Love in a Frittata

This retirement stuff is tiring! The week was full from Monday-Saturday with medical appointments, an EDD workshop, purchasing a new-used car (RAV4 Sport), yoga, dinner for my yoga partner and her husband, Friday evening at Schooner’s Wharf with the Cayucos gang, a 2 hour beach walk on Saturday with 2 girlfriends. We scored lots of sand dollars, shells and heart shaped rocks plus went shopping afterwards with a stop into a new  wine tasting bar. This rolled into dinner when we caught up with the husbands. Whew! Now it is time for our pre-valentine’s day brunch as we are leaving tomorrow for Mill Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Needless to say I was a little under the weather today but had a plan already in place.

Pre- Valentine's Day Frittata 

I love this frittata as it is packed full of veges. Margaret Fox’s “Morning Food” is the reference book for it. You can add or substitute any vegetable that would taste good baked in an egg bath.

1 Tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup each:
Red bell pepper, diced
Green bell pepper, diced
White onion, diced
2 large or 4 small Cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tomato, seeded and diced

1 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley
1 tsp. other fresh herb chopped ie basil, marjoram or oregano
¼ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. fresh ground pepper

4 large eggs, beaten with 1 Tbsp. milk and a few dashes Tabasco sauce
Add:
1/2 c. grated cheese ( I always have Trader Joe's 5 cheese blend on hand so I used 1/4 c. of that as well as 1/4 c. grated cheddar that was kicking around in the frig.)
Save for the top:
1 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil in a nonstick 10” skillet. Toss all chopped vegetables into it and saute until soft. 5-7 min. Season with salt, pepper and the herbs.
Pour egg-cheese mixture over the veges and stir to combine. Cook over med-lo heat until the bottom is set, pushing the sides towards the center to let the raw egg seep underneath. After about 5 min. when the bottom seems lightly browned, sprinkle parmesan cheese over it and pop the skillet into a 350* oven. Cook about 10 min. until puffy and cooked through. You can slip the frittata onto a heated plate and cut into wedges.
Today I used my heart shaped cookie cutter and cut it into shapes
I spread a little of our “brunch salsa” into the center of the plate and centered the heart shaped frittata on top.
 We declared this one of the best frittatas ever. It was hot, creamy and flavorful. Serves 2-3.

Valentine's frittata



To complete the brunch I baked off 3 Pain au Chocolat. These are chocolate filled Croissants that we received from my brother Jim’s family for Christmas from the Williams Sonoma catalog. I have known the Pastry Chef for alot of years and can't believe he now supplies Williams Sonoma. I keep forgetting that they need  to defrost overnight so this time I wrote a big note! I baked off three because they are frozen tightly together and I couldn’t separate them without breaking them up and these three were loose. As it turned out we could only eat 1/2 of one of these babies.

Applewood smoked Bacon and chicken breakfast sausages sprinkled with my brown sugar-chipotle chile mixture were baked off ( basically 1 Tbsp. brown sugar:1 tsp. chile powder, I make a jar full to have on hand).
A pretty sad little fruit “hash” today as I am using up everything before we take off.  There was a piece of mango, one little kiwi, a few fresh organic blueberries, 1/2 banana, a chunk of pineapple, but, luckily I keep a container of frozen mixed berries in the freezer and that saved it.

Laetitia Brut Rose sparkling wine tasted divine with this brunch. This is a local winery that makes amazing sparkling wine as well as syrah, pinot noirs and other varietals.

Off to 46 East in Paso Robles today to Eberle winery for a celebration of life for one of our friends. We will see people we haven’t seen since she got sick two years ago. Ovarian cancer took her way too soon. I am sure we will laugh together about the good times we all had which is what she would have wanted as well as support the husband left behind. RIP Wilma...