It was just me and a friend for dinner tonight and both of us had a late lunch. So we needed dinner but nothing too heavy. Lunch for us here had been take out burritos and quesadillas with some wonderful tomatillo salsa as an extra. I incorporated that into the omelets and they were fantastic!  This serves 2.

• 4 eggs
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1/4 cup or so shredded Mexican cheese
• 1/4 cup or so sour cream
• a few large dollops of tomatilla salsa

Whisk the eggs together in a medium bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. Grate the cheese. I just had some of the Mexican blend around otherwise I would have just used Jack or Cheddar.

Heat the butter in a 10 inch skillet over medium heat. When it has melted, tilt the pan so the buter has coated the bottom well. Then pour in the eggs.

Cook slowly until the bottom has begun to set. Tilt the pan and lift the set eggs to let the runny ones run under the set part. Continue until the eggs are still wet on the top, but not too runny. Add the cheese, salsa, and sour cream to half the eggs, then fold the other half over onto the top. Cook another minute or two until firmly set.

Cut the omelet in half and serve with some toast. French bread is fantastic but any buttered  toast will do.

Dom DeLuise died today. I have two of his cookbooks, Eat This .. It’ll Make You Feel Better and Eat This Too: It’ll Make You Feel Better. Both have some great recipes and are fun to read besides.

So after hearing he died I decided to alter my dinner plans and cook something from one of his cookbooks tonight for dinner. I settled on the Egg Croquettes because they are like nothing I have ever even heard of, let alone eaten. I liked them. Different, but good. One child at them happily, the other didn’t like them. (This is the one that used to be totally adventurous so it’s funny how they change through the years!)

A simple supper anyway, nothing too spicy or complicated or demanding. I’ve made chicken croquettes and potato croquettes before but these were my first egg croquettes!

• 4 eggs, beaten together
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 3 Tbs olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 -2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup peas (frozen or canned or fresh)
• 1 cup of rice cooked in 2 cups of chicken broth

Heat the oil in a frying pan and start the onion and garlic cooking over medium low heat while you mix the eggs, bread crumbs, cheese and parsley in a bowl.  When the onion and garlic are soft, add the tomato sauce, water and peas. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.

Meanwhile start the rice cooking. Bring the chicken broth to a boil, then stir in the rice, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

Use a soup spoon to drop the egg “dumplings” or croquettes into the simmering sauce. Drop them around the pan so they are not touching. Do not stir them!  Cover and cook over low heat 25-30 minutes.

Serve the croquettes and sauce over the cooked rice.

Serves 4.

Hi, I’m Allison, Ellen’s youngest daughter. Tonight, my sister was out, so I decided to make dinner for my mom. It was my first time cooking a meal on my own, and mom enjoyed it so much that she told me I had to blog it.

I decided that my meal was going to be a breakfast for dinner type thing. I made fresh squeezed orange juice in our Vita Mix, and I fried up some potatoes that my mom had already cubed, parboiled, and frozen. (When the potatoes were cooking in a bit of olive oil and butter, I sprinkled on garlic powder, a pinch of salt, and seasoned pepper.)

For my main dish, I wanted to make an omelet, because I have never had one before. I mixed up a lot of different recipes and techniques from a book called “How to Cook Without a Book” and I made my own recipe.

• 5 eggs
• 1/2 a chopped up onion
• 4 slices of bacon
• handful of chopped parsley leaves
• 2 table spoons of plain yogurt
• salt and pepper

cooking bacon

I started out by putting all the bacon pieces in my omelet pan and letting them cook until they were dark brown, flipping them over every couple minutes.

While they’re cooking, crack open all the eggs into a medium sized bowl and mix them until all the colors blend together. Set aside.

Chop the onion into about 1/4 inch pieces, put in a bowl, and set aside.

By the time you have done those, your bacon will probably be done cooking. Lay out a paper towel on a small plate and put the bacon on top, then cover them with another paper towel.

Leave all the grease in the pan and add the chopped onion, and saute until they become limp and darken a bit in color, then put them back in the bowl and dump out some of the grease.

Then you will pour your egg mixture into the greased up pan, still gently until it starts to set, then leave it alone until it’s a little soft and wet on the top, but not liquidy.

Take the bacon out and chop or tear it into small, half inch pieces.

On half of your eggs, sprinkle on the bacon, then the parsley leaves, then the onions and the yogurt.

When I put the yogurt on, I scooped some into a spoon and shook it gently over my omelet so that small portions could be distributed equally.

Then, fold the empty half of the eggs on top of the other half.

Mine broke, but it still tasted delicious.

I’ve seen this recipe called several different things. It is essentially hard boiled eggs in a white sauce on top of toast. We like food on bread, two notables being Welsh Rarebit and tuna melts. This is the plain version, suitable for breakfast or dinner, especially when rounded out by a cup of vegetable soup at dinner. (I served the infamous Frog Eye Soup with it tonight. The little pastas look like frog eyes somehow.) I saw fancier recipes that included brie or curry but I went plain.

6 hard boiled eggs
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
cayenne to taste
buttered toast

Peel the hard boiled eggs and cut them in half. I went to the extra step of separating the yolks from the whites, but will skip it next time. If you want, separate the yolks into a small bowl and mash them up. Chop the whites (or the whites and yolks.)

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then mix in the flour with a whisk, cooking a few minutes until it just lightly browns. Watch it carefully. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook a few minutes, stirring, until thickened. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Mix in the egg (whites or whites and yolks).

Make your toast and butter it. Spoon the sauce over the toast (and sprinkle the yolks over the top if you didn’t mix them in with the whites.)

This probably serves 6 as a light supper, especially with soup. I know I’ve got leftovers from the 3 of us.

Another great recipe from this book! And just when I’m getting into this eat local, eat free range, etc. mode, my eldest came to me tonight and said “What would you think if I became a vegetarian?” I said I was fine with that and could certainly keep her well fed, but wanted to know to know her thoughts behind this. She said she hated the thought of the animals being penned up, living their whole lives in cages. I said I hated that thought too, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to give up meat…but I would certainly be happy to eat far less and commit to eating free range, grazing meat. She thought that was great, because she does like meat but didn’t like what she’d read about mass production meat methods. So we agreed I could use up what was in my freezer and then we’d take a shot, as a family, of eating more mindfully.

Given that I’d already decided on a cheese souffle for dinner, with good local eggs from the farmer’s market, with some yellow summer squash on the side, it made a great meal. I am not a “fancy” cook, as I’ve said before, so I’d never made a souffle before. I’ve done great stratas and quiches and many similar “low brow” things though. This was quite good!
And will definitely be repeated.

I used to be afraid of souffles, with all the fuss made about them. But if you’ve made a white sauce, and whipped up egg whites, you can do this with no problem. This serves 4.

3 Tbs butter
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/4 cups milk, warmed with a slice of onion and a bay leaf
3 Tbs flour
salt and pepper to taste
a pinch of cayenne pepper
5 ounces (about 1 1/4 cups) grated or crumbled cheese (Cheddar, goat cheese, Gruyere, etc.)
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Butter a 2 quart souffle dish, then sprinkle some of the grated Parmesan cheese on the bottom, saving the rest to mix in with egg mixture.

Warm the milk with a slice of onion and a bay leaf.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan (3 quart or so), then whisk in the flour and cook for 3 minutes, stirring. Take the onion and the bay leaf out of the milk and discard, then mix the warmed milk into the flour whisking again, until incorporated. Cook over low heat, stirring slowly but nearly constantly, for 8 minutes.

During this time whip up the egg yolks until stiff.

Season the butter/flour/milk mix with 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste, plus a pinch of cayenne.

Stir in the cheese(s). Mix in the egg yolks one at a time. Fold in the egg whites.

Spread the batter into the buttered souffle dish. Bake about 50 minutes, until you get that dramatic looking top that’s golden brown. Serve immediately.

My youngest discovered Eggs Benedict while going out for breakfast a while back. I’d promised I’d make them at home sometime, although I readily admit I’d never made Hollandaise Sauce and never poached an egg! The egg poaching turned out to be quite simple.

I filled a skillet most of the way with water, adding a couple of tablespoons of vinegar which is supposed to help the egg “coagulate” and keep its shape I think. When it was simmering, I cracked eggs onto a saucer one at a time and then slipped them into the water and cooked them about 3-4 minutes, spooning water over the top of them.

The hollandaise sauce… I just wasn’t up to the whole double boiler thing. I spied a recipe for blender hollandaise and thought that sounded right up my alley. I’m sure purists will object but boy was it good and easy!

3 egg yolks
2 Tbs boiling water
1/2 pound butter, melted
1 Tbs lemon juice
dash of salt
dash of cayenne pepper

Put the egg yolks in the blender and mix on low. Slowly add the boiling water while mixing, then in a thin stream slowly add the melted butter, all while mixing. Add the lemon juice, salt, and cayenne. Serve immediately or hold it over warm water.

Quite a tasty and fattening breakfast. I wonder who came up with the idea of egg sauce on eggs, basically!