Ratatouille

Recreational Ratatouille
The recent warm weather has me thinking about summer. This has me thinking about my garden—the garden that I am not planting this year. I am not planting a garden this year because, for the first time in I don’t know how long, there will be no tournaments. This summer will be youth-sports-free which is both fantastic and kinda sad, but mostly fantastic. It also means we are able to do what we want on the weekends.

Our summer will be filled with camping trips and college campus tours as well as family junkets to new and amazing cities. There will be baseball games (played by professionals) and beach days and music concerts. I can’t wait. But, because life can be awesome this way, there will still be fresh home-grown vegetables.

How is this possible without planting a garden you may ask? Because my mother-in-law, who swore she would not be planting a garden this year either, caved and planted everything under the sun. Therefore, I know without question that I will be reaping the benefits of her summer bounty when her produce cup runneth over and she has had it up to here with zucchini.

It’s the best of both worlds. Livin’ my best life while enjoying good food and helping to relieve the burden of overabundance. What can I say? I’m a giver…

Ratatouille
Adapted from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food and Food 52
Yields 6 to 8 servings

This classic recipe is surprisingly easy to prepare and results in a delicious showcase of summer vegetables and flavors. Read more…

Breakfast Casserole

Casserole Comfort
I consider all breakfast foods comfort foods. It’s all of the carbs and fatty meats. Whipping up a plate of scrambled eggs after a difficult day can sometimes make all the difference. (Bonus points if you wrap said eggs in a tortilla because…carbs.) And while perfectly scrambled eggs can be a warm blanket for your soul, they can be made transcendent by the addition of so many wonderful things. (Also, a great way to use up what’s in your produce drawer.)

If I had to pick my favorite bite of egg it would include eggs, potatoes, green onions, and cheese (glorious cheese!) I am also open to the addition of sausage or bacon as well as chilies or bell peppers. But, the foundation will always be eggs, potato, green onions, and cheese hereto after known as EPGC bite.

The potatoes can be home fries, hash browns, or tots. Though, I think tots work best. (I have a serious weakness for tots.) The ideal cheese is generally cheddar, but I won’t turn away some gruyere or a lovely pepper jack. Nine times out of ten, if I were eating scrambled eggs straight up, I would go with a sausage chaser. But, when everything is all mixed together, I like the flavor of bacon. There’s something about the smokiness of the bacon with the cheese and potato that hits just right.

Below is a recipe for a breakfast casserole. This is what I think of when I am craving that EPGC combo.

Breakfast Casserole
Yields 8 servings

This casserole can be assembled the night before. Just slide it in the oven in the morning. Read more…

Breakfast Potatoes

No Power Potatoes
Like many in the Bay Area, I have been without power since Tuesday at noon. It could be worse. At least no trees came crashing down on my house. We lost a section of fencing but that’s no biggie. We’ll fix it. It’s all about perspective. All my people are safe, so all is well. If there is one silver lining for me to all of the mayhem and destruction it is this, no electricity means I got to test drive my camping kitchen.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I bought a used teardrop trailer with the intent of filling our empty nester weekends with new activities and adventures once the kids are all out of the house. I love camping. But, both of us agree that the days of our 50-year-old selves sleeping on the ground in a tent are over. So, we essentially bought a tent on wheels that sleeps 2—with a mattress.

What we got was pretty bare-bones and in need of customization. Naturally, I have taken the ball and run with the cooking equipment. But, I haven’t had the opportunity to test everything out—until dinner last night.

In an attempt to not lose the refrigerator full of food that I purchased over the weekend (the timing is impeccable), I scrambled up some $20 eggs and cooked some sausage along with some home fries. Divine intervention definitely occurred because normally I don’t have extra already-cooked potatoes in the fridge. But, due to an over-calculation of how many potatoes I needed for the previous night’s curry, I had potatoes.

You can never go wrong with fried potatoes at breakfast. I will take Breakfast Potatoes over hash browns any day. And, last night they fried up beautifully on my new camp stove.

There is no right or wrong way to do breakfast potatoes. The options are endless. Sometimes I use spices and sometimes just salt and pepper. Sometimes I sauté them along with some peppers and onions, and sometimes not. This is very much a case of you do you…just, preferably, not in the dark!

Breakfast Potatoes Recipe
Adapted from Anne Burrell and The Food Network
Yields four servings Read more…

Baked Western Omelet

Viva Los Huevos
I spent the President’s Day weekend in Las Vegas. Was I there for the shows, food, and a rollicking good time? Yes and no. I was there for a volleyball tournament which fulfills the good time in part because I love watching my daughter play. The food experience wasn’t all bad. I mean we did eat at a Wolfgang Puck establishment…at 9:30 PM…because tournament play had just ended and that was the quickest and easiest option. (The food was excellent by the way, even though we were exhausted). I admit to thinking we would have free time to go and do some fun stuff in between matches. And, I was looking forward to maybe seeing a show or a concert and eating some fabulous food.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

My dreams of finding a great breakfast somewhere to fuel up (Mon Ami Gabi, anyone?) were replaced by the complimentary breakfast provided by our hotel. Don’t get me wrong, I am always down for a free waffle. The smell of cooking waffles at any Hampton Inn will forever remind me of baseball tournaments gone by. And, occasionally, you find a hotel whose breakfast offering is actually quite good. This was one of those times.

I admit I was pretty grumpy that first morning. I had all the plans for the three of us in my head. They were now dashed. And, I was pouting and just going through the motions. This is probably why, instead of my aforementioned free waffle, I chose the omelet. I tend to avoid eggs at hotel buffets because nine times out of ten, they are rubbery and flavorless. Imagine my surprise when I took a bite of omelet and it was really good. Even more surprising because the omelets had been made ahead which can be problematic. My made-ahead-of-time Denver omelet had great flavor and wasn’t dried out or rubbery.

The thought of that omelet stuck with me. Not because it was worthy of a Michelin star, but because it was a fairly simple dish that could have been awful. It really wasn’t. At any rate, it knocked me out of my pity party and got me ready for a long day of cheering. It also led me to look for a similar Baked Western Omelet to make at home when we want an easy breakfast for a volleyball-free weekend…(Does that even exist???)

Baked Western Omelet Recipe
Yields 4 to 6 servings Read more…