring...incorporate the common ingredients of chile rellenos into the frittata, giving a generalized experience—like you commonly get with themed omelets. I took the first route, deciding it would be more educational and adventurous to make the rellenos. I called my sister last night on my way home from work asking for help with this endeavor. She scanned over a recipe and gave me a general shopping list. I ended up running a slew of errands and didn't get home until 8 pm, only to find that the Woodhull housemother just dropped off copious amounts of Mexican food for the boys as a late dinner (they get spoiled during finals week). I was starving and couldn't resist the option of not cooking, and boy am I glad I chose not to tackle these last night.

It's not that they are hard to make, there are just a lot of steps. So many steps that I am attaching the scan instead of typing out the ingredients and instructions (if you click on the image it will get bigger)!

Things started out pretty roughly. I failed to blister the peppers enough, so after sitting in plastic bags for 20 minutes they were still unpeelable. Hubs, who is out on dorm duty tonight, checked in at this point as I was angrily not peeling poblano peppers. He had a great idea of putting the peppers directly over the gas flame on the stove. It didn't really work to well or maybe I wasn't patient enough. I decided that skins were perfectly fine staying put on the peppers and probably even good for you, like the crusts of bread...

I also failed to read ahead on this recipe, I sort of quickly glanced over the steps and figured it would be a good time to test a new whoopie pie recipe. My peppers were sitting in bags and the boiled potatoes were already mixed with the cheeses. But then it came time to fry...and oh dear, I have to separate my eggs and whip two whites to stiff peaks and then fold them into the well beaten light and creamy yolks? Crap. Typically, I would throw the whites in my Kitchen Aid and skip the whisk, however my kitchen was a mess and my mixer bowl was dirty, so I whisked my heart out and worked up a nice sweat. No biggie, just an unexpected little step.

I kept the frittata part very simple: 5 eggs, 1/8 cup of skim milk, s + p, and red pepper flakes. I cut the chile rellenos down a bit so they would fit in my pan and added them while the top was still very moist and then threw the pan in the broiler for a minute or two. I paired this guy with a light salad, a gob of fayeh greek yogurt sprinkled with chipolte tobasco + cilantro, and a Stella.

It was yummy. Hubbity loved it and came back for more. I'm a little bummed about the prep time, although now that I've done it, I'm sure I could stream line the process with a little old fashioned mise en place. I'm also bummed about the deep frier smell lingering in the kitchen.

Week 8: Chorizo & Shitake Frittata, Olé!

Hub's parents came to visit this weekend. Although they were unable to stay for frit night, they were able to turn us onto a great Korean grocery store, H-Mart. It's a chain, look for one near you. They have great produce and seafood—we were even able to find Chorizo there! It is a visual and olfactory feast for those who love interesting ingredients—and they have more kimchi that you can throw an enormous stick at.

Our good friends joined us for dinner last night. They are both from Spain and because of this, my husband insisted that the frittata have Chorizo in it. Apparently, Spain=Chorizo. We also picked up some gambas, baby Shanghai greens and vegetable pancakes to round out this hearty meal. Pictured below: Onions and shallots (a little over browned), Chorizo (naturally crumbled while sauteing), and my pre-sliced Shit ake mushrooms—got to love the packaging...

2 links chorizo, sliced and sauteed (casings removed)
1 small onion & 1 medium shallot (browned in canola)
5 large shitake mushroom heads, sliced and lightly sauteed
8 eggs
2 tbl agua
1 tbl heavy cream
1/4 cup shredded cheese + a bit more to sprinkle on top (we finally used the last of the Gruyere—typically I would use a different cheese in this particular frit, but part of the beauty of these are that you can empty out the fridge)
s + p to taste

After sauteeing the chorizo, onion, shallot and mushrooms (separately) incorporate them into the 8 eggs that have been beaten with the water, heavy cream, cheese and s+p. Go lightly on the salt—chorizo and cheese have plenty. It was a good frittata. You really can't go wrong with eggs, chorizo and mushrooms.

My sous (sous) chef was busy looking cute elsewhere in the house...

Chocolate Cake with Rich Chocolate Cream Frosting and Raspberry Filling

This cake was made for a friend's birthday, a chocolate-chocolate-raspberry request! I used my usual go to chocolate cake recipe, substituting 3/4 cup fresh coffee+ 3/4 warm water, instead of just 1 and 1/2 cups warm water. This cake is great, but you have to keep an eye on it because I've had it go dry on me very quickly and I loathe dry cake, who doesn't? I baked my three 8" pans for 15 minutes, rotated them and baked another 10 minutes and then toothpick checked them—not even close to being ready. I baked and checked for two 5 minute intervals until the toothpick was clean.

I set aside the cakes to cool and went about my other errands for the day. Later in the afternoon I made the raspberry filling and chocolate cream frosting. I halved the raspberry recipe which still yielded more than enough, but I could have been more generous with it in between the layers.

The chocolate cream frosting...the taste was delicious, the consistency, eh. The description describes it as soft and rich, mine started to set so quickly as I was frosting the cake—it resembled a ganache, it's consistency was like the inside of a truffle. Maybe I chilled it to long, maybe I over stirred? Sous chef hubs had to keep whisking to "warm" it as I was frosting the cake. This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated's New Best Recipe's. I took the below recipe and added another half of the ingredients for my extra cake layer.

Rich Chocolate Cream Frosting
(yields 3 cups, enought to ice one 8 or 9" two layer cake)

16 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chopped fine
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place choc in heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over med-high heat, pour over choc. Add the corn syrup and let stand for three minutes. Whisk gently until smooth, Stir in vanilla. Refrigerate 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes, until the mixture reaches a spreadable consistency. This frosting does not keep well, use within a day.

Assembly of the cake:
The bottom two layers, I cut off the top, about 1/4" to level off the surface. I was skimpy with the leveling because I wanted good height. I ended up having plenty of height and some pesky round edges in the layers that were a pain to cover with frosting. I added a layer of chocolate cream, then raspberry filling, then another layer of chocolate cream to the clean underside of the next layer. Same on the second layer and then finished off the whole cake with the choc. cream. It was good, but not great. I will likely not make the frosting again, it needed to be creamier. I loved the raspberry filling, but need to add double what I did.

Week 7: Heart Beets, Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day friends! Last night we were lucky to share our love frittata with friends. I wanted to incorporate V-day into the frittata and of course the rich beautiful red of beets came to mind. I upped the egg count for our guests and incorporated last week's techniques for a fluffy rich frittata. My mother-in-law gave us a wonderful pancake mold last Valentine's day in the shape of a heart and I was able to use the smaller part to shape the beets.

8 eggs
2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tbsp water
1/8 cup shredded Gruyere
1 small onion
1 medium shallot
sprinkle of cayenne
s+p to taste
beets (I used about 3/4 of a small can of sliced unsalted beets)
goat cheese

Saute the beets in a bit of oil and s+p for a couple minutes on each side, set aside on a paper towel. Finely slice the onion and shallot and saute for about 10 minutes, until nicely browned. Beat eggs, cream, water, Gruyere, cayenne, and s+p and pour into frittata pan. Cook on the oven top until the bottom and sides set. Throw the pan under the broiler for a minute or two, look for the top to set and become fluffy. Take out and add goat cheese medallions followed by your beets, place back under the broiler for a minute or two.

Delicious! Beets and goat cheese are a great love match, another keeper frittata. We served this with roasted white sweet potatoes, arugula salad and bubbly!

On another beet note, I used some of the leftover beet juice to dye frosting for my chocolate whoopie pies with rosewater-vanilla butter/cream cheese frosting. The cakes/pies were delicious, they had a great texture on the outside, although they were slightly dry and crumbly inside—maybe I cooked them a minute too long? The frosting was great, next time I will add more beet juice to get a richer pink (hard to see the color below). I was nervous about the frosting picking up the earthy fragrance of beets, but it didn't at all.

What a lovely way to end a lovely day.

Week 6: Mushroom, Gruyere, & Onions

Once again, our frittata was pushed to Monday night. A frit did not have a place in our Superbowl junk food menu. After last week's somewhat lackluster performance I wanted a little decadence. Gruyere and heavy cream in this week's frittata delivered the decadence and the calories.

6 eggs (2 of my had double yolks! sort of ew, but sort of cool!)
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 cup grated Gruyere
2 tbsp butter
1 small yellow onion (finely sliced)
1 small shallot (finely sliced)
4 ounces of mushrooms (I used a blend of bella, shitake and oyster)
s+p to taste

I sauteed the onion and shallot in a tbsp of butter for about 10 minutes, until they were nicely browned. In a separate pan I cooked the mushrooms in a tbsp of butter. Meanwhile the eggs were beat with the cream and water and I added the cheese and eventually the onion/shallot mixture and mushrooms. After cooking on the stove top for a few minutes I popped it into the broiler a little earlier then I usually do. This fluffed up and browned beautifully. The mushroom flavor was subtle, woodsy—the egg fluffy and rich. This is a keeper.

Week 5: The Target Frittata

Instead of making our weekly frittata on Sunday evening, we got to spend some quality time with good friends in our old neighborhood in Brooklyn. A fab friend turned 30 and her hubs & sister threw a surprise party at Sheepstation on 4th and Douglass. Sheepstation has yummy food and wonderful drinks—their dark n' stormy is top notch, a perfect balance of ginger and rum without being overly bitter or sweet.

So...this evening after work I drove to Wegman's only to find myself parking the car closer to Target. I had not been there in over a month and decided it was high time. I wandered around longer than expected and ending up getting very, very tired—I'm still a gal on the mend, so the idea of a trip to Wegman's after Target was daunting. Crossing my fingers, I made my way over to the 'grocery' section of the store and devised a plan for our week 5 frittata. I picked up eggs, tomatoes, basil and mozzarella and threw it in the cart with some pajama pants, mascara and a cute cable knit cardigan (couldn't get those at Wegman's). By the time I got home I was pooped—hubs to the rescue!

6 eggs
1 tomato
6 slices of mozzerela
basil leaves
1/2 shallot
1/2 clove of garlic
s & p to taste

Hubs chopped the shallots and garlic and sauteed them briefly before adding them to the 6 eggs. He placed the slices of tomato, basil and mozzarella on top and then placed the pan in the 350° heated oven. Despite my advice shouted from the couch, hubs did not use the broiler, so the cheese was not as melted as much as it could have been. It was tasty, but pretty basic—which makes sense for a Target frittata.

Advice for next time: Add 2 tbsp of water and/or milk, beat the eggs a little more, this frittata was lacking fluff (I shouted this advice too, but I guess he didn't hear...). Slice the tomatoes & cheese smaller and scatter more basil, so each bite has a mixture of the delicious flavors. And Broil!

P.S. the place mats and napkins are from Target too!
P.S.S. and don't worry, I know that my hubs was really sweet to make the frittata tonight and put up with my micro-managing shenanigans from afar.

Week 4: Prosciutto, Aged Gouda, Caramelized Onions & Pears

Last year we were given a fruit-of-the-month gift from Harry & David. At first I was a bit skeptical about being shipped fruit—I try to support local farms and we have plenty of options in my neck of the woods. Also, I was concerned about the freshness, ripeness, etc. However, all my skepticism was washed away when I bit into a peach from the first shipment. It was the most delicious peach I have ever had. And the pears—out of this world! This week's frittata was inspired by my January shipment of Royal Riviera Pears. I was a little concerned about adding a sweet ripe pear to a savory egg dish, but paired with the prosciutto, gouda, and onions—this frittata was a dream.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 small yellow onions

1/3 cup chopped prosciutto (I had the deli cut it thick ~3/8")

1/2 tbsp butter

1/2 of a lovely pear

1/2 cup (loose) aged gouda; gruyere would work well too

6 eggs

pepper

1 tbsp water

1 tbsp milk

Slice your onions thin, and add them to your frittata pan with the tablespoon of olive oil on medium to low heat. Let them brown and caramelize, about 10 to 15 minutes. In a separate lightly greased pan, saute your chopped prosciutto for about 8-10 minutes. Remove from the pan onto a paper towel. Add the 1/2 tbsp of butter to the prosciutto pan and add your sliced pears—medium low heat. A few minutes on each side. My pear was incredibly ripe, so it was hard to keep the pieces together. A less ripe pear would be easier to work with and will yield the same results. Whisk the 6 eggs, pepper, water and milk together. Add the prosciutto and onions to the eggs, mix and pour into your frittata pan. I employed hubby's method of whisking the egg in the pan for a couple of minutes. When it started to set on the bottom I put it under the broiler for a few minutes to set the top. I pulled it out when it was light and fluffy looking on top and arranged the pears and then distributed the gouda—back into the broiler for about 3 minutes.

This was delicious! My hubs remarked that it was very "French" tasting, oh-la-la. You do not need to add salt to this frittata, neither during prep or plate. The prosciutto and Gouda will provide plenty of flavor. Aged Gouda is wonderful—the more it is aged, the saltier and nuttier it is. This Gouda was aged enough to have a slightly nutty flavor, but not so aged that it acquired the crystallized brittle texture in the bite. It's texture and medium-low moisture reminded me of a nice Gruyere.

We paired the frittata with our usual roasted fingerling potatoes and arugula salad. I grated an extra bit of Gouda and made cheese cookies to top the salad. My lovely girlfriend brought over a bottle of Prosecco this weekend and I found the last glass to be a delightful match to this delicate yet rich flavored frittata.

Our uninvited dinner guest. She couldn't resist the delectable aromas and the chance to chew on flowers.

Week 3: Hubs wings it

Earlier this week, the wife had surgery and before visiting hours at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philly, I, the husband of the blogger, visited Morning Glory, a breakfast/brunch spot in Society Hill to pick up some frittata tips. Frittatas are their specialty and I knew I'd be handling the duties this weekend.

I sat at the counter and watched the chef, who happily answered my inquiries: 6-inch teflon skillet, potatoes on the side, 4 eggs per person (for a frittata I could barely finish), cheese on top before broiler to seal egg moisture, anything you want inside. This weekend, with wife recuperating on the couch, I endeavored to recreate what I had learned. With so much food delivered by friends, I decided to make a "whatever's in the fridge" frittata, which turned out to be spinach, arugula, onions, cheddar cheese, and of course truffle salt (our new savory indulgence). And because we have only an 8-inch cast iron skillet, we used six eggs and plenty of olive oil. That was about as much as I had planned, the key difference being that I would put only a few potatoes in the frittata and the rest on the side.

I started by slicing half a red onion and chopping about 3 cups of chopped multi-colored fingerling potatoes. I boiled the taters until soft and sauteed the onions in oil. Then I fixed myself a vodka cocktail and grated a healthy dose of Cabot extra sharp cheddar. Once the taters were soft, I put them in olive oil with some Old Bay and hoped they'd get crunchy in time (which they almost did). Onto the frittata. I heated some oil in the cast iron skillet and poured in 6 beaten eggs. I learned from the chef at Morning Glory to use high heat on the eggs and not to let them form an edge for quite a while. I really swirled them around like I was scrambling them before finally letting them settle. There was much less wet egg than before. Then I turned the fire off and dumped in the sauteed onion (I did send pinch of the onions into the taters so they'd get that burned onion flavor), a few taters, some truffle salt, a layer of spinach and arugula, and covered the whole mess with cheese. Into the broiler it went looking bushy and weird, but smelling good.

A friend gave us a loaf of delicious rosemary bread from a Princeton bakery, which I sliced and put in the toaster. The taters were still cooking and I wondered if I'd boiled them too long, if they were too wet to get crunchy. Still, the combination of Old Bay, truffle salt, and burnt onion was pretty awesome. I was pleased when I pulled out the frittata. The cheese was melted; the egg was fluffly and cooked through; the spinach and arugula wilted properly; and the edge of the eggs firm but not too dry nor stuck to the skillet.

We sat and ate. A bite of cheesy frittata on toasted rosemary bread washed down with savory potatoes (and a second vodka drink) was really good. Not quite Morning Glory, but not bad for a substitute chef, if I may say so myself. Wifey was less liberal with the compliments, but her plate was clean!

The animals did not help in the kitchen this week. They chose to knit & rest with the Wife.

Week 2: Mushroom, Asparagus & Goat Cheese Frittata

6 eggs
2 tbsp. water
1 cup roughly chopped mushrooms
(I used a medley of baby bellas, shitake, and oyster)
1 shallot chopped
1 tbsp. butter
1 cup chopped and boiled potatoes
steamed asparagus
goat cheese
s + p to taste

We mixed the eggs, water and some crumbled goat cheese together. The shallots were sauteed in butter until slightly translucent and then the mushrooms were added, mixed and kept over low-medium heat for a couple of minutes. The mushroom mixture and the boiled potatoes were added to the eggs. Then back in the frittata pan. After cooking on the stove top for about 8-10 minutes we topped the frittata with the asparagus and dollops of goat cheese and then threw it in the broiler.

This frit was yummy, but needed something more—like savory herbiness. Maybe saute herbs with the shallots? I may chop the asparagus and throw it in the egg mixture next time too. I was going for some lovely design, but it was a bit funky looking and hard to cut to boot! I think next week we will ditch the potatoes—Hubs has already started scheming.

Chess, Anyone?

Before the holidays, there was a chess tournament in our house (hubs & I live at a boarding school and have an apartment within a 30+ boys dormitory). Hubs promised the winner of said tournament a baked good by yours truly. When asked, the winner wanted something that he could share with the rest of the house. Typically cupcakes are my standby, but I've been broadening my horizons and decided to bake brownies and blondies. I had only made brownies from scratch once and couldn't remember them, so apparently they weren't that remarkable. I decided to go the basic route and not try anything crazy. I chose my recipes from The New Best Recipe Cookbook, from the trusty editors of Cook's Illustrated. They were good, especially the blondies—I definitely picked up the butterscothiness flavors. The brownies were good, but nothing to rave over. The boys liked them, and I guess that was the ultimate goal.

The blondies and brownies take a rest before being measured and cut. And below, all 64 pieces are arranged and ready for the winner!

And look what I stumbled upon at Wegman's!!! Unbleached cake flour! I was staring at the usual purchase, the bright red box of overly processed bleached cake flour when I gazed over to this gorgeous box. I use King Arthur unbleached AP, wheat and pastry flours—so I am happy to add this one to the family.