Breakfast and a Book

This morning was my first foray into the world of book clubs. The idea is obvious - people who like books get together to talk about one they've read. Of course, at my school this process also involves food. So, this morning Jeff and I embarked for work about 25 minutes early, dropping the boy off on the way, and arriving before the main buildings were unlocked for students (ah, quiet in the hallway). My contribution to breakfast was a lovely frittata I made last night, cut in squares, and wrapped for travel.

Until recent months I had never tried frittatas because I assumed they would be too "eggy" for my taste. Luckily, I was wrong. In reality, a frittata is just a flattened out omelet and can have any number of ingredients, so I just tossed in whatever I had on hand. I started with sauteing some garlic and minced scallops in a little vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet. While that cooked, I put some of the summer's sun dried tomatoes in a little water mixed with blackberry balsamic vinegar in the microwave to plump up a bit. When these were done, I gave them a rough chop and pitched them in the skillet along with the remaining vinegar and water. Since the liquid takes a couple of minutes to sizzle off, I hopped out to the garden to obtain fresh herbs - rosemary, purple basil, and chives - for good measure. Once the aromatics were chopped and stirred into the pan, all looked ready for the eggs. I removed the pan from the heat to allow the flavorful bits to cool a little while I whipped six large eggs with a wire whisk until they were foamy. Then I put the contents of the skillet in with the eggs and added some grated Parmesan cheese for good measure. After putting the pan back on the heat, I gave everything a final stir, poured it in, and walked away. (There's the hard part!) While the eggs cook on the bottom, preheat the broiler on high. Once the eggs were well set around the edges, I put the pan under the broiler to cook the top until it was just brown.

This always comes out of the oven smelling fabulous and looking puffy like a restaurant omelet. Once the frittata hits the plate, it loses a little air, but is easy to cut into pie slices or squares for immediate consumption. I've discovered it is also good at room temperature because the flavors seem to intensify as it cools. This can be a good appetizer as well served in small bites on whole wheat crackers to add some texture. A little fig chutney makes an excellent garnish on this, but don't mix it into the eggs before cooking because it gives them a dark, muddy color that isn't particularly appetizing (though it tastes great). Today's frittata was particularly excellent because the flavors of the herbs and sun dried tomatoes (which created beautiful specks of dark green, purple, and red) permeated the dish as it sat in the fridge overnight. Much to my delight, there were oohs and ahhs with every bite.

A friend of mine brought one of my all-time favorite breakfast dishes - hash brown casserole filled with butter, cheese, and sour cream - along with some garlic cheddar biscuits. Unfortunately, no one else brought food this morning, but we had plenty because attendance was low. (It seems many members weren't crazy about the book we read - Hominids. They didn't finish it and didn't come to the meeting.) In the end, we didn't spend much time talking about the book, but we did have an excellent breakfast.