Today, at work, there are bagels!

[cjsmith]

(Yesterday was happy hour, as on most Thursdays at the end of the day around here. I didn't stick around for that.)

I went over to the bagel table, looked at a half bagel someone had left behind, grabbed a plastic knife, scooped up a little blob of cream cheese, put the cream cheese in my mouth, and left. :-)

I am seeing a new reason why "cooking = saving money" didn't seem right for me. (Primary is the "cooking for one and being a complete n00b about it means a lot of waste" idea.) It's astonishing how often I wasn't buying my own food. I knew it was happening but I honestly didn't see how much.

This morning I ate some scrumptious spinach-cheese-onion-smokedturkey frittata. MMMMM. I am going to be addicted to chopping up little bits of smoked turkey into eggs.

Comments

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

Half a bagel. Abandoned. Alone. Available. You're a much stronger woman than I am. It's not the lack of sweets/desserts that's killing me, it's the lack of bready things like BAGELS!

Did you use a recipe for the frittata? I would love to know how you made that! It sounds yummy - and it's all stuff I can eat, too. And OMG, maybe I could put hollandaise sauce on it. That would be very yummy indeed.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not superhuman willpower, believe me. I know how sick I can get if I screw up. (Whether or not I'm being too conservative, I'll know soon - but the consequences of screwing up are huge.) It's so not worth a bagel!

Here is what ambar taught me to do for the frittata.
1) Pour a blob of olive oil into the pan - a bit bigger than a quarter seemed to work well - and roll the pan around to spread it out. Put the pan on medium heat.
2) Put in frozen chopped onion, say enough to make a thin even layer on the bottom of the pan, and about the same amount of frozen chopped spinach (frozen because that's what I had).
3) While that starts to cook, chop up a hunk of smoked turkey into little bits of a size you wouldn't mind seeing whole in a bite of frittata. I chopped up a hunk of turkey about the size of my fist, overall, and my hands are small. Add that to the pan. Stir it all a bit.
4) Scramble six eggs. Add more Spice Islands Italian herb seasoning than you think you could possibly need - enough to cover the eggs and make a dry layer on top before you stir it in. Also add some shredded mozzarella cheese, maybe a fistful. Stir this all up.
5) When most or all of the water has been driven off of the veggies, pour the egg mixture on. Shake some Parmesan cheese on top if you want. Add black pepper if you want. Garlic would be good too (though if you have fresh rather than powder I bet it has to go in earlier).
6) If needed, as it cooks, pull up the edge of the cooked part to pour the uncooked egg down the side and underneath.
7) When it's almost done (that is, you jiggle the pan and there's not much wiggling, but it's still revolting to think of eating it), flip it. We used a plate.
8) Let it cook for just a couple of minutes on that side and serve!

Sorry if these instructions are waaaaay too primitive and simplistic. I seriously needed every bit of beginner-level detail. :-)

ambar says that instead of flipping it she often pops it under a broiler. I tried that on the second time. It came out better. I turned the oven to broil and put the whole thing, pan and all, in there for about four minutes.

How do you make hollandaise sauce? That sounds scrumptious.

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

Whoa - that recipe sounds really good!! Sounds like it's fairly simple and hard to screw up too, which is a nice bonus. :-)

I haven't actually made hollandaise in years. It's a bit of a pain because you need a double boiler and you *can't* stop stirring it until it's done (which is pretty quick though). It doesn't take many ingredients at all. And boy oh boy is it gooooood on top of eggs. It's good on asparagus too; I think Cyd recently posted a recipe where you put a poached egg on top of asparagus and smother the whole thing in hollandaise. Sounded good.
Here's a basic set of instructions for making hollandaise:
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/recipe_hollandaise.htm

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that looks yummy - and yeah, I don't have a double boiler, at least not the size to make sauce. I suspect if I looked in the right place I could simply *buy* a jar of hollandaise. It might not be as good as fresh, but when you consider that we're comparing against MY cooking skills here, the jar is a clear winner! :-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

there is hollandaise sauce mix (McCormick (http://www.mccormick.com/productdetail.cfm?id=6311) and Knorr (http://www.dcimports.com/knorrhollandaisesauce.html) are two brands we have out here). still requires stirring, but no double boiler.

here (http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2008/03/its-springtime-for-vegetables-and.html) is the recipe for the poached egg and hollandaise over asparagus.

[ambar.livejournal.com]

On review, I would add salt and pepper at the egg-scrambling stage. (I didn't for the first one we made because there is salt and pepper in the Northwoods Fire mix.)

And you are an Excellent Student. ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, good idea -- if you're going to add it it may as well go in with the rest of the herbs or spices.

Thank you! MMM FRITTATA. I also now own the ingredients for one of the things in Cookbook 1.0: some kind of ground beef with zucchini and garlic and tomato. (Hence the garlic press.) The student is trying new lessons! I have some time tomorrow night and may be able to make it then; I will let you know how it turns out.

[edit: I also have cauliflower for the mashed garlic-butter-cauliflower thing! Almost forgot.]