A Wholesome Quick Sunday Breakfast

So here we are, Sunday morning. Reading the news, lingering over coffee. I'm hungry.
"I'm hungry, what do you want to eat?" 
"Eggs I guess."

"Hmm." I groan inside. I love eggs. I eat eggs every day. In most ways possible. Everyday. I want bread. Waffles. Pancakes. I'm not eating gluten right now. I'm considering gluten free popovers. I made some very yummy ones, 18 of them. We ate 12 in one shot. I don't advise it. 

Eggs. I scan the fridge. 1/2 an onion,1/2 a zucchini. Oh, we have spicy dried chorizo! Cilantro,mushrooms, tomato, a bit of grated cheese. And corn tortillas.Chewy. Happiness.

Here's what I came up with lickety-split. My husband titled it Tostada Supreme. 
Let's call it;

 Huevos Ranchero Frittata Tostada

                             
1/2 small onion                            
1/2 small zucchini
4 mushrooms
1/2 tomato
1/4 cup chopped dried chorizo sausage
1 Tlsp. butter
chopped cilantro, to taste
3 scallions, chopped
4 lg eggs, beaten with a bit of water
1/4 cup grated cheese (whatever you've got that goes)
4 small corn tortillas (white or yellow)

Cube onion, zucchini, mushrooms, tomato and chorizo in to small pieces. In a heavy skillet, preferably non stick, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, zucchini and mushrooms. Put a lid on letting the veggies cook down. Remove lid; add tomato and chorizo, finish cooking veggies until well cooked or browned, how you like them. Add eggs. With a rubber spatula scoot the mixture around letting the egg get under the veggies around the sides. Cover and cook until the eggs start to set, about 4 min. check that the eggs are cooking in the center but still runny on top. Sprinkle with the cilantro, scallions, cheese. Cover and turn heat off. 
Sometime while cooking frittata put the 4 tortillas in a toaster oven (or oven) and toast slightly, until they are firm.. not too much or they break. (You can also fry the in oil in a frying pan, a less healthy way of making tostadas).

Serve the huevos frittata over the corn tortillas with your favorite hot sauce!


Additional ingredients could include green or red peppers, left over potato, finely minced greens. whatever you have on hand to make this up quick! This whole thing should take about 15 minutes.

A Greens Flop

I had good intentions this past fall. Really. I scoured piles at the sides of roads for the perfect windows  to build cold frames with. We built them. Aren't they pretty? See the warm, solid walls around that happy baby bok choi? The very same bok choi I let down, ruined, froze anyway. Intentions are one thing. Laziness another. After a full spring and summer of hard gardening work I had no idea how complacent I would be to BUY my greens at the market. Something I have taken for granted all these years suddenly seemed like a treat. Oh, no roots attached? No bugs? Organic and I did not struggle for it? Oooh.

Something happens in the wee minutes of spring though. I long to be in the dirt. To push in the onion starts and pea seeds. I will go out every morning once I've planted them, probably in bare feet ,with a steaming cup of coffee , to check on their progress. I will do this for a long time, because they won't come up until the ground warms, but they like the initial shock of cold. My feet don't.




We will repurpose our cold frames for the summer. Create raised beds out of them, take the windows off (they are very nice windows, I want to preserve them!), fill them with soil and compost and grow  lettuces in them. Next fall I will be ready to put in our greens earlier, put the windows back on and have good intentions. Again.

Now we have a beautiful winter scape of a garden. The cold frames, which I left open too many below freezing evenings, are now humps of snow. Our deer netting came down in the last storm. I love how the snow covers up the mess of gardening things strewed around we we're to lazy to put away. 
There is definitely something akin to feeling like hibernating when fall comes, a laziness I just can't shake. A hunkering down to let everything rest. As long as the energy to spring clean is there after, because we've a lot of work to do.

Lets start again. SPRING! and green bean stew.

                           It's nearly spring. Honestly it is! I've been hiding out this winter, re-grouping, thinking on life, looking for a paying job, recovering from the 'HOLIDAYS'.  I made it through with my head still intact, although perhaps not on too straight, but I think I needed my perspective skewed a bit! 
Back to SPPRING. It's time to start thinking about gardens, vegetables, fresh food..mmm. In an ideal situation you will have planned for your garden last fall, by either tilling and amending the soil or building and filling those raised beds. I had a much smaller garden last spring an decided to enlarge it, tilling, amending and planting by May. It worked out fine, except for a few bug infestations that liked the new, fresh 'playground'. This speedy garden prep does not however allow for the soil to 'heal' and the organic matter you add to thoroughly blend, decompose and leach it's nutrients, those wonderful micro organisms need some breathing space.
I'm not going to get technical, there are ample books and websites out in inter-web-space for that. I want you to think food, what you like to eat. Even if you grow it in plastic tubs on your side porch. In fact, the soil in containers warms up quickly creating great growing temps for many of our favorites, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, summer squashes, beans, okra, artichokes (they like cool air, but warm soil!).
There are a few things to consider when planning your garden. First, plants in the Nightshade family, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, should not be planted in the same soil for 3 consecutive years. Where you planted tomatoes last year, if you did, should not be used again for the next 3 summers. If you grow them in containers, don't use the same soil, use it for zucchini, or beets, radishes ect. This process keeps things like pests and funguses, like last years blight, at bay. Now, don't start ordering lots of seeds just yet unless you have the space to set up a grow light system. Often starting plants from seed becomes more expensive for the home gardener than buying some plants from a reputable source. Frequently seeds are started too early, then planted too early.. wait, wait.. the soil and air temps will warm up! If you are so eager, like me, start with peas, regular, sugar snap, snow peas, they like the cool temps of mid march. I grow some in the garden up my deer fence and some in tall pots (chimney flue liners really) I have next to an arbor going over our door. I love having sugar snap peas hanging over my head! This is a great time to start spinach, kale and lettuce from seed in pots or in the ground. However, do not 'work' the ground just yet, it's still too fragile and wet, just push some seeds in and hope for warm sunny days! I like my lettuces in big planters, like galvanized steel tubs with holes drilled in the sides, I know the soil is warming up and I can keep them on my patio. 
I hope you're becoming inspired here.. but first things first! I will be posting recommendations for blight resistant tomato plants, a good idea this summer, and some places for reliable seeds, in upcoming posts. 
Two weeks ago we ate the last of our garden green beans that I had blanched and froze. I sauteed garlic and anchovies in olive oil until the anchovies dissolved, then added a can of tomato puree (unfortunately not my own), a pinch of rosemary, a bay leaf, and let it simmer for 20 minutes before adding the beans. I cooked the beans until heated through and served this over polenta. It was so good. I am glad spring is near!

apology

Just a quick note here. An apology really. I change the format and background of this blog and THOUGHT the print color would change as well. Alas, it did not. I am not inclined to go back and repost everything in another print. SO, I know it's hard to read, but it IS worth it!
Thanks for your understanding.

More posts after thanksgiving. And more stories of cooking for work.